Walmart on Friday announced that “it is piloting blockchain technology for end-to-end traceability of shrimp sourced in Andhra Pradesh and shipped to select Sam’s Club locations in the US.” The pilot project is the first known use of blockchain technology to track shrimp exports from the farmer in India to an overseas retailer. Ultimately, it will help seafood farmers in the region to strengthen the shrimp supply chain and reinforce customer trust in the product, helping promote India as a preferred source of seafood, while also enhancing food traceability and transparency for consumers in the US, says a press release.

The US imports 46 per cent of shrimp exported from India and Andhra Pradesh is the leading shrimp exporting State in the country. Blockchain is a way to digitise data and share information across a complex supply chain network in a secure and trusted manner.

The introduction of blockchain in the shrimp supply chain could help improve the quality of information on the product for compliance purposes and for sharing with consumers, providing added traceability beginning at the farm and extending throughout the transportation process. It could also monitor food safety procedures throughout the growth and processing of the shrimp.

For this pilot project, the company has worked closely with Andhra Pradesh-based seafood processor, Sandhya Aqua, and a US-based supplier Stanley Pearlman Enterprises.

“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,” said Chowdary Kunam, the managing director of Sandhya Aqua.

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