Cold Chain 2020: Connect, Communicate, Collaborate

Seafood: Blockchain enhances cold chain

IBM and the Norwegian Seafood Association recently announced a new cross-industry collaboration to use blockchain technology to share supply chain data throughout Norway’s seafood industry to provide safer, fresher seafood to consumers worldwide.

Several Norwegian seafood companies are now in the process of putting data onto the network. One of these companies is Kvarøy Arctic, a leading provider of naturally sea farmed salmon, who will soon begin delivering products to leading retailers in the United States and Canada using the tracking and provenance technology.

BioMar, a leading provider of high-grade fish feed, has also joined the network allowing Nordic seafood companies to provide insight into the origin and quality of seafood as well as the quality of feed the fish consume.

“It’s important for our customers to know that the seafood they eat is not only safe but produced in a sustainable and healthy manner,” says Alf-Gøran Knutsen, CEO of Kvarøy Arctic. “Blockchain lets us share the fish’s journey from the ocean to the store. This is now more timely than ever, as consumers want more information about where the food they eat comes from.”

Norway exported more than 2.7 million tons of seafood in 2019—the equivalent of 25,000 meals per minute. At the same time, monitoring where the fish comes from, its growing and storage conditions, and reducing food waste remain of critical concern to seafood consumers who care deeply about sustainability.

“Norwegian seafood is known for its quality,” says Robert Eriksson, CEO of the Norwegian Seafood Association. “Yet we still don’t have the ability to trace where the fish came from, how it was grown or how it was stored.”

Eriksson adds that this technology partnership can help seafood producers create a “single version of the truth” about supply chain events, allowing consumers to trace their seafood products directly back to the source and enabling producers to tell stories about the products, where they come from, and how to prepare them.

“The private blockchain network records data about catch location and time, supply chain events like shipping updates and customs clearance, and even temperature, which can then be shared with permissioned parties,” concludes Eriksson.

Cold Chain Performs in a Crisis

With the ongoing pandemic crisis, it’s heartening to learn that new strides in supply chain management are being made by leading providers of national distribution services.

At the forefront of this effort is the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN) that has been aiding the Arkansas Foodbank by giving it over 2 million extra pounds of perishable and non-perishable food donated by suddenly overstocked restaurant suppliers.

Core-Mark’s regional distribution center in Forrest City, Ark., is donating the use of several of its drivers, trucks and temperature-controlled trailers to deliver the donated food.

Currently, the Core-Mark team regularly transports the donated food from Arkansas Foodbank’s warehouse in Little Rock to food pantries, soup kitchens, churches and other centers in a 33-county service area.

“Climate-controlled units and transportation services are always hugely valuable commodities, but especially at times like these when so many additional families need food,” says Kathy Fulton, the executive director of ALAN. “We’re so pleased when Core-Mark agreed to assist with this project, and we are grateful for their partnership and commitment to serving communities in need.”

In a recent interview with Logistics Management, Fulton, shared these insights on the current state of cold chain services.

Logistics Management (LM): How have your members leveraged new cold chain services to reach those most in need?

Kathy Fulton: Certainly not new technology, but refrigerated technology is playing a huge role right now. The majority of products at food banks and pantries are shelf stable, and the facilities have small amounts of chilled or frozen space.

The products being distributed by USDA programs like Coronavirus Food Assistance Program are primarily perishables like proteins, dairy, and fruits and vegetables. The need for temporary cold storage—whether in refrigerated trailers, containers or available warehouse space—has increased dramatically during the pandemic.

LM: Where does quality infrastructure play the biggest role?

Fulton: During the height of the stay-at-home orders, it was very interesting to talk with shippers and transportation providers who loved the lack of traffic on roadways. For those who needed to transit areas that are notorious transportation bottlenecks, the reduced congestion increased the velocity of their supply chains.

LM: How has ALAN’s past performance helped during this current emergency?

Fulton: When you consider the extreme demand spikes for many products, that probably helped keep some of the more fragile supply chains from even more distruption. We already know our supply chains struggle when we have a weather-related disaster that increases demand, but closes roads and bridges, and power, water, wastewater, and other public infrastructure.

LM: So what do you regard as “the perfect storm?”

Fulton: Those traditional disasters are typically isolated to a geographic region. If we have some type of additional stressor with supply chains everywhere still stretched as they are due to the pandemic, it causes infrastructure challenges and we won’t be able to surge support from elsewhere. Suddenly a disaster becomes a truly catastrophic scenario.