Agridex’s Duckworth on streamlining ag value chains with blockchain

Blockchain, as IBM puts it, is a divisible and immutable ledger, which tracks all kinds of data, including financial transactions, and which can only be accessed by authorized members of a network with which the ledger is shared.

Its benefits span traceability, secure data storage, decentralization to cut out middlemen and enable direct peer-to-peer transactions – and what better place to bring this technology than in agricultural marketplaces?

The UK’s Agridex, founded in 2020 by Svetlana Fialova and Henry Duckworth, brings transparency and accessibility to actors along the ag value chain, from farmers to processors, logistics companies, financial institutions and consumers.

The platform, which runs on blockchain, is an end-to-end supply chain platform and marketplace that facilitates the trading of electronic coins.

It claims to offer players i the agricultural industry is a transparent and integrated marketplace with its own internal economy, using Fiat-on-Chain, smart contracts and participation control, AgriDex offers a fully compliant, streamlined solution for agricultural supply chain management.

AFN caught up with Duckworth, a former trader at Trafigura. He went on to influence investments under a number of hedge funds that propelled him into the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, where he admittedly came to see the realities of food insecurity.

“This sparked a strong interest in financing and assisting the growth of ag companies in the emerging world, starting in West Africa and South Asia, before expanding across several emerging regions,” he says.

Years in the industry exposed him to how agricultural supply chains were prone to exploitation, and this was costly for players, especially small farmers.

Besides his passion for entrepreneurship, Duckworth (HD) positions connectivity and blockchain as solutions to streamline ag value chains while addressing the skepticism surrounding digital tokens.

AFN: What excites you and keeps you going as an entrepreneur?

HD: When I was younger, connectivity was a huge problem on the African continent; the cost of installing and running proper telephone lines meant that whole regions suffered from a lack of regular contact and reliable communication. Then cell phone and telecom entrepreneurs burst onto the scene, and suddenly the whole issue was skipped over. I saw low-wage workers unlock the ability to call back to their village at a reasonable price.

The same thing happened further with mobile money transfers that revolutionized existing banking structures, with people now able to transfer smaller amounts of money at a lower cost.

The idea that a passionate application of solutions can be linked to real-world financial benefits was fascinating and continues to drive me. Connection excites me and keeps me going.

It also underpins my data-oriented skills, which is why I ended up in the world of decentralized ledgers and blockchain.

AFN: What problems did you identify in global food systems that led to the creation of AgriDex? Why is blockchain a necessity to streamline global food supply chains?

HD: The global food industry has struggled with a number of persistent challenges that have affected farmers’ success and sustainability.

High costs imposed by middlemen and uncertain prices have made it challenging for farmers to secure their future profits. In addition, the opaque and inefficient supply chain, which is vulnerable to fraud and exploitation, has further complicated the situation. Small and independent farmers in particular face high costs due to their reliance on intermediaries such as banks and third-party payment processors, which charge significant fees.

In response to these challenges, AgriDex was established as a solution that harnesses the transformative power of blockchain technology to revolutionize the global food supply chain. Our platform connects all players in the industry with digital marketplaces and supply chain information, empowering farmers to improve their supply chain management and traceability of food products.

By providing real-time data on food demand and supply, our platform equips farmers with the ability to make informed decisions, predict consumer trends and reduce food waste and surplus. From small-scale farmers to large commercial producers, blockchain technology provides a path to a more efficient, sustainable and profitable food supply chain.

People all over the world want to know where their food comes from, what the producers were paid and how it got to them. Historically, there has been no effective way to provide this information to consumers – partly because retailers and manufacturers rightly don’t want to share it, and partly because it’s difficult to gather all these data points under one roof.

By offering a digital marketplace based on its own layer 1 and 2 technology, we have the transaction capacity to do just that, along with alleviating people’s security and privacy concerns.

AFN: How does AgriDex leverage blockchain to impact food systems? And what advantages does your platform have over conventional online marketplaces for ag production?

HD: Blockchain technology has emerged as a crucial component in streamlining the global food supply chains due to its unique features and benefits. Blockchain provides a secure, transparent and tamper-proof digital ledger that records transactions and other important data in real time.

This level of transparency and accessibility allows all participants in the supply chain, including farmers, suppliers, processors and retailers, to have a clear and shared understanding of the journey of food products.

By removing intermediaries and enabling direct peer-to-peer transactions, blockchain eliminates the high fees associated with traditional middlemen and provides cost savings for farmers, especially small and independent growers. This helps level the playing field for small farmers and improves their competitiveness in the industry.

Moreover, the permanent public record of transactions provided by blockchain helps build trust between farmers and consumers by promoting greater accountability along the supply chain. Consumers can easily trace the origin of their products and farmers can track the value generated by their products, giving them greater control over their profits.

The traceability of food products has also been significantly improved with blockchain technology. It can be used to record data from farm to shelf, providing a secure and accurate picture of the products’ journey, including the date of harvest and the location of the farm, increasing the authenticity of organic and fair trade products and making them more accessible to consumers who are increasingly interested in the origin of their food.

AgriDex is built on the L3COS system, which has incredibly high computational power. This enables us to register large amounts of data flow correctly in a short time.

Currently, there are very few competitors in this field, and we believe none share our speed or vision.

AFN: How many users do you have and which markets do you currently operate in?

HD: We are currently in launch mode, so we have several launch partners and are in the minimal viable product (MVP) stage, but this year is really our big launch.

It’s not just our marketplace that we’re excited about, our next big retail offering will be our closed-loop agricultural payment system ‘ARTiSN’, coming out soon. This will use fiat-on-chain technology to provide near-instant payments at a fraction of current international market prices.

AFN: What is a system of governance and how did it come about?

HD: Governance tokens are a very exciting technology because they bring an element of direct democracy to the operation of our company and our foundation. They can be bought and traded globally, and their ownership structure is known and secure. Along with this, you can directly route a myriad of benefits to them as percentages of earnings and effort.

We can consider it a development of historical interest in a company – an alternative route for retail investors to become involved in our story. The idea is rooted in allowing decentralized choices in the direction of the platform.

Token holders will be able to hold the group and its directors accountable, along with benefiting from tokens increasing in value. Traditional methods of raising money may seem tried and tested, but we feel that a token better represents the group’s philosophy, including decentralized structures and blockchain security.

AFN: How do you handle cryptocurrency skepticism?

HD: There is a big difference between historical cryptocurrencies and our kind of digital token.

Ours is not just a payment mechanism – it represents a wider, distinct world usage. If there is skepticism about our digital tokens, it is a natural reaction to new technology, but we at Agridex understand that education and transparency are the keys to overcoming it.

Our team has made a concerted effort to provide clear and comprehensive information about the use of digital tokens in our platform and how they can benefit farmers and other players in the global food supply chain.

By demonstrating the secure and efficient nature of blockchain technology and the benefits it brings in terms of cost savings, transparency and improved supply chain management, we aim to dispel any misconceptions and ease any concerns.

In addition, we have implemented robust security measures to ensure the safe and secure use of digital tokens on our platform. This includes the use of encryption and secure data storage, as well as regular auditing and updating of our systems.

AgriDex has gone through a huge amount of legal and regulatory hurdles in the last 2 years, which means we are ahead of the game.

AFN: What does success look like for the platform?

HD: I am always fascinated by the amount of unnecessary paperwork that occurs in the global trading system. By using AgriDex’s smart contracts, a lot of paperwork and paper waste will be reduced.

Success at a large commercial level will lead to a better managed global food supply chain with major players benefiting from our system. Our aim is to have 30,000 large businesses operating on the AgriDex platform by 2026, with key food standards looking to us as a seal of approval, and large traders and consumers as a place to check price and quality.

We aim for our governance symbols to accurately reflect our vision – direct democracy and real value for their holders.

AFN: What is the sentiment among investors towards your platform?

HD: We successfully closed our last smaller raise in 2022, giving us an additional $4.1 million (£3.5 million) for team expansion, and are now preparing for the next step, which is the release of our governance token that will expand our product on a global scale.

Given our extremely advanced technology and potential margins, consumer interest is understandably high. I can reveal that we have already pre-sold a significant amount and expect great interest on the stock exchange.

The tokens have several benefits, and given how one of them is a reduction of fees on the platform, we have a list of launch partners who will buy the governance token in large allocation blocks.