Blockchain technology for sustainable supply chains in the fishing industry: A systematic review

• Blockchain benefits are salient in sustainable supply chain in fishing industry. • In fishing industry blockchain can address critical issues food fraud, mislabeling. • Blockchain can address inefficiencies such as security, visibility, transparency. • Integration of supply chains in technology, organizational and regulatory frameworks. • Investigate barriers that hinder seamless integration of blockchain in supply chain. This study presents a systematic review on the application of blockchain in fish supply chains. It addresses the current state of blockchain in fish supply chains, enablers and challenges to its adoption. The review delves into the fishing industry, focusing on empirical works on the intersection of blockchain and sustainability where there is limited research. The key findings illustrate that the themes of transparency, traceability, trust, and information sharing are dominant in the blockchain and fish supply chains domain. By synthesizing and critically assessing existing empirical research, the paper further sheds light on the interplay between blockchain and sustainable fish supply chains, further examining the facilitators that drive blockchain adoption. The findings demonstrate real-time visibility, authentication and security, cost reduction and blockchain’s decentralized nature as the main facilitators. Conversely, the study investigates challenges that hinder the seamless integration of blockchain in fish supply chains under the three categories of technology, organizational and regulatory frameworks. High costs of investments, resistance to change, environmental concerns and challenges such as forking, scalability issues, garbage in garbage out and integration issues emerge as the predominant barriers to adoption of blockchain in supply chain contexts. The paper further discusses smart contracts, token economics and consensus mechanisms and their impact on sustainability in this domain. There is need for further research into the social aspects of sustainability that have limited empirical research compared to governance and environmental sustainability for fish supply chains.