CHICAGO & WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. & MINNEAPOLIS & ROTTERDAM, Netherlands--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Driven by opportunities to increase transparency and efficiency for
customers, global agribusinesses are turning to emerging digital
technologies – including blockchain and artificial intelligence options
– to reduce resource- and time-intensive processes associated with the
global agricultural commodity value chain.
Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM) (“ADM”), Bunge Limited (NYSE:
BG) (“Bunge”), Cargill, Incorporated (“Cargill”), and Louis Dreyfus
Company (“LDC”) are investigating ways to standardize and digitize
global agricultural shipping transactions for the benefit of the entire
industry. The companies also seek broad-based industry participation to
promote global access and adoption.
Initially, ADM, Bunge, Cargill and LDC are focused on technologies to
automate grain and oilseed post-trade execution processes, as they
represent a highly manual and costly part of the supply chain, with the
industry spending significant amounts of money every year moving
documents around the globe. Eliminating inefficiencies would lead to
shorter document-processing times, reduced wait times and better
end-to-end contracting visibility.
Longer term, the companies want to drive greater reliability, efficiency
and transparency by replacing other manual, paper-based processes tied
to contracts, invoices and payments, with a more modern, digitally based
approach. Specific benefits would include:
-
Improved quality and reliability of documents and data, with reduced
review time and seamless transfer of transaction data to customers;
-
Greater visibility across supply-chain movements underpinning
transactions, leading to reduced costs associated with shipping,
storage and wait times;
-
Standardized data using technologies accessible to all players,
driving further efficiencies;
-
Compatibility with other applications supporting electronic and
digital solutions, providing an end-to-end experience for users; and
-
Increased efficiency and transparency, enabling the industry to better
serve its customers and consumers.
“We’re pleased to join the effort to foster modernization and
standardization of data and documents in the global agribusiness value
chain. By working together to design and implement a digital
transformation, we will bring hundreds of years of collective knowledge
and experience to simplify processes and reduce errors for the benefit
of the entire industry,” said Juan Luciano, ADM’s Chairman and CEO.
Soren Schroder, Bunge’s CEO, said, “We expect an industry-wide
initiative of this nature to be able to accelerate improvements in data
management and business processes, and bring much-needed automation to
the industry. Promising technologies will not only provide synergies and
efficiencies for ourselves, we believe they will prove vitally important
to serving customers better by laying the foundation to enable greater
transparency.”
David MacLennan, Cargill’s Chairman and CEO, said, “Agriculture has
always been a technology industry. Farmers and our customers expect us
to deliver innovations that make them more efficient, effective and
profitable. We embrace this as an opportunity to better serve the
industry and ignite innovation through new products, processes and
partnerships.”
Ian McIntosh, LDC’s CEO, said, “In January this year, LDC completed the
first agricultural commodity transaction through blockchain, which
showed the technology’s capacity to generate efficiencies and reduce the
time usually spent on manual document and data processing. By working
with the industry to adopt standardized data and processes, we can truly
harness the full potential of emerging technologies to improve global
trade.”
About Archer Daniel Midlands Company
For more than a century, the people of Archer Daniels Midland Company
(NYSE: ADM) have transformed crops into products that serve the vital
needs of a growing world. Today, we’re one of the world’s largest
agricultural processors and food ingredient providers, with
approximately 31,000 employees serving customers in more than 170
countries. With a global value chain that includes approximately 500
crop procurement locations, 270 food and feed ingredient manufacturing
facilities, 44 innovation centers and the world’s premier crop
transportation network, we connect the harvest to the home, making
products for food, animal feed, industrial and energy uses. Learn more
at www.adm.com.
About Bunge Limited
Bunge Limited (www.bunge.com,
NYSE: BG) is a leading global agribusiness and food company operating in
over 40 countries with approximately 32,000 employees. Bunge buys,
sells, stores and transports oilseeds and grains to serve customers
worldwide; processes oilseeds to make protein meal for animal feed;
produces edible oil products for consumers and commercial customers in
the food processing, industrial and artisanal bakery, confectionery,
human nutrition and food service categories; produces sugar and ethanol
from sugarcane; mills wheat, corn and rice to make ingredients used by
food companies; and sells fertilizer in South America. Founded in 1818,
the company is headquartered in White Plains, New York.
About Cargill
Cargill’s 155,000 employees across 70 countries work relentlessly to
achieve our purpose of nourishing the world in a safe, responsible and
sustainable way. Every day, we connect farmers with markets, customers
with ingredients, and people and animals with the food they need to
thrive. We combine 153 years of experience with new technologies and
insights to serve as a trusted partner for food, agriculture, financial
and industrial customers in more than 125 countries. Side-by-side, we
are building a stronger, sustainable future for agriculture.
About Louis Dreyfus Company
Louis Dreyfus Company is a leading merchant and processor of
agricultural goods. We leverage our global reach and extensive asset
network to serve our customers around the world, delivering the right
products to the right location, at the right time – safely, responsibly
and reliably. Our activities span the entire value chain from farm to
fork, across a broad range of business lines (platforms). Since 1851 our
portfolio has grown to include Oilseeds, Grains, Freight, Global
Markets, Coffee, Cotton, Sugar, Rice, Dairy and Juice. We help feed and
clothe some 500 million people every year by originating, processing and
transporting approximately 81 million tons of products. Structured as a
matrix organization of 6 geographical regions and 10 platforms, Louis
Dreyfus Company is active in over 100 countries and employs
approximately 17,000 people globally. For more information, visit www.ldc.com
and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Note on Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the
meaning of U.S. federal securities laws, including statements regarding
the anticipated development, success and benefits of the proposed
digital platform. These statements are made under the "safe harbor"
provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such
as "will" and "expect" and similar statements. Forward-looking
statements are not historical facts and involve inherent risks and
uncertainties. Several factors could cause actual results to differ
materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement,
including in this case the risk that the platform may not be successful
or fully achieve the objectives of the participants. Further information
regarding risks associated with forward-looking statements is included
in Bunge Limited's and Archer Daniels Midland Company's filings with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All statements herein are made
as of the date of this press release, and the participants undertake no
obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement,
whether because of new information, future events or otherwise, except
as required under applicable law.
ADM
Jackie Anderson (USA)
media@adm.com
or
Bunge
Susan Burns (USA)
susan.burns@bunge.com
or
Cargill
April Nelson (USA)
April_Nelson@cargill.com
or
LDC
Karen Saddler (Switzerland)
media@ldc.com