The B2B payment and lending solution provider Cirralto has entered into an agreement with James Tyler and Fresh Supply Co. to accelerate fresh produce trade relationships between Australia and China via cross-border Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) finance agreements.
The agreement is set to facilitate better trade partnerships between Australian fresh produce providers and Chinese retailers, whilst enabling Australian providers to boost their sales volumes and invest in growth initiatives to better support high pre-aggregated market demand in China, as facilitated by James Tyler.
Australian fresh food producers can now export with mitigated risk through upfront payment and fully controlled customs clearing, enabled through integration between James Tyler, Cirralto, and the data layer Fresh Supply Co.
Australian producers are granted a cash flow injection to support increased production of fresh fruit yields while gaining certainty over their order volumes and predicted cash flow.
Historically Australian fresh produce providers have been under-utilising their farming potential due to an uncertainty in buyer demand, which limits their earnings.
James Tyler addresses this long-standing issue by providing Aussie producers with direct access to major Chinese fresh-food platforms; alongside pre-determined sales volumes.
China remains Australia’s largest two-way trading partner, accounting for nearly one-third of the country’s world trade in 2019.
However, the Department of Foriegn Affairs and Trade (DFAT) reported that recent economic instability and cash flow pressures, largely driven by the global pandemic, have caused this volume to decrease by 3% in 2020.
This agreement, which is supported by embedding operational data from the Fresh Supply Co network into the Mastercard Provenance Solution, is helping to create stronger trade relationships, better trust and greater transparency between good quality Australian producers and high quality Chinese buyers.
Cash flow problems have long plagued the agricultural and fresh produce industry, and while initiatives such as the Australian government’s New Payment Times Reporting Scheme are a step in the right direction, a collaborative effort across public and private sectors is essential.
By leveraging secure technologies such as blockchain, the agricultural industry is provided with enhanced access to trade finance, improving efficiency and cash flow for both the buyers and sellers.
Through enhanced supply chain insight, Cirralto is able to leverage data-driven credit decisions to drive lending confidence and increase trade finance opportunities for Australian producers. With early payment triggers, enhanced liquidity across the fresh produce supply chain is facilitated.
Commenting on the newly established partnership with James Tyler, Adrian Floate, CEO of Cirralto and MD of Spenda said: “As a company we have a strategic focus on the agricultural segment in Australia, not only because it is a great market opportunity for us as a company, but because we recognise the importance of the industry to Australia and want to facilitate improvements in trade so that Aussie farmers can get paid quicker.
“The addition of James Tyler as a lending customer further strengthens our relationships with Mastercard and Fresh Supply Co. We are extremely excited by the potential of these types of opportunities to drive improvements in food distribution and cross-border trade whilst also generating sustainable revenue.”
In addition to this, James Hutchinson, the Co-Founder of James Tyler, said: “Working with Cirralto to provide extended BNPL to the Australian export market will provide certainty to the whole supply chain. Because of our unique business structure, we are able to aggregate demand in China for Australian produce, and help Australian producers solve their cash flow issues with upfront payment at the start of the season, a time of the year that is always a huge challenge for producers who are faced with high operational costs but no revenue for many months. This new partnership provides greater transparency and certainty to both Australian producers and Chinese buyers.”
David Inderias, CEO and Co-Founder of Fresh Supply Co, added: “As a supply-chain digitisation company we’ve been working to provide the agricultural business with transparency across the supply chain. Working with James Tyler combines the collective knowledge and resources of all parties to facilitate better access to working capital for the Agricultural Industry.”
The BNPL funding will be provided by Cirralto with all payments and collection services to be processed and delivered through Cirralto’s core product, Spenda.
