Norwegian salmon producer uses IBM Blockchain to enhance traceability

Kvarøy Arctic, a major producer of Norwegian farmed salmon, is joining IBM Food Trust to enhance the traceability of its Arctic salmon and help foster consumer trust across their supply chain.

Kvarøy Arctic is enabling 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 Arctic salmon and the feed it was raised on. These buyers will be able to download images and video of the farms and see for themselves the conditions and animal welfare standards that Kvarøy Arctic upholds. The company also plans to introduce a consumer app to provide insight into the quality and sustainability of their seafood in the future.

In the past 3 months, Kvarøy Arctic has reported a dramatic increase in demand for fresh seafood in the U.S., shipping twice the volume anticipated. In the previous year, demand for salmon grew even faster than the demand for beef and poultry as consumers increasingly look for alternative sources of protein.

IBM Food Trust is 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 the salmon was raised, packed, certified and shipped to distributors around the world. 

Blockchain has the potential to build 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.

"Our work with Kvarøy Arctic further builds on our progress in promoting transparency and sustainability in the seafood trade," said IBM Food Trust general manager Raj Rao. "IBM Food Trust is delivering the tools needed to collaborate across industries and take the action to preserve and maintain our global fisheries, while protecting the integrity of the seafood supply chains."

For more information, go to www.KvaroyArctic.com and www.ibm.com/blockchain.