July 10, 2019 — In the fall of 2018, leading shelf-stable seafood provider Bumble Bee Foods began utilizing blockchain technology to track products all the way through its supply chain. The brand has seen significant success from harnessing the abilities housed within the cutting edge technology.
“We’ve had nothing but overwhelming positive feedback from the industry and retailers,” Bumble Bee Foods senior vice-president and CIO Tony Costa told me in an interview.
As a top provider of shelf-stable seafood in North America, Bumble Bee produces products such as canned tuna, salmon and clams. The company also works with frozen goods. “Part of this project is [an] extension of our company. We have another frozen piece of our business called Anova, which we do most of our procurement and resourcing through Asia, mainly out of Indonesia,” Costa said. “The blockchain project has focused around the handline fisheries in Indonesia,” he noted. The project is underway for Bumble Bee’s Natural Blue line, which is part of its Anova brand.
Bumble Bee’s blockchain incorporation uses the technology to track its products from fishers to end consumers, ensuring aspects such as data accuracy and tracking all the way through the supply chain. The beef and grain industries saw similar blockchain application for supply chain with BeefChain and GrainChain.