Agridex completed its first coffee transaction on the Solana blockchain, reducing transaction fees from 5-7% to just 0.5% and shortening payment times from 5-12 days to just a few seconds.
On December 25, the real-world asset (RWA) platform Agridex, operating on the Solana blockchain, marked a significant milestone in applying blockchain technology to agriculture with the first coffee transaction fully executed on-chain.
This transaction, conducted by Tiki Tonga Coffee, a coffee brand in the UK exporting premium coffee to South Africa, demonstrated the potential of blockchain technology in optimizing costs and transaction times for agricultural products.
Tiki Tonga Coffee used the Agridex platform to pay in South African rand and reconcile in British pounds through blockchain. The results showed that the transaction only incurred a fee of 0.5%, significantly lower than the 5-7% fees typically seen in cross-border transactions involving agricultural goods.
Payment times have also been significantly shortened, from 5-12 days to instantaneous. Mr. Brad Barritt, founder of Tiki Tonga Coffee, emphasized the benefits of applying this technology not only in saving transaction costs but also in reducing the burden of managing documentation and regulatory compliance.
The potential of tokenizing real-world assets.
Agridex is currently providing instant payment services for various agricultural products, including livestock, wine, and olive oil. According to information from the company, Agridex is processing transaction volumes worth 4.5 billion USD from partners in the agriculture sector.
Agridex's earlier fundraising of 9 million USD from major investors such as Citadel, Goldman Sachs, and Palantir (according to Cointelegraph) further affirms the growth potential of this platform. The involvement of major names in the financial sector indicates their confidence in the ability to apply blockchain technology to revolutionize agriculture.
Tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) is emerging as one of the top applications of blockchain technology, and the agriculture sector is expected to be one of the most benefiting fields. The conversion of real assets into digital tokens not only expands the accessibility of these assets to a wider audience but also reduces investment barriers and optimizes transactions.
Mr. Jon Trask, CEO of agricultural technology company Dimitra, noted that tokenizing RWA bridges the gap between agriculture and blockchain by digitizing assets such as crops, land, and carbon credits.
The application of blockchain in agriculture is also expected to address critical challenges that the sector faces, including inefficiency, limited technical support, environmental degradation, and lack of transparency in the supply chain. Mr. Henry Duckworth, co-founder and CEO of Agridex, stated that blockchain platforms like Agridex enable farmers to sell products directly to buyers, eliminating costly intermediaries, thus increasing profits for farmers.
The American agriculture sector contributes 5.5% to the gross domestic product. Source: USDA.
According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), the agriculture sector contributes about 5.5% to the United States' gross domestic product (GDP). The total value of agricultural land in the United States has exceeded 3 trillion USD, indicating the enormous scale of this market.
