The world's largest grains and oilseeds companies, American giants Bunge and Cargill, have joined together to create the joint venture Covantis, which will use blockchain technology in the agricultural sector in Brazil. The unprecedented project foresees the exchange of information between all members of Covantis, which also includes the participation of other agribusiness giants such as the French Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC), the Chinese state-owned company Cofco International and the Dutch multinational Glencore Agriculture. Together the companies that make up Covantis move around 550 million tons of grains and oilseeds every year. The goal of the partnership is to unify …

Two of the world’s largest container carriers announced a full integration onto IBM and Maersk’s TradeLens blockchain platform. CMA CGM, a French container and shipping company, along with MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company have joined the TradeLens network to enable a complete digital transformation of their supply chains. Marvin Erdly, head of TradeLens for IBM Blockchain, told Cointelegraph that as supply chains become digitized, manual paper-based processes, like processing bills of lading, are removed from the equation. “These processes are now embedded in blockchain networks and smart contracts that are trusted by all parties involved,” he said. Erdly further shared that …

A new PwC study found that blockchain technology through its wide range of use cases will potentially add $1.76 trillion to the global gross domestic product in the next 10 years. It would make 1.4% of the global GDP in 2030. The report states that increasing interest in blockchain technology is primarily due to the need for a more efficient system that can integrate trust in processes that depend on intermediaries. In another survey, PwC found that more than 50% of the CEOs believed the faltering trust in the business process was affecting their organization. According to PwC, blockchain will …

Food supply chain management, or FSCM, has long been put forth as a low-hanging-fruit application in the enterprise blockchain space. Now, after years of pilots, the verdict is finally in: Blockchain-supported FSCM works perfectly. For innovation managers in food companies that haven’t yet dabbled, this is your chance. The big players have put in millions of dollars to prove the efficacy of the tech. All you have to do now is figure out the right application for your business. Of course, there are still risks — and in this article I’ll provide ways to minimize them — but the opportunity …

The COVID-19 outbreak, just like any other black swan event before it, revealed systemic weaknesses in a wide variety of industries and processes. With the information age now in full swing, this particular event emphasized the critical importance of data management, and it highlighted the failure of status quo data management systems. In terms of the global response to the pandemic, the consequences of poor data management range from exacerbated shortages to unnecessarily long medicine development times, and the end result is more lives lost. On the other hand, opportunities abound for those who embrace the next generation of data …

When the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, were conceived back in 2012, blockchain technology was in its early days. Few could have foreseen the trajectory and the potential of blockchain for advancing these ambitious targets. But today, we see opportunities for blockchain technology to recast conventional approaches to sustainable development — and accelerate progress if deployed responsibly. Macro trends of 2020 There are a number of macro trends this year in the world of blockchain and sustainable development that provide context. This has been — and will continue to be — an important year for laying the groundwork for major …

The Stin, an Austrian-based gin distiller, is set to use ICON (ICX), South Korea’s largest public blockchain project, to transparently track its supply chain. An Austrian blockchain firm, block42, will be combining near-field communication (NFC) technology with the ICON blockchain to maximize the security of the tracking system. NFC chips and devices function as electronic identity documents and keycards and are currently used in contactless payment systems and mobile payments services that replace credit cards. For The Stin's supply chain, block42 will be fitting 999 bottles of the distiller’s limited-edition gin with crypto-enabled NFC chips. These enable consumers to scan …

The Australian government-backed agricultural supply chain platform Entrust has announced it will operate on Hedera Hashgraph — a distributed ledger platform claiming a transactional throughput of 10,000 transactions per second. South Australia’s premier, Steven Marshall, officially launched Entrust on September 20, describing the platform’s initial focus as protecting the wine and dairy manufacturing industries from counterfeit fraud in the global markets, and driving efficiency savings across agricultural sectors. Entrust is a software-as-a-service platform that tracks the movement of primary products (such as wine grapes) across the local agricultural supply chain, as well as the supply chain of the secondary manufactured …

While it’s notable that some enterprises are beginning to deploy blockchain solutions this year, it’s important to point out that very few have done so. A report from Everest Group Research published in June shows that while 79% of projects have completed their pilot phases, only 7% have been deployed to production in 2020. That being said, it’s impressive that one of the world’s largest retailers has successfully deployed and implemented a blockchain solution. Walmart Canada has adopted DL Freight, a blockchain-based supply chain platform, as its national standard for freight invoices and payment management to be used among 60-plus …

The Indian IT giant Tech Mahindra is planning to build and deploy an array of blockchain solutions on Amazon Managed Blockchain in the next 12 to 18 months. According to a report by The Economic Times on Sept. 7, the technology giant has collaborated with Amazon Web Services and other organizations to deliver its blockchain solution to its customers worldwide. Tech Mahindra, the subsidiary of the Indian conglomerate, Mahindra Group, will work on blockchain solutions for the aviation, telecom and healthcare sectors while also pursuing projects for its banking and financial services, retail, manufacturing, and oil and gas customers. Their …

A supply chain forum featuring local experts and government officials has advocated using blockchain technology to fight the $1.7 billion worth of food fraud annually harming Australia's primary sector. Blockchain Australia deputy chair Rob Allen moderated the online panel discussion on Sept. 4 discussing use-cases for blockchain within the supply chain sector to an audience of more than 150 attendees. Allen set the scene by stating that verifying the authenticity of produce claiming to be Australian-made in local and overseas markets is one of the largest challenges facing the country's agricultural industry. Australia is a major exporter of produce, National …

Dutch logistics solutions provider, Portbase, has successfully completed the first phase of their integration with blockchain-based platform, TradeLens. Together, they will handle operations and core processes for ports in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. According to the announcement, both Portbase and TradeLens expect to create a global ecosystem of carriers, ports, and terminals through a digital port infrastructure management system. Going forward, these upgrades will be powered by TradeLens’ blockchain infrastructure. Iwan van der Wolf, managing director of Portbase, explained how Blockchain is being used to more effectively organize the company’s operations: “It allows all players in the logistical chain to easily, …