3.5 Blockchain and Consumer Relations

• Shifting consumer preferences - quality, safety, sustainability, responsibility
• Over 70% willing to pay higher price for transparency
• Blockchain as an opportunity to increase consumer confidence and attract new customers
• Transparency as a unique selling point: a new competitive advantage

• Certain products where price and provenance are closely linked e.g. PDO products, wine, organic foods
• Consumers are willing to pay a premium but need assurance the product is genuine
• Incidences of food fraud
• Blockchain solution: track product on Blockchain from source and make this information available to the consumer

• 2022 press release: ‘Carrefour is the first retailer to use blockchain technology with its own-brand organic products, providing consumers with more transparency’
• Pilot product: organic dessert oranges
• ‘A QR code for retracing the itinerary of each batch’:
• Its origin and the pathway it has taken: producer name, field location, packaging location, transport means
• Its quality: harvest date, analysis results, variety and seasonality
• Its organic certification: conversion date, official certificate, additional initiatives implemented by the producer.

EXAMPLE: NAVIDUL

• Iberian ham shoulders (DO)
• Coloured-coded labels and Blockchain
• Information about the animal’s diet weight, curing process etc.
• “True, complete, and immutable” information

• Another way Blockchain solutions could be useful in terms of consumer relations is in the event of a product recall
• Product recalls represent a loss for the company in terms of unsold products, but an even greater loss can be damage to the company’s reputation and losing consumers’ trust
• Integrated Blockchain and IoT/RFID technologies can help reduce the likelihood of product recall by closely monitoring product quality throughout the supply chain - but even in instances where contamination is not successfully avoided, Blockchain- enabled traceability can help companies mitigate the reputational damage of a product recall
• Knowing exactly which products were contaminated, how, when and where can help companies to conduct a swift and targeted product recall that can help to avoid a potential scandal

‘Horsemeat scandal: where did the 29% horse in your Tesco burger come from?’, The Guardian, 2013

• Read the 2013 Guardian article on the Tesco horse meat scandal
• Decide the use of modern Blockchain technology could have helped to prevent and/or mitigate the scandal

• Consumers are concerned about environmental sustainability - carbon footprint, deforestation, depletion of natural resources
• Proliferation of certificates - a source of clarity or confusion?
• Consumer wariness of ‘greenwashing’
• Potential solution: include information on the blockchain about water usage, pesticide, travel miles, energy sources etc.
• Informed consumer decision-making

• Consumers are also concerned about the social side of sustainability - modern slavery, poor working conditions, exploitative business models, gender inequality
• Demand for fairtrade products
• Potential solution: include information on the individual farmers/producers on the Blockchain, including wages, percentage of profit, working conditions
• Providing this information on the Blockchain is not only beneficial to the consumer, the transparency can allow local farmers to better negotiate a fair deal for themselves

• Challenges in the coffee industry:
• ‘Big Coffee’, uneven distribution of profits - only 10% of coffee value remains in country of origin
• Poverty - 90% of coffee farmers earn less than €2 a day
• Environmental impact - habitat destruction and deforestation
• Moyee’s approach: “Radically good coffee with a radical impact”
• ‘FairChain’ business model: share more of the value from coffee with coffee growing countries
• Key: roasting, packaging and branding coffee in country of origin
• Focus on social and environmental sustainability - helping coffee farmers earn a liveable wage and contribute to reforestation in coffee producing countries
• Blockchain technology is central to Moyee’s business model and brand identity

Uses of Blockchain within Moyee Coffee:

• End to end digitalised coffee value chain - 100% transparency
• Moyee’s farmers are given mobile wallets, tap cards, unique ID numbers and barcodes - paid digitally
• Geo-tagging farms and washing station to prove location
• QR codes on the side coffee bags - consumers can scan with mobile phones and access information about the farmers and other supply chain actors, including who gets paid what

• Additionally, consumers receive a digital token worth 50c upon purchasing Moyee Coffee
• Consumers can either:
  • Keep the token and get money back off their next purchase
  • Use the token to tip the farmer
  • Help fund social projects in coffee-growing communities
• Digital payments are traceable - Blockchain helps to make farmers bankable, access Blockchain-powered microloans