The Blockchain technology has begun to emerge powerfully out of the confines of financial transactions (Bitcoin). It promises to revolutionize the business models of every economic field, guaranteeing transparency and traceability. First projects in the agri-food sector.
The Role Of Blockchain In The Innovation Process
We talk about it more and more often, sometimes even imprecisely, but it’s normal that the enthusiasm for novelty can generate an initial confusion before understanding its true potential. This is what is happening with the Blockchain phenomenon. The first application, in 2009, concerned the payment transactions of the digital Bitcoin currency, in order to give concreteness and guarantees to a random “product”. Today, Blockchain technology is starting to take its first steps in the agri-food sector.
It’s an immutable database or digital register, literally “a chain of blocks”, that contains data or digital event records managed by participants and based on a shared, tamper-proof protocol. Participants can access, control or add data, but cannot modify or delete existing ones. This means that all recorded information is real, reliable and traceable. In practice it’s a tool that generates trust because it guarantees the truthfulness of the contents and of all the phases of a given process.
In the agri-food sector we are witnessing the application of the Blockchain at the service of the supply chain to have new tools to ensure greater food safety in the food supply chain. The trial in this sector is only in its infancy and there are still few concrete examples, but a certain misunderstanding already seems to be spreading: blockchain is not synonymous with generic digital technology and not even with a short and controlled supply chain. Blockchain means a guarantee of traceability even of a single aspect productive, like food safety, for which the digital register ensures that the given product is healthy.
The concept of excellence quality is different. In this case it’s essential to start from specialized infrastructures in every single step, from seed to table, in order to qualify as a controlled and traced supply chain. As happens in our supply chain that deals with the management of raw materials from the earliest stages of knowledge of the cereal, of the crops, of the processing of the product with a technique that combines tradition and advanced technology, up to the transformation of the final product (pasta, bread and bakery products in general). Our customers have the opportunity to visit all the players belonging to our supply chain and see where and how Italian Made excellence is born.
Also our supply chain is moving towards Blockchain technology, a long and complex process that will require an investment of justified resources and that will be effective only when the experimental phase is over and the Blockchain model will have achieved a sufficient stability.