PARIS, FRANCE – Covantis, a digital trading platform for agricultural commodities, announced on Feb. 7 that it has added North American crops a year after its initial launch in the Brazilian market.

Now available on the North American trading platform are wheat, canola, sorghum, barley, distillers’ dried grains (DDGS), rice corn meal. Soybeans, soybean meal and corn already had been available on the platform, Covantis said.

The added commodities enable client trading firms to execute their contracts involving bulk vessels loading in the United States and Canada. 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, Covantis said.

“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 a FOB or CFR basis,” said Sorin Albeanu, head of commercial, Covantis. “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.”

Covantis is among initiatives in the commodity sector using the blockchain — a digital ledger also used by cryptocurrency bitcoin — to improve efficiency by replacing paper documents and email-based communication. Its founding members are global crop merchants Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, Cargill, COFCO International, Louis Dreyfus Company and Viterra.

Covantis optimizes the trade execution process by connecting in one platform exporters, elevators, forwarders, traders and CFR buyers to effectively exchange critical data such as contractual notices, instructions and documents. The company said it continuously invests in building new capabilities to increase value in the area of trade operations, covering the whole supply chain from origin to destination.