The Australian Government and industry experts are considering adopting blockchain solutions to combat fraud in the nation's food and wine industry.
This position was revealed at Australia's supply chain forum, comprising government personnel and food experts in the local industry.
According to a webinar held on 4th September, the forum members noted that the fraud incidences, which amounted to an annual loss of $1.7 billion, required urgent technological solutions. To this end, the forum, which had an attendance of 150 members, reviewed how other countries and businesses have applied blockchain technology to manage their supply chain sector.
The online discussion was moderated by Rob Allen, the deputy chair of Blockchain Australia. Allen noted that for the country to be able to combat fraud successfully, the supply chain has to solve the problem of verifying the authenticity of products from the source. With no transparent system in place, the customers and regulatory authorities would not be able to differentiate between original made in Australia foods from others.
Chloe White, National Blockchain Lead from the Department of Industry, also stated that blockchain technology has the right architecture to eliminate fraud in the Australian food and wine industry. The country already loses about $1.7 billion annually to these incidences.
Bridie Ohlsson, CEO of Geora- an agricultural blockchain platform, also corroborated Chloe's position, noting that blockchain solutions will reduce the cost of obtaining paper certificates from the regulatory authorities. Ohlsson observed that when the cost of obtaining certification is expensive and stressful, people sometimes resort to forging documents. But if a blockchain platform is used to manage credentials, the process would be automated, which will increase processing speed, value, and more trust in the system.
Source: Cointelegraph
