PARIS: Covantis, a digital trading platform for agricultural commodities, said on Monday it has added North American crops a year after its initial launch in the Brazilian market.

The North American launch will cover wheat, canola, sorghum, barley, distillers’ dried grains (DDGS), rice, corn meal and beet pulp pellets, as well as soybeans, soybean meal and corn that were already available on the platform, Covantis said in a statement.

The aim is help users execute contracts involving bulk vessels loading in the United States and Canada, it said.

Covantis is among initiatives in the commodity sector using the blockchain - a digital ledger also used by cryptocurrency bitcoin - to improve efficiency by replacing paper documents and email-based communication.