The Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) has teamed up with Maersk Trade Finance to offer the latter’s ‘one-stop-shop’ solution for handling both the flow of goods and financing for the DMCC’s Food Trade Group (FTG).

The solution will see the FTG able to manage the ocean leg of its supply chains by combining financing with operations. The digital platform offers pre-shipment and post-shipment credit facilities and enables exporters to not only access cargo shipping services but also apply for funds to pay for the shipment or to invest in new orders.

Commenting on the new offering, CEO of DMCC, Gautam Sashittal, says: “With 90% of the region’s food requirements being imported, access to trade finance is critical and a priority for DMCC’s FTG. Our collaboration with Maersk marks a significant milestone for market participants, as it not only minimises risk but also acts as a catalyst for growth by providing access to secure trade finance further up, and across the value chain, as well as shipping mechanisms.”

Sinan Ozcan of Maersk Trade Finance, UAE, says: “We established a Maersk trade finance entity (Sunrise 15 Middle East) in the Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC), regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), in July 2017. Together with DMCC we look forward to support the growth of local businesses and contribute in ambitions of the UAE government reaching the Vision 2020 targets”.

The idea for Maersk Trade Finance came about in 2015 before a pilot was launched in India in 2016. This was followed by subsequent launches in Singapore, Spain, the Netherlands and the US.

Maersk says the new service is part of its customer simplification programme to better enable global commerce by speeding up and simplifying access to capital and removing the paper trail from traditional financing options.

The advantage of Maersk finance is that, unlike banks, it does not need to ask for collateral, as it has the goods in its possession while at sea, and it can get information about the borrower and the buyers from its own database. With over 100 years of operations across 130 countries, the company owns large data that it can use for client risk analysis.