South Korea to use blockchain to track beef supply chain

The South Korean Government is planning to use blockchain technology in order to track the beef supply chain.

With the help of the new technology, the government intends to provide consumers with detailed information about the food sources, according to Yonhap News Agency.

The pilot programme will be jointly launched by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, as well as the Ministry of Science and ICT.

Initially, the programme will be tested in cattle farms and slaughterhouses in North Jeolla Province in December and is slated for an official launch in January depending upon the outcome of the test project.

Blockchain technology will be used by the government to keep a track of the beef product from cattle rearing to slaughtering, meat packing and sale.

In order to avoid human intervention, the government will make use of internet of things (IoT) technology devices that will be attached to cows to enable automatic data storage in the blockchain using Bluetooth.

The technology is expected to replace the paper certificates existing system.

Last month, Cointelegraph reported that four agriculture companies including Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus agreed to use blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in order to minimise costs and provide transparency in trading.