Bahrain-based tech startup MVC Global and logistics firm Cox Logistics Group will jointly launch a so-called SmartHub logistics warehouse to improve the distribution of pharmaceuticals across the Gulf Cooperation Council. The blockchain logistics warehouse platform will provide built-in Track & Trace and IoT sensors and a smart contracts-based SmartPass feature geared to ensure compliance with customs clearances, Gulf Today reported on April 27. Additionally, users can deploy the platform for supply chain finance and international payments settlements. The developers claim that the SmartHub is able to speed up and improve both cold and non-cold storage distribution of food products and …

Cos, the luxury subsidiary of the fast-fashion brand H&M, appears to have partnered with blockchain platform, VeChain, to provide detailed supply chain tracing data to customers. While H&M is yet to confirm the partnership, VeChain’s main investor is already speculating as to how the two companies’ collaboration will expand. VeChain CEO reveals new project with ‘fast fashion brand’ During a recent ‘ask me anything’ (AMA) with Sunny Lu, the chief executive of blockchain-based supply chain management platform, VeChain, revealed that the company is working on a new project with a “fast fashion brand” with which it had previously partnered. Lu …

Federated Co-operatives Limited, or FCL, one of Canada’s 50-largest companies, has partnered with blockchain-based supply chain middleware platform, Morpheus.Network. FCL plans to integrate distributed ledger technology, or DLT, based tracking. This will be deployed across its diverse supply chain, encompassing 1,400 businesses across Western Canada and employs over 23,000 workers. Major Canadian co-operative embraces blockchain The firms have inked a three-year deal that will see Morpheus.Network provide optical character recognition, machine learning, and blockchain technologies to streamline FCL’s complex supply chain. FCL is a wholesaling, manufacturing, marketing, and administrative co-operative opened by more than 170 independent retail associations. The entity …

Dole Food Company, the world’s largest producer of fruit and vegetables, has revealed a five-year plan to expand its adoption of distributed ledger technology, or DLT, for supply chain tracking. Dole’s blockchain expansion was announced in its 2020 Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Report. Dole first began to explore DLT after joining IBM’s Food Trust as a founding member in 2017. Dole to launch DLT tracing in all divisions by 2025 The report announces that Dole will comprehensively overhaul its food tracing systems, including the goal of integrating blockchain-based product-tagging and advanced traceability solutions into all of its divisions by 2025. …

British researchers are trialing a new blockchain-based certificate designed to manage COVID-19 risks across supply chains. In a statement on April 21, Professor Nassim Belbaly, director of Birmingham City Business School, noted that “coronavirus represents a crisis of trust because we cannot any longer automatically trust goods or suppliers.” New, secure and automated solutions are therefore being sought to help reassure consumers and suppliers that goods across the value chain do not pose health risks to themselves or to others. To tackle this post-pandemic landscape, a newly-launched “4th Fourth Industrial Revolution Technologies Centre” is trialing a blockchain-based Coronavirus Clearance Certificate …

Teleport, the logistics division of major airline, AirAsia, has launched a blockchain-based cargo booking system called Freightchain. According to an April 16 announcement, Freightchain is “the world’s first digital air cargo network run on blockchain.” The network — which is launching today — allows shippers or freight forwarders to instantly book and confirm any of AirAsia’s 247 aircraft to carry cargo. Freightchain assigns shippers and their freight forwarders to cargo connections to help them with their supply chain needs, and facilitate bookings in real-time which are processed on-chain. The project’s chief technology officer, Vishal Batra, explained that the network is …

Dutch multinational banking and financial services company Rabobank recently announced the settlement of a $12 million intercontinental commodity trade using blockchain technology. Rabobank and other logistics companies collaborated with the United States-based agricultural behemoth Cargill and agri-commodity trader Argocrop International to manage the trade transaction of wheat from North America to Southeast Asia. They used the Singapore-based blockchain platform called dltledgers for streamlining the process. Five days for the trade It was reported that completing a similar cross-continent trade using traditional processes could take up to a month. However, the firms involved in this wheat trade used dltledgers’ blockchain platform …

Global implementation of blockchain technology in the food industry continues to grow as the world’s biggest food and beverage company, Nestlé, doesn’t put its blockchain efforts on hold. On April 6, Nestlé announced that the company is expanding its long-running IBM Food Trust blockchain technology platform to its coffee brand Zoégas. Getting all necessary coffee info from blockchain database With this new implementation, Zoégas coffee lovers will now be able to trace select coffee editions back to different origins in Brazil, Rwanda and Colombia, the company said. Additionally, consumers will be able to access some relevant coffee information including time …

With pundits like Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey predicting that Africa “will define” the future of Bitcoin (BTC), cryptocurrency and blockchain technology continue to attract interest from both public and private establishments across the continent. Many of these adoption cases have been moving beyond finance, developing solutions targeted at issues like unemployment, identity management, health care and supply chain, among others. Amid the growing enthusiasm for crypto and blockchain technology in Africa, industry stakeholders interviewed by Cointelegraph identify a lack of education as one of the major hurdles standing in the way of more broad-based utilization of the technology. The absence …

Australian startup Meld Gold will launch a blockchain-based platform for tokenized gold trading in the third quarter of 2020. Meld Gold said the platform will offer a digital method to buy and sell physical gold that is more efficient and transparent than traditional gold markets. Unlike other gold-backed tokens, the issuer doesn’t have a stash of gold in its own custody — rather each token represents one gram of gold held across different companies in the network, including the Melbourne Mint. Meld Gold to launch platform on Algorand The original prototype platform was built on Ethereum (ETH) in mid-2019, but …

Covantis, a blockchain agribusiness initiative backed by major industry company ConsenSys, has taken another step towards transforming global trade and supply chain operations. Backed by global agribusiness giants like Cargill and Bunge, Covantis has been officially established as a legal entity in Geneva after receiving all necessary regulatory approval. First tests are expected to be carried out in May 2020 According to a March 31 announcement, the company is the joint initiative of six founding members: Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Bunge, Cargill, COFCO, Louis Dreyfus Company and Glencore Agriculture. While Covantis’s legal entity has been established, the blockchain platform is …

Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) company BlockApps has partnered with software consulting firm Optimum to develop a blockchain solution for tracking energy usage. A founding member of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), BlockApps is the developer of a cloud-agnostic blockchain platform, STRATO, designed to serve as a flexible base layer for various business network transactions and activities. Optimum is a software consulting firm focused on the oil and gas, manufacturing and construction industries. As part of a strategic partnership announced on March 27, Optimum has now joined the BlockApps Partner Network — a group of technology and service providers and blockchain experts cooperating …