Fishcoin At The Annual Global Aquaculture Alliance Conference
“Disruptive Technology: Is Seafood Ready for the Blockchain Age?” This was a key questions at the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s annual conference (September 24–27)
At the end of September I was privileged to participate on a blockchain panel at the annual Global Outlook for Aquaculture Leadership (GOAL) event in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Some of the largest and most influential seafood companies and seafood buyers in the world were on hand at the impressive annual event hosted by the Global Aquaculture Alliance. Like most industries, the seafood industry, and more specifically the aquaculture sector, are asking what impact blockchain will have on the future of their businesses.
What is GOAL (from the Global Aquaculture Alliance website)
GOAL (Global Outlook for Aquaculture Leadership) is a pre-competitive event, an opportunity to put day-to-day business aside and bring together all industry segments to discuss shared responsibilities and goals. Since its inception in 2001, the annual GOAL conference has been a must-attend event for the world’s aquaculture thought leaders.
The world’s leading retail and foodservice seafood buyers are always well represented at GOAL. Buyers play a key role in influencing aquaculture production practices through their corporate social responsibility policies and associated sourcing specifications. Among the companies that were represented on stage and in the audience at GOAL 2018 are BJ’s Wholesale Club, Captain D’s, Giant Eagle, Japanese Consumers Co-Operative Union, JD.com, Meijer, Red Lobster Seafood Co., Sysco Corp., US Foods and The Walt Disney Co. Many of the world’s leading seafood suppliers were also be well represented at GOAL 2018.
Key Takeaways
A major takeaway from GOAL is that while this industry, like many, has been reluctant to be an early adopter of new technologies, companies in the seafood industry recognize the need to adapt and to use technology for traceability and other data. Aquaculture accounts for at least half of global seafood production, and the FAO claims that the exchange of reliable data and information is becoming a key issue for the responsible management of aquaculture.
It was also clear that, upon explaining the merits of blockchain, that the audience at GOAL recognized how powerful a decentralized ledger could be to solve problems given the specific conditions of the seafood industry. The power to effectively share data and information makes blockchain a powerful tool that could greatly benefit the aquaculture industry.
As anticipated, we had several large players interested in pursuing projects in their supply chains and we are excited about where this can go for the overall Fishcoin initiative given the size and growth of aquaculture.
Interested in becoming a Fishcoin partner?
Companies and organizations throughout the seafood industry are signing up almost daily to be rollout partners in the Fishcoin ecosystem. If you would like to know more about joining our community of partners please read through our white paper, and contact our team.
