Fonterra, NZ Post in Alibaba food plan

Online retail behemoth Alibaba says it will engage PwC consultancy firms in New Zealand, Australia and China to help build a food safety framework using blockchain technology.

Blockchain technologies were originally developed to publicly and irrefutably track the transfer of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

The aim is to use the technology to authenticate, verify, permanently record and provide ongoing reporting in relation to the transfer of ownership and providence of goods, and it is now finding much wider application in many industries.

The plan was laid out in a memorandum of understanding signed yesterday by Alibaba, Fonterra and NZ Post in Auckland.

Alibaba said the aim of the partnership was to develop a framework to lead food quality and safety standards and provide the basis for improvement in food trust practices and integrity.

“It is envisaged that this framework will be piloted in Australia and New Zealand and form the basis of a global supply chain model that will be applied across all of Alibaba Group’s markets,” Alibaba said.

Alibaba has proposed establishing a Food Trust Framework to mitigate counterfeit food and provide a safe and trusted marketplace.

Fonterra and NZ Post will be involved by providing in-market testing across their supply chains, according to the memorandum.

Alibaba’s managing director for Australia and New Zealand Maggie Zhou said: “We see the New Zealand and Australian markets setting the tone for the rest of the world when it comes to integrity, safety and quality of food supply chains.”

Fonterra’s chief operating officer Global Consumer and Foodservice, Jacqueline Chow, said the partnership would give Chinese consumers confidence in the products they were buying.

“Connecting our co-operative with consumers and being able to reassure them about the quality and safety of our products is fundamental to being the most trusted source of dairy nutrition,” she said.

Alibaba was founded by Chinese business magnate Jack Ma.

The Chinese e-commerce giant is the largest online and mobile commerce company in the world in terms of gross merchandise volume.