French popcorn company Nataïs wants to empower consumers to see where their popcorn came from by using blockchain. The company is Europe’s largest popcorn producer and number three in the world. It teamed up with SAP’s Co-Innovation Lab and SAP partner STMS to implement the traceability solution.
“Nataïs, STMS, and SAP Co-Innovation Lab have been working together on the same target: to deliver popcorn traceability from farmer to consumer,” says Sébastien Faure, innovation director at STMS.
Joey Bronner, Blockchain engineer with SAP Co-Innovation Lab adds, “Sustainable agriculture is also becoming increasingly relevant to consumers. As a matter of fact, many consumers would like to know more about the farmers that grew their popcorn and the region where it comes from. They are also keen to understand if agroecological farming principles are guiding their practices and what it really means for them, as farmers.”
The implementation of the network will make the supply chain more efficient and transparent. A common QR code is used to access information. The same QR code can be used by farmers, transporters and consumers to both identify the corn they’re adding information about and access the related information such as the corn quality, variety, weight delivery and original field.
The popcorn is currently sold around the world under private labels, as well as Nataïs’ own brand, Maison popcorn. The QR code will work the same for all consumers, regardless of which brand under which its sold.
The project used Hyperledger Fabric blockchain technology.
One of SAP’s main blockchain focus areas is supply chain. Today it also unveiled its Bumble Bee tuna traceability project after launching its pharmaceutical traceability project two months ago.
There’s plenty of competition in blockchain food traceability. IBM’s Food Trust is perhaps the highest profile initiative and TE-Foods is one of the most active startups. In Australia insurer, NTI is helping to track beef, and Swiss food company Gustav Gerig is monitoring tuna.
On March 26-27 2019 Hanson Wade are running a conference, Blockchain for the Food & Beverage Supply Chain in San Francisco. Ledger Insights is a media partner.
