KPMG in Australia, China and Japan have launched KPMG Origins, a blockchain-based ‘track and trace’ platform to support industries including agriculture, resources, manufacturing and financial services.

The platform brings together a number of emerging technologies including blockchain, internet of things sensors (IoT), as well as data and analytics tools to provide transparency and traceability to trading partners across complex industries. KPMG Origins allows these trading partners to communicate unique product information across their supply chains, and in particular to end users, while reducing operational complexities.

Organisations trialling the KPMG Origins platform include CANEGROWERS, the peak body for Queensland’s sugarcane growers; SunRice, one of Australia’s largest food exporters; and leading riesling producer, Mitchell Wines.

Ken Reid, ASPAC Head of Advisory and Partner, KPMG Australia commented: "The supply chains of the 21st century are faster, more interconnected, and require sharing greater amounts of data than ever before. From agriculture to financial services, the complexity of supply chain ecosystems creates operational risks, reconciliation challenges as well as safety concerns. KPMG Origins’ goal is to solve these problems by providing independent third-party verification and certification of data and processes.”

CANEGROWERS is working with KPMG to scope the application of blockchain as a way to demonstrate the sustainability credentials of sugar produced in Queensland and to ultimately drive a return to growers in recognition of their environmental sustainability practices.

CANEGROWERS Senior Manager – Membership Engagement & Innovation, Matt Kealley said: “There is increasing demand on growers to demonstrate their sustainability practices, yet there is no way for them to be recognised or rewarded for their investment. In CANEGROWERS view, if there’s demand for sustainable sugar, surely there’s some value there. A blockchain solution, such as KPMG Origins, could provide a platform which will enable end-users to capture the sustainability credentials of the product directly from the grower to customer. By working together as an industry to explore cutting-edge tech such as blockchain, we are exploring ways to get value back to growers and the Queensland sugar industry.”

KPMG Origins has been developed to enable global trade, and provide a competitive edge for Australian industries to demonstrate the provenance of their product internationally. The roll-out of the platform follows pilot implementations with clients across Australia, China and Japan.

Laszlo Peter, KPMG Head of Blockchain Services for Asia Pacific said: "KPMG Origins is the result of several successful initial trials with clients to understand industry pain and trust points, map incentive structures, and create a platform to add real value. To move beyond the hype, it is necessary to introduce complex technology across a diverse set of corporate stakeholders. The platform is based upon in-depth work across highly specialised areas, as well as collaboration across multiple jurisdictions to deliver a multi-lingual, standards and taxonomy driven platform that accelerates the development of distributed ecosystems."

KPMG Origins is being rolled out across Asia Pacific as part of the regional firms’ broader investment in blockchain capability ranging from consulting advice to technology delivery, build and service operation.

Specialists from KPMG in Malta attended the KPMG Origins launch and received training on KPMG Origins, with a view to bringing the platform to the local market and enhance its existing service offerings in the IT Consultancy and Emerging Technologies sector.

Marco Vassallo, Partner and Emerging Technology Solutions Leader at KPMG Malta shared that “while our traditional service offerings focus on assisting entities in improving their operations and efficiencies, this platform complements them by allowing us to improve the manner by which clients interact with their business partners, regulatory bodies and other entities in a reliable, transparent and trustworthy manner. We look forward to being able to roll out origins within the local market in 2020”.

Juanita Brockdorff, Partner and Emerging Technology Industry Leader KPMG Malta explained: “With a tried and tested, blockchain-based Track and Trace platform, any group of supply chain ecosystems would benefit from adopting KPMG’s Origins; from pharma, agriculture, manufacturing to financial services, with Origins provenance becomes real-time and reliable”.

Matthew Scerri, Associate Director and Emerging Technology Specialist at KPMG Malta stated that: “KPMG Origins showcases KPMG’s global commitment to leveraging Emerging Technologies to bring value to the manner with which our clients do trade and interact with one another. It was great seeing KPMG Origins in the flesh and seeing the many use-cases this technology has on both a local and cross-jurisdictional level. While the technology behind it may be complex, it is all hidden away from the end-users in an intuitive interface, making it easy for businesses to gain advantage of what the tech has to offer”.