Walmart China To Employ Vechain’s Thor Blockchain To Track Food Product Supply Chain

A press release issued by VeChain claims that Walmart China will track food product supply chain using VeChain’s Thor blockchain. According to the news release, collaboration between Walmart China, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), VeChain, the China Chain-store & Franchise Association and Cattle Company Inner Mongolia Kerchin has resulted in the formation of Walmart China Blockchain Traceability Platform (WCBTP) for the aforementioned purpose.

WCBTP was unveiled at the 2019 China Products Safety Publicity Week Traceability System Construction Seminar organized together by CCFA and Walmart China in Beijing.

Walmart China has listed 23 products whose supply chain will be tracked, with plans to add another 100 products that cover over one hundred product categories.

The press release asserts that Walmart anticipates tracked sales will be considerable in volume:

“It is expected that the Walmart China’s traceability system will see traceable fresh meat account for 50% of the total sales of packaged fresh meat, traceable vegetables will account for 40% of the total sales of packaged vegetables, traceable seafood will account for 12.5% of the total sales of seafood by the end of 2020.”

VeChain is one among the 197 blockchain service providers recognized by China’s cyberspace administration in April. Walmart is already engaged in several projects related to distributed ledger technology.

In October 2016, the company partnered with IBM to build a blockchain based system to identify and flag food products that were recalled. Furthermore, the company is involved in several DLT related trials and patent registrations, for instance delivery drones, meat tracking in China, and patenting smart deliveries in the US.