Kelly Products to launch beef blockchain

Georgia agribusiness enterprise, Kelly Products, has started a blockchain system for tracking proteins in the Southeastern United States. The new blockchain system will address current issues producers face with building a traceable brand for beef and other proteins. The use of blockchain technology aims to provide the beef market with greater visibility, safety and efficiency

Headquartered in Covington, Georgia, Kelly Products provides segments of the chemical and agribusiness industries with essential information and automation solutions. Kelly Products’ business focus on electronic data capture, data tracking and funds collection for greater efficiency.

“We’ve had success creating solutions specifically geared towards the agribusiness market,” said Stuart Edmondson, chief technology officer, Kelly Registration Systems.

“Utilizing blockchain technology for our new tracking system gives producers the opportunity to streamline their protein tracking and make it extremely accessible and transparent.”

Kelly Registration Systems and blockchain

Kelly Registration Systems (KRS) is the software division of Kelly Products. It has previously developed inventory tracking and administrative management solutions for the agribusiness and manufacturing industries. As such it believes it is well placed to apply that knowledge to blockchain solutions.

Participating producers will tag, and track, cattle and livestock via RFID. At predefined intervals there will be data collection. Because the KRS solution ues blockchain, this data will be easily accessible to:

• producers
• producers’ partners
• retailers
• consumers.

Data collected will include information regarding each animal’s:

• breed
• sire
• sex
• vaccinations
• weights
• average daily gains
• antibiotic or growth hormone use
• feed and forages
• farm location
• changes in ownership
• date slaughtered
• date processed
• carcass grading
• and other factors.

KRS, Kelly Products and Farmview Market

Kelly Products is currently testing the KRS blockchain system with Farmview Market. This started in 2015. Once the testing completes it will be available to producers across the Southeast.

As a farmers market, specialty grocer and butcher that works with numerous local and regional protein suppliers, Farmview Market is an ideal testing ground for tracking animals through the supply chain. A a business it can demonstrate the benefit of providing additional transparency to consumers.

“We plan to start the blockchain with our own animals and then expand it to other members of the meat processing and supply chain across the state of Georgia and the Southeast. We believe transparency and food safety are top priorities, not only for our consumers at Farmview Market but for our state’s entire food system,” said Keith Kelly, president and chief executive officer of Kelly Products. “After 25 years in the agribusiness industry, we identified a major need for state food producers to better track and report on protein sources.”

Enterprise Times: what does this mean

This blockchain food solution is not unique (for example see here, here and here). But, in trial for some time, it is a leader in showing how blockchain presents a potential to:

• change how protein is sourced
• increase transparency for the end consumer
• strengthen a producer’s protein brand
• make food sourcing information an expectation (rather than ‘nice to have’).

What is clear is the depth of the information which will gather into the blockchain. In addition, an example like Kelly Products fits the four Enterprise Times criteria for a blockchain project with an increased chance of success:

• a narrow, well-defined business problem
• existing slow, complex and paper-based processes
• many participants
• multiple organisations, all of which need reliability and transparency.