Starbucks will use blockchain technology for traceability of coffee beans

Recently, Starbucks, the largest coffee company in the world, announced that it will carry out a pilot program for the traceability of coffee beans using blockchain technology.

In this test program, called "From the grain to the cup", coffee producers from different latitudes will participate: Colombia, Costa Rica and Rwanda. The objective is to achieve greater transparency in the route of coffee beans from their origin to their final destination, so that small coffee producers are the most benefited from the project and can achieve their financial independence.

To achieve this, they will take advantage of the benefits of distributed accounting technology: they will record and share information in real time. Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson said that during the next two years they will try to demonstrate how technological innovations such as blockchain can decentralize financial power.

Johnson added that "We will take advantage of an open source approach to share what we learn with the rest of the world." One of the organizations pending the results of this pilot program is Conservation International, with whom they have been collaborating to make coffee the first agricultural product of sustainable origin in the world.

Conservation International will measure the impact of traceability to understand the benefits that farmers will receive from this technology. True to its open source philosophy, Starbucks plans to share this system and what it learns openly.

Representatives linked to the agricultural sector of each country that will be involved in the pilot program highlighted the common values ​​and the shared vision they have with Starbucks in terms of transparency in traceability, in coffee sustainability and in the strengthening of this sector, and They highlighted the financial impact it will have on small producers and the preservation of identity.

One of them was Ronald Peters, executive director of the Costa Rican Coffee Institute (ICAFE), who also highlighted the advantages of using technologies in supply chains:

Many years ago, our controls and transactions were made by paper, and today we are even talking about blockchain technology. This shows us that, rather than being at the forefront of every technological advance, having information and being flexible and adaptable is important.

Ronald Peters
Executive Director, Costa Rican Coffee Institute (ICAFE)

As Arthur Karuletwael, director of traceability at Starbucks, explained, we are in the digital age and there are farmers who, despite not having many possessions, have a mobile phone, so traceability through technological tools would facilitate connections between producers and consumers of coffee and would give greater financial independence to the former.

Karuletwa also explained Starbucks' commitment to the transparent and ethical origin of coffee not from now but from years ago. In fact, he explained that the company has known the names of the coffee producers that supply them with the raw material. With the use of new technologies, connectivity with them will be even more favored.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has been praising blockchain technology for months. The most recent announcement was that he was considering the development of a mobile payment application for the company on a DLT platform.