Commodity Merchant Louis Dreyfus Trials Blockchain for Soybean Trade

Louis Dreyfus, a major commodities trading company, has announced that it has piloted a blockchain-based transaction system developed by a group of financial institutions including ING.

In addition to Louis Dreyfus, one of the world's largest commodities traders, the test involved Shandong Bohi Industry Co., Ltd (Bohi) and financial institutions ING, Societe Generale and ABN Amro. The Easy Trade Connect (ETC) platform, as previously reported by CoinDesk, grew out of efforts at ING and has been subject to testing by firms like Mercuria.

Yet instead of oil, the latest test focused on agricultural products such as soybeans, of which Bohi is a significant trader. According to the companies that took part, the test involved a shipment of soybeans from the U.S. to China, with all of the relevant documentation (including the sales contract and the letter of credit) existing within the platform.

Shipping firms Russell Marine Group and Blue Water Shipping also took part, according to today's announcement.

"Distributed ledger technologies have been evolving rapidly, bringing more efficiency and security to our transactions, and immense expected benefits for our customers and everyone along the supply chain as a result," Gonzalo Ramírez Martiarena, Louis Dreyfus' CEO, said in a statement.

In remarks, Martiarena suggested that the company would play a role in future developments around the project, including on the standardization front.

"The next step is to harness the potential for further development through the adoption of common standards, and welcome a truly new era of digital trade flow management on a global level," he was quoted as saying.

Soybean farm image via Shutterstock