How DocCreate Helped Brazil Digitalize Trade Document Creation Across 45 Million MT 

Brazil has become a strong proof point for DocCreate’s role in helping agri trade move from fragmented document workflows to connected digital execution.

Across Brazil, trading firms and service providers are using DocCreate to draft, manage, review and issue shipping documents in one collaborative workflow. By connecting traders, surveyors, agents, fumigators, chambers of commerce and other stakeholders, DocCreate is helping reduce manual work and working capital costs due to faster creation and ultimately faster document presentation to the banks involved in the trade. 

The Background

Behind every agri shipment is a document workflow that depends on timing, accuracy and coordination. Bills of Lading, Certificates of Origin, fumigation certificates, inspection documents and other shipping documents often need to be prepared, reviewed, updated, approved and issued by different parties before the trade can move forward.

In Brazil, this process involves a wide network of stakeholders, each responsible for different parts of the document set. When requirements, templates, approvals and updates are handled across separate channels, document creation becomes harder to control and easier to delay.

The Challenge

Agri trade documentation involves multiple parties, document types, and approval steps. When this process is managed through manual templates, emails, and disconnected systems, teams face delays, errors, limited visibility, and constant follow-up. 

Main challenges:

• Slow document processes impact working capital cost: delays in issuing shipping documents prolong payment cycles, while documentation errors require corrections and re-issuances that further delay payments.  

• Fragmented document workflows: multiple stakeholders contribute documents at different stages, including vessel agents, fumigation companies, supervision companies, authorities, and banks, while the lack of a centralized system creates miscommunication and document misalignment.  

• Limited visibility and tracking: companies struggle to track document status in real time across multiple stakeholders, and the lack of transparency increases the risk of missing or incomplete documents.  

• Operational bottlenecks and high administrative burden: heavy reliance on manual data entry increases human errors, back-and-forth communication slows down the process, and limited automation creates inefficiencies and higher operational costs. 

The Solution

A Collaborative Workspace for Shipping Document Creation

DocCreate gives trading firms and service providers one collaborative workspace to create, review and issue shipping documents. Users can organise each shipment in a folder, generate drafts, select templates, invite collaborators, track progress and finalise documents in one place.

Replace manual workflows with connected document creation 

Covantis’ platform uses the latest technology to simplify and speed up communication, trade execution and document processes — while providing increased security for everyone. By digitizing key parts of the trade execution process, Covantis can substantially increase transaction speed and reduce error rates.

The Ecosystem

DocCreate’s success in Brazil goes beyond individual adoption. It shows what becomes possible when trading firms and service providers work in a connected document workflow where every new participant adds value to the wider ecosystem.

Today, DocCreate connects a strong Brazil network across trading firms, surveyors, agents, fumigators, chambers of commerce, and other document issuers. 

Integration

Covantis Voyages is the trade execution platform that connects buyers, sellers and other counterparties involved in post-trade execution. It helps teams visualise the parties in a supply chain, exchange structured information, manage shipment-related workflows and reduce repetitive manual coordination across the execution process. One important part of this process is the exchange of Documentary Instructions, which contain the data needed to prepare shipping documents.

When connected with DocCreate, the Voyages platform becomes the starting point for document creation. Structured Documentary Instructions exchanged or created in Voyages can be pushed into DocCreate, allowing buyers and sellers to work from the same aligned execution data. This reduces duplicated input, improves alignment and lowers the risk of errors caused by disconnected systems or email-based exchanges.

How DocCreate Connects with Voyages 

A Shared Workflow for Third Parties 

In Brazil, DocCreate is bringing more than traders into the document workflow. We’ve seen surveyors, fumigators, forwarders, customs brokers, chambers of commerce and other document issuers join the platform as part of the wider ecosystem.

Their participation is what turns DocCreate from a document creation tool into a market workflow. Instead of each party working separately, the document process becomes more connected, helping Brazil build a stronger foundation for digital trade execution.

What changes

• All parties work on the same document set
• Access can be granted at folder or document level
• Draft status is visible to relevant collaborators
• Every change is recorded in the document history
• Users know what is ready for review

The Results

Adoption in Brazil is growing fast, with Covantis DocCreate now covering 60% of the market. What started as initial usage is becoming part of daily document workflows for several clients, supported by a strong network of document stakeholders.

Traders DocCreate Adoption 

Trader adoption shows how DocCreate is becoming part of daily document workflows in Brazil. The growth in drafted volume, folders created, and drafts generated reflects how trading firms are using DocCreate to manage more of their document creation process in a structured digital environment. 

Surveyor Appointment Usage by Traders

Surveyor appointment usage shows how trader activity is extending beyond internal document creation and into service provider collaboration. The increase in appointments reflects growing trust in the workflow and highlights the role surveyors play in supporting inspection-related documents and shipment execution in Brazil. 

Value Drivers

DocCreate is built for the messy reality behind every clean shipping document. It turns complex requirements, many contributors and constant changes into a faster, more reliable way to get documents ready.

• Gain efficiency and reduce risk of errors in capturing DI requirements

• Increase speed through a flexible, user-friendly interface for doc creation

• Seamless end-to-end document process from Documentary Instructions to Docs Creation, Docs Checking and (e)Docs Presentation

• Remove risk of errors through integration between the technologies used by sellers and buyers

• Reduce errors with bulk updates and amendments across documents

• Strengthen document authenticity with QR codes that help validate issued documents

• Improve transparency & accountability with clear audit trails across steps

Takeaways 

Brazil demonstrates that digital document creation can move from isolated usage to market-level adoption when trading firms and service providers work in the same connected workflow.

The success of DocCreate in Brazil shows that the value is not only in creating documents faster. It is also in improving collaboration, traceability status visibility and ecosystem participation.

What comes next

• Brazil is only the beginning of DocCreate’s role in scaling connected digital trade documentation across more markets.

• As the DocCreate ecosystem grows, we expect more chambers of commerce, fumigators, surveyors, service providers and trading firms to join shared document workflows.

• DocCreate will continue supporting the shift from paper-based processes to electronic documents as more document types become digital.

• Future opportunities include electronic Phytosanitary certificates and other official documents as integrations and market infrastructure evolve.

• As adoption grows, we expect traders to use DocCreate to create documents on behalf of shippers and exporters, expanding the value of the workflow across the trade chain and speeding up the overall document presentation process.