After seeing the agricultural shift towards blockchain, sugar traders have started showing their enthusiasm for the distributed ledger technology. Possibly, the sector will also adopt blockchain for enhancing the supply chain management of sugar by streamlining trading and shipping transactions.

With an intent to study the scope of blockchain in the sugar industry, Jamal Al Ghurair, Managing Director of UAE-based Al Khaleej Sugar, had invited the industry’s stakeholders for a meeting held in Dubai. The participants included ABN Amro Bank NV, and Societe Generale SA, and Consensys, a blockchain startup incubator.

In addition, a working group was formed last year, dubbed as the Dubai Blockchain Declaration, to build a plan on how to standardize and digitize agribusiness using blockchain and artificial intelligence. The members of the group are Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., Bunge Ltd., Cargill Inc., and Louis Dreyfus Co. – popularly called as the ABCDs of the industry.

As reported, the group will be headed by Jacob Robbins,former sugar buyer at Coca-Cola Co. and CEO at Emeterra agribusiness. The other members will include industry experts such as Jeff Bauml, who worked at R.J. O’Brien & Associates and Phillip Brothers earlier; and Nigel Durham of the Sugar Association of London.