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Blockchain for agri-food

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From PB’s database

  • 60 active projects identified in Agriculture & Food (others could be tagged in connected categories (supply chain, trade finance, …)
  • Data sets for these projects are not all “cleaned/updated”
  • most projects are start-ups or partnerships
  • most projects were launched in 2016-2018

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Blockchain solutions for the agri-food

From

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Reports on blockchain in agriculture

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First blockchain for supply chain case in late 2015

“We integrated the supply chain onto the same digital network creating a single version of the truth for all parties involved in the diamond trade,” (Founder Leanne Kemp). “We shared records visible across the industry participants.”

The unique identifiers consist of 40 metadata points, the laser inscription on the girdle, and the stone’s four Cs—color, clarity, cut, and carat weight. These digital thumbprints would then be written on the blockchain.

Today, Everledger is powered by IBM Blockchain, which relies on Hyperledger Fabric. Before 2016, Everledger made use of other blockchain technologies, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Eris, and BigchainDB. Hovewer, in July 2016, the first Hyperledger pilot was delivered, according to IBM.

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Agri-food use cases

Commodity trading / trade finance

Traceability for consumer transparency

Derivatives

Land registries

Climate change reporting

Climate change credits

smart farming

Inventory management

Traceability for Food safety

e-Commerce

Regulatory & food safety reporting

fair wages / paiements

encourage local consumption (eg community currencies)

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Connected use cases

Digital Identities & KYC solutions for farmers

Supply Chain, automation, IoT orchestration

Financial solutions: paiement, loans, rewards, credit history, inclusion

Financial solutions: paiement, loans, rewards, credit history

Insurances

Natural capital asset tokenization

Blockchain land titling

Loyalty & reward schemes, collectibles, NFTs

Renewable energy

Carbon trading schemes

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Blockchain agri-food potential traced data

what data are consumers looking for

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SCM in agriculture with DLT (per stakeholder)

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SCM in agriculture with DLT (per stakeholder)

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Main technologies used

IBM Hyperledger

Ethereum

Ambrosus

VeChain

R3’s Corda (trade finance)

BigchainDB

Stellar

...

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Initial mapping

Transparency/Traceability

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The traceability case visualized (source: Carrefour)

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Traceability/transparency cases

Traceability for Food safety

Traceability for consumer transparency

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Traceability/transparency cases

Traceability for Food safety

Traceability for consumer transparency

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Traceability/transparency cases

Traceability for Food safety

Traceability for consumer transparency

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Traceability/transparency cases

The Trace module provides the ability for supply chain participants to trace food products from upstream sources to downstream destinations. The detailed tracking information provided by the trace module gives consumers and partners access to a history of agri-foods products' origin and destination.

The Data Entry and Access modules provide the ability to upload, manage, and access data to the blockchain.

The Certification module provides an easy way to manage the entire supply chain. All the modules can strengthen brand trust, increase supply chain efficiency, and improve food safety

Traceability for Food safety

Traceability for consumer transparency

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Farmer Connect (IBM)

Farmer Connect and “Thank my Farmer” app launched in 2020

By IBM and Beyers Koffie, The Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC), ITOCHU Corporation, Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE), The J.M. Smucker Company, Rabobank, RGC Coffee, Volcafe, Sucafina and Yara International

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Traceability/transparency cases

Nova Sea Joins Norwegian Seafood Trust to Track Salmon from Feed to Food Using IBM Food Trust Technology (Source)

Traceability for Food safety

Traceability for consumer transparency

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Traceability/transparency cases

SecQuAL is a new 11 member UK consortium that aims to use data and blockchain to reduce food waste and improve food traceability. Lloyd’s Register leads the group, which includes IBM Food Trust, listed food company Cranswick, and the UK’s Food Standards Agency (Source) - July 2021

Traceability for Food safety

Traceability for consumer transparency

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Food Safety in China

The revision of the Food Safety Law imposed stricter controls and supervision on the production and handling of food.

Walmart launched its Food Safety Collaboration Center in Beijing in collaboration with IBM and Tsinghua University to improve the tracking of food using blockchain technology

China’s State Council released a set of guidelines on promoting innovation to establish a smart supply chain that covers major industries by 2020: China also has a need for food safety solutions: remote areas of the country often lack regulation, which has caused issues in the past such as tainted meat and baby formula scandals

Launch of Blockchain Food Safety Alliance: joint effort between IBM, Walmart, China’s Tsinghua University, and the Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com to launch a standardized method of tracking food safety with the help of the blockchain, relying on IBM's Blockchain Platform

IBM Food Trust was launched (focus America and Europe)

2015

2016

Oct 2017

Dec 2017

Nov 2018

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Traceability/transparency cases

the Food Trust Framework (Alibaba) is a consortium whose members want to track food produced in China and guarantee international imports from Australia and New Zealand. Since 2018, members have included:

  • Tmall international, supported by the Alibaba e-commerce platform that set up the initiative
  • Fonterra, a New-Zealand dairy cooperative featuring 10,000 farmers
  • New Zealand Post
  • Blackmores, an Australian food supplement specialist
  • Australia Post

At the final stage of the supply chain, and in contact with consumers, are the Alibaba supermarkets, which adopt the technology via their channels:

  • Yiguo: the Chinese online food distribution site has 5 million customers and more than 1,000 businesses that can now track the origin of their products purchased online
  • Hema (Freshippo): the brand’s mobile app allows its consumers to access information before they buy in store

Traceability for Food safety

Traceability for consumer transparency

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Traceability/transparency cases

Blockchain + IoT case

ZhongAn Technology, the tech subsidiary of Chinese Insurtech giant ZhongAn Online, has built a blockchain-powered platform to track the whole process of chicken farming.

In partnership with Wopu, a IoT company in Hangzhou, IoT-enabled anklets are attached to chickens and every aspect of their lives are tracked, from the age and distance walked to the slaughterhouse and logistic providers employed.

All data are recorded in the blockchain and viewable to the consumers from a mobile application. Data collected from the anklets also allow farmers to carry out analytics and improve their rearing methods; a significant breakthrough in farming technology was never possible until the popularization of IoT.

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Carrefour

Carrefour started in 2018 tracking chickens on blockchain

Part of program “Act For Food”

aiming for 270 to 300 supply chains before 2022

Traceability for Food safety

Traceability for consumer transparency

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VeChain

  • a software / hardware company specialized in Blockchain, IoT (Internet of Things), and DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) solutions for supply chains.
  • started in June 2015 in China
  • now in 9 offices (Shanghai / Singapore / Beijing / Paris / Luxembourg / Milan / Palo Alto / Tokyo / Hong Kong)
  • +100 people including +50 professional Blockchain developers.

The technical solutions developed by VeChain can track the movement of products inside supply chains (from manufacturer to customer) in a transparent way that certifies their authenticity. To accomplish this, VeChain uses a variety of chips, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) sensors and QR (Quick Response) codes that can broadcast key data about the tracked products.

The launch of the VeChainThor Blockchain that took place on June 30 2018 (prior to this date, VeChain functioned on the Ethereum Blockchain) gave birth to the dual-token economy that is now the beating heart of VeChain. The two cryptocurrencies that were designed to handle the financial load of the system are VET (VeChain Token) and VTHO (VeThor Token). VET can be bought by anyone who wants to invest in VeChain, the company. People who own VET are entitled to automatically receive VTHO, a token that can be sold or used to pay the transaction fees required when adding data onto the VeChainThor Blockchain.

Toolchain = VeChain's Blockchain-as-a-Service ("BaaS") for supply chain

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Traceability/transparency cases

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Traceability/transparency cases

Starting from Q4 in 2020, multiple seafood categories on the KnowSeafood platform will be traced by VeChain ToolChain™, including Norwegian Salmon, North Atlantic Haddock, Peruvian Mahi-Mahi, New England Sea Scallops, Maine Lobster, and many more global species.

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Traceability/transparency cases

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Ambrosus - Dublin

Swiss Food Research is the leading network in Switzerland that connects cutting-edge scientific and innovation projects to the largest agricultural supply chains in the country. An Official Partner of the Federal Government of Switzerland (Swiss Innovation Agency), Swiss Food Research has dedicated Innovation Groups in the areas ready for adoption of Ambrosus technology, such as Seafood, Agricultural Commodities and Perishable Products Packaging. Swiss Food Research collaborates with the largest Swiss food industrial players, such as Buhler Holding AG, Infre SA and Hoegger AG, in addition to the leading Swiss research institutes, such as the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), whose Head of the Distributed Computing Lab, Prof Roger Wattenhofer, serves as the Solutions Architect for Ambrosus. Swiss Food Research gives access to the largest Swiss agri-food network.

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ScanTrust - Zug

Example: Rémy Cointreau, DuPont, Liforme Yoga, and Unilever use Scantrust to offer customer assurances of authenticity or protect against grey market products.

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SAP

(March 2019): AUSTIN, Texas — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) and Bumble Bee Foods, North America’s largest branded shelf-stable seafood company, announced Bumble Bee Foods is using the SAP Cloud Platform Blockchain service to trace the journey of yellowfin tuna from the Indonesian ocean to the dinner table.

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OPTEL - Canada

Founded in 1989, OPTEL is a Certified B Corporation headquartered in Canada, with facilities in the United States, Ireland, India and Brazil, as well as employees worldwide.

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Arc-net - UK

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UN FAO

Main pilotes for transparency/traceability

  • pig in Papua New Guinea
  • Charcoal traceability Ivory coast: greening the charcoal value chain to mitigate climate change and improve local livelihoods
  • sustainable cashmere in Mongolia

UNDP and FAO piloting blockchain

Blockchain technology is being piloted under the programme Scaling up Climate Ambition on Land Use and Agriculture through NDCs and NAPs (SCALA) programme, co-led by FAO and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with funding from Germany’s International Climate Initiative (IKI). The methodology will be applied by digitalizing the value chain for agriculture and food systems and tracking sustainability through Key Data Elements (KDE).

More about these UN FAO plans

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TE-Food - Budapest

blockchain platform for food supply chain transparency

Tailor made solutions for SMEs and global enterprises

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Auchan

  • first pilotes in 2017 in Vietnam with TE-Food, as part of a government project in Ho Chi Minh City
  • Then implemented on carrots in France and later on other products such as porks in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Senegal
  • Now aims to deploy in six countries, 11 new products (already 7), and 750 supply chains

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Connecting Food - France

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Traceability/transparency - other cases

Guala Closures Group and Compellio Group for italian wine

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Traceability/transparency cases

Conclusion for our consortium:

  • there are plenty of cases in Europe and outside; we should select a short list of relevant one (different platforms, players, cases, food produces..)
  • difficult to dissociate which one is “better” without in-depth analyses
  • Main ones to consider
    • VeChain, TE-Food, Provenance, IBM FoodTrust, AgriLedger, AgUnity, Scantrust, Connecting Food, Ambrosus, OriginTrail, Agridigital, Arc-net, SAP
  • We need to understand what is the role/interest of the EU: create a framework? regulate? the EU will not create another traceability solution in addition to the ones existing in the industry

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Initial mapping

Trade finance / shipping

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Trade finance / shipping

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First food shipment on blockchain

first test in 2018 to use blockchain for a soybean shipment

Shandong Bohi Industry Co, Louis Dreyfus, ING, ABN Amro involved with the Easy Trade Connect platform from ING.

The team behind these project joined komgo, a blockchain based trade finance platform

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Trade finance / shipping

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Trade finance / shipping we.trade

opportunity to integrate with IBM owned platforms IBM Food Trust and TradeLens, the joint initiative with Maersk.

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Trade finance / shipping - eTradeConnect

Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced in 2018 the official launch of its blockchain trade finance platform eTradeConnect. It was previously known as the Hong Kong Trade Finance Platform. There are also plans to collaborate with we.trade which until now has focused on Europe.

The initial version offers open account trade finance like factoring. But the aim is to expand to other forms of trade finance and beyond banking.

It follows a proof of concept (PoC) started in December 2016 and completed in March 2017. Deloitte ran the PoC, and Ping An’s OneConnect built the latest version with Deloitte providing consultancy.

The original seven banks are ANZ, Bank of China (Hong Kong), Bank of East Asia, DBS Bank (Hong Kong), Hang Seng Bank, HSBC and Standard Chartered. Another five banks joined later. They are the Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of Communications, BNP Paribas, ICBC and Shanghai Commercial.

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Trade finance / shipping - TradeIX

TradeIX, the service provider behind another trade finance than we.trade platform Marco Polo, attracted investment from Accenture

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Trade finance / shipping - TradeLens

TradeLens, a joint initiative between IBM and Maersk that aims to digitize the paperwork in the container shipping industry through blockchain

As of today (mid June 2021) the solution has tracked 42 million container shipments, and digitized 20 million documents.

Over 300 entities are directly connected to the platform, including three of the top five container shippers Maersk, MSC, and CMA CGM. The other two, COSCO and Hapag Lloyd, are part of GSBN’s network.

Last year (2020), the platform partnered with the International Container Terminal Service, Dutch ports operator Portbase, Turkish ports group YILPORT Holdings, and the Canadian Pacific Railway, to name a few.

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Trade finance / shipping - GSBN

GSBN was first unveiled in 2018 but only incorporated in Hong Kong this year in part due to regulatory complications

Hong Kong-headquartered GSBN is backed by major players in the shipping industry, including container shippers China’s COSCO and Hapag Lloyd, and port operators PSA and Hutchison Ports.

They announced in August 2021 a partnership with Singapore’s Contour, a blockchain trade finance platform. The alliance aims to enable efficient financing for shipped goods. Contour is funded by nine global banks, including BNP Paribas, Citi, HSBC, ING, and Standard Chartered.

Contour uses R3’s Corda enterprise blockchain, whereas GSBN uses Hyperledger Fabric.

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SkuChain

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Trade finance / shipping

Conclusion for our consortium:

  • Benchmark different platform in relation to agri-food
  • understand their standard methods & interoperability
  • understand their links to food safety regulations

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Initial mapping

Marketplaces

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Covantis - Geneva

a blockchain initiative founded by global agribusiness firms Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus officially launched under the banner of Covantis

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AgriDigital - Sydney

goal: ensure the integrity of the trading, tracing and finance involved for all stakeholders for grain supply chains. Mainly Australia & North America

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Foodgates

For French producers and Chinese buyers

Launched by VeChain, ASI Group, DNV GL in 2019

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Marketplaces

Conclusion for our consortium:

  • understand our different countries regulate such activity

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Initial mapping

Manufacturing

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GrainChain - Texas

The Grainchain team was established by the founders of SiloSys, an IT solution for the agricultural industry. For the last 5 years, we have been automating the system of measuring the commodities coming into silos and storage facilities, providing accurate measurement, tracking, and accountability for soft commodities

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Bext360 - US

Bext360's software keeps track of commodities by identifying and making an electronic token for each one using the Stellar Network

using the Bextmachine - a Coinstar-like device that uses machine vision to grade and track coffee beans.

measurable accountability for critical supply chains like coffee, cocoa, cotton, palm oil, and recyclables

Operates in US, Europe, Ghana, Paraguay, Somalia

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Initial mapping

Climate actions

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Climate action in agriculture

Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation (CCAM). UN FAO report

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Climate action in agriculture

Database of projects done

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Climate action in agriculture

Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation (CCAM). UN FAO report

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Nori – USA

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blockchain-based marketplace for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

Paul Gambill�CEO

USE CASE

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ProofofImpact – South Africa

Using blockchain to capture impact value and reinvent how we finance social impact

Lulian Circo

Co-Founder

& CEO

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Initial mapping

Land titling

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Land Titling: Heifer announced working on it

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BenBen - Ghana

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BenBen - Ghana

Emmanuel Noah

Founder & CEO

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Initial mapping

Farmers financial solutions / inclusion

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AgUnity - Melbourne

  • a low cost smartphone and a safe transaction record system powered by blockchain, to tackle financial and digital exclusion for remote, rural communities.
  • Currently in 9 countries, many in Africa, aiming at 30 countries by 2026
  • Main products: Coffee, Cacao, See Oil, Maize, Vanilla, Sesame, Beans, Cereals, Fish

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Agri-wallter - Amsterdam

Agri-wallet is a digital wallet, a mobile financial tool, for the agricultural sector providing a business account for farmers, which they can use to save, buy, and earn. Partners involve Netherlands Development Orgnisation (SNV), the Mastercard fund, Rabobank Foundation, International Fertilizer Development Center, BoP Inc., Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) Agriterra, and Technoserve

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Heifer & WeTrust

Heifer wants to provide training and access to financial tools such as micro-lending, micro-insurance, and financial assets using blockchain-based applications.

“We are currently working with WeTrust on a pilot program for savings and lending circles that will increase financial inclusion in Heifer Honduras”.

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Banana Coin – Laos

https://www.bananacoin.io

A crypto currency to raise funds for a banana plantation in Laos

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EthicHub

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Moeda - New York / Uruguay

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Taynaah Reis

Founder & CEO

The Cooperative Cryptocurrency That Aims to Advance Financial Inclusion

Isa Yu

Co-Founder

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Etherisc – Germany

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Decentralized insurance protocol to collectively build insurance products

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Arbol

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WorldCover - Ghana

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Conclusion on financial solutions/inclusion

  • Many solutions target now low income countries but similar situations can be found in Europe therefore use cases could be relevant
  • Insurance products / funds for farmers could be explored for climate events or post-covid resilience
  • Agri-wallet models could be relevant as financial solutions for farmers (improve cash management) and create marketplaces

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Initial mapping

Worker’s rights & conditions

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eMin - Hong Kong

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FairFood - Amsterdam

Mainly for coconut, coffee, tomato, cane sugar, pineapple, shrimp, Vanilla

Strong focus on small farmer fair revenue & conditions in low & middle income countries

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regulatory reporting

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Example with Morpheus Network and FCL in Canada

  • Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL) has entered into a three-year deal with the Morpheus.Network, a blockchain platform provider, to manage its complex supplier document management system across Canada.
  • FCL, founded in 1944, is a Canada-based wholesaling, manufacturing, marketing and administrative co-operative owned by more than 170 independent retail co-operative associations with a 2019 revenue of over US$9B.
  • On January 15, 2019, the Safe Food for Canadians Act (SFCA) began requiring most food companies in Canada to comply with the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR). The SFCA and SFCR regulate food products imported into, or exported from, Canada or traded between provinces.
  • Sources: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wBjvXtDtR6u4yDdvq5xsaHskqDHHMSr9/view and https://www.enterprisetimes.co.uk/2020/05/06/morpheus-network-platform-adopted-by-federated-co-operatives/

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Initial mapping

other use cases/concept ideas

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Other use cases

  • Encourage consumption of local food thanks to community or local complementary cryptocurrencies (Colu, Grassroot Economics..)
  • Use blockchain to support Community supported agriculture (CSA) is a partnership between farmers and consumers in which the responsibilities, risks and rewards of farming are shared (Local Farm Project attempted to bring this model back; or also FarmShare)
  • ecosystem services
  • monitoring the availability of food items (available stock and shortage) (relevant post-covid)
  • Derivatives (e.g. Clearmatics which is developing a clearing and settlement platform that brings together custodians, dealers, trading venues, buy-side firms and data providers onto a single platform

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Other use cases

  • improve the implementation and monitoring of WTO agreements and key provisions relevant for agricultural trade
  • Smart farming: blockchain and IoT based smart agriculture framework
  • Inventory management: CNH Industrial NV is using blockchain in the agriculture supply chain to increase inventory management. This company produces, designs, and sells agricultural equipment and wants to deliver greater services to the farmers by managing their inventory. At present, they are working with IBM to work on the solution.
  • e-commerce of agri-food products
  • using blockchain to track spending in CAP plans related to climate change objectives (part of Green Deal and new CAP policy)
  • using blockchain for data tracking in the new Farm Sustainability Data Network (which has a view to also collect data on the Farm to Fork targets and other sustainability indicators)

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