Appearance
What the exchange is
AgriTrade Exchange is a warehouse-receipt exchange for East African crops: cassava, sorghum and millet, and the products made from them, such as starch, syrup, flour and malt.
A farmer or supplier delivers a crop to a registered warehouse. The warehouse weighs it, a laboratory tests it, and the exchange records the deposit as a lot and issues a warehouse receipt: a document that says what is in the warehouse, how much, of what quality, and who delivered it. Buyers order against those receipts; the exchange moves the goods by truck, across borders if need be, and settles the money.
What it does
| Area | What the exchange keeps |
|---|---|
| Warehouses | Registered warehouses, their capacity, intakes, lab readings, inspections, processing (cassava roots into starch, for example), and releases of goods |
| Receipts | A receipt per deposit, verifiable by anyone from its QR code, and early payouts to the farmer against it |
| Market | Listings and an order book; orders off the market list, or direct with a buyer |
| Logistics | Vehicles, trips, gate passes sent to the driver's phone, checkpoints, border clearance papers, cash paid at borders |
| Invoicing | Order and freight invoices with VAT, verifiable public copies, and Kenya Revenue Authority eTIMS signing (being connected) |
| Money | Escrow, payments, payouts and driver advances, moving on rails: Stellar, Celo, M-Pesa, Airtel, card and driver virtual cards |
| Governance | Disputes, custody records, users and roles, and an audit trail of every change |
Why a blockchain
The receipt contract on Celo is the exchange's ledger of goods. Each deposit is its own token, carrying its lab readings, warehouse and date. Processing burns the input and mints the output in one step, so roots and the starch made from them are never on the books at the same time. Goods leaving the warehouse burn their tokens. So:
- the kilograms on the ledger are the kilograms in the warehouses;
- a receipt can be traced back to the farm it came from (provenance);
- the same goods cannot be promised to two buyers.
Today the exchange holds every receipt on chain as the holder of record and keeps who owns what in its own records. Parties do not need a crypto wallet to use it.
Who uses it
| Who | What they do |
|---|---|
| Farmers and suppliers | Deliver crops; receive receipts and early payouts |
| Warehouse operators | Take crops in, test, process and release them |
| The trade desk | Runs orders, parties, vehicles and trips |
| Finance | Invoices, escrow, payouts, approvals of every payment out |
| Transporters and drivers | Carry the goods; receive freight payments and money for the road |
| Border champions | Record arrivals, papers and cash at border posts |
| Buyers | Order, pay invoices, fund escrow |
| Banks and lenders | Verify receipts before lending against them |
Staff sign in to the exchange; buyers, farmers and banks use the public pages for receipts and invoices. See Roles and sign-in.
Next: How a trade moves.