A new agritech startup disrupts South African agriculture

by Johan Burger

South African agritech startup TonnUp has launched an online trading platform for farmers. Its developers aim to help farmers get fair prices for their produce. The company helps producers connect directly with buyers and cuts out the middlemen, thus ensuring a fairer deal for all stakeholders. Its modus operandi is simple - farmers list their products on the platform and buyers bid for it. The platform has helped cut the paperwork involved and eased the cash-flow process to ensure farmers are paid in time and buyers receive their stock as quickly as possible. For the moment TonnUp deals in grains. But soon it will expand into other commodities such as oil cake, fertiliser, soya, and sorghum.^[1] As less than 25% of South Africa’s 16m ton agricultural market is traded formally, this gives a chance for platforms such as TonnUp and others after it to shine. 

 

Additional readings

Chetty, I. 2021. SA agritech launches innovative commodities trading platform. Ventureburn. 9 April 2021. Available at https://ventureburn.com/2021/04/sa-agritech-launches-innovative-commodities-trading-platform/. Accessed 17 July 2021.

 

References

^[1] https://ventureburn.com/2021/04/sa-agritech-launches-innovative-commodities-trading-platform/