SHANGHAI, Dec. 1, 2020 -- Challenges and opportunities posed by the pandemic are reacting in real time to consumers needs in the food sector. For the purpose of facilitating fresh, reliable supply of seafood in the U.S. marketplace, KnowSeafood announced its implementation of Producers Markets powerful transparency application, StoryBird, powered by VeChain ToolChainTM. Through the Storybird application, KnowSeafood customers will be able to trace their sustainably harvested seafood transparently from catch to plate.

The US Seafood Market Undergoing Food Safety Transformation

Americans spend $102 billion each year on seafood. However, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), about 80-90% of U.S. consumers still did not meet their seafood consumption recommendation generally due to the mislabelling of imported seafood products and unfamiliarity with preparation methods. It is further proven by the Food Marketing Institutes first-ever Power of Seafood survey that half of the interviewed U.S. shoppers wanted more information on quality and freshness. The FDA also published guidelines and advice for consumers to acquire safe seafood, advising customers to look for the label containing information on wher the fish was harvested, processed and certifications. This compels producers to improve their transparency.

As the coronavirus pandemic is closing or limiting restaurants in America, the consumers behaviors shifted to their own kitchen, boosting seafood to be the fastest growing supermarket category during the last week of May 2020 and supermarket sales have continued to surge through July 2020, which brings increasing demand on reliably sourced seafood.

To combat seafood fraud and supply chain shakeups, KnowSeafood chooses VeChain ToolChainTM to enhance its strategy of directly connecting farmers with consumers using blockchain technology.

VeChain ToolChainTM Secures and Enables Food Safety

As the worlds leading enterprise-friendly public blockchain platform, VeChain provides the market ready one-stop data BaaS platform VeChain ToolChainTM, which allows blockchain technology to be deployed with the fastest lead time compared with any other platform in the industry.

By using the user friendly templates built into VeChain ToolChainTM, local seafood farmers can easily upload harvesting, processing and shipping information onto the VeChainThor Blockchain, which later integrates with the StoryBird data visibility module to be presented publicly for the end users to validate product origin and trace logistics of delivery. The deployment of blockchain ultimately bridges key knowledge gaps between all stakeholders in the trade.

Starting from Q4 in 2020, multiple seafood categories on the KnowSeafood platform will be traced by VeChain ToolChainTM ,including Norwegian Salmon, North Atlantic Haddock, Peruvian Mahi-Mahi, New England Sea Scallops,  Maine Lobster, and many more global species.

Daniel McQuade, Co-Founder and CEO of KnowSeafood stated, "Our groundbreaking experience working with blockchain has proven to us how powerful a solution it is to traceability and sustainability. The American consumer is demanding the kind of transparency and provenance that blockchain technology delivers. In working with VeChain and the Storybird application, we are bringing our customers the best technology in the market to have immutable trust in seafood from our KnowSeafood online marketplace.

Sunny Lu, the Co-Founder and CEO of VeChain, said, "Statistics have shown that in Q2 2020, $1 of every $5 spent by U.S. consumers came from online orders. Dramatic increases in spending can be found for online grocers, food delivery, meal kits, and more. There will be surging growth in the e-commerce food sector and VeChain will be happy to be part of the emerging new business scenario, starting from the seafood sector."

With the growing demand for authentic and premium food products, there is a great potential for VeChain ToolChain™ to power more Producers Markets partnerships in the future.

about VeChain

As the worlds leading enterprise friendly blockchain company, VeChain began in 2015 and aims to connect blockchain technology to the real world by providing enterprises with blockchain solutions suitable for their business needs and to build a trust-free and distributed business ecosystem platform for business value. With VeChain ToolChain™, a low-code blockchain SaaS platform, VeChain will continue to promote the large-scale application of blockchain technology, help enterprise clients in digitalization transformation, and eventually realize the long-term vision of enabling the real economy.

VeChain is the pioneer of real-world business applications, with international operations in Singapore, Luxembourg, Japan, China, France, Italy and the United States. With strong independent development capabilities, and the professional compliance guidance of our strategic partners, PwC (one of the worlds top four accounting firms) and DNV GL (a leading global assessment and certification society), VeChain has established partnerships with many leading enterprises in various industries, including Walmart China, Bayer China, BMW, BYD Auto, PICC, H&M Group, Shanghai Gas, LVMH, D.I.G etc. 

about KnowSeafood

Founded by seafood industry veterans Paul Neves and Daniel McQuade, KnowSeafood is a startup based in New Bedford, MA, with offices in Raleigh, NC. KnowSeafood is the first direct-to-consumer online seafood market using blockchain technology to ensure transparency and traceability in its supply chain. Its mission is providing U.S. consumers with direct access to the best quality sustainable, natural seafood from a trusted network of global harvesters, while working to protect the environment and ensure the biodiversity of the oceans. Its the first online seafood market to eliminate the middlemen and the risk of fish fraud and mislabeling, giving U.S. consumers a direct connection to sustainable harvesters from around the world and the ability to trace their seafood every step of the way from ocean to front door. From Norwegian salmon and Peruvian shrimp to New Bedford, MAs own wild scallops, KnowSeafood delivers trusted seafood with a proven provenance directly to the discerning home chef.