Design a Food Supply Chain That Makes Adulteration Economically Unattractive

Food adulteration in Nigeria — diluting palm oil, mixing sand into spices, adding formaldehyde to fish — persists because the expected benefit (higher margins) consistently exceeds the expected cost (the rare NAFDAC inspection and fine). Any solution that focuses only on detection and punishment without changing the economics will fail, as 40 years of NAFDAC enforcement have demonstrated. Your challenge is to design a food supply chain model for one product category (choose: palm oil, groundnut oil, processed fish, or packaged spices) that makes adulteration economically less attractive than selling authentic product. Your approach may combine traceability, buyer education, premium pricing, or direct competition — but it must work at the level of the informal wholesaler and retailer, not just major manufacturers. Submit a supply chain design document (max 12 pages) including: the specific economics of adulteration in your chosen category today, how your model changes those economics, the traceability or verification mechanism, how buyers are educated and incentivised to pay the premium, and a plan to prove the model in one regional market within 18 months. Judging criteria: 40% quality of economic analysis and incentive design, 30% supply chain mechanics, 20% buyer behaviour change approach, 10% proof-of-model plan.