3,000 Orange Cartons Tracked Via Blockchain By IBM

To start off the month, IBM has just announced that they have finished their trial of blockchain technology to track a shipment of mandarin oranges from China to Singapore.

3,000 cartons containing an overall weight of 28 tonnes of mandarin oranges (108,000 fruits) were delivered ahead of Chinese New Year celebration on 5th February - mandarin oranges are a symbol of prosperity as IBM explained. The main shipping document, the bill of lading, was recorded on a blockchain.

This document is proof of ownership for the goods, as a receipt for the products and a contract of the shipment and normally it’s mailed to all parties involved in the shipment, including banks providing trade financing. For the pilot test, “IBM created an electronic bill of lading, or e-BL, which helped reduce and speed up administrative processes “to just one second” as the document flow is automated, the company claims — while the standard paper-based procedure takes five to seven days.”

In the press release, the chairman and CEO of fruit importer Hupco, Tay Khiam Back said:

“By using the e-BL, we have seen how the entire shipment process can be simplified and made more transparent with considerable cost savings,”

Costs

As well as the saving time with the process of the document, IBM said that the pilot also showed that a blockchain-based electronic system will cut the costs of operating such as the power used for refrigerated cargo containers as they wait for collection at the port, storage costs and more. In addition to this, it also made for better handling of information, providing a traceable and tamper-proof storage of records for the shipment space. As CoinDesk reported, in this industry, document fraud accounts for around 40 percent of all fraud.

In the press release, the Executive Director of Pacific International Lines, Lisa Teo said:

“To-date, we have received very positive feedback from the industry and authorities, and we are enthused by the possibilities of how our blockchain developments can transform and inject a much-needed boost in efficiency and innovation into the industry.”

Last month, it was announced by IBM that another blockchain supply chain pilot would be keeping track of mined cobalt in the Congo, by going through a Chinese refinery and Korean battery factory to a Ford Motors plant in the United States.

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