Walmart has revealed that it is piloting the first use of blockchain to track shrimp supply chains.
The retail giant, working with IBM, will track shrimp sourced in Andhra Pradesh and shipped to select Sam’s Club locations in the U.S. Shrimp is India’s largest agricultural export, with the U.S. accounting for a 46 percent share of India’s shrimp exports by value in 2018.
“The possibility of transforming the seafood community with blockchain technology exists, and organizations need to do the work to test its potential to optimize supply chain processes. As one of the most traded commodities in the world, seafood has a complex and wide-reaching supply chain, which makes testing and further developing technology-assisted traceability programs an important step. It is encouraging to see a retail leader like Walmart participate in seafood blockchain testing,” said John Connelly, president of the National Fisheries Institute in the U.S., according to Live Mint.
“This end-to-end blockchain pilot is the first of its kind in India and has the potential to create long-term economic opportunity for the shrimp farming community in Andhra Pradesh, directly benefiting the farmers through new skills training and development,” added Chowdary Kunam, managing director of Sandhya Aqua.
Walmart and IBM have already teamed up on a number of blockchain initiatives related to food safety.
“We’re committed to doing business in India in a way that helps drive economic opportunity in local communities across the country,” said Paul Dyck, vice president of corporate affairs for Walmart Inc. “Through this pilot we are working with our partners and leveraging our global strengths to provide access to blockchain’s innovative technology, which will benefit local farmers and producers, help to transform the food system and also provide a quality product that delights our customers and members.”
In other news, LINE Corporation, LVC Corporation and Nomura Holdings announced that they have entered into a final agreement to form a financial business partnership that focuses on building a new financial service using blockchain technology.
As part of the deal, Nomura has completed an investment in LVC, according to a press release.
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