THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY IN DELIVERING END-TO-END TRACEABILITY
BUSINESS INTERVIEW
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THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY IN DELIVERING END-TO-END TRACEABILITY Fabian Portmann, Chief Technology Officer at farmer connect, explains how traceability is helping drive forward more sustainable supply chains. wiss-based farmer connect is a global company with employees worldwide, as well as international clients spanning all four hemispheres. At its core, it delivers trusted end-to-end traceability solutions to global supply chains.
Founded in 2019, farmer connect first set its roots in coffee and cocoa, but is now also looking to expand into other commodities. Fabian Portmann, Chief Technology Officer at farmer connect, explains, “Before
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you get to the final product, the producer first has to grow the raw ingredients. These then get processed, transported, and further refined. Traceability is the endto-end understanding of where a product comes from, where it passes through, and where it ends up. We can track its entire journey from beginning to end, unravelling all the different stages it goes through before reaching the final
consumer. This helps us understand all the various connections between different actors along a supply chain, giving visibility to the different processes. We believe digital solutions can provide a new way of achieving end-to-end traceability.” farmer connect developed a traceability platform in answer to this challenge. Acting as the single point of access to all farmer connect
“HOW ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO UNDERSTAND, FOR EXAMPLE, THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OR FAIR WORKING CONDITIONS? WE BELIEVE THAT TRACEABILITY IS AT THE CORE OF CREATING MORE SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAINS”
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tools, ConnectHub brings the various actors in the supply chain, such as producers, brands and their partners, into a shared ecosystem, which enables increased trust & transparency through end-to-end traceability. So, what has been a key driver in developing this solution? Fabian answers, “End-to-end traceability is now being recognised as a
very important enabler of more sustainable supply chains. If you don’t know where your product is from, who is involved in the supply chain, or how the product was transported, it is difficult to talk about sustainability in general. How are you supposed to understand, for example, the carbon footprint or fair working conditions? We believe that traceability can drive an increased
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understanding and is therefore at the core of creating more sustainable supply chains.” ConnectHub is farmer connect’s B2B offering, connected to a consumerfacing product, ThankMyFarmer. Built around trusted end-to-end product traceability, ThankMyFarmer is the consumer's window into learning more about traceable
its services. Fabian explains, “The combination of technologies gives us the flexibility to scale and innovate. We need to build innovative solutions, and this setup allows us to do so. As part of our solutions portfolio, we offer trusted end-to-end traceability solutions. If you have a global supply chain, end-to-end can be extensive. You are essentially
“FOR ENTERPRISES, IT THEN BECOMES IMPORTANT TALK AROUND WHAT YOU ARE DOING IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN. CLAIMS COME EASY, BUT THEY BECOME MORE POWERFUL IF YOU CAN BACK THEM UP WITH DATA, AND THIS IS WHERE TRACEABILITY CAN PLAY A VERY IMPORTANT ROLE” Fabian Portmann, Chief Technology Officer
products. Fabian says, “It is where we allow brands to showcase products that have become traceable. You will find a QR code on the packaging, which you can scan with your phone, and you will be redirected to www.thankmyfarmer.com to learn about the journey of the product. The data that was entered via ConnectHub by the various actors along the supply chain, is what is used to build that story.” In terms of the technology employed, farmer connect is cloud-native, working with various partners for
trying to offer a touchpoint for all actors, from producers to consumers, and these touchpoints can span from just a few to a large set. We develop products in the solution layer of the software stack, and these can be customised to apply to each individual supply chain.” The degree of digitalisation often varies depending on your role and the respective supply chain. For farmer connect, being able to develop a solution that is welladapted to the landscape of 7
smallholder commodity supply chains is key. Fabian continues, “We have a lot of industry expertise in our company, and I think that gives us a distinct advantage – it is built for the industry, by the industry. From a technology standpoint, we have managed to combine and connect blockchain technology and self-sovereign identity (SSI) technology. “The advantage of blockchain lies in creating trust within supply chains because if you have a shared ledger, it becomes a means of sharing data between different actors in a secure and trusted way. Therefore, blockchain is great for enterprise data, but you should not write personally identifiable information (PII) onto the blockchain and share it with other participants. This is where SSI comes in. It provides the individual with a digital wallet, where PII can be securely stored, so individuals can regain control of the information that is about them.” farmer connect has figured out how to leverage blockchain to securely share information between enterprises, and at the same time, connecting it with SSI to empower individuals. Fabian explains, “When talking about cocoa farms, for example, 8
“FARMER CONNECT HAS FIGURED OUT HOW TO LEVERAGE BLOCKCHAIN TO SECURELY SHARE INFORMATION BETWEEN ENTERPRISES, AND AT THE SAME TIME, CONNECTING IT WITH SSI TO EMPOWER INDIVIDUALS”
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“TRINSIC HAS BEEN A LEADER IN THE FIELD OF SSI FROM THE START. WE HAVE BEEN PARTNERED WITH THEM SINCE 2019 BECAUSE THEY ARE THE LEADING INFRASTRUCTURE FOR BUILDING IDENTITY PRODUCTS” smallholder commodities quickly come down to the individual, so you cannot treat their data in the same way as you would for an enterprise. Therefore, we link PII with traceability data, fully respecting the privacy rights of the individuals, as well as the enterprise requirements.” Fabian describes two client success stories – Atlantic Grupa and UCC Coffee. He enthuses, “We launched two traceable single-origin products with Atlantic Grupa, under the Grand kafa brand. We succeeded in connecting the consumers to the producers behind their cup of coffee. In turn, this strengthened the Grand master brand image and enabled them to reach a new customer segment. “We worked with UCC around the supply chain of Orang Utan 10
Coffee, making the supply chain traceable via blockchain. It was a fantastic piece of work. We were able to connect the final product back to the origin and, at the same time, showcase the conservation projects that were happening at source. Along with UCC, we won the much-coveted 25th Supply Chain Excellence Award for Food and Drink, as well as the Geek+ Team of the Year Award, making us the joint overall winners of Best Supply Chain in the UK. Alongside innovation and functionality, the judging panel went through a strict fourstage process to determine how the project brought better visibility to manufacturers, outlets and consumers, alongside sustainable practice. We were able to demonstrate leadership in all these areas, which led to this outstanding result.” With the ambition to be end-toend, there is only so much farmer connect can do on its own, so partnering with other companies is essential. As highlighted by Fabian, “We are focused on the solution layer of the software stack, and using the right kind of technology to solve the problem at hand. If we can find a partner that can help us with technology to do just that, then we bring them in. We needed to rethink the way PII is being managed,
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stored and shared, and SSI does just that. Trinsic has been a leader in the field of SSI from the start. We have been partnered with them since 2019 because they are the leading infrastructure for building identity products. If you talk about digitising an interaction with a producer, you need to have the means to digitally represent them. We used Trinsic’s platform to build our digital identity product, FarmerID. You as a producer are assigned a digital wallet containing a digital identity, so that you can obtain control over your data and can manage how it is shared in farmer connect’s ecosystem.” 12
In addition, farmer connect works closely with selected software providers, particularly for its blockchain engine at the core of ConnectHub. farmer connect has also partnered with a Brazilian IT boutique consulting company since 2020. Fabian adds, “We have been impressed by the extremely talented team of software engineers and designers.” Looking to the future, Fabian says, “We have built a solid platform and are growing the farmer connect ecoosystem, and will continue to work closely with our clients on solving problems related to
traceability. There is still a lot of work to be done on bringing all the data together, and we really believe that information gathering should be more decentralised. We need to incentivise actors along the supply chain to collect data and then share that data with other participants in the supply chain. We want to empower them, and particularly those at origin, to become digitally active and in control of how they are engaging in the digital space.”
consumer push around sustainability. Consumers are becoming more demanding in asking where their product is from and how it was processed. It is important for consumers to take the responsibility to ask these questions. For enterprises, it then becomes important talk about what you are doing in the supply chain. Claims come easy, but they become more powerful if you can back them up with data, and this is where traceability can play a very important role.”
Fabian’s last word is on supply chain traceability in the modern day. He concludes, “There is a
For further information on farmer connect, visit www.farmerconnect.com 13
www.farmerconnect.com
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