The usage of blockchain in agri-food value chains: State of the art in Spain and an analysis from public perspective

On November 2021, the European Parliament ratified the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform that will be applied from 2023. Among other issues, the (re)structuring of the sector will be promoted throughout a strengthening of the position of producer organizations in the value chain. If met, the objectives of the CAP will imply a change in the production model simultaneously requiring a sustainable environment while increasing efficiency for the farms and their associated companies to remain profitable. In Spain, in 2019 the adoption of new technologies for the digitization of this productive sector was already presented as part of the solution targeting the structural problems of Spanish agri-food companies: lack of competitiveness and innovation, lack of automation, as well as to alleviate regional disparities. Since then, the situation has been aggravated by the low rate of investment (both public and private) dedicated to research and development, as well as the scarcity and inadequacy of technological capabilities, especially by agri-food SMEs. At the same time, within this lackluster scenario, some of the technologies key to the Spanish agri-food sector, such as those related with blockchain and used for food control and traceability have experienced a significant progress. In fact, the usage of blockchain within the supply chain management is almost doubling year-on-year. Within this context, this paper investigates which is the level of development of blockchain technology in the agri-food sector in Spain and how it is supported from public policies using a methodology that blends interviews with key representatives of the value chain with an examination of available, mostly grey, literature. From the analysis, the paper concludes that blockchain deployment has entered a stage of early maturity in supply chain tracking. However, its adoption in traceability in this same value chain displays considerable challenges with a relatively high number of pilot and test projects being deployed in the last years, but still lacking a sound analysis of the results achieved. Among the challenges, the paper highlights the appropriateness of data registered in blockchain and the selection and set up of scalable -mostly de facto- standards. Automation of data capture and combination of blockchain with other technologies such as RFID and AI also required further developments. From the public perspective, beyond economic incentives, the reusage and integration of the same data used in blockchain into the European public registries for agri-food control could be a significant contribution to set up scalable "de facto" standards and, from here, contribute to the adoption of this technology.