A Smart Contract for Coffee Supply Chain

Abstract

Coffee is a highly popular and widely traded beverage across the globe. Its consumption is steadily increasing at an annual rate above 2%, as per the 'Coffee development report 2019' by ICO. It has been observed that the coffee market has grown significantly by over 60% since the year 1990. In India, there are around 250,000 coffee growers, out of which 98% are small growers with farms of 10 acres or fewer. Due to limited access to official financial support, middlemen play a crucial role in providing credit, technical support, and trading services to smallholder coffee growers. However, there are risks associated with adulteration, poor storage, and transportation facilities. Moreover, climate changes have also adversely affected coffee production. Conventionally, coffee trade is conducted through middlemen via phone calls and paper documentation, which leaves room for potential fraud and data manipulation. The objective is to resolve these challenges and ensure full transparency in trading through the utilization of advanced technologies. We suggest employing a smart contract for the coffee supply chain by incorporating Blockchain and IoT devices. Blockchain is a tamper-proof digital ledger distributed across the network, containing immutable digital records. This will guarantee complete transparency of data and avoid any manipulation. Throughout this project, we gained expertise in various aspects of the supply chain and acquired technical knowledge of IoT devices and Blockchain. We designed a proposal that could be utilized for industrial purposes and promote societal development. Additionally, this smart contract can be utilized for other products besides coffee, thereby enhancing the complete supply chain of different agri-products throughout the nation.