Image from Eating well
It is reported that some Ugandan companies begun to use blockchain technology to manage coffee transportation in an attempt to meet the growing needs of consumers and monitor product status.
The move could help to boost farmers' incomes, as consumers are usually prepared to pay more for goods that can been traced back to their origins.
Blockchain works by providing a shared record of data held by a network of individual computers rather than a single party. Its supporters say this makes it hard to tamper with, and so a secure way to track goods along the supply chain.
Uganda is Africa's largest coffee exporter followed by Ethiopia, according to the International Coffee Organisation, and has some of the world’s highest quality beans. It predominantly cultivates the robusta variety, but also has extensive fields of arabica trees.Limited domestic processing capacity means the country exports nearly all of its beans in raw form.
Uganda is keen to increase coffee exports from the current level of around 4 million 60-kilogramme bags per year.
The blockchain certification means consumers can trace the coffee's journey by using their smartphones to scan the product's QR codes or via the certification site.