ARGENTINA, 11 March 2022: In Argentina, Santander has teamed up with Agrotoken to provide agricultural products-based credits for farmers.

Already, a pilot has been conducted with local producers, enabling them to access financing for products such as corn, soya beans, and wheat.

Each token represents one tonne of grain sold and delivered by the farmer to a wholesaler. In addition, these tonnes of grain are also validated through a Proof of Grain Reserve certificate, a system that the partners say is transparent, secure, decentralised and auditable.

Once the farmers have their digital assets, the agrotokens can be used to carry out various transactions, taking into account the three price indices set in aggregate with the Matba Rofex group, which reflect in real-time the value of the grains.

"This is the first time that a financial services platform has used blockchain and crypto assets technology to expand the agricultural credit market and unlock the farmer’s business potential,” says Fernando Bautista, head, agribusiness, Santander Argentina.

“This is the first global experience in backing loans with tokens based on agrocommodities such as soya beans, corn and wheat. Together with Santander, we are creating a number of financial products to provide farmers with a service where they can easily access a new system of credits backed by the sale of their grains,” said Eduardo Novillo Astrada, CEO and co-founder of Agrotoken.