When agriculture faces the complexity of global trade: dive into the experience of one of the leading American agri-food cooperatives that is reinventing its trade risk management by combining Coface's comprehensive solutions in trade credit insurance and information services. As a result, commercial decisions are made in less than 15 minutes! Analysis of a winning strategy.
75,000 members, 200 countries, 20,000 shareholders: the risk equation of an agri-food cooperative
This American agri-food cooperative, which operates worldwide and brings together 75,000 producers and farmers, faces the typical challenges of today's global trade: globalisation, economic volatility, and the reconfiguration of flows and value chains.
Founded nearly a century ago in the United States, the company now operates in 200 countries. This cooperative of cooperatives is now a major player in the agri-food sector: with 750 cooperatives and 20,000 individual shareholders, it is now one of the top 100 American companies.
With so many different markets and business partners, the cooperative needed a complete, reliable, and constantly updated overview of the financial health of its counterparties. This issue perfectly illustrates the current challenges facing the agri-food sector, where the power of enriched data and information services is becoming crucial for navigating an increasingly complex commercial environment.
Trade Credit Insurance and Business Information: a proactive dual approach
To secure its international development, the cooperative first implemented Coface Trade Credit Insurance to protect itself against unpaid debts. But given the complexity of its activities – which range from financing producers to supplying fertilisers and nutrients – the company needed a sophisticated risk management system. That is why it decided to strengthen its prevention system with Coface's Business Information services to obtain information on the identification of companies (customers, suppliers) as well as financial information on prospects.
We were looking for a global partner, and Business Information services are the best way to get the maximum information in the shortest time possible.
explains the company's Risk Director.
This strategy is based on several competitive advantages and an ambition for the company: to set up a global, 100% integrated ecosystem for commercial risk management, moving from a reactive approach to proactive monitoring, fuelled by continuously enriched and updated data.
Anticipate, decide and protect your company... in just 15 minutes!
The cooperative can now assess a partner's financial strength, adjust its commercial terms and reduce its exposure to risk, all in record time.
The idea for us is to be able to give our sales teams an answer in less than 15 minutes. We've achieved that with Coface Business Information!
emphasises the company's Risk Director.
For the company's executives, the challenge is not just about quickly collecting huge volumes of data: it is about being able to transform this information into easily actionable tools that can steer commercial decisions, select the right partners and improve resilience in export markets.
With Coface's Business Information solutions, the cooperative can now rely on early warnings about the health of its partners and weak signals regarding the probability of payment default to drive its business. It is now able to secure its transactions upstream of contracting with its clients or suppliers. This performance is fundamentally reshaping the company's decision-making processes.
APIs and Smart data: the recipe for successful transformation
With Trade Credit Insurance and Business Information services, the American co-operative benefits from an intelligent and complementary set of protection tools: cover against unpaid debts and a solution to support decision-making and anticipate commercial risk, providing early warning. Thanks in particular to Coface's API products, these services interface directly with the cooperative's information systems and internal processes, without disrupting existing flows.
The success story of this cooperative perfectly reflects the new era of commercial risk management. With 86% of decision-makers now considering data and AI to be essential, this company's approach combines the best of all worlds: data intelligence, human expertise and the power of new technologies.
Data & commercial risk: 80 years of experience and a best-in-class global ecosystem
To optimise its new approach to commercial risk management, the cooperative also leverages the complementary solutions offered by Coface's global ecosystem, whose added value lies in the synergy between trade credit insurance and Business Information services. This makes Coface a leading global partner, providing its clients with unique data patrimony and exclusive insights.
Unlike its competitors, Coface is not only a seller of data, but also a consumer of data due to its trade credit insurance business. Since Coface is able to make decisions based on its own data, I naturally have much more confidence in their information.
concludes the cooperative's risk director.
How to transform your commercial risk management with Coface Business Information
- Join the satisfied clients of Coface Business Information, such as Renault Group, Dassault Systèmes, Enedis, GEODIS, MacSteel, and Moine Recyclage.
- Strategic insights, gobal expertise, Smart Data: Request your demo now!
