Covantis, a blockchain agribusiness initiative backed by major industry company ConsenSys, has taken another step towards transforming global trade and supply chain operations.

Backed by global agribusiness giants like Cargill and Bunge, Covantis has been officially established as a legal entity in Geneva after receiving all necessary regulatory approval.

First tests are expected to be carried out in May 2020

According to a March 31 announcement, the company is the joint initiative of six founding members: Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Bunge, Cargill, COFCO, Louis Dreyfus Company and Glencore Agriculture.

While Covantis’s legal entity has been established, the blockchain platform is still under development. Covantis told Cointelegraph that it expects to start testing the platform as soon as 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 names Cargill veteran Petya Sechanova as CEO

Alongside the legal launch, Covantis also announced its governance structure and executive appointments. Petya Sechanova, a Cargill and DHL veteran, has been appointed to serve as the company’s CEO, while Stefano Rettore will continue in his role as an independent advisor to the board until his successor will be announced in June 2020.

As announced, Sechanova brings more than 20 years of experience in major global supply chain and agricultural companies, including 11 years with agribusiness giant Cargill where she served as trade operations leader. Petya also worked more than four years at DHL, a major global logistics company.

ConsenSys provides tech support for the project that was first announced in October 2018

The latest Covantis news brings yet another milestone to the development of the long-awaited project. As reported by Cointelegraph, the concept of Covantis was first laid out in October 2018, when four of the biggest global agribusinesses firms announced a joint project to digitize global shipping transactions using blockchain.

In January 2020, Covantis selected Ethereum-focused firm ConsenSys as its primary technology partner for creating a blockchain platform to digitize the post-trade finance industry and global agribusiness supply chain. As reported, the upcoming platform is going to be based on the Ethereum blockchain and will initially focus on automating grain and oilseed post-trade execution processes.

Earlier in March, Cointelegaph reported on United Kingdom-based startup Agriledger building a new blockchain-powered ecosystem aiming to bring more transparency to the supply chain while streamlining crop sales.