AgriBazaar, the digital market place for farm products is expecting a major jump in transactions on its platform after the Centre recently allowed farmers to sell their produce outside the regulated markets.

“We are targeting transactions worth ₹20,000 crore to be carried out on our platform this financial year as more farmers and buyers are registering with us to trade,” said Amith Agarwal, CEO and co-founder, AgriBazaar. In 2019-20, transactions worth ₹6,000 crore were carried out on the AgriBazaar platform, and the gross merchandise value (GMV) traded during April-June quarter stood at ₹5,500 crore.

At present, over 200 Farmer Producer Organisations, about three lakh farmers and 16,000 processors are registered with AgriBazaar, carrying out transactions on the three year-old digital market place.

Since the Covid lockdown, which coincided with the rabi harvest season impacting operations at mandis, the AgriBazaar platform has witnessed a 400 per cent growth in, transactions as more farmers and buyers took the digital route, Agarwal said.

Way forward

AgriBazaar, which operated in select States before the marketing reforms were introduced, had a GMV of ₹14,000 crore in the past three years, Agarwal said.

“The transparency in price discovery and the trust factor coupled with quality assurance offered by the platform has been attracting more players,” Agarwal said. AgriBazaar currently operates in 16 States and is also planning to set up 500 labs across the country in partnership with agri-entrepreneurs for providing quality services assaying and certification. It has also partnered with a few logistics players in some regions.

“We are currently operating near 32 cities, which we plan to expand to 75 soon,” he said. AgriBazaar is also planning to increase its headcount to around 500 people from the present 150 as it expands operations.

Recently, AgriBazaar has also started selling farm inputs such as seeds, plant protection chemicals and bio-fertilisers through its platform and has partnered with about 30 input companies including Bayer CropScience.

“We are currently focussed on few agri-value chains such as mustard and millets and would be expanding to vegetables going forward,” Agarwal added.

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