Digital Transformation and Transparency in Wine Supply Chain Using OCR and DLT

This paper describes an effort to utilize IoT, OCR, and blockchain technology to create wine track and trace system evaluated in a real-life environment. The research is focused on digital transformation in traditional wine supply chain, using computer vision to read the existing serial numbers labeled on bottles, so as to uniquely identifying individual bottles of wine and track the item life-cycle. The system provides mobile app to allow end consumers to scan each wine bottle and learn more about that particular product instance, its origin, authenticity, rating and potentially other characteristics. Status of each bottle is updated every time it has been scanned. To ensure the transparency of the recorded data and information immutability, the blockchain technology is used to record all relevant information into the ledger, e.g. all status updates for each item. The developed service enables tracking of a bottle throughout the supply chain, from a producer to a consumer, where traceability story is still not finalized. The consumed serial numbers are kept in the ledger, to avoid counterfeit scenario when one “bottle” (i.e. one serial number) is being sold multiple times. The life-cycle of bottle and its status changes are recorded, and the authenticity ensured facilitating verifiable identity of the authorized handlers and cutting edge cryptography, thus providing additional trust in the solution and transparency to all stakeholders.