A recent soybean shipment from the US to China has become "the first full agricultural commodity transaction using a blockchain platform," according to a consortium of banks and trading businesses involved, the Business Times reports.
The deal involved agricultural trading businesses Louis Dreyfus Company and Shandong Bohi Industry, and banks ING, Societe Generale, and ABN Amro announced.
"We noticed very significant efficiency gains ... far beyond what we expected," Robert Serpollet, global head of trade operations at Louis Dreyfus, said.
He added that the time spent on processing documents and data had been reduced five-fold.
"Cost saving is key as we operate in a business that has high volumes and very low margins," ING's Mr van Vliet said.
"If not months, then in a year or at max two, I think the world in this space will look quite different," he added, referring to the potential widespread adoption of the technology in agricultural commodity trading.
Financial institutions have been investing large sums globally to test whether the technology can be used to simplify transactions in many different markets.
According to a report by the Business Insider, Canadian-British blockchain company BTL announced that European energy trading businesses Eni Trading & Shipping, Total, Gazprom Marketing & Trading, Mercuria, Vattenfall, Petroineos, and Freepoint are all trialling its technology for back-office settlement of trades.