After tea, now it's the turn of sugar molasses to go virtual.
Ayush Bagla, chief executive officer of teauction.com, a business to business (B2B) portal launched recently for reducing the transaction costs of selling bulk tea, is now venturing into online sugar molasses trading by launching a new site called "sugarmolasses.com". The site would be formally unveiled in about a fortnight.
Speaking to Business Standard, Bagla said that it would be both a businesss to business and a businesss (B2B)to consumer portal.
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"Initially, it will focus on B2B transactions. Sugar mills can sell sugar and molasses through the site. It will provide information on the sugar and molasses industries and also the distilleries," he said.
He also added that it would provide information on the crop pattern, state of the art technology used in the industry and international price trends. Information will also be provided on the availability of credit facilities to the farmers and the list of defaulting mills. "As molasses are liquid, export ventures are not viable. So our site will target the domestic market only," said Bagla.
Pankaj Dhanuka, also from teaauction.com, said that the annual repair and maintenance as well as the hessian requirements of the sugar industry will be addressed through the site. Though possibly not immediately, plans are in the pipeline for similar online ventures in oilcakes and oilseeds.
Sources in the company said the stakeholding in sugarmolasses.com will be similar to that in teaauction.com. It may be mentioned here that AFT Industries and Williamson Magor were likely to pick up stakes in teaauction.com Ltd. Sugarmolasses.com will also have strong domain partners including five sugar mills. The team of technological experts for teaauction.com will be taking care of the technical requirements of sugarmolasses.com.
On obvious comparisons with e-commodities.com, a B2B portal on sugar trading floated by Balrampur Chini Mills Ltd., Bagla said that neutrality in the market would be the plus point for sugarmolasses.com.