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NetV@lue2.0 ...My Bit
My Bit:
AgriBazaar a growing success
By
Arifin Abdul Latif |
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Towering Malay and National Youth Awards
were recently accorded to two agropreneurs under
the Department of Agriculture (DOA)'s guidance.
Both awardees were among the first to use the
AgriBazaar portal to conduct their
agribusinesses. A Melayu unggul awardee, Jumenah
Saat, 53, from Kemang Darat, Batu Pahat produces
snack foods and has succeeded in penetrating the
Japanese market using information and
communications technology via AgriBazaar.
Harrani Dayat, 32, of HBD Agrotech, who operates
vegetable fertigation projects in Kota Tinggi
and Batu Pahat and won a National Youth Award
2005 (Agricuture category), is another active
user of AgriBazaar.
The two are among the
many success stories resulting from AgriBazaar —
a far cry from the story entitled "Ensuring a
fruitful AgriBazaar". Among the notable
successes to date is a steady growth in
registered users (over 4,700, including 114 from
overseas) from 14 business types (29% bona fide
farmers), with well over 400 active B2B/B2C
product offerings (buy, sell, business
opportunities and excess stocks) for over 400
categories of farm produce/agri-products. As of
June 5, some RM8.95 million worth of virtual
trades were transacted — and are growing by the
day. Not bad for a 21/2-year-old baby.
Since
its introduction in July 3, 2003, AgriBazaar has
blazed a trail in e-commerce application in
agriculture — a bottom-up approach initiated
through a pilot project in the Batu Pahat
district. Adoption by market players has been
laudable and has helped the project cross
boundaries (nationwide, regionally and globally)
and expand quickly without any national rollout
plan being planned at the time.
The strong,
continuous political will accorded to this
initiative is very encouraging. This is the
result of the Prime Minister's keen interest in
revitalising agriculture — to bring rural
farmers benefits from development efforts to
ensure they are not marginalised. His efforts
are a continuation of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's
work during his final years in office.
ICT
global experts attending the Asian Federation of
Information Technology in Agriculture and World
Congress on Computers in Agriculture 2004
Conference in Bangkok and the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development Workshop on
Open Source in Geneva have voiced their strong
backing for AgriBazaar. They describe it as a
laudable initiative that has succeeded in
bridging the digital divide through an
empowerment approach for the farming community.
AgriBazaar provides the value-added element
for agriculture efforts and agro-based/rural
industries. This way, the rural/digital divide
problem can be solved automatically and on a
sustainable basis.
Apart from receiving wide
coverage in the press, both locally and
internationally, AgriBazaar also gets rave
recommendations and commentaries from the
professional/academic arena. It was even
selected as a case study in a business school in
The University of Western Australia. AgriBazaar
has just been internationally nominated for a
The Tech Museum Award 2005 in the Economic
Development category, which honours innovators
around the world who are harnessing technology
to profoundly improve the human condition (
http://www.techawards.org/
).
Elsewhere, it has been quoted in
e-MarketServices directory and ranked among 56
e-Markets globally. Other global online
referrals include AgriSeek (US — focus on North
American Free Trade Agreement markets),
Arroz.com (Latin America — Mercosur or the
Southern Cone Common Market) and Ageze.com
(Germany — European Union markets). All this
augurs well for Malaysian agri-producers as they
position themselves to compete in the World
Trade Organisation/Asean Free Trade Area
environment.
National rollout
plan
It is worth noting that we
are not short of interested parties lobbying to
acquire AgriBazaar and turn it into a private
business. The interest shown by the corporate
sector is proof that AgriBazaar is a success.
However, unlike other e-commerce
portals/initiatives, it is our express wish to
maintain AgriBazaar as a socio-economic project.
Hence AgriBazaar's national rollout plan
shall be among the main features in DOA's
projects for the Ninth Malaysia Plan (2006-10)
which sets out to strategically
realign/redevelop the agriculture sector into a
modern, dynamic and competitive sector capable
of becoming the "third engine of growth" for the
country. This realisation stems from our painful
experiences during the Asian financial crisis of
1997/98.
With all these positive
developments, I believe AgriBazaar shall meet
its objectives and even beyond that, as fully
endorsed by the Prime Minister himself and his
Cabinet. I am glad this is shaping up well
during my time as the ICT chief in the DOA's
100th year of existence. Finally, the DOA has
arrived, spearheading e-commerce in agriculture
(with the Malaysian Institute of Microelectronic
Systems) on the "ICT in Agriculture road map".
AgriBazaar able to
promote trade
The portal has
become a convenient and fast marketing channel
for all market players to conduct their
agribusiness deals. Its motto "Exchange for
Better Price" has managed to draw in the rural
community. We view it as having the potential to
go beyond the national boundaries — with
foreigners already registering and actively
posting offers/enquiries. Yes, the trade
potential is now a reality — with valid business
opportunity offers coming not only from the
Asia/Asean region but also from as far away as
the Mercosur and EU markets, Canada, Morocco,
and countries in the Commonwealth of Independent
States, among others.
Trade potential
through AgriBazaar is not taken seriously by
certain quarters. However, the last few months
saw a surge in direct export/import offerings,
aside from serious enquiries via e-mails and
user feedback. Perhaps our presentations in
Bangkok and Geneva have succeeded in drawing
some interest among foreigners to conduct
agri-trade with Malaysians.
From the very
start, I have pioneered posting such "biz
opportunity" offers on the portal, and have been
receiving quite a lot of messages/responses
through "offers feedback" (seven pages of active
offers/enquiries) — mostly from foreign traders
offering to establish business contacts through
me. This proves that the scepticism shown by
some towards AgriBazaar's ability in promoting
export/import of agri-produce and products is
unfounded.
Latest offers, received through
"user feedback" and the AgriBazaar e-mail
system, which are still hot and valid (to those
interested) include those searching for
agents/establishing joint ventures in Malaysia,
as well as offers for tropical fruit and
vegetable expositions overseas:
- Large Brazilian fresh fruits exporter
interested in exporting exotic fruits from
Brazil.
- Malaysian in Calgary, Canada, searching
for joint-venture partner to export Canadian
beef.
- Company from West Sumatra hoping to find
joint-venture partner to manufacture and export
virgin coconut oil.
In fact, it's not a case
of lack of interested parties to import our farm
produce but rather our inability to meet their
demands. For instance, no taker responded to
requests from a biotechnology company in Taiwan
looking for 10 tons/month of dried roselle
calyx. An importation enquiry for Noni juice
from a large trading company in Poland also met
the same fate. Maybe we have not achieved the
critical mass needed, especially for those who
are ready, competitive and brave enough to
spread their wings globally, but the potential
is there, right now!
Last but not least, the AgriBazaar portal
is developed for all farmers, livestock farmers,
fishermen/aquaculturist, small and medium-sized
food processors, and other market players. Use
it as an alternative marketing channel, managed
in virtual space and aimed at speeding up the
processes of marketing agri-produce,
agri-products, food products, agro-based and
rural products. Adhere to the Prime Minister's
call so that it can expand speedily and prepare
our market players to be more productive as well
competitive to trade globally.
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Arifin Abdul Latif is
assistant director ICT of Department of
Agriculture
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& Fax: 603-88703451 | 603-88887639
| 603-77254397 | h/p:
016-6094170
http://arifinedgearticles.tripod.com/
