Walmart China Tackles Food Safety Fears with Blockchain
- By CDOTrends editors
- July 01, 2019
Walmart China is using blockchain to address China's food safety. The company's answer is the Walmart China Blockchain Traceability Platform.
"Walmart has always worked to provide reliable products of quality and convenient services to customers, which is our core value proposition. With this target in mind, Walmart has continuously invested in the whole supply chain, from source procurement and commodity strategy, supply chain construction, to store and e-commerce platform operation management. We use digital methods to improve efficiency and transparency, providing products and services of quality to customers and making life better for busy families in China," said Shi Jiaqi, chief corporate affairs officer of Walmart China in a press release.
Walmart China is releasing new product lines on the Platform in batches. The first batch consists of 23 product lines, and another 100 products will go live by the end year. Together, they will cover more than 10 product categories, including fresh meat, rice, mushrooms, cooking oil, etc.
PwC and VeChain built the proprietary platform. It runs on the VeChainThor Blockchain. Supply chain participants will share data to promote visibility. The decentralized blockchain technology will assure the data is not tampered with.
"VeChain will work with Walmart China to actively take heed of the call of the government, by utilizing technology to promote the traceability of fresh food, and to provide innovative solutions for the traceability platform through digital technology, so as to generate more transparent and reassuring consumption experience," said Kevin Feng, chief operating officer of VeChain.
Consumers can quickly scan the desired products to get detailed information. For example, they can locate product source and the geographical location as received by Walmart China.
“In the face of food safety, how to build consumer trust is a problem that PwC, our clients and partners have been trying to solve. We believe that Walmart's Blockchain Traceability System will be an excellent example of blockchain technology applied in the retail industry, helping to improve food safety and quality management, and providing a strong guarantee for building consumer trust,” said Elton Yeung, strategy and innovation leader, PwC Mainland China and Hong Kong.
In the future, the Walmart China Traceability Platform will support multilateral cooperation. It will synchronize data from local governments' traceability platforms and suppliers' own platforms.