Frigol already tracks all cattle from direct suppliers with blockchain

Carlos Correa, director of Frigol. Photo: Frigol.

O Frigol, one of the largest slaughterhouses in the country, completed the first stage of its blockchain cattle origin control program. Thus, all cattle that come from direct suppliers, that is, those who deliver the animals to the company for slaughter, have their data tracked and registered with the technology. The project started at the company’s plants in 2019 and will expand to indirect suppliers.

Traceability with blockchain of indirect suppliers, therefore, those who supply cattle to direct suppliers, “is already in the implementation phase. Completion is scheduled for the next few years,” the company told Blocknews.

The slaughterhouse slaughtered 492,000 heads of cattle in 2020. The cattle come practically entirely from third parties, he informed the Blocknews Carlos Eduardo Simões Correa, Frigol’s administrative director and CFO. The company has plants in Lençóis Paulistas (SP) and in São Félix do Xingu and Água Azul do Norte, both in Pará.

“There is a small share of its own cattle or partnerships in properties managed by Frigol”, he added. The company did not inform the proportions of its own cattle and those originating from direct and indirect suppliers.

Frigol records data in blockchain and inserts into QR Code packaging

The data that goes to a Hyperledger network are, for example, the Animal Transport Guide (GTA) and the invoice. Both documents are evaluated by the Federal Inspection Service (SIF).

Not afterdeboning generates a QR Code with this information for tracking. This QR Code also contains information on the batch, production unit, location and property that originated the product. In addition to socio-environmental information to show that the product was not produced in an area of ​​deforestation or overlapping with indigenous lands. And that there were no other problems such as, for example, slave labor and Ibama embargoes.

Correa also stated that all properties qualified to sell to Frigol are monitored by the SMgeo software. Thus, there is socio-environmental monitoring and cartographic analysis. These data are shared with the Ecotrace for blockchain logging.

According to the director, blockchain solves an information security problem, “because records are proof of breach. Therefore, they offer transparency and reliability throughout the process”.

Ecotrace provides solution for Frigol and uses solution from GoLedger

Brazilian slaughterhouses started to adopt tracking under pressure from consumers, importers and the Federal Public Ministry (MPF). In 2009, there was a Conduct Adjustment Term (TAC) by the agency with companies to contain deforestation in the Amazon, which identified irregularities even after the TAC. For this reason, the slaughterhouses also work on recording blockchain data from indirect suppliers.

Frigol was the first slaughterhouse to implement a blockchain. According to Correa, this novelty was an obstacle to be overcome. “All the software development and technical adjustments were quite challenging.” However, “Ecotrace adhered very well to the company’s internal implementation team”.

At the Hyperledger that Ecotrace uses, the orchestration platform is GoFabric, from GoLedger. And the smart contract development library is GoLedger CC-Tools. “It was an assertive decision to use Hyperledger. 100 gigs of data a day are entering the platform of all our customers”. This includes, in addition to Frigol, companies such as JBS, Minerva and Renner. Therefore, 40 plants and 12 distribution centers.