Objectives of the service
The project will deliver the proof to Retail clients of the Life Story of the produce they sell in relation to claims Retailers make about the origin and conditions in which the produce was reared. The product to be developed will enable European producers and processing companies to achieve premium prices in the Asian market. The platform will also provide full supply chain assurance from farm to fork in the domestic European markets and enable producers to differentiate themselves. The VF platform will open up export opportunities for European businesses wishing to export food and drink products to the Asian market where retailers are requesting full provenance, underpinned by blockchain technology, for the produce they are purchasing.
Users and their needs
Due to increased consumer demand Retailers, particularly in Asian Markets, are willing to pay a premium price for meat derived from animals that have cared for and fed under strict criteria during their life provided proof of these claims is provided in an immutable form. Retailers have therefore passed this requirement onto the Processors and Producers who supply these products. The producers in particular require a system to be put in place to provide the proof of the animal feed stuff and husbandry under which they are reared in an immutable form.
Service/ system concept
In order to verify the provenance of an individual animal a tag will placed on that animal which will transmit their location via a hub to a cloud-based database. This database will be underpinned by Blockchain technology and provide the producer with immutable proof of the animals location and also other relevant data which can be uploaded either automatically or manually to the database about a herd or an individual animal. A consumer facing landing page will also be available to enable consumers to access the relevant data for the produce they are purchasing.
Space Added Value
One of the aims of the project is to identify/develop the most efficient and effective tagging sensors for the individual animal. The sensor technology to be used will be a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) tracking device (using the Galileo system) which will allow the animals location to be tracked and verified. At present there is no independent verification of an animal’s location or provenance and any information available is at a herd level and not on an individual animal basis.
Current Status
Following a requirements gathering workshop held virtually in January 2022 the user requirements have been finalised. The initial system design for both the hardware and software elements has also been carried out with a view to development commencing in March 2022. It is planned to begin the pilot phase of the project onsite in July of 2022.
