COFCO International joins with Cargill, Bunge and others to digitize agricultural commodity trade operations using blockchain and AI

COFCO International, the overseas agribusiness platform of Chinese food giant COFCO Corporation, is joining other global food and agricultural firms in their efforts to standardize data and digitize global agricultural trade transactions.

In October 2018, Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, Cargill, and Louis Dreyfus Company teamed up to explore emerging digital technologies – including blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) – to reduce resource- and time-intensive processes associated with the global agricultural commodity value chain.

COFCO International is the latest to join the cohort.

“We are pleased to join this initiative as a founding member,” said Johnny Chi, Chairman and CEO of COFCO International. “Emerging technologies like blockchain give us the opportunity to create a transparent, secure and efficient platform and transform global agricultural trade operations. Our shared vision is to develop a new standard available to everyone, bringing industry-wide benefits.”

The initiative is initially focusing on developing technologies to automate grain and oilseed post-trade execution processes. The objective is to reduce costs and resources needed to move documents around the globe.

“With a focus on making functionality available as early as possible, immediate next steps include identifying suitable technology solutions and engaging partners that can deliver the efficiencies of automated grain and oilseed trade execution,” the official release said.