Changes in ways to trade agricommodities

Five young people made up the AgriFutures' Future Young Leaders program, where each of them spoke on their careers within agriculture at evokeAG. 2024 at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre last week.

Sam Lambert is the chief operating officer and co-founder of zenGate, a block-chain tech company which specialises in business solutions.

Mr Lambert said on the first day of his first job after university, the pandemic drove him and his colleagues into working from home arrangements and isolation.

But only two years later, Mr Lambert moved from his home in Sydney to start a new life in Japan, and launched zenGate, which now supports micro to medium sized primary producers, access markets and adopt new technologies.

"Many primary producers faced enormous hardships and challenges during the pandemic and the old ways of conducting business were no longer holding up," Mr Lambert said.

Mr Lambert said the pandemic was an opportunity for businesses to convert into a digital hybrid, while others didn't have the know-how on making this possible.

A friend and tea producer in Sri Lanka alerted him to a number of supply chain issues and problems which were hindering business growth, and Mr Lambert became obsessed with trying to resolve these issues for other producers also.

"The more producers I spoke to, the more the problems became clear," Mr Lambert said.

There were three key issues that needed to be resolved, or producers were put at greater risk of falling behind - the ability to access new markets and to adopt new technologies.

To overcome a small market scope, zenGate's first project was developing the Palmyra Platform, a commodity exchange directly connecting producers with buyers around the world.

Palmyra first started with Sri Lankan suppliers in early 2023, and is in the process of onboarding suppliers from Australia, Indonesia, Kenya, Nepal and Tanzania.

The next problem was that the producer's need to borrow money far exceeded the money on offer, especially through reliable sources such as banks and investment.

"Many of the primary producers I spoke to were left in precarious situations such as predatory loans paying incredibly high interest rates," Mr Lambert said.

Having access to reliable finance allows primary production businesses to grow, but gives them something to lean against during periods of high spending, such as harvest.

"Building bridges between producers and lenders is a key initiative on the Palmyra Platform," he said.

"We believe through greater data capture and transparency, we can help transform the way lenders assess risk, and tap into new lending opportunities."

Mr Lambert said the barriers to 'exponential' technologies are the lowest that they have ever been.

"It presents an enormous opportunity for primary producers to jump forward," he said.

"It's not a matter if we implement (technology), but when."

Over the past few years, consumer trends have shown a demand for transparency and traceability over supply chains.

Mr Lambert said consumers were interested to know the story and providence of a product, but more importantly the ethics and sustainable values behind it.

Traceability is something that is already on the forefront in other international markets, such as the European Union and the United States.

"Not implementing this technology (enabling traceability) might mean primary producers lose access to some crucial markets," he said.

"Building traceability solutions has become a core embedded feature of the Palmyra Platform

"It's a way to stay compliant and tell their unique stories to buyers around the world," he said.