Can blockchain crack the trust dilemma in the seafood supply chain?

Event Overview

The global seafood supply chain has long faced serious mislabeling and fraud issues. A study covering more than 9,000 seafood samples across 30 countries showed that, on average, 36% of samples were mislabeled; in the Chinese market, 58% of grilled fish fillet products had inaccurate labels; globally, about 40% of products labeled "snapper" were not true snapper; and one-third of European restaurants had served mislabeled seafood to consumers. These problems not only harm consumer rights but also damage marine ecology, fisheries management efficiency, and supply chain trust.

To address this challenge, blockchain technology is regarded as a potential solution. Its decentralized, tamper-proof, and traceable characteristics could theoretically record key information throughout the entire process from catch to consumption, enhancing transparency and verifiability. However, despite numerous pilot projects of blockchain in the seafood sector, large-scale adoption has progressed slowly. A systematic review published in Frontiers in Blockchain in 2026, integrating 99 academic papers from 2018 to 2025, provides an in-depth analysis of blockchain's impact on key stakeholders in the seafood supply chain, offering an important perspective for understanding the real-world barriers to this technology's implementation.

Supply Chain Background

The seafood supply chain is one of the most complex food networks in the world, encompassing multiple stages such as catching/farming, processing, transportation, distribution, and retail, and involving numerous stakeholders including fishermen, farmers, processors, wholesalers, logistics providers, retailers, regulators, and consumers. Due to perishable products, frequent cross-border flows, and numerous intermediary links, traditional paper records and centralized databases are hard-pressed to ensure the completeness and authenticity of information. This makes seafood a high-incidence area of global food fraud, where mislabeling, passing off inferior products as superior ones, and illegal fishing entering legal channels persist despite repeated bans.

In this context, blockchain's "distributed ledger" feature shows unique advantages. Each block is linked in chronological order; once data is recorded on the chain, it is difficult to tamper with. All network nodes share the records, and no single entity can independently control the data. This provides a technical infrastructure for seafood certification. The review groups key stakeholders into four categories: the production sector (catching and farming), the distribution sector (processing and logistics), the market sector (retail and consumption), and the governance and regulatory sector. The roles of these sectors mainly revolve around traceability and sustainability compliance, preventing fraud and mislabeling, and enhancing market trust and consumer awareness.

Enterprise Decision-Making Logic

Why have some enterprises begun to try blockchain? The review found that the positive factors mainly include:The review found that the main positive factors include:

• Cost efficiency: Despite high initial investment, it can reduce administrative and transaction costs over the long term and lessen losses due to fraud.
• Operational improvements: Through real-time data sharing and smart contracts, it simplifies processes and improves supply chain coordination efficiency.
• Sustainability requirements: Facing regulatory and consumer demands for environmental protection and social responsibility, blockchain can provide transparent proof of sustainability.
• Consumer trust and loyalty: Verifiable product stories help differentiate brands and enhance consumer loyalty.

However, enterprises adopting blockchain face significant obstacles. The review summarizes five major bottlenecks: regulatory uncertainty, scalability issues, coordination complexity, high implementation costs, and shortage of specialized talent. Particularly in the seafood industry, where small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) dominate, limited IT capabilities and capital make blockchain deployment difficult. In addition, inconsistent data standards among stakeholders lead to poor interoperability, making it difficult for pilot projects to scale into production-grade systems.

Supply Chain Impact

The introduction of blockchain will reshape the seafood supply chain in multiple dimensions:

• Supplier management: Producers and farmers need to put fishing information, farming data, and other relevant details on the chain, which requires stricter record-keeping standards and investment in digital equipment.
• Logistics and warehousing: Information such as temperature, location, and time during transportation can be integrated with blockchain through IoT devices, improving logistics transparency and shortening the time for liability tracing.
• Procurement and inventory: For buyers, blockchain can provide real-time, trustworthy inventory and source information, optimizing procurement decisions and reducing inspection costs. Distributors can use smart contracts to automatically execute transactions, reducing manual review.
• Fishmongers and retailers: The review specifically points out that blockchain information brings significant commercial benefits to fishmongers. Fishmongers can obtain more complete traceability information, reduce the risk of fraud and mislabeling, lower administrative and transaction costs, improve operational efficiency, and thereby strengthen their market positioning. For example, a fishmonger who can show consumers a complete record from catch to counter is clearly more convincing than competitors.

However, for SMEs, the cost of blockchain deployment can become a heavy burden. The review emphasizes that if the mechanisms for cost sharing and benefit distribution cannot be resolved, SMEs may be excluded from the blockchain network, thereby creating new supply chain inequalities.

Regional Impact

• The adoption of blockchain in the seafood supply chain shows significant regional differences.- Europe: The EU is at the forefront of global traceability regulations, but surveys show that one-third of seafood in European restaurants is still mislabeled. European seafood companies face stricter compliance requirements and are therefore more proactive in exploring blockchain, especially in countries with developed aquaculture industries such as Norway and Iceland. However, regulatory differences and data standards among countries have not yet been unified, and cross-border interoperability remains a challenge.
• Asia: As the world's largest seafood production and consumption region, Asia has both drivers and barriers to blockchain adoption. The Chinese market has a high mislabeling rate, consumers are increasingly concerned about food safety, and the government is promoting digital regulation. However, the region has a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), uneven technical infrastructure, and slow standardization progress.
• North America: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seafood import traceability regulations have driven the industry to pay attention to blockchain, and large retailers and importers have begun to require suppliers to provide digital traceability information. However, fragmented regulation in the North American market and the wait-and-see attitude of medium-sized enterprises limit rapid adoption.
• Latin America and Africa: Seafood exports from these regions depend on demand from developed markets, and blockchain could become a “passport” to enter high-end markets. However, weak infrastructure, a shortage of technical talent, and fragmented governance have led to low adoption rates in these regions.

Future Trends

The review argues that over the next 1 to 5 years, the evolution of blockchain in seafood supply chains will depend on the following key directions:

1. Regulatory coordination and standardization: The lack of unified international data standards and interoperability frameworks is the biggest obstacle. Major economies and international organizations need to promote the establishment of globally recognized digital traceability standards for seafood; otherwise, blockchain networks will remain dominated by closed consortium chains and cannot achieve end-to-end transparency. 2. Moving from pilots to scale: Most current projects remain at the small-scale pilot stage. To move beyond this stage, the distribution of costs and benefits must be addressed, especially how to pass the trust premium gained by fishmongers and consumers to upstream producers. Government subsidies or industry consortia could serve as catalysts. 3. Empowering SMEs: Develop lightweight, low-cost blockchain solutions, or provide “blockchain-as-a-service” through third-party platforms, so that SMEs can participate without directly bearing infrastructure costs. The review clearly states that insufficient SME capacity is one of the core reasons for stalled adoption. 4. Data accuracy and source certification: Blockchain can only ensure that data on the chain is tamper-proof, but cannot guarantee the authenticity of data before it is recorded on the chain. Therefore, blockchain should be combined with physical verification technologies (such as DNA testing and isotope analysis) to establish a “physical-digital” dual certification mechanism. 5. ESG and market drivers: As global demand for sustainable seafood rises, carbon footprint, labor rights, and social responsibility information on the blockchain will become important factors in purchasing decisions. Large retailers' procurement policies will pressure upstream supply chains to adopt digital traceability systems.## Key Takeaways

• Mislabeling in the seafood supply chain is a global chronic problem; blockchain offers a technological path to address it, but implementation is far from mature.
• Key stakeholders fall into four major segments: production, distribution, market, and regulation, and their coordination is a prerequisite for successful implementation.
• Drivers for blockchain adoption include cost, operations, sustainability, and consumer trust, but regulatory uncertainty, coordination complexity, and insufficient capacity among SMEs constitute the main bottlenecks.
• Terminal retailers such as fishmongers are the direct beneficiaries in the short term, enhancing their competitiveness through credible traceability.
• Future breakthroughs lie in standardization, scaling, and cost-sharing mechanisms, rather than the technology itself.

Recommended Tags

#Blockchain #SeafoodSupplyChain #Traceability #SupplyChainResilience #GlobalSourcing #FoodSafety #DigitalSupplyChain

Related Industry Chain

Seafood fishing and aquaculture, aquatic product processing, cold chain logistics, wholesale and retail, food testing and certification, supply chain management software.

Related Countries

Norway, China, the United States, EU member states (e.g., Denmark, Spain), Japan, Canada, Vietnam, Chile.

Sources

This article is based on the following academic literature: Xue-Lønmo, K., Fagerstrøm, A., & Ljusic, N. (2026). Blockchain's impact on key stakeholders in the seafood supply chain: a systematic review. Frontiers in Blockchain, 9, 1616018. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbloc.2026.1616018