The document discusses the development of a knowledge graph-based pre-certification service called beCert that helps aquaculture producers navigate the certification process. It aims to address three pain points producers face: the unpredictability of aquaculture production, the heavy paperwork burden of certification, and the complexity of dealing with different certification requirements. beCert extracts knowledge from certification standards to generate compliance reports and simplify documentation management. A pilot with a Taiwanese fishery cooperative demonstrated how beCert could streamline the process and enable remote auditing using blockchain technology. The service has potential for customization to help other industries with regulatory compliance as well.

1. ©ITRI. 工業技術研究院著作
Pre-certification for aquaculture
Using knowledge graph to simulate feasibility of
certification.
ITRI / ISTI Shun Hsiang Chang
2021/7/1

2. ©ITRI. 工業技術研究院著作
ISTI
1
Certification became new threshold to big retailors
Source: Walmart, Whole Foods Market, Target
By 2025, all retail markets in Walmart will
require all fresh and frozen, farmed and wild
seafood suppliers are 3rd party certified. Such
as BAP(Best aquaculture practice)
All suppliers are required to meet guidance
and standards for farmed seafood issued in
2019.
Walmart
Whole Foods
Target
Target is committed to sourcing seafood that
is Green or Yellow rated according to
Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seefood Watch
program and should be certified by Marine
Stewardship Council for traceability.
Big Retailors
Certifications
Aquaculture
Producers

3. ©ITRI. 工業技術研究院著作
ISTI
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Certification is a complicated document-comparison among whole
aquaculture supply chain.(BAP as an example)
Source: Best Aquaculture Practice
• Conservation area
• Waste water and
waste processing
• Genetic
modification
• Chemical deposit
and processing
• Governmental
licence
• Community
relationship
• Comtainment
• Antibiotics usage
• Feeds supplier
• Animal welfare
guide
• Minimalized pain
• Feeds and drugs.
Supplier,
composition and
other facts.
• Numbers of animal
• Buyers
Feed
Hatchery &
Nurseries
Farm
Processing
Community Food Animal Welfare
Environment Traceability

4. ©ITRI. 工業技術研究院著作
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Aquaculture have 3 pain-points to go with certification
• Aquaculture production is uncertain and can’t be 100% predicted
• Most of producers spend all the efforts to minimize uncertainty and unable to clarify
heavy paper work
Production activities exhausted producers
• Only 25.7% of agriculture and aquaculture producers have production system
• 89% of agriculture and aquaculture producers don’t hire any IT employees
Poor digitalization
• Every big retailors have their own preference of certification, and every certification
define different rules, records and documents they need
Certification is too complicated
Source: Agricultural Technology Research Institute

5. ©ITRI. 工業技術研究院著作
ISTI
4
Kouhu Fisheries Cooperative wants to be a Walmart’s supplies
Source: The World Factbook of CIA, Kouhu Fisheries Cooperative
Abou Kouhu Fisheries Cooperative
1. Founded in 1997
2. Located in west coastal area of central Taiwan
3. Tilapia is main product
4. 245 farm members, ¼ of Taiwanese Tulip farms
5. 2300 hectares of production area, it is the biggest
Tilapia producer in Taiwan
6. Well experience at applying government subsidy
program to develop crucial technology, e.g. using
Tilapia byproduct to produce hyaluronic acid and
collagen
7. TGAP certificated
Walmart

6. ©ITRI. 工業技術研究院著作
ISTI
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The idea of “beCert” came out by “Technology Development Program”
Fund Raiser
DOIT
• Department of Industry Technology,
Ministry of Economic Affairs
• Provide “Technology Development
Program”
Test Field and Domain
Practice
Kouhu Fisheries Cooperative
• Had basic AIoT infrastructure for
Aquaculture
• Had TGAP certification
• Lack of IT solution
Technology Developer
Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Well experienced in development
of blockchain application
• Well experienced in working with
private sector
beCert
pre-certification service

7. ©ITRI. 工業技術研究院著作
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How long to immigrant from TGAP to BAP
Source: TGAP and BAP
• Most of aquaculture producers in Taiwan have ONLY TGAP certification which is very different from BAP
• BAP has 222 articles
• Here are some example of terms between those 2 certifications
categories TGAP BAP
Fry(baby
fish)
Should choice healthy fry and follow the
principles. 1. same size. 2. active and has
bright appearance. 3.without wound and
obvious disease.
10. Environment: Stocking Sources and
GMOs
14. Animal Health and Welfare
Natural
disaster
Be ware of tsunami and power shutdown
during rain season and typhoon
6. Environment: Water Quality and
Sediment Control
11. Environment: Control of Escape
Community No correspond article 2. Community: Community Relations
3. Community: Worker Safety and
Employee Relations

8. ©ITRI. 工業技術研究院著作
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To build up “beCert”
Source: ITRI/ISTI Research
1. Collecting data
source of certification
2.1 Knowledge graph for
transferring words and
phrase of certification
2.2. Analysis data from
field(Kouho) and BAP
3.2 Report for pre-certification
3.1 using blockchain
technology to prove some
timing sensitive data with time
stamp

9. ©ITRI. 工業技術研究院著作
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How to train algorithm
Source: ITRI
1. Putting all of the
articles in certification
into beCert
•BAP Principal.1.1
The applicant shall demonstrate
interaction with the local
community to avoid or resolve
conflicts through meetings,
committees, correspondence,
service projects or other
activities performed annually or
more often.
2. Got
understandable
results
Community or
group
communication
meeting minutes
3. Ground truth
confirmation
• Find consultancy from
certification body and provide
the practical experience for this
term as ground truth
• Make sure ground truth is same
with result
Know-how
Examples
extracting knowledge
representation from
articles in certification
Results coming out
• Meeting minutes with
local community and its
statistics report last year
• Social responsibility
policy
repeat

10. ©ITRI. 工業技術研究院著作
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beCert make user easier to understand and manage data requirement of certification
(results to use beCert in Kouho’s case)
Source: ITRI
Property and
compliance
Pre-cert list
Community Relation
Employees safety policy
Wetland protection
Sewage management
Water quality control
Sand control
Soil and water
conservation
Meat poder and oil
reservation
Meat poder and oil
reservation
license Valid date file
License for ownership or agreement for
rental land
License for the right to use water
Direction
1.1-Current documents shall be available to prove legal land and water use by the
applicant
User upload file
User upload file

11. ©ITRI. 工業技術研究院著作
ISTI
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The value of beCert
Source: ITRI/ISTI Research
• Comprehensive and practical documents
management service, and lower down knowledge
threshold for certification
• faster whole process for certification about 50%
according to field’s response(Kouho)
Simplified
complicity
• Blockchain based data and documents management
make remote audit more trustful
• Authorize certification body the right to access
Kouhu’s pre-certification data and documents before
actual audit meeting
Make remote
certification
trustful

12. ©ITRI. 工業技術研究院著作
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The future application
Source: ITRI/ISTI Research
• beCert service had been technology transferred to Kouhu as on-premise software system
• There are possible opportunities to use same technology for different verticle. e.g. cosmetics
Cosmetics
TIC service
Raw material
suppliers
Testing
results
ingredients
Product
information
beCert 2.0
input
Extract knowledge representation from every articles in
law and terms of cosmetics regulation
Knowledge
representation
agent
Compliance
report
output
Compliance report
• Which material is prohibited by which
country
Enable new behavior for manufacturer
• Changing product design before
producing it
• Changing or give up market strategy with
high regulatory risk
Enable new behavior for agent
• Assess status of law compliance for
every desire cosmetics product before
signing contract with manufacturers
• Avoid any risk to be incepted in custom

13. ©ITRI. 工業技術研究院著作
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2021 IEKTopics
Industry, Science and Technology International Strategy Center
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THANK YOU
Shun Hsiang Chang
senior researcher
cherub.chang@itri.org.tw