The idea of Amazon being an online marketplace for selling products to the masses is not new, but trying to bring the same concept to the domain of agriculture is a maiden thing. This is what a Silicon Valley startup is trying to do. The startup named Farmers Business Network (FBN) is trying to build an Amazon-like online marketplace for agricultural supplies.
In a packed arena, a congregation of around 3000 farmers had gathered listening to remarks on the Midwestern economy, how the income is coming down and the costs are going up and the bankruptcies rising. The person addressing the crowd was Charles Baron, who is the co-founder of Farmers Business Network. He talked about how big companies try to protect their profits by inflating prices of their produce which is often infected with herbicide sprays. He proclaimed that FBN will allow users to compare prices across products and suppliers, and will provide the farmers with a strong negotiating position. The company aims to empower the farmers by trying to give them an upper hand in price determination. In their quest for the same, traditional stores remain central to the business as some of the big farm suppliers have refused to come on board as they believe that the motive behind this platform is to gather and secretly sell data on crops and farms. FBN has refuted these claims.
One of the biggest reasons behind this concept of providing an online marketplace to the farmers is to bring these farmers to an even scale with those web-based companies who have upended retail, grocery, and other American Industries over the past two decades, offering consumers with products at low prices and speedy delivery. This has created problems for those traditional farmers who have been trying to sell their output the traditional way. Some of the major companies who are against FBNs idea, have alleged FBN to be a data company that wants to collect and aggregate data to eventually sell for a profit. Amol Deshpande, FBNs Chief Executive, and co-founder had refuted these claims saying, “These are the tactics the industry will use to keep players like us out because they can.”
Despite being one of the best-funded farming startups, been able to raise $571 million to date, and generating hundreds of millions of dollars in sales till late 2018, the company is facing some stiff resistance from the giants in the industries towards their idea. There has been continuous mud-slinging from the best in the industry like Bayer AG, Corteva Inc., and Syngenta AG towards the company. It’s a long battle for the company, and it is to be seen if they can bring this setup into the traditional farmer’s lives.
