Australia’s Commonwealth Bank has demonstrated a new blockchain platform to ship and track seventeen tonnes of almonds from Sunraysia in Australia to Hamburg in Germany.

The trade was underpinned by distributed ledger technology (DLT), smart contracts and the internet of things (IoT), which tracked the shipment from packer to end delivery in parallel to existing processes.

CommBank partnered with five Australian and international supply chain firms to complete the trade, with all parties 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 IoT devices. This level of data provided partners in the supply chain with a greater level of transparency and efficiency regarding the location, condition and authentication of the goods being transported.

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.

Chris Scougall, managing director of industrials and logistics in client coverage at CommBank, said: “Our blockchain-enabled global trade platform experiment brought to life the idea of a modern global supply chain that is agile, efficient and transparent.

“It was key to us that we partner with businesses across the entire supply chain, so we could get a holistic picture of how this technology could impact and improve the efficiency of the transport and logistics industry.”

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