Emerging opportunities for Australian sugar using blockchain technology

CANEGROWERS is investigating how to use blockchain technology designed for the Queensland sugar industry to show traceability of sugarcane accredited by the Smartcane BMP program. The intent is to support market access, identify opportunities for value creation in the supply chain and deliver value back to sugarcane growers. CANEGROWERS worked with KPMG Australia to test the capabilities of the KPMG Origins blockchain platform in real time using grower and miller data. The work followed the journey of sustainable sugar in both the Tully region for the export market and the Mackay region for the domestic market. The pilot involved collaboration among 10 organisations and captured, permissioned and shared data between participants that included growers, CANEGROWERS, mills, marketers and a bank. Four Smartcane BMP accredited farms, who sell to the participating mills and marketers, were involved. The pilot sourced data from Smartcane BMP certification, soil tests and mill data including rake information. The data was uploaded to the traceability platform, across nine different events, from the point of harvest through to the marketer receiving ownership of raw sugar. Smartcane BMP certificates and traceability information were aggregated, permissioned and shared via the KPMG Origins platform. The pilot successfully traced 27,412 t of sugarcane delivered to the mill in 231 rakes and proved the traceability, data standardisation and permissioning capability of the KPMG Origins platform. The pilot also enabled the bank to validate their ability to integrate with KPMG Origins and pilot data to scope options for sustainable financing products and future carbon markets that it could then offer to growers. Opportunities for value creation in sustainable financing, carbon and ESG were evaluated and are starting to show promise.