Grains auction goes online
LUCY BATTERSBY
21/10/2009 10:34:00 AM
WHOLESALERS will be able to buy grain directly from Australian farmers for the first time today, bypassing brokers and grain boards through a virtual auction house set up by a NSW-based farmers' co-operative.
The GrainsPlus website will give farmers greater control over the prices at which they sell grains and the way grain is delivered to buyers, according to the website's general manager, Philip Jackson.
"The whole initiative is to create a transparent pricing mechanism for grain … and for diversification," he said.
"It brings [growers] a whole different range of buyers, who have different needs.
"You may have millers, producers, feed-lots, traders, dairy farmers - they all need grain for their business and have different requirements and urgency."
Grain industry analysts said the initiative was unlikely to affect large brokers who would normally buy and sell wheat from NSW farmers, such as GrainCorp, because the marketplace was already fragmented.
"We have got a robust deregulated grain trading system … I see competition from other models as being healthy and not particularly threatening," Austock analyst Paul Jensz told BusinessDay.
Today 5000 tonnes would be sold, with farmers paying $250 to list their grain for auction and another $2 per tonne of grain sold.
Given 100 tonnes is the minimum for each auction item, farmers will be paying at least $450 for the privilege of selling their own produce.
Mr Jackson said sellers could set a reserve price and, if a sale was passed in, they could negotiate with the highest bidder for an hour after the auction had closed.
Foreign grain buyers can use the website to buy directly from Australian farmers, provided they pass a credit check and the farmer agrees with transportation arrangements.
Mr Jackson said that unlike a commodity exchange - which used market conditions to find a price - the GrainsPlus website was an "eBay-type situation", with sellers listing their goods and buyers competing for each auction item.
The website was set up by a group called AgVance Marketing, which is run by 44 farming families based around Quirindi in NSW's Liverpool Plains area, and which is based on the AuctionsPlus agricultural online auction site.
LUCY BATTERSBY
21/10/2009 10:34:00 AM
WHOLESALERS will be able to buy grain directly from Australian farmers for the first time today, bypassing brokers and grain boards through a virtual auction house set up by a NSW-based farmers' co-operative.
The GrainsPlus website will give farmers greater control over the prices at which they sell grains and the way grain is delivered to buyers, according to the website's general manager, Philip Jackson.
"The whole initiative is to create a transparent pricing mechanism for grain … and for diversification," he said.
"It brings [growers] a whole different range of buyers, who have different needs.
"You may have millers, producers, feed-lots, traders, dairy farmers - they all need grain for their business and have different requirements and urgency."
Grain industry analysts said the initiative was unlikely to affect large brokers who would normally buy and sell wheat from NSW farmers, such as GrainCorp, because the marketplace was already fragmented.
"We have got a robust deregulated grain trading system … I see competition from other models as being healthy and not particularly threatening," Austock analyst Paul Jensz told BusinessDay.
Today 5000 tonnes would be sold, with farmers paying $250 to list their grain for auction and another $2 per tonne of grain sold.
Given 100 tonnes is the minimum for each auction item, farmers will be paying at least $450 for the privilege of selling their own produce.
Mr Jackson said sellers could set a reserve price and, if a sale was passed in, they could negotiate with the highest bidder for an hour after the auction had closed.
Foreign grain buyers can use the website to buy directly from Australian farmers, provided they pass a credit check and the farmer agrees with transportation arrangements.
Mr Jackson said that unlike a commodity exchange - which used market conditions to find a price - the GrainsPlus website was an "eBay-type situation", with sellers listing their goods and buyers competing for each auction item.
The website was set up by a group called AgVance Marketing, which is run by 44 farming families based around Quirindi in NSW's Liverpool Plains area, and which is based on the AuctionsPlus agricultural online auction site.
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