Swiss Covantis adds North America to blockchain trade service

A Geneva-headquartered blockchain logistics company has announced that it will be rolling out its services to include North American grains and oilseeds after successfully launching into South America in early 2021, according to a press release published on Monday.

The move brings wheat and sorghum onto the service for the first time, as well as extending the platform into wider meals. 

Covantis is part-owned by the big four ‘ABCD’ agriculture companies of ADM, Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus as well as trade house Viterra and state-backed Chinese trader Cofco.

The service offers a blockchain-backed digital trade platform that is intended to streamline back-office functions into one standard information source.

The new launch widens the number of agriculture products that can be tracked through the system to now include wheat, rapeseed, sorghum, DDGS, cornmeal and sugar beat pulp pellets for the first time.

Trade houses will now be able to execute contracts on bulk vessels loading in the US and Canada, the press release states.

It comes a year after the company launched services for the South American corn, soybeans and soymeal sectors.

“Launching in North America is the next step in building a global network of Agri firms active across the supply chain... By adding the new flows, we will bring more efficiency and increase significantly the volumes executed,” Sorin Albeanu, the company’s Head of Commercial, said.

“As most of the large exporters and traders are already set up on the platform and we cover the largest markets by volume, we expect more buyers to be joining Covantis in the next months,” he said.