New player wants to conquer phosphate trade

Agrifirm Exlan, Farmel and trading platform Captin are joining forces when it comes to trading phosphate rights. The companies have introduced an online platform where dairy farmers can trade in phosphate rights 'real time' from Tuesday 21 August.

In their own words, this creates the first online trading platform with which the market is solely influenced by supply and demand. Gerrit Schilstra, director at Agrifirm Exlan explains: "The reason why this platform is being launched is to make the pricing of phosphate rights more transparent." Also from politics the call is regularly made to make the phosphate trade more transparent, he says.

According to Schilstra, the platform is intended for dairy farmers, so that the influence of third parties is excluded. "After registration, every dairy farmer can trade on the platform at any time of the day, regardless of whether you normally do business with Agrifirm Exlan or Farmel."

Link buyer and seller
Joost Roosen (Captin) explains that the system behind the trading platform comes from the financial world. "Shares are also traded in this way," Roosen said. Buy and sell orders are linked on the platform. After a match, the phosphate rights in the register of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency are debited from the seller and credited to the buyer. An order can only be withdrawn before a match has taken place. As a commission, Captin charges 1% on the transaction amount.

Captin is supervised by the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets and De Nederlandsche Bank, which offers certainty, Roosen emphasizes. "When dairy farmers register with us, they are verified to prevent possible fraud." Captin is not an unknown player in the agricultural sector. For example, the company facilitated the trade in ForFarmers certificates. In addition, feed equivalents of the animal feed group are still traded on their platform.

Slow start
Since the platform system for dairy farmers is relatively new, Schilstra expects trading to start quietly. In the future, he expects "a large portion" of trading to take place through the platform. "Time will tell," says Schilstra. Incidentally, Agrifirm Exlan will also continue to facilitate trade through the existing channels. Schilstra does not rule out the possibility that a similar platform will be created in the future for other production rights (pigs, poultry).

Wouter Job

Wouter Baan is Head of Meat & Dairy at BoerenbusinessAt DCA Market Intelligence, he focuses on dairy, pork, and meat markets. He also monitors (business) developments within agribusiness and interviews CEOs and policymakers.

w.baan@boerenbusiness. Nl

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