It’s official! The giant Starbucks has finally announced about embracing the blockchain technology into the supply chain system.

“bean to cup” is the Starbuck’s new project

The project is called “bean to cup” and was announced on 21st March via Starbucks’s website. The concept isn’t too complicate. The blockchain tech is going to be used in order to provide an adequate transparency in the logistics process between the place where the coffee beans are produced to the cup.

The giant San-Francisco based chain of cafes in the world plans to collaborate with farmers from Costa Rica, Colombia and Rwanda. These partnerships will also offer the opportunity to promote producers based in low-growth areas.

During the Annual Meeting of Shareholders held in Seattle, the Chief Executive Officer at Starbucks Kevin Johnson state that:

“Over the next two years, we will look to demonstrate how technology and innovative data platforms can give coffee farmers even more financial empowerment. […] We’ll leverage an open-source approach to share what we learn with the rest of the world.”

Blockchain is a decentralized, secure and transparent network

A blockchain technology system is showing increasing interest for giant companies, no matter in which domain they operate. This is a decentralized, secure and transparent ledger that processes the data in real time. Unfortunately, the transactions can’t be changed once they have undergone the distribution process inside the network nodes in comparison to how centralized registers do.

The Executive Director of the Costa Rica’s Coffee Institute (ICAFE), Ronald Peters stated about the relevance of this technology:

“Many years ago, our controls and transactions were all done by paper, and today we are even talking about blockchain technology. This shows us that, more than being at the front of every technological advancement, having the information and being flexible and adaptable are important.”

Traceability is important for the coffee industry

On the other side, the Director of Traceability at Starbucks, Arthur Karuletwa is focusing on the importance of traceability features that show a high level of importance in the coffee industry:

“This could be a seismic change in an industry that hasn’t had much innovation in the way coffee moves across borders and oceans. At the same time, I’ve met farmers who have very little by way of possessions, but they have a mobile phone. Digital has become the economic engine of this century, and traceability preserves the most valuable assets we have as human beings – our identity.”

The Colombian Ambassador of the U.S. Camilo Reyes has mentioned that traceability- based technologies will conduct to major advantages for farmers. Of course, there are different opinions about the blockchain network. Instead, all of these play an important role in the development of the economy.