Nestle to Use Blockchain for Supply Chain Management
One of the largest food companies Nestle has announced its test program based on blockchain technology for supply chain management, i.e., tracking the food right back to the farm. The company has allied with OpenSC, the blockchain platform that will be helping in developing a distributed ledger system that will differentiate Nestlé’s ongoing participation with IBM Food Trust blockchain.
The test program will be running for six months, and the result of the success will be determined by “feasibility, viability and scalability of the system,” and how will be the data verified as per a representative of Nestlé’. On the success of the test program, the food could be tracked on a mobile application, web portal, and QR code.
Magadi Batato, the Nestle Executive Vice President, said, “We want our consumers to make an informed decision on their choice of products – to choose products produced responsibly. Open blockchain technology might allow us to share reliable information with consumers in an accessible way,”
The program will first track the milk from the farms of New Zealand to Nestlé facilities in the Middle East, and further, it will be expanding to palm oil production in the Americas.
And then the company will be determining the scalability of the application; also the time required for the integration of the retail items will be determined. The representative of the company further said, “With the palm oil supply chain in America, we can experiment the system at the local level. Furthermore, the product itself, being liquid, it adds more complexity to the traceability.”
The representative further said, “We want to offer consumers what they want. Consumers are more and more demanding for information related to their food. They are eager to understand where the ingredients come from, whether it has been sourced responsibly and how the food is made. Blockchain helps provide consumers with trusted data collected throughout the value chain,”.
Nestlé started working and experimenting on the blockchain technology in 2017 when allied with IBM Food Trust as a founding member. In April, Nestlé was working with Carrefour to use blockchain technology in tracking the Mousline potato puree from Nestlé factories to the French retail giant’s stores.
Benjamin Ware, the Global Head of Responsible Sourcing for Nestlé, “This open blockchain technology will allow anyone, anywhere in the world to assess our responsible sourcing facts and figures.”