USDA brews up plan for coffee trade e-receipts

• By Mary Mosquera
• Feb 20, 2004

The Agriculture Department has OK'd the use of electronic warehouse receipts for coffee trades.

James Little, Farm Service Agency administrator, earlier this month announced the use of the Electronic Commodity Operations and Processing System, or eCOPS.

Coffee will join cotton and peanuts as the third commodity food item to use an electronic warehouse receipt system. The warehouse receipts are title documents that are used for transfer and marketing of agricultural products.

Agriculture's approval authorizes the New York Board of Trade, which owns eCOPS, to operate an electronic warehouse receipts system for coffee warehouses, financial institutions and coffee futures traders.