Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), a leading global provider of data, technology and market infrastructure, and home to the largest soft commodity futures and options markets in the world, today announced that ICE Benchmark Administration Limited (IBA) is collaborating with Meridia Land B.V (Meridia), an agricultural technology company specializing in the verification of farm origin and supply chain data, to launch the ICE Commodity Traceability (ICE CoT) service.
ICE CoT is a technology platform designed to maintain the frictionless trade of physical cocoa and coffee by supporting these industries’ compliance with the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). Europe is the largest market for cocoa and coffee worldwide.
ICE CoT aims to automate the process of submitting, storing, and validating the information necessary for cocoa and coffee operators and traders to ensure and demonstrate compliance of their products with the regulation. ICE CoT is aimed at supporting all commercial trade affected by the EUDR.
“Meridia have proven expertise in the risk assessment and verification of farm origin and supply chain data, and its methodologies and technology will be embedded within ICE CoT to provide robust validation for farm and traceability data provided by cocoa and coffee traders and operators,” said Clive de Ruig, President of IBA.
“Customers will be able to register and validate parcels of beans and products in ICE CoT, which can be maintained and tracked as they are traded, divided, and processed along the supply chain,” continued de Ruig. “ICE CoT will provide continuous and independent validation of the traceability data from the initial parcel to its ultimate use or export, giving confidence to operators and traders of the quality and compliance of the data underlying the product.”
“ICE’s objective to ensure that cocoa and coffee remain easily tradable is closely aligned with Meridia’s mission to deliver services that ensure the future of sustainable smallholder supply chains, for whom continued frictionless access to EU markets is so critical,” said Thomas Vaassen, CEO of Meridia. “ICE CoT is an excellent example of how our expertise in farm origin and supply chain data verification can be used to support all stakeholders in complex supply chains.”
ICE provides the largest markets in the world to trade cocoa and coffee through its benchmark Cocoa, London Cocoa, Coffee C® and Robusta Coffee futures and options markets. Last year the equivalent of over 500 million tons traded on ICE’s cocoa and coffee markets.
IBA anticipates launching ICE CoT in 2024, in advance of the regulation entering into application for operators and traders on December 30, 2024, and remains subject to further testing, system and data availability, and any regulatory contingencies. For more information on ICE CoT, please contact IBA-ICECoT@ice.com.
