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- Alibaba and Mastercad will develop a platform based on the VeChain blockchain to authenticate and track the supply chain.
- The platform will use the VeChainThor blockchain to track products and Mastercard Provenance as the transaction verification ledger.
Australian media report reveals plans by giants Mastercad and Alibaba to deepen its partnership with the APAC Provenance Council (APC). Both companies join forces to develop and launch a platform to facilitate tracking food, wine and exports produced in Australia. The platform will be based on the VeChainThor blockchain to track products and will also use Mastercard Provenance as the ledger for transaction verification.
The APAC Provenance Council is a consortium for food supply chain and financing in the Asia Pacific Economic Region. Its main objective is to create an efficient intercontinental financial ecosystem. Its main partner for applying blockchain technology is VeChain. The platform will offer financing with Mastercard and Alibaba’s payment system, Alipay, to local farmers and growers to facilitate payment for their production.
VeChain, Mastercard and Alibaba facilitate export diversification in Australia
The objective of the platform developed by Mastercard, Alibaba and based on the VeChainThor blockchain will be exports between Australia and China. The trade relationship between these two nations in terms of exports is estimated at $76 billion annually. However, the Covid-19 pandemic and growing political tensions between the two countries could impact that figure. In that sense, the platform could be a solution to allow Australia to diversify its exports. APC co-founder David Inderias outlines:
The overall theme of this is making more resilient export supply chains. One current complexity is COVID. The other is the economic and political trade circumstances, especially with China. Resilience for Australian producers means having the capability to cater to multiple markets. We have been very China-dependent, but maybe we should be more US-dependent, more Japan-dependent, more Indonesia-focused.
An Australian government roadmap identified blockchain technology as a core solution to improve the agricultural supply chain. As such, former Chief for Blockchain Australia, Nicholas Giurietto, praised the formation of the APAC Provenance Council as an important step forward in terms of transparency, efficiency and supply chain management in the agricultural sector.
Blockchain Australia and the Food Agility Co-operative Research Centre (CRC) are two bodies that currently support the APAC Provenance Council. The first of private initiative and the second of government origin, both bodies aim to use blockchain technology to support local producers through the APC. Additionally, the APAC Provenance Council (APC) was able to secure the support of key partners with the endorsement of the Food Agility CRC. Last week major companies such as Kellogg’s, Mars, Coles, NAB, JBS and IAG, among others, joined to make a $10 million investment to the APC to fund VeChainThor-based solutions to reinvent the business model to be used after the pandemic. Food Agility CRC Chief Executive Mike Briers said:
The big issue in the food industry right now is the supply chains. The situation with China is making people think about diversifying their market. The other is the data, showing the provenance of the product is really important in these sorts of markets. When you put a digital lens on a supply chain, it allows say a meat processor to provide information back to the farmer. That doesn’t happen universally at the moment. We want to work with technology partners and agribusiness partners to allow data to flow forward and back through the supply chain.
