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Nyala Blue - Transparency by tracing stories
Tracing coffee through the supply chain
Getting up and having a cup of coffee seems the most normal thing in the world. But before coffee ends up in our cup, it has already travelled an entire journey, from primary raw material to ground coffee in the packaging. Many consumers, but also companies, have little insight into this entire chain.
With Nyala Blue, we want to use blockchain technology to create a technological platform that makes it possible to follow, measure, validate and valorise a product and its impact throughout the supply chain.
Thanks to that platform, companies will be able to follow in near-real time the ecological impact of the production, distribution and sale of their products: CO2, nitrogen, water consumption... This information can be used in the B2B market, but also communicated to consumers. It offers the possibility to effectively translate the sustainable policy of a company into sustainable purchases, without guesswork.
On the other hand, for consumers, this technology could mean that with just a click on their smartphone, via the QR code on the coffee packaging, they will soon have a clear view of the entire chain that their coffee has gone through, who made their coffee and how much they earned in the process.
Nyala Coffee
Partners Howest, Ray & Jules
Sectors
Website
MOST IMPORTANT
RESULTS
- Currently, we want to apply our technology to the coffee chain. In this sector, we already have interest from several target groups: a fast-growing coffee roasting company, a cooperative of 1,500 coffee farmers from Guatemala, coffee bars, a biorefinery, etc.
- The platform is programmed agnostic, which means that in time the technology can be applied to other products within other sectors. Our technology will eventually be scaled up globally and sector-independently.
- We have already tested our business idea on a small scale. The learning lessons from this test will be of enormous value for the future of our project.
- Blockchain technology will raise the bar in terms of reliability and transparency. Consumer expectations will increase. Consumers will be able to know with certainty whether the food they buy is locally grown, processed and recycled.
MOST IMPORTANT
LESSONS LEARNED
- Good partnerships are an essential foundation. We had a difficult start because two partners dropped out of the project because of Corona. That delayed us by several months.
- This process gave us the opportunity to define our concept much more clearly. The biggest difficulty as a start-up is that in addition to our business idea, we also put time into many other unknown variables. Established companies have more staff and time available to work out ideas.
- Everything always takes more time, and therefore more money, than expected. Our project was much bigger than initially thought and we significantly underestimated the workload of the various work packages.
WHAT DOES
THE FUTURE HOLD?
This project is sure to last, even after the subsidy process. At the moment, a lot of new collaborations are planned and we have reached our first customer. Discussions are also underway with new investors.
