Kvarøy Arctic partnered with IBM to enhance the traceability of its salmon and help foster consumer trust across their supply chain. The company is enabling all corporate buyers, including select Whole Foods Market stores in the U.S. and Canada, and restaurants to scan a QR code which will provide a provenance history for the salmon and the feed it was raised on. They will also be able to download images and videos of the farms and see for themselves the conditions and animal welfare standards that Kvarøy Arctic upholds. A consumer app to provide insight into the quality and sustainability of the seafood will also be made available in the future.
In the past three months, Kvarøy Arctic has seen a dramatic increase in demand for fresh seafood in the U.S., shipping twice the volume anticipated at its February 2020 launch. In the previous year, demand for salmon grew even faster than the demand for beef and poultry as consumers increasingly look for healthier sources of protein. To help meet this need, Kvarøy Arctic has joined IBM Food Trust, an ecosystem of food producers, distributors, manufacturers and retailers collaborating using a permissioned, permanent and shared record of food system data stored on blockchain.
Kvarøy Arctic is also working with its feed provider BioMar to begin uploading supply chain data to the network, creating an immutable record of the feed used and the conditions where salmon were raised, packed, certified and shipped to distributors around the world.
Blockchain has the potential to enable greater trust in the supply chain by creating a permanent, digitized chain of transactions that cannot be altered. This way, feed manufacturers, fish farmers, distributors and retailers can all access comprehensive product data in near real-time. Each member of the chain will download and use an app to scan each salmon lot at each point of receipt. Kvarøy Arctic can grant permission to distributor and retail partners, allowing them to see data about the grade of feed used, the population and density of the habitats the salmon were raised in, their age, harvest date and more.
“Blockchain is the future when it comes to ending fraud in the seafood industry. It is a level of transparency that shows our dedication to being the best of the best,” said Kvarøy Arctic CEO Alf-Gøran Knutsen. “The technology tracks a level of detail that helps us reduce food waste so we can feed more people in the world.”
Several prominent members of the seafood industry are now using IBM Food Trust to enhance traceability for products ranging from shrimp and scallops to smoked salmon, including the Sustainable Shrimp Partnership, Raw Seafoods and Labeyrie Fine Foods.
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