VeChain Becomes The Sole Public Blockchain Protocol Of The APAC Provenance Council — A Cross-continental Food Supply Chain & Finance Consortium
May 6, 2020, Shanghai China — With the aim of building a high-efficiency cross-continental finance ecosystem in food industry, the APAC Provenance Council, strongly supported by government, export and industry bodies, standards agencies, large packaging and labelling service providers, and foremost finance giants and blockchain technology providers in the world, is established to integrate blockchain technology into the food supply chain finance in Australia-China trades. Currently, the core founding members include Fresh Supply Co, Source Certain International, and Laava, joined by affiliate members VeChain, FoodAgility CRC (Cooperative Research Centre), DNV GL - Business Assurance, Australian Made, Blockchain Australia and several others.
The New Roadmap To a Post-COVID Food Industry
Recently in February 2020, the Australian Government published The National Blockchain Roadmap, proactively addressing challenges and leveraging opportunities across a range of industries, including the efforts in the Agritech & Food industry, which directly accelerates the establishment of the APAC Provenance Council to be in line with the government’s strategy.
The undergoing impact from COVID-19 further lifts the urgency of pushing forward this initiative. On one hand, the pandemic is posing a direct threat to food & beverage manufacturers and vendors around the globe, escalating the challenges of maximizing profits, conserving healthy cash flow and creating value. Particularly in cross-continental trading, the financial pressures facing suppliers are heavily impacting their cash flows, which calls for immediate invoice finance to quickly unlock unpaid invoices and stimulate business growth. On the other hand, the public awareness of food safety is unprecedentedly high. According to a study of InTarget Shanghai, Chinese consumers have become more health and safety-conscious during the epidemic and this will continue to be reflected in future, putting food safety as top consideration when dining out or order food delivery.
Blockchain-enabled APAC Provenance Council To Stimulate The Market
By combining resources from all current and future members, the APAC Provenance Council aims to provide comprehensive forensically verifiable, securely marked, and blockchain-enabled supply chain finance ecosystem in the food industry, bridging traceable, safe and trusted trades with shorter billing terms between Australian suppliers, especially the SMEs and Chinese importers.
David Inderias, FSC CEO and APAC Provenance Council Executive Chairman says, “Many solution providers have offered ‘track and trace’ services, but haven’t addressed industry needs in a comprehensive way through their offering. In many cases this makes it too hard to select, and then to implement a project — not to mention that integrated financing and payments are deficient in most approaches. In a post-COVID world when many commercial entities are in decline, we are growing by making sure we are delivering economic value, meeting industry needs, as well as including funding sources for industry.”
Powered by AliPay in Australia, all the B2B payments for China-destined trades from Australian food suppliers will receive milestone-based payments of the total fiat payment upfront upon meeting the first milestone of their delivery terms.
For food suppliers in Australia, the implementation of VeChain ToolChain™ entitles them the advantage of receiving faster payments. When exporting food products traced by VeChain ToolChain™, the entire process of product delivery will be recorded by the blockchain, including the dispatch, vehicle information, logistics updates, license of carrier, and the temperature during the process and so forth. Acting as the natural trust machine in multiparty collaboration across the continents, VeChain’s blockchain technology provides immutable and authentic records, which not only ensures the secured process of logistics transfer, bringing transparency and trust into the cross-continental trade, but also helps shorten the billing period for suppliers.
VeChain To Be The Sole Public Blockchain Protocol In The Consortium
As the sole public blockchain protocol in the consortium, VeChain is dedicated to enabling its partners and clients to implement blockchain technology in various industries to solve the trust problems that will usually emerge as a result of multiparty collaborations. VeChain’s blockchain technology ensures that the food supply chain will be efficient, safe, and secure. The proven cases of integrating VeChain ToolChain™ within existing food supply chains, such as the first cross-continental logistics and trades solution for the French-China food & beverage industry, FoodGates, pave the way for this partnership for fast and easy deployment of VeChain’s technology, making the supply chain finance more effective at an all-new level.
Sunny Lu, CEO and co-founder at VeChain, stressed that, “Guided by the mission of powering the real economy, VeChain positions itself to be an Enabler to empower our partners with blockchain technology to build up business applications for a variety of sectors. The implementation of blockchain technology certainly contributes to buffering the immediate economic impacts of the pandemic for the enterprises, and will help improve productivity by unleashing more resources and growth opportunities.”
The Australian Department of Agriculture predicts China will account for 43% of global growth in demand for agricultural products by 2050. Since the Australian products have an enviable reputation for being clean, safe and high-quality, Australian exporters can strongly take advantage of China’s growing demand for quality produce and its need for food security. Australia’s share in the value of exports to China reached a record 38% or $117 billion in 2019, and it will continue to grow. The food sector is undoubtedly unleashing tremendous potential for the development of the council. With the market evolving, the demand for business-ready standard tools will also see a dramatic growth, which positions VeChain ToolChain™ to seize the opportunity to support more enterprises to create more value.
About APAC Provenance Council
The Asia Pacific Provenance Council is an Industry alliance which helps exporters digitally enable and scientifically prove the provenance, traceability and authenticity of their products, and tell the stories behind their brands.The council will soon be taking Expressions of Interest for multiple food production verticals in Food Agility backed pilots; corporates and Industry Bodies are urged to contact info@apacprovenance.org
About VeChain
Launched in 2015, VeChain connects blockchain technology to the real world by providing a comprehensive governance structure, a robust economic model, and IoT integration. VeChain is the pioneer of real-world applications using public blockchain technology, with international operations in Singapore, Luxembourg, Tokyo, Shanghai, Paris, Hong Kong, and San Francisco. Together with our strategic partners PwC and DNV GL, we have established cooperative relations with many leading enterprises in different industries, including Walmart China, BMW, BYD Auto, Haier, H&M, LVMH, D.I.G, ENN, AWS, PICC, ASI etc. For more information about VeChain, please visit our official website www.vechain.com.
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