Agri e-trading platforms look at innovative ways to ensure product quality

Ensuring the requisite quality when both buyer and seller are not physically present has emerged as a formidable challenge for these platforms

As the online auction and trading of agricultural commodities grows, ensuring the requisite quality when both buyer and seller are not physically present has emerged as a formidable challenge for most of them.

With AI-enabled tracking systems to physically ensure presence of personnel in mandis from which the products are purchased to developing mobile applications to check quality, companies are exploring innovative ways to overcome the problem.

“You need technology to determine and also standardize the quality of fresh produce which will then create trust in the market for digital selling platforms,” Milan Sharma, CEO and co-founder, Intello Labs, told Business Standard. 

Intello Labs, which is a start-up working in the agritech space, has launched Praman (Hindi for proof), a technology-driven commodities e-auction platform soon.

“Praman has been in stealth mode over the last few months and has already achieved a monthly gross transaction value of $40 million. It is aiming to clock a GTV of almost $100 million in the next two quarters, making it one the largest agri-tech platforms in India,” Milan said.

What will distinguish Praman from similar such platforms, according to Milan, is the AI-based quality assessment which will make it digital and data-driven.

Citing an example, he said that experience shows that the firm's technology driven systems ensure 95 per cent accuracy in quality grading of cardamom, while manually it is around 70 per cent.

Milan says that Intello is so conscious of quality that it underwrites a certain portion if the buyer feels that there is divergence in quality from what has been promised or shown through the platform which is then recovered from the seller.

Praman currently facilitates spot trading and e-auction in cardamom, onion, garlic, pomegranate, apple, potato and tomato.

The platform is mainly active in Maharashtra, Kerala, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir where agricultural produce market committee (APMC) laws are less rigid and out of mandi transactions are easily facilitated.

The e-auction platform for fresh produce promises to replicate a physical mandi, but on a much wider scale and feel. At an aggregate level, a farmer can earn almost 20 per cent more if he sells his produce through the  platform as compared to a traditional mandi.

Praman is working on a tech-based system to ensure that buyers get the required quality of produce through e-auction platforms for commodities.

Meanwhile, Gram Vyapar, a e-trading and e-auction platform launched by Indore-based start-up Gramophone has deputed partners in almost 100 mandis across India to carry out physical quality assessment and inspections of the produce that is sold through its platform so that buyer gets exactly the same quality as is shown in the platform and there is no dispute between the two.

“We also reduce the ratings of sellers and do all primary checks to ensure that buyers get the same quality of produce as shown on the platform, but yes, sometimes guaranteeing the same quality as shown on the platform is a challenge,” Tauseef Khan, co-founder and CEO of Gramophone, the parent company of Gram Vyapar, told Business Standard.

Gram Vyapar was launched in March 2021, just weeks ahead of the second Covid wave.

“We initially had around 5-10 listings of farm produce per day which now has crossed over 500 listings in one single day,” Khan said. 

He said he plans to expand in other states like UP, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. 
 

Though not strictly an agri-tech firm, but a prominent player in the commodities trading space, SLCM Group has launched a mobile application to check the quality of agriculture commodities.

The app which has initially been introduced for wheat will be extended to include other food grains and pulses like chana (chickpea), maize, rice, guar (cluster bean), moong and tur (pigeon pea) over time, a statement said.

The app allows a user to get an on the spot assessment of the commodity’s sample within minutes, without having to use equipment like sieve, weighing scale, etc., or to take it to a lab for testing.

It seems maintaining quality is both a challenge and opportunity when it comes to e-trading and e-auction of agricultural commodities, ensuring that buyers get exactly the same quality as shown on the platforms and there is no dispute.