Blockchain for Colombian Organic Coffee Traceability on Hyperledger

This paper examines the process of implementing a Blockchain on a supply chain study case using Hyperledger. The objective of this research is to understand how to implement Blockchain technology into a business process like the supply chain. This document explains from the study case of Colombian organic coffee to develop a proof-of-concept of the technology and how establish its feasibility, isolate technical issues, and provide feedback. With the recent interest of adopting Blockchain to leverage business process capabilities, the results of this implementation show it is possible to trace product origin using Blockchain, as well they also reveal challenges that need to be addressed. This paper analyses the process used in the coffee production supply chain, the technological architecture proposed to support this scope, and a proposal to store the data into the Blockchain.

Effects of Application of Quality Assurances Certification at Farm Level on the Probability to Implement Traceability for Agricultural Products towards Global Markets: Evidences from Farmed-Shrimp in Mekong Delta, Vietnam

This study investigates the impact of the application of quality assurance certification on the origin traceability of shrimp exports in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta region. The primary data was investigated in 2018, which covered the whole supply chain of shrimp production such as farmers, collectors, distributors, processing factories. Descriptive statistics are utilized to analyze and compare the differences in the supply chain and product origin traceability between certified and non-certified shrimps. The willingness of farmers to embrace product origin traceability of certified and non-certified shrimps is also analyzed. The results show that certified farmers indicate a higher possibility of traceability due to proper monitoring and management essential to traceability. The application of international quality assurance certification of shrimp farmers increases awareness and willingness to implement origin traceability. The result proves the effectiveness of the collaboration between the farmers and processing factories in the implementation of traceability in the entire supply chain.

How important are product attributes for U.S. lamb imports?

The U.S. lamb industry has changed in the last decade, impacting the structure of imports, which have become necessary to meet domestic demand. Product differentiation plays an important role in determining lamb imports. This research examines the importance of source (country or origin) and product attributes such as boneless versus bone-in cuts and chilled versus frozen products in determining U.S. demand for imported lamb. Overall, boneless and bone-in products show evidence of separability, which is an indication that preferences are independent based on these characteristics. For other product attributes, preferences were not independent, implying their aggregation in trade analyses may be justified. For agribusiness importers and wholesalers, our results and a better understanding of the importance of product origin, quality and form are useful to inform pricing and product substitution strategies.

Consumer behavior: conditioners on the purchase decision of fluid milk

ABSTRACT: Considering economic, contingent and cultural conditions that interfere with consumer demand, the objective of this research was to evaluate the degree of importance of these variables in the decision of the Brazilian consumer to buy fluid milk. A total 1,015 milk consumers were sampled through non-probabilistic tools such as researchers’ contact network, snowballing, and self-generated samples, in a virtual questionnaire. Non-parametric tests and univariate statistical analyzes were applied, including the chi-square test. The consumer profile interferes with the selection criteria in the purchase of fluid milk as follows: (a) women consider “price”, “product origin”, “friend recommendation”, “product appearance”, “sales offers”, and “brand” as the most important conditioners; (b) young people, aged between 18 and 25, consider “product origin” a less important attribute; (c) consumers over 45 years of age value “price” the less; (d) consumers with incomes of up to one minimum wage value “sales offers” the most. This research theoretically confirmed the hypothesis that prior information regarding milk production, especially brands, lead the decision to buy fluid milk, especially in women case. Product price and availability are complementary constraints.