8 PNA Pacific Island nations and the associated Tokelau territory, with 25% of the world’s tuna caught in their waters, announced at the SeaWeb Sustainable Seafood Summit in Barcelona that they will launch a blockchain initiative covering all its MSC certified sustainably caught tuna by the end of July 2018. The tuna products will be recognizable by the Pacifical logo. This announcement positions the PNA’s market development company Pacifical as pioneer of the first large scale blockchain initiative within the 42 billion dollar tuna industry.
Maurice Brownjohn, Commercial Manager of the PNA Office, announced that Pacifical will launch the platform in cooperation with Atato, a Thailand-based blockchain service provider. Powered by Ethereum’s blockchain smart contracts and IPFS decentralized storage, integrating with Pacifical’s traceability solutions.
The system will cover the entire supply chain and chain of custody of about 35 million tuna fish caught annually in an area with a surface 40% bigger than Europe. More than 200 million consumer units of Pacifical tuna per year in over 23 countries can soon be traced and verified through the Ethereum blockchain. Environmental groups, retailers, consumers, and certifications bodies all over the world will be able to verify live on Ethereum’s public blockchain exactly how their sustainable Pacifical tuna was caught, by which captain, vessel, area and period, as well as where and when it was processed.
This new innovative blockchain integration powered by Atato blockchain services will cover over 100 large fishing vessels, and will provide an unprecedented level of transparency and traceability, to build the highest level of trust on the sustainability of the catch. All products carrying the Pacifical and MSC logo, will be able to be traced on the blockchain through their unique tracking code. The information will be collected from linking all information sources within the global tuna supply chain from the fishing boat through the production process up to the final point of sale.