Agriculture company Afgri is expanding its electronic trading hub to allow other players in the industry to use it.
Afgri says it has embarked on a national drive to centralise individual farmer and co-op grain volumes for the group, which represents 28% of the South African crop and has 73 silos with a capacity of 3.8 million tons.
The use of the hub is also being extended to industry participants such as traders, feed factories, millers and handling and storage operators.
"Increased volumes through the hub mean that the efficiency of SA`s bulk road transport suppliers serving the agri industry is sharply increased," says Afgri Logistics MD Esli Rall.
He says the system is not limited to road transportation, as Afgri Logistics also manages rail transportation and is the second largest grain rail transporter in the country.
In terms of road transportation, the average cost per load, with combination loads, could be cut by as much as R30 a ton on an average load of R165 a ton, translating to a reduction of 18.2%.
The system has been active for three years under an extended pilot project and Afgri transports about 50 000 tons a week through the system.
The group says it has also incorporated performance measurement and a route tracking system.
Rall says Afgri wants to bring the benefits of the electronic age to its customers - farmers as well as suppliers in the agricultural supply chain, such as processors of primary agricultural products. Thus the scope of the hub is being expanded to enable customers to participate directly.
"There has been tremendous interest from our customers, particularly large ones, wishing to join forces and aggregate their volumes through the Afgri agri hub," Rall says. "For the first time, we are now able to make this service available to them."
He adds that transporters will earn less per single load, but improve their efficiency by doing return loads at a higher total income per round trip. In return, they have agreed to raise standards of performance through a system of continuous evaluation.
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