The three companies along with their partners have completed a blockchain-based commodity transaction in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic
Cargill, Agrocorp and Rabobank partner on blockchain commodity trade. (Credit: Pixabay/xresch.)
Cargill, Agrocorp and Rabobank along with other logistics partners have completed a cross-continent commodity trade transaction of wheat from North America to Southeast Asia via a blockchain platform.
The blockchain platform was provided by dltledgers, a Singapore-based software company.
The transaction has been hailed as a new way to ensure global agriculture supply chain can deliver food wherever needed, during testing times of COVID-19 pandemic, said dltledgers.
Valued at $12m, the shipment was settled earlier this month from North America to Indonesia and it occurred between six trading partners including Cargill, Rabobank North America, Rabobank Singapore, shipowner Amarante, shipping agent Transmarine, and agri-commodity trader Agrocorp International.
The partners participated on a common blockchain platform, which was built on the open-source Hyperledger Fabric platform.
Cargill trade execution lead Jennifer Davidson said: “We are constantly seeking ways to work with our partners to help make food and agricultural supply chains more inclusive and respond to demands.
“We see this transaction as the latest example of how working together and using technology to solve challenges can improve trade, as well as traceability, food safety, nutrition and more.”
dltledgers said that the blockchain platform offers a repeatable framework for end-to-end digital trade executions, digitalising the document and trade execution process.
The commodity transaction, worth $12m, took five days to settle
While the trade took five days to settle, a traditional trading process could take up to a month. The platform also created a shared, immutable record of the transaction, which is a single source of truth for all the parties.
Cross-border commodity trading is claimed to be one of the most promising areas for applying blockchain. It offers real-time monitoring by multiple parties while dispensing concerns about data ownership and can simplify the exchange of documents in a digital, secured and decentralised format.
Rabobank key facilitators, Mario Cortinhal in North America and Olivier De Jong in Singapore said: “It’s our mission to digitise trade finance operations. Consensus-driven smart contracts in this deal minimised our time spent on processing documents by more than half. Riding on the success of this test-case, Rabobank is excited to advance the USD 10 trillion trade-finance industry.”
Agrocorp International sustainability manager Abhinav Vijay said: “We have been engaging in digital trade execution using blockchain for over 18 months now and have been able to increase efficiency internally and externally.
“In addition, it is great to partner with Cargill to drive the commodities industry forward. Considering the current world climate and the logistical challenges to move physical documents around the globe, this is just a start and we hope to execute more trades via the platform in the near future.”