New Blockchain-Based System Will Track Steers From Hoof to Plate

Peruvian shoppers are weeks away blockchain answering the age-old question first posed in 1984: "Where's the beef?".

A pilot project by Wong Supermarket, a Peruvian chain owned by Chile's major retail conglomerate Cencosud, will allow suppliers and consumers to scan and check the provenance of various meat products.

A partnership between Cencosud and Citizens Reserve subsidiary SUKU, the Silicon Valley-based supply chain company whose founders hail from the Deloitte Blockchain Lab.

At launch, the consumer-facing app will feature enterprise-level blockchain backend using J.P. Morgan's permissioned blockchain platform, Quorum.

Unlike the kosher certification you can actually dive into the Wong meat's supply blockchain history and see a record validating each part of the meat's history.

SUKU CEO Yonathan Lapchik told CoinDesk that this blockchain use case has enormous potential in terms of applications for the wider global consumer goods market.

Even the animals' health and welfare are tracked, stored and then reviewable on the blockchain, Lapchik said.

Now, with the new app and transparent supply chain, Cencosud Peru's manager of perishables Enrique Ameghino sees this as another way to build trust.

"SUKU and blockchain technology are helping us further develop our relationship with our customers," Ameghino said in a statement.

"We are seeing this transition from systems based on trust to systems based on transparency. That's what Satoshi gave us: That opportunity to bring transparency through technology," said Lapchik.