A first step in creating food supply chains that are environmentally sustainable, ethical and meet the growing demand for transparency is sourcing ingredients and supporting logistics services that meet these standards. Two Dutch startups, Cogoport Europe and Milvum, are supporting Royal Blue & Orange International Trading  (RBO Trading,) a Dutch enterprise that is developing a blockchain-based marketplace solution that could provide such a sourcing option. 
 
According to RBO CEO Sukai Ceesay, food service franchises have a difficult time sourcing consistent and reliable products from suppliers – even approved vendors. Consequently, they need to be vigilant when purchasing food ingredients to ensure the quality is consistent, and they’re produced ethically and consciously. Another issue is that being small businesses, franchises can’t take advantage of volume-driven sourcing, so they typically pay more for food ingredients, equipment and logistics.

Welcome to the second edition of our revamped quarterly supply chain technologies blog. As noted in the spring blog, we are now including various digital transformation technologies that supply chains are aligning with blockchain, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet-of-Things (IoT).
 
This time, we’re covering news from the FDA, IBM, MediLedger, TradeLens, Target, Shipwell, Treum, Ripe, R3, BlockSyte, Walmart and VeChain. So let’s get stuck in.

The FDA, Walmart, MediLeger, Pharma and Friends
 
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is working with at least two blockchain-related consortiums. This is part of a pilot program focused on helping drug supply chain participants to develop an “electronic, interoperable system that will identify and trace certain prescription drugs as they are distributed within the United States.” Such platforms will need to comply with the requirements of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA), which was enacted in November 2013, and which the FDA enforces. Pharma players have a deadline of November 2019 to comply with certain aspects of the legislation, with a 2023 deadline for full compliance.

I first encountered Dhairya Pujara, founder of Ycenter, when he introduced the session on Blockchain and its Impact on Supply Chain Management at the Blockchain Mini Summit in Philadelphia in May. My ears perked up when he began to talk about blockchain in smallholder farming, the subject of an eBook published by Chain Business Insights in 2018. I caught up with Pujara after the conference to learn more about how Ycenter is using blockchain in the humanitarian supply chain. 
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