Nueva Pescanova, IBM Food Trust, and GDST collaborate on supply chain transparency project

The Nueva Pescanova Group and IBM are working together to trace all of Nueva Pescanova’s seafood products on IBM’s blockchain-based network, the Food Trust platform, which is designed to ensure the traceability of products across supply chains.

The Nueva Pescanova process uses the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability’s (GDST) 1.0 standards. For the development of this project, the company will follow the GDST standards, which enable interoperability between seafood traceability systems ensuring that key data from each link in the value chain is collected and recorded digitally.

The GDST standards will assist with the documentation of batch and product characteristics along with documents that accredit permits, licenses, locations, and certifications that prove responsible fishing and farming practices, evidence of sustainability, and the guarantee of food safety.

"We fish, grow, process, and market in a sustainable manner. Through this ambitious project we want to offer our consumers all over the world rigorous and detailed information on the traceability of our seafood products, from their origin until they reach their tables,” Nueva Pescanova CEO Ignacio González said in a press release. “The GDST standards make this possible. Now is the time for businesses across the seafood sector to begin implementing the GDST standards”.

Nueva Pescanova’s first step in this process was the registration and digitalization of two key operations: shrimp fishing in Argentina and the cultivation of vannamei prawns in Ecuador. Members of the blockchain network have an exact copy of the data, and any added information is shared across the network based on each participant's level of permissions. This allows producers, wholesalers, and retailers to interact more efficiently in the ability and timeliness of accessing data. A recent study conducted by IBM in Spain confirmed that nearly half of the respondents would buy more fish if they were provided with proven and reliable information about its origin, safety, and production.

“Our platform brings together members of the entire supply chain, offering a space for the exchange and tracking of information on food products. This generates trust among users, since a digitized and permanent chain of transactions is created that cannot be modified,” IBM Spain Head of Services at IBM Spain Javier Olaizola said.

Photo courtesy of Nueva Pescanova