Slowly emerging from the proof of concept stage, blockchain in trade finance is now being applied for real life scenarios. During Hong Kong's Fintech Week, for instance, several banks were able to conduct their first blockchain-based trade finance transactions on the city's eTradeConnect platform.

Among the first batch of transactions included a purchase of supplies by furniture retailer Pricerite Home from its supplier Pro Logic. Pricerite was able to submit a trade finance request directly to their bank HSBC. According to the bank application, approval times compressed markedly, from 1.5 days to just four hours.

"Hong Kong has an important role to play in reshaping how global trade is financed. Trade finance has been a heavily paper-based industry with transactions worth over US$9 trillion in 2017. The eTradeConnect platform provides our customers an improved digital experience, including faster turnaround times and a way for each participant to see the steps involved from purchase order to financing," says Diana Cesar, chief executive, Hong Kong at HSBC.

In Singapore, DBS recently announced that it had worked with its commodity client, Agrocorp, on creating a blockchain trade finance platform for commodity trade. Under the platform, Agrocorp's supply chain participants such as famers are now able to view real-time updates on commodity prices and delivery information. According to the bank, Agrocorp is able to shorten the trade financing cycle by about 20 days with this solution.

Under the scheme all sales and purchase agreements are subsequently stored on the blockchain platform and are connected to DBS through the bank's application programming interface (API) framework to request financing from Agrocorp and/or release payment to the farmer.

"Commodities has been an industry that has traditionally been slow to embrace technology. But amid an increasingly competitive landscape, more industry players are turning to blockchain as a means to broaden the reach of their business to stay ahead of the curve," states Vishal Vijay, head of business development at Agrocorp.

"The convenience that an online platform brings to supply chain participants also fosters loyalty within the network, which generates greater trust between parties over time, allowing each trade to be completed quicker and with ease," he adds.

The blockchain platform aims to connect with about 4,500 of the company's farmers in Australia. In the next 12-18 months the company has plans to broaden the platform to other markets such as Canada, Myanmar, Ivory Coast and Ukraine.

"Cash flow and working capital are the lifeblood of companies and blockchain opens the doors to new business opportunities with trusted partners. The blockchain platform solution provides not only transparency, but also greater speed with which the business and its vendors can transact and finance their cross-border trades. The traceability that blockchain provides also offers much needed security when dealing with a new counterparty," says Raof Latiff, managing director and group head of digital, institutional banking group at DBS.