b'by Speedinvest, with participation fromwhich seed products from which brands Elevator Ventures, the corporate ventureare genetically identical, and at what arm of Raiffeisen Bank International.prices theyre being sold for.Previously, Agro.Club had a success- Because Canadas seed system works ful launch in Russia, a $20-billion market,differently, FBN Canada has instead where almost 20% of farmers have signedfocused on performance and price analyt-up in the first 18 months and with millionsics.of dollars in monthly business, accordingAccording to Arbuckle, Agro.Club to the company. Canada enables farmers to place orders Via its free platform, which includes aonline for the products of its manufac-website and online ordering service, Agro. turer partners. Farmers then select their Club bills itself as a single place to orderpreferred retailer. Price is negotiated inputs from a retailer of choice. locally, and once a deal is reached, prod-Farmers have historically been theuct is delivered and supported by theNeil Arbuckle has a long history in risk-takers working in a non-transpar- retailer of the farmers choice. the ag industry, currently serving ent market. The Agro.Club mobile appOnline sales in the seed world areas managing director for Agro.Club empowers farmers by giving them accessrelatively new. The problem is designingCanada.to multinational giants, independent man- the system. A retailer or manufacturer ufacturers, trusted retailers, grain export- can build it themselves, but its not their ers and food companies, the companyarea of expertise. They could contract it said in a news release.out to a third party, but thats expensive. This opens up new opportunitiesOr they can do nothing and watch the for players of all sizes, while providingworld go by, which most people under-a closer relationship with farmers andstand isnt really an option for their busi-platform support across the whole valueness, Arbuckle says.chain, from seed to grain at the port. Agro.Club gets them digitally ena-bled in a cost-effective way as this digital Looking for Industry Acceptance ag revolution were seeing all over the The Agro.Club Canada announcementworld takes place.comes two years after Farmers BusinessCurt Baldwin, director of the Canterra Network (FBN) announced its moveSeeds canola, corn and soybean businessCurt Baldwin is director of Canterra to Canada, setting up a head office inunit, says being the first seed companySeeds canola, corn and soybean High River, Alta., and announcing itsto sign on to the platform made sensebusiness unit.acquisition of Yorkton Distributors inbecause it puts an emphasis on relation-Saskatchewanthe beginning of whatships between the grower and retailer, it said would be a distribution networksomething lacking under other online across the West. sales models.FBN allows farmers to anonymouslyWe know retailers deliver local share precision ag data including seedexpertise and have a unique under-performance, as well as information onstanding of the customers needs, which what theyre paying for seed and cropensures our products perform on their protection products.farm. It was important for us to embrace Farmers can also purchase inputsthat and bring it online, Baldwin says.directly online from FBN and its partners. Rewards programs are an impor-FBN Canadas approach to doing busi- tant part of our offering. An early order ness on the seed side is a little differentallows us to plan our supply chain so we than its U.S. counterpart, however.can have the right seed with the right In the United States, an individual seedtreatment available at the right time, and variety can be sold under multiple branda platform like this allows us to bringJustin Funk studies currentnames by different retailers at differentthat concept online and pay farmerand future marketing trends in price points, and FBNs data will revealrebates earlier than before. agri-retail.NOVEMBER 2020 GERMINATION.CA 17'