ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Yoshihisa Suzuki, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has agreed to form a capital alliance with HeveaConnect Pte Ltd (headquartered in Singapore; Daniel Thong, CEO; hereinafter "HEVEACONNECT"), which operates a marketplace for trading sustainable natural rubber. ITOCHU has underwritten the third-party allocation of new shares issued by HEVEACONNECT. Through this tie-up, ITOCHU aims to promote sustainably processed natural rubber among users of natural rubber, including tire manufacturers.

HEVEACONNECT is a new platform company for trading natural rubber and is established in August 2018 by Halcyon Agri Corporation Limited (headquartered in Singapore; Robert Mayer, CEO), one of the world's leading natural rubber firms.In recent years, higher transparency has been required in the distribution of natural rubber. HEVEACONNECT’s platform exclusively trades the HeveaPro-certified sustainable rubber that is produced by the certified factories. To obtain the certification, processing factories must get audited on more than 1,200 check items, such as quality assurance, environment, and health and safety. Through this platform, HEVEACONNECT provides not only a marketplace for trading rubber online but also services needed for trading, such as logistics and insurance.

Along with this alliance, PT. Aneka Bumi Pratama (headquartered in Indonesia; Hisashi Yajima, President Director; hereinafter “ABP”), a natural rubber processing company fully owned by ITOCHU, plans to obtain the HeveaPro certification and join the platform.

ITOCHU participated, as a founding member, in the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR) in October 2018. In addition, ITOCHU has been conducting a blockchain Proof of Concept (PoC) for traceability of raw natural rubber (announced in February 2019), taking advantage of ABP’s raw material supply chain. ITOCHU aims to procure and sell sustainably collected and processed natural rubber, with a view to collaborating with HEVEACONNECT’s platform.

Press release “ITOCHU Announces a Blockchain PoC for Traceability” (February 2019)
https://www.itochu.co.jp/en/news/press/2019/190201.html
ITOCHU’s Natural Rubber Procurement Policy
https://www.itochu.co.jp/en/csr/supply_chain/products/index.html