Blockchain traceability to be promoted at Tokyo fish fair

The Ocean to Table Council is holding “Edomae Fish Passport Fair” events in September and October with the goal of informing Japanese consumers about sustainably-caught seafood.

The fair will be experience-based, allowing visitors to see, learn about, eat, and enjoy sustainably-caught fish. A smartphone traceability application using blockchain technology will be demonstrated at the stores where the event is held.

The fresh fish offered will include products from the Tokyo Bay sea perch fishery improvement project (FIP), which have been branded as “Shun-jime Suzuki.” The fishing port of Funabashi, in Chiba Prefecture, boasts Japan's largest catch of Japanese sea perch Lateolabrax japonicus, also called sea bass, which is in season from May to October.

Funabashi, Japan-based operators of purse-seine fishing fleets who take part in the FIP – Daidenmaru Co. and Nakasenmaru Co. – are providing the sea perch. The vessels are also providing hairtail (Trichiurus japonicas), dotted gizzard shad (Konosirus punctatus), and Japanese Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus niphonius) for the event.

The organizer, the Ocean to Table Council, is a group of companies promoting IBM’s blockchain traceability service as an added-value product for the seafood produced by the FIP participants. The service won the Collaboration Award at the Tokyo Sustainable Seafood Symposium 2020.

The project links digital catch data collected by the ISANA system from Yokohama-based Lighthouse Inc. and a smartphone app developed by Tokyo-based IX Knowledge Inc. that handles landing classification data, shipment data, processing-related data, and delivery data.  

Photo courtesy of Curioso.Photography/Shutterstock