Food & Beverage Asia June/July 2020

MARKET INSIGHTS
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A carton of blueberries is scanned after being traced from farm to store on the IBM Food Trust blockchain network
Relevance to Asia-Pacific
Why is blockchain relevant for the Asia-
Pacific region, especially Thailand and
Singapore? That is because the food
industry is still the livelihood for Thailand.
However, there are concerns regarding
the quality and the traceability of the
food through the supply chain. This year,
Thailand’s food and beverage exports
would be worth between US$26-27 billion,
according to Kasikorn Research.
For Thailand’s food and beverage exports
to continue to boom, products need to
respond to changing consumer trends.
These include organic produce, healthrelated
foods, plant-based and insectbased
proteins, medical foods, readyto-eat
foods, and many more. Kasikorn
Research stated that there is a need for
Thailand’s food industry to capitalise
on the new global consumption trends,
meet consumer needs, and offer greater
transparency and quality in countries
that import food from Thailand. However,
all this has to be done while overcoming
supply chain issues and other barriers
to become a global leader in the food
industry, it added.
As for Singapore, its food services market
is currently worth about S$8.3 billion
(US$5.9 billion), and is set to cross S$8.8
billion (US$6.2 billion) by 2023, growing
at 2.1% per annum during the period,
according to Euromonitor. In 2017,
Singapore consumed more than 1.3 billion
tonnes of meat, fruit, eggs and vegetables
according to the Agri-Food & Veterinary
Authority of Singapore (AVA). Data from
Singstat for Singapore retail sales point to
S$800-900 million (US$565-636 million)
of food and beverage sales per month,
amounting to S$9.2 billion (US$6.5 billion)
in all of 2018.
Blockchain is starting to play a key role.
One Singapore start-up, DiMuto, has found
huge success deploying blockchain to
track a South East Asian fruit, the durian,
from farm to table. DiMuto’s digital asset
creation devices assign a tag to each
piece of fruit in a carton, as well as a QR
code and image record for each carton, as
they pass through the supply chain. This
data is uploaded to DiMuto’s blockchain
along with trade documentation as the
fruit transits from farms to wholesalers
and then through customs and on to
distributors, retailers, and end consumers.
The goal? Transparency and traceability
provided by the platform will reduce
wastage, ensure food safety and quality,
reduce potential disputes by improving
trust between parties, and boost chances
for securing credit. Gary Loh, Co-founder
and CEO of DiMuto, said, “All this becomes
even more pressing amid the pressure
put on the food supply chain amid the
COVID-19 pandemic.”
The need for greater transparency,
accountability, traceability and quality
is possible with blockchain technology.
Investigations into foodborne illnesses that
used to take weeks or months, could be
reduced to minutes. This has the potential
to give consumers an incredible amount of
confidence, because they can know that
everything in their food, and every place
that the food products touched, are fully
accountable.
Relevance to consumers
A recent IBM Institute for Business Value
(IBV) study noted that 73% of consumers
were willing to pay a premium for full
transparency into the products they buy.
FOOD & BEVERAGE ASIA JUNE / JULY 2020