New Zealand bank used blockchain to send meat to South Korea

A prominent bank has claimed a piece of New Zealand’s exporting history, by sending some meat to Korea and tracking it with its fancy new blockchain system.

ASB, a subsidiary of Australia’s Commonwealth Bank, says it has conducted New Zealand’s first “bank blockchain” trade. Kiwi meat exporter Greenlea Premier Meats conducted the meat trade with a large Korean importer.

The bank’s blockchain platform was used in parallel to the traditional trade process, indicating ASB probably didn’t trust it enough to rely on its distributed ledger tech (DLT) just yet, a wise move.

The idea is to use ASB’s blockchain to reduce the time local exporters spend on documenting the trade process, reducing exposure to fraud and cyber security threats in the process.