After years of hard work between PwC Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and the Port of Brisbane a new blockchain based ‘trade community system’ has been introduced. The proof-of-concept app has been launched today and it aims to improve international trade efficiency by offering supply chain information over a blockchain based system.

The platform seeks to improve productivity and reduce costs while connecting commercial operators within the supply chain business and international freight forwarding. According to the press release made by PwC there are 9 million containers moved from Australia’s 5 biggest ports every year and this number is expected to increase to 15 million by 2025.

Other important cornerstones of the supply chain management PoC will help eliminating duplication and human error with the use of a public decentralized ledger where all the data is shared and updated continually. The idea of this project was inspired by Australia’s national freight and supply chain players. Ben Lannan from PwC expressed:

“The Trade Community System proof of concept is the first stage in building an innovative end-to-end supply chain that will digitize the flow of trading information, improve connectivity for supply chain participants, reduce friction for business and reduce supply chain costs, providing unprecedented productivity gains for Australia’s international businesses.”

Brisbane is one of Australia’s busiest multi-cargo port counting 1.22 million container movements during last year. With such numbers, human errors are unavoidable, hence the implementation of the newest technologies are inevitable. Bryan Clark, director of Trande and International Affairs stated the following:

“The current inefficiency across Australian supply chains has added to the cost of doing business, creating up to $450 in excess costs per container: This doesn’t just represent in excess of $1bn in value lost, but goes to the heart of Australian commodity trade viability when it gets priced out of the competitive global market.”

Australia is not hesitant and truly believes that blockchain technology is something that deserves a lot of attention. Government officials reported that the prime minister of the country has decided to establish a budget of $530.000 on researching the possible cases where blockchain could be implemented.