As the UK Food System lurches from crisis to crisis, farmers show the way out with FutureFarm
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Thousands of UK farmers join British group buying platform to drive input prices down.
New research released today by FutureFarm demonstrates how the UK’s broken food system can be fixed, from the ground up, by offering farmers the strength-in-numbers buying power that they currently lack.
A startup in the agtech space, FutureFarm.ag runs a price comparison technology platform for agricultural inputs.
“The problem with farming in the UK is simple,” says Florian Ritzmann, CEO at FutureFarm. “Farmers buy high and sell low and it is not sustainable. Inputs like fertiliser, chemicals, fuel, seed, and feed are too expensive. Supermarkets don’t pay enough to leave margin. And when the maths doesn’t add up, the food supply is at risk. Just this winter UK farmers turned off glasshouse production because they could not afford to heat them.”
Original research conducted by FutureFarm, based on the buying behaviour of UK farmers on their platform, now shows the way out.
“Our background is in price comparison,” continues Ritzmann. “We are bringing what we learned during our careers at places like Comparethemarket, Carphone Warehouse and Simplify Digital to this industry. Farming is seasonal, which means that farmers buy the same input commodities at the same time. This creates a perfect opportunity to aggregate demand, source group deals and stimulate competition amongst suppliers.”
“We call it ‘Collective Deals’. Our technology bundles the buying power of farmers large and small and gets a better group deal for everyone,” he continues. “The data shows that this ‘Groupon for Fertiliser’ model is working.”
The Collective Deal feature was introduced in January 2023. Farmers join without obligation, adding their individual requirements to the group total. Close to the time when a product is needed on-farm, suppliers are invited to bid for the aggregate volume. The winning bid is presented back to farmers via the platform and with a push of a button the offer can be either accepted or rejected. The model produces group savings and is a breakthrough in terms of convenience and transparency.
The FutureFarm research underlines the significance of what good e-commerce can do for British farming. Since the launch of the feature, more than 40 Collective Deals covering bulk input commodities for livestock, arable or horticultural farmers have been added.
“Collective Deals let us engage farmers in an entirely new way. It feels like they were waiting for us to do this. Half of the total fertiliser sales since our 2021 launch have been through a Collective Deal. Considering that the feature launched two months ago, this clearly shows appetite. We are particularly pleased to see such a great response from smaller farmers,” explains Ritzmann. “We are now poised to take this innovation global by expanding our platform overseas.”
Further queries and interview requests are welcomed at news@futurefarm.ag
About FutureFarm
FutureFarm was founded in May 2018 and is based in Norwich and London. It develops world-leading software to connect, negotiate and manage transactions for farmers. Input Buying Groups are the first to benefit from the technology, enabling efficient aggregation of core commodity inputs to drive prices down. FutureFarm is run by an expert team of experts with a background in ag tech and online marketplaces. Investors include JMI Equity, a leading US equity fund with investments of over $4 billion dollars.
