Covantis, a blockchain-based agric-tech firm whose initiative is backed by ConsenSys, has taken another leap in revolutionizing the global trade and supply chain operations.
The effect of blockchain over the years has been cutting across many significant sectors of the economy we see today, as technopreneurs are leveraging on its various inherent advantages; the agricultural sector is not an exception. According to an announcement made on March 31. With the support of other global agribusiness giants such as Cargill and Bunge, Covantis said that it has all the regulatory approvals required and has incorporated as a legal entity in Geneva, Switzerland, as Covantis SA.
The company is a joint initiative co-founded by six members; Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Bunge, Cargill, COFCO, Louis Dreyfus Company and Glencore Agriculture.
Though the legal entity of Covantis has been established, the blockchain platform is still under development as it is expected that the first test would be carried out in May 2020. A spokesperson at the company noted:
“The platform is currently in development. We will start users testing in May and will be planning to launch the 1st release in the second part of 2020 but obviously we need to take in consideration the possible impact of Covid-19.”
Covantis announces a change in its governance structure
While announcing its legal launch, Covantis also announced its governance structure and executive appointments. Stefano Rettore, an independent advisor to the organization whose successor was said to be announced in June 2020 said that, “After a thorough search process, we are very pleased to appoint Petya Sechanova as the company’s CEO,” he also added that, “Petya brings a wealth of industry knowledge to Covantis and has been fundamental in shaping the initiative since its inception in 2018.”
Petya Sechanova who is a veteran in major global supply chain and agricultural companies, such as Cargill and DHL, and has amassed over 20 years of experience including 11 years in the agribusiness giant, Cargill, where she took on various leadership roles with trade operations leader as one of her most recent positions. Petya also occupied a key role for more than four years at DHL, a major global logistics company.
“We’re excited to create Covantis as a company. This paves the way toward launching the first release of our industry-changing digital solution, focusing initially on grains and oilseeds post-trade execution processes,” Sechanova said. “In conversations with stakeholders around the world and up and down the value chain, we’ve heard time and again how critical it is for our entire industry to modernize our outdated global grain trading operations. Now that we’ve received regulatory approvals and incorporated Covantis as a legal entity, we focus on the preparation of the 2020 launch of the new platform.”
The role of ConsenSys in the entire scheme of things
The recent news about Covantis records yet another milestone to the development of the long-awaited project which was first laid out in October 2018, when four agribusiness giants announced a joint project to digitize global shipping transactions using blockchain.
In January 2020, Covantis selected Ethereum-focused platform, ConsenSys as its primary technology partner for creating a blockchain platform which aims at digitising the post-trade finance industry and global agribusiness supply chain. The upcoming platform will be based on the Ethereum blockchain and will initially focus on automating grain and oilseed post-trade execution processes.
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