Today, most traditional information systems in Agriculture and Food (Agri-Food) supply chains merely track and store orders and deliveries, while much of the supply chain data and information are audited by trusted third parties and stored either on paper or in a centralized database without providing features as transparency, traceability, and auditability. These features would surely improve food quality and safety. Therefore, they are more requested by consumers.
The centralized approaches are known to suffer from many informational problems. To preserve trust and reliability across the supply chain in the agri-food domain, current technical approaches need to assure information integrity (all stored records need to be tamper-proof) without relying on centralized third parties. A potential solution to alleviate such issues and concerns is the Blockchain technology, which is a peer-to-peer digital ledger that does not rely on centralized servers. In 2020, REZOS BRANDS SA awarded national (Greek) funding to develop such a technology. In this context, the PHAEDON project aimed at enhancing transparency, traceability and safety in the agri-food sector through an innovative and ultramodern food digital system which supports all stakeholders and processes of the value chain, in all stages from production to consumption as they are presented in Figure 1.
Figure 1. A diagrammatic presentation of the Farm2Fork agrifood value chain. All processes at all stages across the value chain have been taken into consideration in the PHAEDON Ecosystem.
As use case, data from all stages of the supply chain of the Sea Buckthorn cultivated at Meteora from REZOS BRANDS organic farm (Hippocrates farm) was utilized, as presented in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Agrifood value chain data from different stages are included in FAEDON ecosystem’s functionalities.
The outcoming result was the design, development and evaluation of a fully decentralized traceability system for the agrifood supply chain, the PHADEON Ecosystem (Figure 3), consisting of the decentralized blockchain infrastructure as well as a set of edge services (Distributed Ledger Technologies, edge technologies and IoT) for the proper functioning of the supply chain. The PHAEDON architecture consists of the following layers:
Ø Blockchain Infrastructure
Ø Blockchain software Layer
Ø Monitoring and Transformation Layer
Ø PHAEDON Mobile Application
Figure 3. Diagrammatic presentation of the PHAEDON Ecosystem including all infrastructures and layers involved.
PHAEDON Ecosystem is continuously updated, and, in this context, there have been also incorporated additional functionalities specialized to farmers and consumers needs including monitoring of meteorological and natural conditions of the cultivation and harvesting, alerting and feedback mechanisms related to food safety and fraud prevention.
Benefits of implementing PHAEDON Blockchain technology in Agrifood Supply Chain processes
Blockchain has the potential to streamline certain aspects of food industry thereby helping to maintain the highest safety standards and exceptional quality. That is,
Ø Serving as a beneficial tool for the food industry, PHAEDON blockchain technology provides greater visibility into the complex steps in a supply chain.
Ø Authenticating a product’s journey across the supply chain through PHAEDON blockchain transactions helps in substantiating product claims and building trust among the consumer base. The core attributes of blockchain - transparency, traceability and tamper resistance, transform the food industry by generating trust between the farmers, retailers, suppliers, and consumers.
Ø Besides transparency and fraud prevention, FAEDON blockchain Ecosystem also helps in ensuring faster and fairer payments. This shared ledger technology could prove highly beneficial to farmers who are only paid a meagre amount by middlemen. As the blockchain technology prevents price coercion and eliminates intermediaries in the chain, food producers can reap significant economic benefits.
Ø Food security is another noteworthy benefit of the FAEDON blockchain Ecosystem. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “Roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year - approximately 1.3 billion tones - gets lost or wasted”. The extra food that is wasted on landfills can feed hundreds of families struggling with hunger. Not only does this global issue poses a challenge to food security but also affects the economy and environmental sustainability. PHAEDON blockchain Ecosystem adoption would help the consumers and suppliers in availing better access to the entire supply chain operations. Suppliers remain informed, inventories are accurately recorded, and quality checks are completed precisely. Business intelligence and clarity generated by blockchain technology facilitates better decision making and ultimately less waste.
Challenges of implementing Blockchain technology in Agrifood Supply Chain processes
Despite the benefits, the implementation of blockchain in the food supply chain is not without challenges.
Technical and Scalability Concerns: Technical issues, such as the need for high computational power and the difficulty of scaling the technology, can be significant obstacles.
Issues of Interoperability and Standardization: Currently, there is a lack of standardized protocols for the use of blockchain in the food supply chain, which hampers interoperability among different systems. This results in isolated blockchain systems that cannot interact with each other, limiting the potential benefits of the technology.
Navigating Legal and Regulatory Frameworks: Regulations regarding data privacy, food safety, and traceability vary greatly worldwide, creating a complex environment for the implementation of blockchain in the food supply chain. Companies need to ensure that their use of blockchain complies with all relevant laws and regulations, which can be a significant challenge.
Addressing Data Privacy and Security Concerns: Although blockchain technology is inherently secure, the data it records is only as reliable as the information inputted. There are also concerns about how to ensure the privacy of sensitive data in a transparent system.
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