Exploring the use of blockchain technology to enhance transparency in Namibia's global beef supply chain

Abstract

Namibia is the only African country eligible to export beef to international markets such as Norway, the European Union, the United States of America and recently China. Namibia, being a sparsely populated country, merely consumes 20% of Namibian produced meat, while exporting 80% thereof – hence being a net exporter. It is therefore deemed critical for Namibia to maintain an international marketing status for the continuous export of beef. The cease of exportation, or decline in international market share, will not only decrease Namibia’s agriculture contribution of 8,15% to Namibia’s gross domestic product, but will have destructive effects on all the supply chain participants in Namibia which include the livelihoods of farmers, their labourers and corporate organisations. As discussed in this study’s literature review, consumers deem and prefer increased transparency and traceability in beef supply chains for health and safety reasons, but also for the verification of fair-trade principles. Therefore, Namibia needs to maintain and increase these elements in its beef supply chain in order to maintain and possibly increase the Namibian market share in international markets. The stakeholder theory was used to determine that the addition of value to each stakeholder in the Namibian beef supply chain will add value to the Namibian beef supply chain as a whole. This study’s primary objective was to explore the use of blockchain in the Namibian beef export industry’s supply chain to increase elements of transparency and traceability. Blockchain was in-depth addressed in the literature review, where criteria for the implementation thereof was discussed and applied later in the empirical study. A PEST-analysis was used as a strategic tool to analyse the external environment in which the Namibian beef supply chain operates. This analysis constitutes political-, economic-, social- and technological environmental factors. Secondly, this study used a SWOT analysis to investigate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the Namibian beef industry. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight participants of the Namibian beef supply chain. These participants provided a fair representation of the Namibian beef supply chain, as it included farmers, abattoir representatives, corporate representatives and board representatives. It was evident from the study that, by exploring the use of blockchain in Namibia’s beef supply chain, value could be added to different stakeholders in the Namibian beef supply chain by increasing information transparency in the supply chain, and by creating product traceability for the consumer. The study uses and applies different use-cases to illustrate the effects of blockchain on the Namibian beef industry.