Indigo’s Marketplace is a program that helps growers connect with new buyers they may have not dealt with before.
“Marketplace is a digital platform for buying and selling grain, so we match up farmers who are selling grain with buyers who are trying to buy grain,” said Rodney Connor of Indigo Ag.
He says producers can get offers to buy grain from around the corner or across the state.
“Marketplace will match a grower with, in some cases, hundreds of buyers that are willing to buy grain within a 200 mile radius,” said Connor. “We calculate what it costs or what we think it costs to haul grain that far, in those instances, and we rank those bids for the farmer in a way that makes sense.”
He said the buyer 200 miles away would be paying a lot more for grain than the buyer 10 miles away.
“We account for that and show bids in a way that makes sense,” he said.
With the kind of market volatility we have seen in the past year, some producers are looking for new opportunities to land more profitable sales.
“I’m a basis guy, so I’ve seen some major basis disruption in that Indiana market bleeding over into Ohio,” he said. “One of the advantages of Marketplace is we’re going to match up growers with buyers that are willing to buy grain in Indiana and Ohio this year in places they haven’t had to buy grain from before.”
Connor says another benefit of the Marketplace platform is the cost.
“Absolutely free to transact their Marketplace on a cash grain contract, so if you want to sell cash grain, we will absolutely do that for free.”