VeChainThor Blockchain Empowers the Lifecycle Management of Premium Beef Produced in Australia With VeChain ToolChain Turnkey Solution VeChain Foundation Follow Jul 24, 2019 · 5 min read

“The Chinese market provides great opportunities for Australian premium beef suppliers thanks to its enormous market, increase in per capita income and changes in the food consumption structure.” (Source: GLOBAL MARKET SNAPSHOT)

According to the latest report on China Beef Imports released by the Meat & Livestock Australia, China registered a record high of beef import (1,194,363 tons) from April 2018 to April 2019. Among that, beef imported from Australia (205,908 tons) accounted for 17.24% of the total, fourth only to Brazil (338,473 tons), Uruguay (236,651 tons) and Argentina(234,205 tons). (Source: China Beef Imports-Global Summary) In addition, from January to December 2018, Australian beef exports amounted to 1,125,657 tons in total, 17.6% of which were exported to China, third only to the United States and Japan. Chinese demand for Australian beef is still on the increase. (Source: Australia Beef Export-Global Summary)

L28 is a branded premium meat supplier in Western Australia, where the families running the business have been in the industry since 1904. Over its century-old business, L28 has always adhered to the highest standards in meat source selection. With the high demand for premium meat in the Asian (especially China) market, the company is now dedicated to delivering the best quality meat products to Chinese consumers, and it is taking the lead in leveraging blockchain technology for anti-counterfeiting and optimized supply-chain management.

The beef cattle of L28 are raised in the ranch located in the primal landscapes of Australia and fed with quality grain to ensure their health. From the choice of farms and farmers to state-of-the-art processing and packaging, L28 keeps a close eye on all the stages of the supply chain, making sure only the best will be a part of its product line. All the meat is hand-selected by L28 in accordance with its stringent quality requirements to ensure the beef provided for the consumers is of the highest quality.

L28 is committed to providing products that are “Traceable, Interactable and Engageable”. In its latest effort, L28 integrated the VeChainThor Blockchain technology into its business model to provide consumers from around the world with a brand new way of interacting with the Australian meat producer. Going forward, it will continue to provide clean, safe and healthy meat products for the consumers.

How VeChainThor Blockchain technology solves supply chain problems in the meat export industry？

The traditional meat export process is composed of four stages: raising, primary processing, exporting to overseas meat factories, and then cutting and packaging at retail stores.

Under this model, meat producers, including L28, face several major problems:

The name or quantity of the products might be mistaken upon loading or unloading. Generally, overseas meat factories import meat from all over the world, and Australian meat producers find it hard to keep track of their products in a timely and effective manner afterward. According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey, each year, nearly $2 billion worth of meat products produced in other countries are sold deceptively as Australian beef. Meat products are needed to be stored at required temperature ranges during transportation; otherwise, they would deteriorate and spoil. Should there be any problems with the products, it is impossible or highly difficult to pinpoint the exact problematic batch and an across-the-board recall will cause heavy losses to the supplier.

To solve these problems, L28 joined hands with VeChain to develop a meat traceability solution. Developed on the one-stop BaaS platform, VeChain ToolChain, and coupled with verification service provided by DNV GL, a world-leading certification body, the Solution can ensure that L28 products are manufactured in accordance with the high standards set by the producer, thus optimizing supply-chain management and guaranteeing product quality.

In L28 workshop, key data of the products are collected and uploaded to the VeChainThor Blockchain through VeChain ToolChain

The benefits of the VeChain ToolChain solution:

Combining the strengths of blockchain, IoT and third-party verification provided by DNV GL, we can ensure the data’s reliability and authenticity.

The product and logistics data stored on the blockchain can be used to facilitate the beef producers’ supply chain management and digital transformation.

Improve the safety of products and supply chains, enable the manufacturers or suppliers to check their products’ status in real-time, thereby reducing or avoiding information lag or asymmetry;

Key upstream and downstream enterprises are allowed to share data with each other for enhanced mutual trust and cooperation.

Enhance consumer trust by providing authentic and traceable information.

A close eye will be kept on the products. Should anything went wrong, the producers will be able to conduct targeted recalls based on the reliable data stored on the blockchain.

As of now, the first batch of VeChainThor Blockchain-empowered beef has been available on JD.com (https://latitude28.jd.com/).

When consumers buy L28 products from JD.com, they can use the VeChain Pro app or other apps that support QR Code scannings such as WeChat or Alipay, to scan the QR code attached to the package of the product, and access its key information stored on the VeChainThor BlockChain, such as provenance and logistics.

Product and traceability info displayed on the app

“L28 is born with the mission of providing the best products and thereby building and strengthening consumer trust, the partnership with VeChain just marks our latest effort in achieving that ultimate goal, with the completed solution provided by VeChain that covers the product’s entire lifecycle, consumers are able to access the authentic data of the premium Australian beef they bought, as well as the lamb, which will be available on JD.com soon. ” — — James Williamson Managing Director Latitude 28

As a vanguard in promoting digital transformation in Australia’s meat and livestock industry, L28 has received strong support from Meat & Livestock Australia, and has been selected as a Digital Transformation Member of the association. Going forward, L28 not only plans to bring their lamb business onto the VeChainThor Blockchain, but also the other meat providers in Australia.

VeChain and DNV GL will work closely with L28 to empower Australia’s meat and livestock industry with VeChainThor Blockchain technology. The three parties will build a network of value connecting the up- and downstream enterprises, aiming to solve the existing trust issues of the industry, optimize the industrial chain, and facilitate its digital transformation.