When a Commodity Deal Becomes a Bigger Purpose
From a Failed Urea Transaction to Exploring a New Path for Malawi.
Some business opportunities begin with a contract. Others begin with a relationship. And sometimes, a failed transaction makes you ask a much bigger question: What can I do next?
For me, that question is now connected to Malawi.
I have been developing the idea of building digital infrastructure in Hong Kong for Commodity RWA Finance for African Agriculture, with Malawi as the starting point I am exploring.
The reason I am exploring it is very personal. It goes back to a woman I first met through a commodity transaction. Her name is Alice Stambuli.
Alice is my client. She is also my friend. Our relationship started with a commodity transaction, but over time, it became much more than that.
In July 2026, Alice and her team travelled from Malawi to Ho Chi Minh City to meet the
supplier and work towards purchasing Urea 46N for Malawi.
They travelled a long way. They spent lots of money. They invested time, energy and trust in the journey. And I knew how important the trip was. This was not simply a business trip. They were trying to secure fertiliser for their government and for farmers in their country.
But for reasons related to the financial structure and the circumstances surrounding the transaction, the deal could not be completed during that trip.
I knew how disappointed Alice was. And I knew how disappointed the team travelling with her was. After travelling such a long distance, they went home without the result they had hoped for.
That stayed with me.
I Kept Asking Myself: What Can I Do?
In commodity trading, a failed transaction is not unusual. I have experienced many of them. Normally, I would simply move on to the next opportunity.
But this time, I couldn’t walk away.
The World Bank's October 2025 Poverty & Equity Brief reported that Malawi was among the countries with the highest poverty rates, with approximately 75% of the population living below US$3 per day, based on the 2019/20 Integrated Household Survey. Agriculture is central to Malawi's economy and livelihoods, accounting for almost a quarter of GDP and employing around three-quarters of the population, predominantly through small-scale farming.
So I started asking myself:
How can I let these farmers down?
What can I do for them?
And then another question came:
If one transaction failed because of financing, could we explore a different way of financing the transaction?
From a Failed Deal to a Bigger Question
I already had an idea I had been exploring: Commodity + RWA Finance + African Agriculture.
My previous article explored whether Real-World Asset finance could potentially connect physical commodities, trade finance and agricultural development.
But until Alice’s trip to Vietnam, it was still an idea.
Now, it had become personal.
There was a real buyer.
A real agricultural requirement.
A real commodity.
A real supply chain.
And a real financing problem.
That changed the way I looked at the opportunity.
I was no longer asking: “Is Commodity RWA Finance interesting?”
I was asking: “Could it actually help solve a real problem?”
Friends to Build a Partnership
I realised very quickly that I could not do this alone.
If this idea is going to work, I need people with different capabilities.
This is where UN SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals became particularly meaningful to me.
I know our China Strategic Team can play an important role.
Hary has the relationships and experience to help coordinate the physical commodity supply chain. For a project like this, that matters.
The RWA structure cannot exist without the underlying physical commodity being real, verifiable and deliverable. There has to be a genuine supply chain behind the digital infrastructure.
Commodity first. Technology second.
That principle is important to me.
For the digital infrastructure, I also started thinking about the other side of the equation.
If we are going to explore Commodity RWA Finance, we need appropriate digital infrastructure.
Michael is an investor in iShang and is supportive of exploring the use of its platform to build the digital infrastructure for the project.
The technical team is ready to begin exploring the technical requirements. This gives me something I did not have when I first started thinking about the idea:
The Beginnings of an Ecosystem.
For the first time, I could see the different pieces beginning to come together.
A commodity team.
A digital platform.
A potential financing structure.
A genuine agricultural requirement.
A buyer with a real need.
A China sourcing network.
A technical team.
And people who are willing to explore the possibility together.
None of these pieces is enough on its own.
But together, they create the possibility of building something different.
This is what I mean by an ecosystem.
I am not trying to build another platform simply because RWA is an emerging technology. I am trying to explore whether digital infrastructure can connect something that already exists in the physical world - a real commodity transaction with the capital required to make that transaction happen.
Commodity first. Capital second. Technology supporting both.
That is the principle I want to keep.
From UN SDG 2 to SDG 17
The more I think about this project, the more I see the relationship between two United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
SDG 2 – Zero Hunger is the purpose.
SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals may be part of how we get there.
For me, this distinction matters.
SDG 2 is the outcome I want to contribute towards: better food security, more resilient agriculture and improved access to the resources needed to produce food.
SDG 17 is about recognising that achieving that outcome requires collaboration.
No single company can solve food insecurity.
No single commodity can solve it.
No financial structure can solve it.
And no technology can solve it on its own.
But perhaps different capabilities can be connected around a common purpose.
That is where partnership becomes more than a word. It becomes part of the infrastructure of the project.
From a Failed Transaction to a New Possibility
I think back to Alice's trip to Ho Chi Minh City.
She travelled halfway around the world.
She came with a genuine requirement.
She came with hope that we could make the transaction happen.
And she went home disappointed.
I could simply accept that the transaction failed.
Or I could ask: What did that failure teach me?
It taught me that perhaps the biggest obstacle was not the commodity.
It was the connection between commodity and capital.
And that is the opportunity I now want to explore.
Perhaps we can build a bridge.
A bridge between:
China and Africa.
Commodity and capital.
Physical supply and digital infrastructure.
Trade and finance.
Investment and agricultural development.
And ultimately:
Agriculture and food security.
I don't know yet where this journey will take us.
I don't know whether the model will work.
There is still a great deal to research, structure, test and understand.
But I know why I want to try.
Alice came to Ho Chi Minh City because she believed we could make a difference for Malawi. The transaction did not happen.
But I don't want the story to end there.
Perhaps the failed transaction was not the end of the journey.
Perhaps it was the beginning of a bigger purpose.
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