Today the enterprise blockchain Covantis announced it has gone into production with its agribusiness network. The commodities post-trade solution was founded by six of the world’s largest agribusiness firms, ADM, Bunge, Cargill, COFCO, Louis Dreyfus Company and Viterra (formerly Glencore Agriculture).
The initial use case covers bulk shipments of corn and soybean from Brazil exported worldwide. It aims is to optimize trade execution by enabling shippers, traders and charters to collaborate.
Covantis is using the enterprise blockchain Quorum, which uses Ethereum’s technology.
The founding members are involved in this initial phase. Covantis says it has virtually onboarded hundreds of users from 30 entities. The next step is to onboard other industry players that are active in the Brazilian corn and soybean markets.
“Two years ago, we set out on a journey to transform a system of global trade that had changed very little for the last century,” said Petya Sechanova, CEO of Covantis. “It’s been an exciting process, as we advanced from identifying this crucial need, to working with industry participants across the supply chain to explore and understand the needs of the market, to building a secure and trusted digital network.”
She continued, “Today, we’re proud to launch our industry-changing digital platform in time for the beginning of the Brazilian export season. We look forward to working with our partners to use this technology to enhance efficiencies and reduce operational risk in this first key market,” said Petya Sechanova, CEO of Covantis.
The consortium was first unveiled in October 2018 by Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus. COFCO and Glencore Agriculture (Viterra) joined later. ConsenSys was selected as the lead technology partner in January 2020, and the company was incorporated in March 2020 in Geneva. The Swedish city is also home to commodity trade finance platform komgo, also a ConsenSys client, although komgo’s current focus is oil.
