Majid Al Futtaim-owned Carrefour has joined IBM Food Trust, a blockchain-enabled global ecosystem for the food industry run on IBM Cloud.
And while the initiative has initially been launched in the UAE, Hani Weiss, CEO of MAF Retail, told Arabian Business there are plans to roll the programme out across the company’s worldwide network of operations.
He said: “Our aim is to roll out the same technology across all of our markets gradually. The beauty of the IBM platform is that this is working on an open-source platform, so all the international suppliers that have worked with Carrefour or Walmart in the USA, will be able immediately to replicate this success and integrate to our platform so we can increase this penetration of this food traceability.”
Hani Weiss, CEO of Majid Al Futtaim Retail.
The initiative currently covers 21 SKUs (a stock-keeping unit or a scannable bar code) of Carrefour’s own fresh chicken brand and 17 microgreens harvested from select in-store hydroponic farms, with plans to expand into more product lines.
Using their smartphone, customers scan a QR code on the participating products where they will be able to get immediate access to actionable food supply chain data, from farm to store shelf.
Weiss explained: “This gives you information from the time that the chicken was in the farms, from the time they were reared, what treatments were used, whether antibiotics-free or not; to the slaughter-house, transportation, storage, temperature, until the moment it reaches the Carrefour shelves.”
According to research conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV), 73 percent of those responding to a survey said traceability of products is important to them. Of those who said it was very important, 71 percent indicated they are willing to pay a premium for brands that provide it.
Weiss said: “Food security is becoming an essential aspect of building the trust between retailers and the customers. This is not something new. However, what we have seen during the pandemic and the consciousness about health, safety and wellbeing concerns, pushed and accelerated this movement into full supply chain and traceability technology.”
The digitisation of transactions and data provides a more efficient way of working across the supply chain for growers, processors, shippers, retailers, regulators, and consumers.
Weiss added: “We are encouraging them to partner with us in order to bring this full traceability and that will increase the loyalty with our customers and increase the loyalty with the brands.”
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