Blockchain technology can be a solution for secure, automated and efficient data transactions. Among other things, this provides a solution for tracing the origin of food products. After all, consumers and producers want to be able to rely on the origin of products. The European INTERREG project Blockstart aims to open up innovative applications for small businesses.
Production chains safer by blockchain
Leader AgOS
An example of a company that applies blockchain technology in this way is AgOS, which is partly based in Wageningen. Sidney Richards of AgOS explains: "An important part of what we do is to make production chains transparent by offering instruments that make it possible to share data effortlessly between players in a chain. Blockchain technology plays an important supporting role in making claims about the origin and authenticity of data verifiable".
AgOS – a StartLife (agrifood incubator) startup - provides the infrastructure needed for agrifood supply chains to capitalize on their data and power seamless, value creating supply chain setups using blockchain technology, food and supply chain sciences . AgOS is a platform which leverages Supply Chain Finance and Blockchain technology to facilitate novel approaches to managing and financing food supply chains. These two elements are technologically integrated in such a way to allow users of the platform to reduce costs, mitigate risks and promote transparency and value creation throughout the chain: from agricultural suppliers and farmers, down to the consumers.
Project Blockstart
The European project Blockstart helps SMEs to investigate whether blockchain technology can provide a solution to data verification issues. They may be able to strengthen their competitive positions through the use of blockchain technology. For smaller companies it is a difficult step to get
started with new technologies such as blockchain. The Blockstart project is designed to lower the threshold for these companies. By working together, the partners in the Blockstart project form an international ecosystem of corporate networks, incubators and blockchain experts. This ecosystem provides support, networking opportunities and a test environment to the participating companies.
Blockstart focuses on companies active in the fields of health, logistics and agrofood, who can use blockchain to increase the safety and efficiency of their work. Oost NL is one of the partners of the project and focuses on the possibilities for the agrifood sector. In East Netherlands, besides East NL, Hogeschool Windesheim and Chainpoint are partners, and Region Foodvalley and ICT Valley are associated partners in the project.
Are you looking for solutions to keep data safe within your production chain? From next year it will be possible to request vouchers for the hiring of expertise. You can already let us know if you are interested by means of a survey. Then it could be to investigate whether blockchain is a solution for the company, or to gain knowledge for the implementation. Would you like to know what the possibilities are? Please contact Ingmar Janssen, Maaike Büchner or Joline Brouwer.