Interoperable Traceability in Supply Chains: A Use Case in Agritech

In the agri-food sector, traceability is essential to ensure the quality, safety, and transparency of supply chains, where transportation companies are key stakeholders in the overall movement of goods. The multitude of actors involved in supply chains makes it challenging to achieve the above mentioned objectives: each company usually uses its own information system, which is mainly aimed at tracking all relevant information of the single company and is rarely able to interact with other information systems. In addition, when multiple information systems need to exchange data, it is essential to have full control over what data is exchanged and who has access to it. In this work, we introduce the concept of interoperable traceability. We have developed an innovative model that enables the seamless integration of data from IoT devices, data management software, and distributed ledgers into a newly designed “data space”. We provide an implementation of this concept that maps to a practical use case and provides a demonstrator that facilitates the secure transfer of traceability data between existing systems. This gives stakeholders a whole new way to manage and review data with greater transparency and efficiency.