About BeFAQT
“Blockchain enabled Fish provenance And Quality Tracking”
Background and Objectives
Seafood auctions start from 5:30am every weekday at Sydney Fish Market, where buyers inspect the produce before their bidding. Sydney Fish Market had been planning to develop an online version of its famous seafood auction. The challenge then was how to provide the same onsite inspection experience (see, feel, and smell) to the online buyers. In 2018, the Food Agility CRC organised two workshops attended by representatives from Sydney Fish Market, UTS research teams, Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC), Fishermen’s Co-operatives, NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI), and WWF. The workshops identified a number of challenges, including the lack of fish origin and quality information within fish supply chains, as important constraints to innovation and growth in the seafood industry.
Technologies and Trials
The UTS research team proposed to develop a Blockchain enabled Fish provenance And Quality Tracking (BeFAQT) system to overcome the fish supply chain challenges. In this project, the BeFAQT team developed a wide range of technologies, including Internet of Things (IoT), e-eye, e-nose, blockchain enabled mobile App and online platform. The developed technologies have been trialled within the fishing industry. In particular, the IoT, Blockchain platform and App technologies have been trialled with fishermen to secure fish catch origin and supply chain tracking. The e-eye and e-nose technologies have been trialled for freshness assessments in Sydney Fish Market, where thousands of fish samples are collected and analysed. The BeFAQT system is being integrated in Sydney Fish Market’s online trading platform to deliver blockchain secured provenance and quality tracking data to the buyers.
Benefits and Impacts
The BeFAQT system enables the online buyers to achieve better than onsite inspection experiences, in that they can not only have the see, feel and smell experience, but also have access to comprehensive information in seafood provenance, supply chain tracking, and quality assessment. With BeFAQT system, online buyers can have early access to catch list, including authenticated fish photo, species, and sizes, with trusted origin, visible condition tracking, and objective quality assessment. The developed BeFAQT technologies support Sydney Fish Market online trading platform to achieve simplified process, transparent and trusted supply chain, shorter time to market and wider market access.
BeFAQT provides a provable way for the fishers to demonstrate provenance such as location of catch and proof of cold chain so that better quality product can be rewarded with higher prices. The technologies can potentially reduce paperwork with automated catch recording of species and sizes to the Sydney Fish Market online platform. With BeFAQT system, the catch provenance is shared immediately in the online trading platform, where the buyers can start bidding on a fish, e.g. Kingfish, whilst the fisherman is still at sea.
According to Bryan Skepper, Chair of NSW Seafood Industry Council, “the BeFAQT system has huge potential. Once successfully commercialised, the developed technologies can be extended throughout the fishing industry in Australia, and potentially exported to other countries, benefiting the entire fishing industry. The developed technologies can be extended to other food supply chains, such as meat, fruit and vegetables.”