Career Opportunities at COFCO International

Performs a variety of support tasks in Front Office including:

• Contract management (also receiving contract back from client)
• All invoices excluding delivered contracts
• Trade and contract management for Farming Agents
• SAFEX deliveries and assignments – Trade and Invoice
• Financing – Repos – Trade and Invoice
• Trade and contract management for Farming, including invoices
• CMS requests for non-Commercial Clients
• Contract Position Recon

Qualifications:

• Qualification degree required in Agricultural Economics and/or Finance and/or Risk
• Risk Management background is beneficial
• Agricultural Products Market Dealers Examination (SAFEX Exam)

Critical Skills:

• Fundamentals understanding of market terminals and trading environments.
• Grains industry exposure is beneficial.
• Strong in numbers and reconciliations.
• Excellent communication skills (written, and verbal) in Afrikaans and English.
• Strong attention to detail and highly organized.
• Problem solver who creates strategies to prevent, address and mitigate risk.
• Team player who is able to work independently.
• Ability to work well in a fast-paced professional office environment with multi-tasking skills.
• Ability to work under pressure.
• Competency in Microsoft applications and web-based applications.
• Exposure to ERP systems.

Function:

• Timely and accurate trade capture in Trading One (position management software) on physical and derivatives
• Responsible for the daily maintenance and follow up of all positions (past and forward, including but not limited to MTM: Mark to Market valuation and P&L: Profit n Loss exposure)
• Responsible for daily maintenance of open positions (physical trade applications, paper trade allocations, wash out proposals, MtM curve rolling/modifications, market daily prices verification and upload)
• Provide support to traders on a daily basis in the preparation and verification of position reporting (exposure and PNL)
• Concentrate pricing responsibility; daily coordination of pricing to be done (versus cash), validity check of fixing orders, daily broker statement reconciliation and capture of executed orders
• Daily derivatives reconciliation
• Assure proper internal communication between desks throughout (Front Office, Operations, Product, Freight and Finance teams)
• Meet requests for ad hoc information and reporting

NEW DEALS - PROCESSING

Trade Slip to Contract:

• Per Contract Type
• Per Strategy
• Per PGU: Profit Generating Unit
• Per Commodity
• Pricing of basis trades

POSITION MANAGEMENT

• Reconciling new deals to draft position
• Preparing and circulating draft position
• Reconciling new deals to final position
• Preparing and circulating final position

CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION AND COST ACCRUALS ON CONTRACTS

From Trade Slip to Contract:

• Processing of cost accruals at Contract Level
• Prepare contracts for sign off
• Issue system generated contracts
• Review physical contracts and positions
• Initiate washouts on under/over deliveries

GP & TRADE RECON

• Daily Trade P&L vs. Accounting P&L
• Position maintenance per Strategy

Estimate Daily P&L

• Prepare daily estimate P&L for review by Traders
• Report daily estimate P&L to Group: Head Office in Switzerland

Data maintenance, Agents and Farming

• Maintain an accurate Farming environment for positions
• Submit CMS codes for Trade Counterparties
• Load new Trade codes in Trading 1: ERP system

Software utilized:

• T1: Trading One -   ERP system:  Front end trading system that interfaces with Accounting systems
• Excel          -    Intermediate to Advanced is beneficial
• Future Source  -    Market data terminal and analytics platform
• SAP S4Hanna   -     ERP system

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Operations: Trade Execution Co-Ordinator (Customer Service Expeditor)

• This team focusses on the customer relationship and is the primary contact for the customer & internal parties.
• Collaborate with the internal teams to ensure coordinated tasks are completed efficiently to support business objectives and customers.
• The primary focus of this role is on activities related to contract execution, planning and customer service.

Role and responsibilities
This role requires a high level of administration. Majority of the admin work is compiled on Microsoft Excel and exported to a complex integrated

• ERP system, called T1.
• Daily and consistent liaisons with customers regarding requirements, planning, offload points, stock levels, delays at offloading point etc.
• Daily and consistent liaisons with logistics.
• Collaboration with various departments, specifically traders re customer requirements; Invoicing and Contract & Inventory desk.
• Consistent communication with the customer, occurs after hours, on weekends – with transporters and shipping ports.
• Fast paced, high pressure work environment.
• Daily movements (avg): Depends on clients; approximately 25,000-30,000+ tons per month per coordinator.
• Seasonal harvest (avg): Depends on clients; approximately 40,000+ tons+ per month per coordinator.
• Ad hoc Vessel Exports and Imports: 10+ vessels per annum, 3rd party loads, port loads.

Excellence in Execution: Customer facing

• Enter and complete all entries of commodity movements data in the system
• Reconcile all contracts and investigate and resolve stock differences in collaboration with the inventory coordinator
• Measure margins on physical delivery
• Ensure settlement of all contracts once completed and in accordance with contract payment terms
• Inform customers about order status, invoices, contract balances and other information needed to complete the sale
• Planning for customer contract delivery in collaboration with the logistics team
• Identify efficiency & cost saving opportunities in the supply chain
• Resolve all customer queries as quickly and efficiently as possible
• Collaborate with all internal teams to ensure coordinated tasks are completed efficiently to support business objectives and customers
• Other duties as assigned
• Handle basic issues and problems, while escalating more complex issues to appropriate staff
• Maintain a good relationship with customers
• Maintain good relationships and open communications with all related internal parties

Essential Skills

• Tertiary qualification in a related field
• 5 years’ experience in a similar role
• Good knowledge of Microsoft Office applications
• Excellent Microsoft Excel proficiency
• Excellent communication and negotiation skill
• Solution orientated, and pro active problem solver
• Dedicated and diligent
• Ability to work as part of a team but also reach individual goals
• Adaptable to change
• Comfortable working after hours
• Ability to work under pressure and with short deadlines

Desirable Skills

• Advanced Microsoft Excel proficiency
• Exposure to Food / Feed / Agri commodity sector 

General

• Direct report to Trade Execution Controller and matrix reporting to Operations Manager
• Market related base salary with medical and provident benefits
• Discretionary annual performance bonus and increase
• Season runs from March to September
• Financial Year end is December

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Minimum professional qualifications and experience

• National Senior Certificate (Grade 12) with Accounting as a subject.
• Tertiary qualification in Finance and/or Accountancy and related field of study.
• Minimum five years’ demonstrated experience working in a similar position.

Key areas of responsibility

• This role requires a high level of focus, attention to detail, assessment and analysis of data, accurate reconciliations and reporting.
• This role is admin intensive with strict daily, weekly and monthly deadlines that need to be adhered to.
• Daily liaisons with Traders, Finance teams, Trade Execution and Silo bag Depot sites (remote areas of South Africa), as well as banks and co-ops.

Duties include, but not limited to

• Compile daily stock sheet with 3Rd party stock confirmation
• Daily reconciliation Repo and Silo certificate stock with ERP system
• Daily update of day storage provision file to product control - finance team 
• Comparing 3rd party stock balances with inhouse ERP system data
• Process of claim invoices to 3rd party as requested by team members
• Repo – Finance and Repurchase of stock to and from banks
• Process of stock transfers from and to 3rd party clients
• Process of daily JSE notices and deliveries
• Capturing of silo certificates in ERP system
• Recon and process of storage costs invoices from silo operators
• Weekly and daily Sagis reports
• Process of Adhoc invoices
• Update SACTA levies for reporting
• Capturing daily silo deliveries in ERP system
• Ad hoc administration duties

Essential skills

• Demonstrated experience with stock and inventory management.
• Strong financial and accountancy background.
• Intermediate to Advanced MS Excel proficiency.
• Excellent numerical reasoning and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent attention to detail and high a degree of accuracy.
• Experience of working in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to work well within a team environment.
• Ability to work under pressure while always maintaining attention to detail.
• Ability to work independently and apply own initiative.
• Excellent planning, organising and time management skills.
• Critical thinker with emotional resilience to overcome obstacles.
• Computer Literacy (MS Excel, Word, Outlook, web-based platforms). 
• Aptitude for continuous system enhancements and automation.

Desirable skills

• Exposure to commodities, agri and/or grains industries.
• SAP experience.
• Experience using an ERP system.

General

• Office based in Techno Park, Stellenbosch.
• Work model - full time attendance, Monday to Friday with ad hoc days working from home.
• Reports to Operations Manager.
• Salary is market related basic salary, with medical and provident benefits.
• Harvest and seasonal periods (high volume); generally March to August/September annually.

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Key areas of responsibilities

• Checking, capturing and processing invoices on in-house ERP system, T1.
• Reconciliation of statement and invoices for transporter and/or service provider payments, daily.
• General administration and any administrative functions and ad hoc support required in the Invoicing team.

Minimum professional qualifications and experience

• National Senior Certificate (Grade 12) with Pure Maths / Mathematics Literacy and Accountancy as subjects.
• Tertiary qualification in Finance or Accountancy.
• Minimum five years’ working experience in a similar position.

Essential skills

• Intermediate Excel proficiency.
• Computer Literacy (MS Excel, Word, Outlook).
• Demonstrated experience in a similar role.
• Experience of working in a fast-paced environment.
• Planning, organising and excellent time management skills.
• Critical thinker with emotional resilience to overcome obstacles.
• Ability to work well within a team environment.
• Ability to work in an admin intensive and detail orientated role.
• Ability to work under pressure whilst maintaining a high degree of accuracy.
• Excellent numerical reasoning and problem-solving skills.

Desirable skills

• Experience using an ERP system.
• Exposure to the Grains Industry and/or FMCG.

General

• Office based in Techno Park, Stellenbosch.
• Work model - full time attendance, Monday to Friday with ad hoc days working from home.
• Reports to Trade Execution Controller.
• Salary is market related basic salary, with medical and provident benefits.
• Harvest    and    seasonal    periods    (high    volume);    generally March to August/September annually.