Covantis adds North American market and new commodities to blockchain platform
The move, said the organization, follows the successful launch of the platform in Brazil in February last year. Client trading firms can now execute their contracts involving bulk vessels loading in US and Canada.
On top of soybeans, soybean meal and corn, the company said that new commodities including wheat, canola, sorghum, barley, DDGS, rice, corn meal and beat pulp pellets have been added in the platform.
And over 50 legal entities across 16 agri groups are now setup in the platform to execute all their shipments for the newly added commodities and markets.
Building new capabilities
An independent legal entity based in Geneva, Covantis was incorporated in March 2020. Its digital platform is leveraging technology to modernize cumbersome post-trade execution processes, with a focus on grain and oilseeds operations.
The company said it is continuously investing in building new capabilities to increase value in the field of trading operations, covering the whole supply chain from origin to destination.
“After Brazil, launching in North America is the next step in building a global network of agri firms active across the supply chain, buying, selling on an FOB or CFR basis. By adding the new flows, we will bring more efficiency and increase significantly the volumes executed by half of our client firms buying not only Brazilian, but also North American grains and oilseeds. As most of the large exporters and traders are already setup on the platform and we cover the largest markets by volume, we expect more buyers to be joining Covantis in the next months,” said Sorin Albeanu, head of commercial, Covantis.
Marubeni signs up
In December, Covantis announced that Japan’s Marubeni was to invest and acquire shares in the blockchain startup. It would acquire, following regulatory approvals, equal ownership and rights as the initial shareholders of Covantis: ADM, Bunge, Cargill, COFCO Corporation, Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) and Viterra.
In May 2021, James Zhou, chief commercial officer of LDC, told FeedNavigator that that agribusiness giant sees blockchain technology as a key enabler of the industry’s digital transformation. “Blockchain can remove inefficiencies in a complex process, creating trust through data certification, enhancing data security, and by driving supply chain transparency and product traceability.”
Rapid evolution
And Zhou said the Covantis platform was evolving incredibly quickly:
“As co-founders of Covantis we are seeing increasing buy-in from a wide range of industry participants to adopt it and buy in to the many benefits it has to offer. The more participants join the network and bring their business volume, the more value is generated in the ecosystem and the faster it can scale to other regions, more agri-commodities and additional functional scope.”
