Almonds shipped from Australia to Germany via DLT trade platform

Seventeen tonnes of almonds have been shipped and tracked from Victoria in Australia to Hamburg in Germany via a blockchain-based collaboration between Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and five supply chain companies.

The new platform digitises three areas of global trade – operations, documentation and finance – by housing the container information, completion of tasks and shipping documents on a purpose-built blockchain.

Chris Scougall, Managing Director of Industrials and Logistics in Client Coverage at CBA, says the experiment brought to life the idea of a modern global supply chain that is agile, efficient and transparent. “We believe that blockchain can help our partners reduce the burden of administration on their businesses and enable them to deliver best-in-class services to their customers,” he comments.

Partners were able to view and track the location of the shipment as well as view the conditions, such as temperature and humidity inside the container, via four Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

“Trade inefficiency can be extremely detrimental to our business. It is vital that as an industry, we look at emerging technology for ways to enhance the supply chain to develop a more transparent and efficient platform,” says Emma Roberts, Supply Chain Manager for Olam Orchards Australia. “This project has shown that through collaboration from all parts of the supply chain that this can be achieved.”

At the documentation layer, the blockchain-enabled supply chain allows partners to upload and access key documents, such as bill of lading, certificates of origin and other documents required by customs, which streamlined these processes.

It comes after CBA and US-based bank Wells Fargo completed the first global trade transaction via blockchain between two independent banks in 2016.