AgriBazaar, the digital marketplace for farm products, expects traded commodity volumes on its platform to rise by about two-thirds on good prospects of kharif harvest.

The company is expanding its footprint in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, besides eyeing more commodities on its platform.

Growing business

“We aim to handle about 2.5 million tonnes of farm produce this kharif harvest season,” said Amith Agarwal, Co-Founder and CEO, AgriBazaar.

Last kharif, it had handled around 1.5 million tonnes (mt) and the gross merchandise value transacted on its platform during the season was about ₹9,000 crore.

The company has around seven lakh farmers and about 35,000 traders/processors registered on its platform. “We are expanding our footprint in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh among other states, bring in more traders and processors and launch more commodities on our platform,” Agarwal said.

The company plans to launch trading in cotton on its platform by December and Guntur red chilli by January, he added.

Bright outlook

“The outlook for kharif harvest looks good. I think we will have a bumper crop in soyabean and cotton among others,” Agarwal said. While there were some concerns due to deficit rains in the early part of the season, the situation has changed from mid-August. Rains have been good now and if the rains continue beyond October 5, it could hurt the crop prospects, Agarwal said.

Further, AgriBazaar is investing in strengthening its trading platform and is also in the process of building a proof of concept for the Agriculture Ministry’s digital platform. The solutions in digital agri platform are for crop identification and estimation using remote sensing technology and provide advisory services to farmers, post-harvest intelligence and market linkages, he said.

AgriBazaar is working with its solutions in about 100 villages in Guna district of Madhya Pradesh and Kota in Rajasthan, he said.

Related Topics