Bilbao. – Blockchain is one of the enabling technologies with the greatest potential in the agritech sector. According to estimations, its economic impact in Spain in terms of traceability will amount to $14.3 trillion by 2030. Given this outlook, Alastria was once again present at the Food 4 Future event held in Bilbao. The three-day event featured presentations and activities focused on the future of the agri-food sector and the impact of technology. As part of our collaboration, on 19 May, Alastria organised the Blockchain: The Next Generation of Traceability in the Agri-food Industry panel, in which we addressed the advantages of blockchain for improving agri-food traceability, based on real projects in the sector.
Taking part in the panel was Javier González, CEO of Xpander, who highlighted that blockchain makes it possible to integrate information from various systems and obtain reliable data. KH Xpander has developed the Alize platform, in use by several customers, for the registration and traceability of products and processes. In their experience, the agri-food sector has generally good technification ratios, which allows for easy integration of the blockchain layer. One of the projects they are working on is the traceability of potatoes together with Patatas Lázaro, a leading company in the sector.
Cristina Lázaro, business developer and marketing director of Patatas Lázaro, explained that the greatest value that stands out in the project is the transparency that blockchain offers, which will give their customers relevant and differential information about their products in the purchasing process. The project is in its first phase of implementation, but the aim is to cover the entire product process, from seed to point of sale.
Alastria CEO Juan Jiménez Zaballos also moderated the panel Opportunities in Food Supply Chain Traceability, which featured Edward Sliwinski, senior R&D manager at EFFoST, and Rosa María Nieto, CEO of Conservas Friscos. Edward Sliwinski presented three European projects in which EFFoST is involved and which integrate various SMEs with innovative solutions for their supply chain and food safety. Rosa Nieto described the challenges involved in tracing all the links and players in the supply chain of products such as mussels and tuna. The latter product poses even greater difficulties, which is why blockchain has much to offer in terms of guaranteeing product oversight, quality assurance and fraud prevention.