How do we ensure that coffee, the second largest commodity in the world, is following a sustainable and ethical network?
Through the use of blockchain technology, Bext360 is creating traceability and transparency in the compliance of sustainable and ethical standards.
THE PROBLEM
Depending on your generation, you may remember when you used to buy your food products from your neighbor, or the farm in the next town. Today, we indiscriminately order and purchase our products without bothering to even think about where it may have originated. Convenience has overtaken consciousness. When did we stop being conscious consumers?
Technology, instant online ordering and globalization have changed that. The modern supply chain was created to deliver products to your home quickly and at a low cost, from anywhere in the world. Sustainability, quality, ethical standards and fair pay were not a factor in its creation. Technology did not factor in human accountability along the supply chain.
Coffee, that sweet elixir of the gods, is the perfect example of a complicated supply chain. Each day around 1.6 billion cups of coffee are brewed. It is the second largest traded commodity in the world (a $100 billion market); but, according to the World Bank, most of the world’s coffee is grown by small farmers, many of whom depend on family labour and an unreliable income of less than $2 a day. There is clearly a break down in the supply chain and these farmers are barely receiving a living-wage.
Approximately 125 million people worldwide rely upon coffee to support them, yet this crop does not provide many of those people with a livable wage. Is it possible to reinvent the modern day supply chain process and factor in accountability, fair pay and ethical practices? The good news is that everything that can be improved upon and changed, it only takes one person with a great idea!
A SOLUTION
Meet Bext360, they have created a process that could revolutionize the way current supply chains function. By taking on corporate and social responsibility and deploying in emerging economies worldwide, they are starting at the source of the supply chain where it matters most. The software marks each commodity (like coffee), identifies it and creates an electronic token; it is this one-of-a-kind identifier that allows the tracking of that commodity to happen every step of the way.
How does this work, you ask? Well, Bext360 developed a Coinstar-like kiosk that combines artificial intelligence and the ability to time-stamp the coffee “cherries” (the fruits containing coffee seeds or beans) as they begin their journey from a remote village to any cafe in the world. By creating a “token” for each commodity, the company is also able to instantly pay farmers for the goods, based on weight and quality. This greatly reduces the dependence of farmers, who usually count on the middlemen to assess the coffee and provide a fair price.
By providing accountability in integral supply chains, Bext360 is creating traceability and transparency in the compliance of sustainable and ethical standards. Currently, their main focus is on coffee, but they also work on creating verifiable fingerprints for seafood, timber, minerals, cotton and palm oil. As populations expand and the supply chains become more and more entangled, this process will certainly help ensure that each product we consume is traceable, not exploitative and 100% transparent. Which is something all of us should look for as we step up to the register and say, “A cup of coffee, please?”
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