A Case Study for Grain Quality Assurance Tracking based on a Blockchain Business Network

TL;DR

This paper explores using blockchain technology to improve grain quality tracking during transportation, demonstrating potential benefits like increased certification value and enhanced supply chain resilience.

Contribution

It presents a real-world implementation of blockchain for grain quality assurance, highlighting its potential to add value and improve transparency in agricultural supply chains.

Findings

Blockchain-based certification can increase grain value by around 15%.

The implementation enhances transparency and traceability in grain transportation.

Preliminary results indicate demand for blockchain solutions in agriculture.

Abstract

One of the key processes in Agriculture is quality measurement throughout the transportation of grains along its complex supply chain. This procedure is suitable for failures, such as delays to final destinations, poor monitoring, and frauds. To address the grain quality measurement challenge through the transportation chain, novel technologies, such as Distributed Ledger and Blockchain, can bring more efficiency and resilience to the process. Particularly, Blockchain is a new type of distributed database in which transactions are securely appended using cryptography and hashed pointers. Those transactions can be generated and ruled by special network-embedded software -- known as smart contracts -- that may be public to all nodes of the network or may be private to a specific set of peer nodes. This paper analyses the implementation of Blockchain technology targeting grain quality assurance tracking in a real scenario. Preliminary results support a potential demand for a Blockchain-based certification that would lead to an added valuation of around 15% for GM-free soy in the scope of a Grain Exporter Business Network in Brazil.