Walmart’s retail warehouse club Sam’s Club is working with blockchain firm VeChain for traceability of products in China.
Warehouse clubs target bulk buyers and small businesses. Sam’s Club is a membership-only chain of stores and has about 26 locations in China. It aims to quadruple this number to 100 in the next few years.
Leveraging VeChain’s blockchain as a service platform, Sam’s Club built its Sam traceability platform for food safety and supply chain management.
Currently, the platform is being used to track some 20 categories of products. Sam’s in-house brand, Member’s Mark, which has a range of products such as pork, chicken, vegetables, and other commodities, is leveraging the blockchain traceability platform.
Food and product traceability are being trialed globally, and Walmart China previously worked with VeChain for tracking meat products on its shelves.
Sam’s Club is leveraging blockchain to track and trace food and other products from source to shelf. The packaging will come with QR codes which can be scanned by customers to view provenance details. This would include product information, traceability details, raw material sourcing, inspection reports, production location, and supplier information, among other things.
The retailer aims to add more products to the blockchain traceability platform in the future. Sam’s traceability platform is being rolled out to member stores and its downstream suppliers.
China has significant activity in the blockchain food traceability space. Earlier this year, the Guangzhou Municipality’s Market Supervision Bureau said it was using blockchain to track the movement of food products and ensure food safety.
Bright Food Group has launched ‘The Smart Chain’ platform to keep an eye on its food supply chains. It is using blockchain for imported products.
Australia’s BeefLedger has launched its beef traceability platform in China.
Meanwhile, VeChain has a handful of projects in the country and is using ToolChain for tea traceability, among other things.
