Aussie businesses partner to accelerate fresh-produce trade relationships between Australia and China via cross-border BNPL finance agreements
Today, B2B payment and lending solution provider, Cirralto has entered into an agreement that delivers Australian exporter and Chinese importer, James Tyler, a Buy Now, Pay Later funding facility of AUD $2 million per month to help facilitate better trade partnerships, and on more favourable terms, between Australian fresh produce providers and Chinese retailers, including – Aldi, Costa Coffee, Costco Wholesale, Starbucks and City Shop.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 Fresh Supply Co. Australian producers are essentially given a cash flow injection to support increased production of fresh fruit yields while gaining certainly over their order volumes and predicted cash flow.This partnership will enable Australian fresh food providers to boost their sales volumes and invest more in growth initiatives to better support high pre-aggregated market demand in China, as facilitated by James Tyler.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 flips this relationship by giving Aussie producers direct access to major Chinese fresh-food platforms along with pre-determined sales volumes. China remains Australia’s largest two-way trading partner, accounting for nearly one-third of our 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 COVID-19 pandemic, have caused this volume to decrease by three per cent in 2020.This agreement, which is supported by embedding operational data from the Fresh Supply Co network into the Mastercard Provenance Solution, is ultimately 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.”Commenting on the agreement, James Hutchinson, 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.
About CirraltoCirralto Limited (ASX:CRO) is a feature-based payment company capable of owning transactions from any customer up and down the value chain. Through their core product, Spenda, Cirralto delivers a fully integrated digital payment and business software solution that enables businesses to transform with fast, error-free digital efficiency.Cirralto supplies industries with a broad range of B2B payment services, digital trading software and integrated solutions. Our goal is to convert EFT payments to card payments utilising the BPSP/BPA engagement coupled with our payments collaboration framework. Our competitive advantages deliver customers end-to-end e-invoicing integration, rapid ordering, digital trust and automated reconciliation.
About James TylerFounded in 2015 by the majority shareholders Tyler Ye and James Hutchinson, James Tyler Pty Ltd is a sales and logistics provider of fresh produce into China. They work with both Australian farmers and distributors to provide a gateway for trade direct to the Chinese consumer. China is now the second-largest market for purchasing imported food, a total of roughly A$150B (https://www.statista.com/topics/1471/imports-to-china/#topicHeader__wrapper). James Tyler provides Australian businesses with access to this market by navigating complex customs systems, providing guidance on ‘middlemen’ in the Chinese supply chain and providing contacts to high-quality warehousing and logistics services. These services enable them to deliver product and brand integrity to Australian producers when distributing in China. They offer three key services;
- Product Activation - registering products in China
- Logistics Activation - setting up end to end cold chain solution
- Sales Activation - working as a sales partner to develop a strategy and enable sales in China
About Fresh Supply CoFresh Supply acts as a data layer specialising in capturing operational data and making it consumable by the financial sector. Ongoing data flows allow for continuous credit risk assessment, minimisation of exposure, and automated triggering of payments based on meeting of specific milestones or criteria. Operational data is captured, and shaped through a proprietary FSCo technology stack and written to the Mastercard Provenance Solution. This data natively links to the FSCo Payments infrastructure to provide liquidity on B2B invoices. Fresh Supply Co works with leading banks and non-bank lenders to facilitate better access to capital than traditional offerings in the market.
About Adrian Floate:Adrian Floate is the CEO of Cirralto Limited. As an entrepreneur at heart with a fascination for emerging business technologies, he has spent the last 20+ years solving complex problems surrounding global business efficiency. The culmination of his experience and passion resulted in the launch of Spenda - a fully integrated digital payments and business solution that enables businesses to boost their sales, efficiency, revenue and customer experiences.Adrian is also a founding member of the Digital Business Council of Australia.
About David Inderias:David Inderias is the CEO and Co-Founder of Fresh Supply Co.David has an educational background in Medicine, but found his passion in systems – particularly at the intersection of digital and physical.“We are always on that constant search for value for clients as well as wider industry benefit. Access to capital particularly in the food and agribusiness space is antiquated — and plenty of strong businesses find it difficult to optimise their cash flow or to access growth capital – we’re changing that. We really excel in aggregating operational data and making it valuable for value-chain stakeholders as well as lenders.”
Media ContactLauren JonesHead of Communications at CirraltoE: lauren.jones@spenda.coM: 0451 059 961George HazimDirector, Media and Public Affairs AustraliaE: georgehazim@mediaaffairs.com.auM: 0417 516 262