Online trading will transform Taiwan's feed industry

Introduction: Taiwan's feed industry is speeding up the expansion of online transactions to cut costs, as the island's accession to the world trade organization will usher in more fierce competition, traders said Friday The launch of China food website ( Com) is having a transformative impact on Taiwan's $900 million annual feed industry by reducing the number of middlemen who purchase feed ingredients "Online trading will have a huge impact on the industry," said one industry insider Many intermediary trading institutions will lose their jobs " The portal, located in the feed industry in Greater China, has forced local feed producers in Taiwan to abandon the group bidding system for corn procurement Traders say the Internet will one day dominate the market At the end of April, the online trade of feed ingredients quietly appeared At that time, Taiwan's Great Wall enterprise launched its own wisdom crystallization As a feed and chicken manufacturer, Great Wall enterprise is also Taiwan's largest corn importer The portal provides a purchase platform for the purchase of feed ingredients such as corn, soybean and soybean meal The steady growth of this website has made the already fierce competition in Taiwan's feed market more smoky, because the website has formed an emerging electronic market with lower prices by simplifying the circulation system The portal now only makes long-term delivery of corn, because corn has an absolute dominant market position, but it will eventually include forward trading of other grains, which are still collective bidding system After Taiwan's accession to the WTO, it will compete with overseas farmers, said the manager of a local feed and chicken manufacturer in Taiwan This will allow more people to seek cheaper sources of raw materials such as the Internet As part of its accession to the world trade organization, Taiwan has agreed to allow the import of pork brisket and chicken, which has led to a reduction in local feed consumption When Taiwan is expected to join the world trade organization by the end of this year, this process is expected to accelerate According to a senior trader from an international trading bank, the potential of online trading in Taiwan is huge This allows smaller feed mills to get more information CFN's online transactions now amount to NT $100 million a month, or US $2.9 million, with daily page views of 2000 to 3000 Great Wall expects these data to double by the end of the year As one of the largest corn buyers in Asia, Taiwan purchases 5 million tons of corn every year at a price of about 500 million US dollars "We are optimistic and cautious about the growth of Internet transactions," said Victor Tseng, vice president and chief operating officer of great wall Since most companies are still used to the old way of trading, it will take some time for them to completely switch from offline trading market to online trading, but Tseng said he is confident that the Taiwan website will break even this year Traders are most concerned about the liquidity of online transactions, because the number of importers using computers is still very small, especially in rural areas, and whether these importers are willing to transfer to the new Internet based trading platform The stability of online trading system is also worrisome, but if technical failure causes supply problems, importers can also meet their needs through regular bidding Great Wall owns 28% of the portal, which operates independently in China and Taiwan COFCO, the mainland's state-owned company, is the largest shareholder with a 29% stake Tseng said that the portal aims to open up cross-strait trade in the future, which may pose a threat to the U.S suppliers who currently dominate the local corn market, which now accounts for about 90% of Taiwan's corn supply In a may report, the USDA's agriculture counsellor in Taipei said online transactions across the Taiwan Strait could pose a threat to US companies and farmers as competition from the mainland intensifies Taiwan still prohibits the import of corn from the mainland However, the ban is likely to be lifted after China and Taiwan join the WTO Note: one dollar is NT $34.65.