**2. Agri-food supply chain challenges**

Traditional agri-food supply chains encompass diverse actors from the raw material suppliers, processors, wholesalers, and retailers to end customers. Over time, modern agri-food supply chains have transitioned from autonomous, independent, and local actors to globally interconnected systems of multiple actors that affect the way food is produced, sourced, processed, transported, and delivered to the final consumer. Complexities emerge due to the need of real-time information sharing, mutual scheduling, product quality guarantee, and timely fulfillment of delivery promises. Current supply chain transactions are based on complex, paper-based settlement process. Not only do these transactions lack transparency and efficiency, but they are also vulnerable to fraud.

Most of the food supply chain participants still adopt the "one-up-one-down approach" that is laid out by CAC/GL 60-2006: participants can identify at any given stage of the food chain (from production to distribution) where the food comes from (one step back) and where it goes (one step further). By doing so, the visibility of focal firms in the movement of agricultural products is limited to the level of their direct suppliers and customers. This tracking method is largely inadequate, especially for multi-ingredient foods that include elements from different sources in different countries. In case of suspected contamination, the entire shipment will be discarded as a precautionary measure in accordance with the one-up-one-down approach, resulting in heavy economic losses. In addition, the currently deployed food traceability systems are neither integrated with each other nor linked among all participants in the supply chain. This disconnection generates information asymmetry between supply chain parties, resulting in poor supply chain visibility.

Nowadays, consumers are increasingly demanding in terms of product provenance and sustainability. They need to know where and how their food is produced and delivered. The current traceability and provenance systems for food supply chain can no longer fulfill such demands. In addition to the pressure on the demand side, regulations such as the food safety modernization act and general food law regulation profoundly impact the global food supply chain by mandating hazard analysis and end-to-end traceability. Unpredictable incidences of food safety or health hazards can significantly reduce a company's brand value, erode consumer trust, and lead to lawsuits and product recalls.

*Perspective Chapter: Blockchain Adoption in Food Supply Chain DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.106402*

There are some technological innovations that are applied for agri-product traceability purposes, such as radio-frequency identification tags, electronic data interchange, and internet of things. However, current food traceability systems are built on top of centralized infrastructures, which leave room for unresolved issues, including data integrity, tampering, and single points of failure [3]. To address these issues and enable end-to-end traceability, supply chain professionals envision the use of blockchain technology.
