Walmart participates in first of kind seafood blockchain pilot

Walmart has tapped blockchain technology to track its Indian-sourced shrimp to select Sam's Club stores in the US.

The pilot project is the first known use of blockchain for shrimp exports from an Indian farmer to an overseas retailer, according to a report by LiveMint. Walmart has worked on the project with Andhra Pradesh-based seafood processor Sandhya Aqua and US-based supplier Stanley Pearlman Enterprises, using the blockchain-enabled IBM Food Trust system.

“The possibility of transforming the seafood community with blockchain technology exists and organisations need to do the work to test its potential to optimise supply chain processes,” says John Connelly, President at the National Fisheries Institute in the US.

“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 programmes an important step. It is encouraging to see a retail leader like Walmart participate in seafood blockchain testing.”

“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," comments Chowdary Kunam, MD at Sandhya Aqua.