Blockchain-based food traceability in Apulian marketplace: Improving sustainable agri-food consumers perception and trust

Blockchain-based traceability systems play a crucial role in providing comprehensive product information to consumers and its strategic value for businesses. We explore how traceability builds customer trust by disclosing manufacturing details, product origin, and supply-chain information. The study gives an overview of the TRACECOOP project and its implementation based on the architecture developed in collaboration with project partners. Further, this study examines Apulia (southern Italy) consumers' willingness-to-pay (WTP as price premium) towards this innovative technology regarding additional labeling information. The results reveal an overall positive average WTPs of EUR 0.98 towards the presence of Blockchain Technology/QR code on the labels of five agri-food products.