Key facts:
Logging, transport and distribution of wood in Spain looks for solutions on blockchain. The project is funded by the European Union and the Ministry of Agriculture Spanish. The forest industry of Spain will begin to test the implementation of blockchain in the supply chain together to Chainwood, a company specializing financed by resources of the European Regional Development Fund (Eafrd) of the European Union and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of the Government of Spain. This company is planning to implement blockchain in the production, processing and distribution of forest resources in Spain, addressing the needs of a heavy industry with many logistical challenges. Chainwood specializes in the logistics and traceability of wood resources, establishing partnerships with local organizations in the implementation of blockchain to optimize the operations of this industry. Jesus Martinez, the Coordinator of the Group’s Operating Chainwood, explained to Breaking News the project. ChainWood incorporates a network blockchain to the management of the data from all the supply chains of the wood (solid wood, decay, pulp and biomass), allowing to transmit valuable information in real time, smoothly and efficiently, he says. The idea is to ensure that transactions between members of the supply chain of the wood, to transmit reliable real-time information accessible for all participants of the network, in addition to automating some of the operations. “The timber industry has been affected traditionally by problems such as lack of trust among the different actors, lack of knowledge is in real-time the location, condition and quantity of the raw materials or the lack of transparency in terms of the quality parameters of the product”, he argues. Martinez says that the technology to be used has already been fully developed, while applications web and mobile that will be used by the participants are in a trial phase. Thus anticipates that soon, once the contingency for the epidemic of Covid-19 in Spain, will test the pilot in the field in real world circumstances with companies established in the regions of Galicia, Castilla y León and Asturias, in the varieties of pine, eucalyptus and poplar. It also makes it clear that the goal of the project is not to issue a criptomoneda or a tab for the exclusive use of the timber industry, as well as nor will be issued property titles of lots wood on behalf of the participants of the project; it simply limited to the implementation of blockchain in the supply chain. The project blockchain is limited only to the implementation of blockchain in the supply chain. Source: Albrecht Fietz/pixabay.com “ChainWood not issue titles of ownership. Will only allow to validate what has been the flow of the wood in a supply chain, leaving a record of a series of transactions that occurred over the same, at the same time allow authorized users to have access to a whole set of data to help them in the management of its operations and processes.” Jesus Martinez, the Coordinator of the Operational Group, Chainwood Implement the blockchain, “offers producers of wood guarantees of information about volume and status of your product; to the logistics companies will also allow you to optimize your fleet and provide services more efficiently; and, for the processing industry, allows access to a huge source of data about the raw material that will help them optimize and streamline operations,” he clarified. To this adds that the future governance model of the application will have the control authorities and forest certification, as well as public entities, to a competent will be able to see reduced costs of audit, favoring their current monitoring processes. The resulting application of the project ChainWood is designed in such a way that it can be aligned with the requirements of this policy, favouring the use of the solution on the part of the competent entities in spain. In this way, ChainWood the ambition to become a technological solution to the sectoral-level Spanish. In this order of ideas, he says that the tool has utility in controlling the compliance of the regulations of the European Union for the wood, which controls the legality of wood and its derived products. With regard to the implementation of this model of registration of data via the blockchain in other countries, Martinez clarifies that, Chainwood is being designed exclusively for the wood sector in Spain, however, recognizes that the concept may have application in any country given the similarities between the supply chains of wood, looking at some modifications, as the case may be. “Ideally, a global solution for the world market of the wood would be the most ideal,” he explains. The main benefits will be a savings of time and money (the disappearance of the inefficiencies in the system, the documentation in paper and certain manual processes); increased confidence and transparency amongst suppliers, customers and consumers and, finally, traceability of point-to-point of the value chain for all participants. In his opinion, the implementation of technological tools such as blockchain, it will have an impact important in the digital transformation of traditional economic sectors, although some appear to caution against this fact. Experts agree that supply chains can be optimized through the implementation of records blockchain, so that multiple companies and entities are already conducting pilot tests on this concept of innovation. Chainwood is a project launched in the mid of 2019. Emergya, is the parent company and manages various technology projects and that it was recently selected by the Seville Port Authority to develop an implementation of the blockchain applied to the supply chain of agri-food products, which are not yet known details thus currently being planned.