Arla on tracing milk from cow to cup with blockchain

Arla has been experimenting with a Milkchain that will enable consumers to trace the journey of their milk from cow to carton

Consumers today are demanding to know more about where their food comes from and how it was made. Blockchain has the potential to answer this demand by making the journey of food from farm to table much more transparent and traceable. Arla is the 5th largest dairy company in the world. Tomi Siren is the Head of Digital and Technological Innovation at Arla. Based in Finland, he is spearheading the Arla Milkchain project. In this episode, we talk about Arla's digital transformation as well as the overall transformation happening in the fast-moving consumer goods space.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host  2:41
So, we're here at the Nordic Organic Food Fair and you're going to be speaking tomorrow, which is very exciting. But your background is actually more in business and in tech. So, I'd like to start by hearing when did you first connect with food or decide that you wanted to work in that space?

Tomi Siren, Arla Digital  2:59 

Well, that's a good question. I have a background and Master's in Technology Management. Technology and the future of tech has always been my passion. Then, I just happened to move into the food space. I think it's really interesting to combine the two. And there's a lot of opportunities in actually combining those two. I think when we see where the world is going, it's not like FoodTech is super progressive. I think there's a lot of things that technology can enable the food industry to go forward. So, I think that's basically the background.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host  3:39 

And now you're working at Arla. So, for our listeners that are not in the Nordics or not in Finland, what is Arla? And what is your position in the market? If you can kind of give us the landscape of where the company lies.

Tomi Siren, Arla Digital  3:51 

Sure. Arla is one of the world's biggest dairy companies. It's farmer owned. Core market is in Scandinavia, but heavily growing in international markets. I'm based in Finland. I'm responsible for the Finnish market, so that's my primary focus. But of course, thinking about how we can leverage the power and the scale of Arla in getting good innovations to travel across markets.

Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host  4:17 

And what is your role exactly?