Oracle, World Bee Project collaborate to track origin of honey using blockchain

Oracle, an American multinational computer technology corporation, and the World Bee Project have partnered to use blockchain technology to track the origin of honey.

According to Oracle’s exposition demo at the London Blockchain Summit 2019, entitled “The Connected Hive and The Future of Farming,” the company aims to help the World Bee Project establish an eco-label and “BeeMark” to ensure that honey and other pollinated produce are obtained from ecologically sustainable sources.

A report by the Blokt underscored that over 75% of honey sold in stores is “fake” and mixed with additives such as refined sugar, corn syrup, and salt. This causes not only a problem for consumers but also an economic burden for responsible beekeepers.

Both parties plan to use blockchain technology to capture, store, and share any information across the supply chain by providing an immutable ledger of all data and transactions that could validate the exact origin of honey products at the point of sale.

With the help of scientists from the University of Reading, a verification process was developed that includes obtaining and storing a pollen ‘signature’ from the hive’s surrounding plants on the blockchain. Honey will not be certified as a single source or unadulterated if other pollen signatures are found in the product.

In addition, the implementation of blockchain technology verifies the origin of honey at the point of sale, thus allowing beekeepers to sell their products at a higher price, allocate more time and resources on hives, and to incentivize to take care of their bees better. Consumers, on the other hand, are also assured that the honey products they are buying are pure.

Oracle and the World Bee Project will also use the cloud and internet of things (IoT) technology to gain more understanding of the health and behavior of bees and determine the serious threats they are facing. The “smart hives” project will be conducted in 60 locations.

Just recently, Nestlé has also teamed up with blockchain-based network OpenSC to establish a distributed ledger system that will trace milk from farms and producers in New Zealand to its factories and warehouses in the Middle East.