M. Fritz, et al. / International Food and Agribusiness Management Review Volume 7, Issue 1, 2004
primarily engaged in management software for food supply chains. An example is
emergeInteractive with its CattleLog software. CattleLog supports the tracking of
cattle and beef and developed out of the former CattleInfonet platform that
supported the trading of cattle, beef and beef products across the entire meat value
chain. Other examples with similar developments include eSkye, Novopoint, E-
Markets, ecMarkets, or Instill. Platform initiatives that developed into agri-food
related information portals include the US-based portals Beverage Online, Bakery
Online, and Foodservice.com. The former European platforms Fleischforum and
FoodCity.Ru have changed into agri-food company directories.
Discontinuation ofActivities
Most platforms that seized with trading support discontinued their activities
altogether. The majority of them were initiated as focused platforms dealing with
one or a few product lines like meat, cereals or organic products, a strategy that was
generally considered as the most promising approach. Some of them were even
backed by major actors in the sector, like, e.g., Rooster.com which was initiated by
the agri-food company Cargill as a platform for farm retailers, cooperatives, and
food industry. Other North American platforms that discontinued activities include,
a.o., SellMeat.com, ICSFoodOne, Buybreads.com, FoodUSA.com, and
Poultryfirst.com. European examples involve Efoodmanager, Efdex, Agrenius,
Grownex, UnitednatureX, Tradeorganex, and Cigrex.
New Platform Entries
The emergence of new platform initiatives during the analysis period while other
platforms were discontinuing activities and the subsequent closure of some of the
newly created platforms soon after their establishment reflects and supports the
position that the development of electronic commerce needs to pass through a series
of trial-and-error processes (Snyder Bulik, 2000) to mature and to appropriately
adapt to the needs of the sector. Experiences from failed projects are the basis on
which new project initiatives could build.
In summary, this analysis of developments in the agri-food trade platform
infrastructure demonstrates high dynamic and principal paths. Many platform
initiatives failed during the analysis period, even platforms initiated or financed by
major market participants. The developments do not allow the identification of only
one or a few major reasons for platform failures: consolidation in the agri-food
platform market, lack of platform acceptance, inadequate platform functionalities,
and a declining economic situation may all have contributed to platform failures.
However, the analysis of variations and tendencies in the platform infrastructure
does not provide clear patterns of development directions of continuing platforms
themselves. This requires a more detailed analysis of development strategies for
success.
© 2004 International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IAMA). All rights reserved.