Working with blockchain technology can help trace products throughout the manufacturing process

Human rights violations are happening in many industries, whether in the shoe manufacturing industry or with smartphone manufacturing. I see news items in the media of famous sports shoes makers being accused of child labour as well. As for the jewellery industry, I am not knowledgeable in detail of where the material is extracted from and how it is produced, but what I hope for is that buying from well-known brands and getting certified products would help and give you a little bit of relief that the material was mined properly and no blood diamonds were involved. That is because it is really distressing to know that the jewellery was produced through child labour or involved in other human rights violations. I would never go for such a product and nobody in their right mind would knowingly pay for such products.

There are some technological developments related to blockchain technology, which will make it impossible to get some uncertified products. This is true for the organic food industry, and I know that there are some transactions regarding the diamond trade, which were executed using blockchain technology. That is why it is very important to have full traceability of any product.

I hope that there will be some technological innovations that will make it impossible to purchase such products. There are some certifications from independent authorities, which I presume can help certify the product’s sourcing. They conduct inspections and site visits and observe how the products are being manufactured. After that, I guess jewellery brands can choose to either work with the producer or not but what is important is that when you buy a product, you put its certification in to the system. Then, when somebody asks you whether these goods are ethically mined, you just fetch that certificate from the system and you can identify how it was sourced.

Of course, such a system is more difficult to implement with certain products. Cars, for example, have a serial number which can help trace them from the very beginning of the manufacturing process.

Diamonds or products like chickpeas, without barcodes for example, would be a lot harder to trace. A producer might have a certificate but could still buy and sell blood diamonds, which is why third-party independent authorities must be really aware of the situation and what is going on in the real world. They must be knowledgeable about the trade of producers. I would not buy anything if somebody has shed tears making it — it is unethical and does not bring good karma either.

From Mr Murat Ozturk Group IT Manager for a global food trade company