Farmers will have one more place to buy their fertilizer and pesticide this spring and sell their grain in the fall.
AgriPlace.com offers farmers a single agriculture internet site where they can check out prices from different farm supply companies, said company president Greg Lore.
“They can use it as a site to discover what prices are today for fertilizer and grain,” said Lore of Calgary.
AgriPlace is the central hub of the internet site. GrainPlace and InputPlace are spokes off the main site. HogPlace and CattlePlace will be launched later.
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Since its initial launch in September, more than six million bushels of grain have been traded on GrainPlace. The company hopes to reach 35 million bushels in the first year.
“The early success of GrainPlace demonstrates that Canadian grain traders, including farmers, are ready to embrace internet technology and the benefits and convenience of business-to-business e-commerce,” said Lore.
Growing interest
The InputPlace site has been operating for almost two weeks. More than 2,000 farmers have become registered users to browse around the internet sites, checking out prices.
Farm supply dealers can post their fertilizer, chemical, and seed prices on the site to let farmers pick and choose the best price.
“It’s visible. Everyone will be able to see what everyone else is offering,” said Dan Mulder, president of InputPlace, who is negotiating with a major grain company to have it post its prices on the site.
“If a retailer is not on the site, they have chosen not to be there.”
Eventually, Mulder wants several farm supply dealers from each area of the province on the site to give farmers good price selection.
Former Westco Fertilizer employee John Harapiak has been hired to advise farmers on the best fertilizer and chemical use for their farm.
While staff won’t walk fields for farmers, they will offer the latest agriculture advice, he said.
“Not all farmers have access to a high level of agronomic information,” he said.
But some industry associations are worried farmers may make a mistake and buy products not registered for their crop.
In a recent news release, the United States Agriculture Retailers Association said it is concerned about the growing increase of agriculture sales through the internet.
“ARA is concerned that such products are handled and applied in a manner that meets all federal and state regulatory requirements,” said the release.
“For example, California has introduced legislation to study internet sales of agriculture crop protection products to evaluate the potential impact of such products that are not labeled or registered for use in the state.”
Barb Lauer, with the Canadian Crop Protection Institute, said it has not taken the same stand on internet sales. The institute will not get involved unless something is not legal.
