The Art of Global Food Trade. Tackling Challenges and Seizing Opportunities – Tridge

[00:00:00] Kingsly: . Global supply chains are getting ever complex. Consumer demands are fast changing and their expectations are increasingly hard to satisfy. This is particularly true for the food industry, even with technology getting better by the day things. Do go wrong. Things often go wrong, whether it is delays in transit or an oversupply in targeted markets, or perhaps outright damage to the cargo in transit despite, and this is despite our best efforts.

[00:00:31] Kingsly: That is why we have chosen to name today's podcast episode, the Art of Global Food Trade, tackling, challenges and Seizing Opportunities. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to yet another episode of the Cargo Run podcast, brought to you by Optimist. My name is Kingsley and I'm your host. Our guest today are all from church.

[00:00:53] Kingsly: TR is a global sourcing hub of food and agriculture. They help businesses safely and reliably source food and agricultural products from global markets, while empowering buyers with extensive market intelligence for better decision making. So let us welcome Benjamin, Aaron and Alicia. Benjamin is the global market, and he's based in Stalin, South Africa.

[00:01:18] Kingsly: And Aaron is the head of enterprise solutions for emea and he's based in London, uk. And Alicia is the senior solutions manager based in Frankfort. So before we dive into today's, uh, discussion, let us get to know our guests a little better. Alicia, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into the world of global food trade?

[00:01:42] Alicia: Absolutely. And thank you Kingsley for hosting the Tritch team today, um, in your podcast. We're really excited to be here. Uh, so a bit about me. My name's Alicia Adross. I've been in agriculture my entire life. I've worked all across the kind of supply and value chain all the way from the farm. So actually sitting in tractors, spraying fruit trees through trading, uh, so buying and selling fruit internationally all the way now to my position in tr.

[00:02:12] Alicia: Where I primarily work with buyers and suppliers, onboarding them into our digital solutions and solving some of the, I think, uh, very fundamental issues facing the agricultural industry, uh, currently. So yeah, that's a bit about me. I'll pass it on to maybe, who did you wanna go to next? Kingsley. Let's go to Benjamin.

[00:02:32] Benjamin: Okay. Hi, yeah, Kingsley. Thanks. Uh, thanks for roasting us. Uh, I have a similar background, I think, to Alicia and, uh, that I come from an agricultural ba family background, right? Uh, my family is in agriculture. Um, they're in the fruits and wine trade in South Africa. Uh, so I grew up on a, on a wine and fruit farm.

[00:02:52] Benjamin: Um, uh, when I studied all my, uh, like thesis and dissertations and research was in, in agriculture, and I've always wanted to, uh, to function in that environment. Uh, so I went and I worked for, uh, my family's business for, for quite a few years. Um, and after that I decided to transition more into the, the research, um, and analytics side of things.

[00:03:14] Benjamin: Um, more to do with, uh, or more to focus on what I studied. Um, and I found, uh, found TRI and what Trig does. Very interesting. So I decided to join the team at tri. Um, and yeah, that's where I find myself now. And, uh, and on the podcast here with you. I'm very pleased

[00:03:32] Kingsly: to, to meet you, Benjamin. And what about you, Aaron?

[00:03:35] Kingsly: Are you also from the, uh, the industry or are you an.

[00:03:40] Aaron: Uh, so firstly, thank you for, for, for your virtual hospitality Kingsley. Um, so unlike, um, my two, uh, well esteemed colleagues, um, Ben and Alicia, I am not, uh, from an agricultural background. Um, so I actually come from more so a, uh, commercial sales, um, data and operations, uh, background, um, a little bit in the finance sector, and then more recently, um, within kind of e-commerce, um, and other kind of varied sectors.

[00:04:11] Aaron: Um, been with TRID for about three years. Um, and in that time I've seen kind of a lot of different, uh, pivots and, and transitions as we've, uh, executed on our job of kind of disrupting the traditional agricultural industry with, uh, technology implementations. Um, so I work predominantly on the market intelligence side of the business, um, as a VP of strategic partnerships working with our tier one enterprises, um, to essentially disrupt from a top down perspective, uh, by making kind of partnerships, whether that's individually or brokering them, um, with kind of other, um, parties.

[00:04:49] Aaron: Um, so yeah, that could be academic institutions, governments, um, the finance sector, so insurance, hedge funds, VCs, PEs, um, as well as sovereign wealth funds and as well as kind of global retailers. And then kind of, uh, tier one suppliers as well. Um, so both in established and emerging markets. So slightly different background to my colleagues, um, but I'm also kind of quite tech focused and quite, um, Uh, I'm quite focused on the market intelligence, so the, the kind of data and analytics, but making sure that that's utilizable for the tier one partnerships that we have at hand.

[00:05:24] Kingsly: Oh, brilliant, brilliant. So if I can just stick with you, Erin, um, given that, you know, your background is slightly different from that of Alicia and Benjamin, can you just tell us a little bit about, um, since you joined the agriculture industry or dealing with, um, the agriculture industry, what are mo some of the most interesting things, um, that you've seen in the food industry?

[00:05:44] Kingsly: Perhaps you can tell us

[00:05:45] Aaron: about one that would be okay. Certainly. Um, so I think one of the most interesting things I've seen is the huge, uh, chance for, for opportunity, um, I think, um, with within inefficiency with information, um, asymmetry. Um, so the lack of information between any two parties mm-hmm. Um, as well as with the traditional mindset of stakeholders.

[00:06:09] Aaron: Um, we've seen the, the, the mass opportunity. Um, so that means that. Whether it be commercial. So brokering deals between buyers and suppliers, whether it be in terms of bridging that gap in terms of information asymmetry. We just need massive opportunity in disrupting and revolutionizing a whole sector, which I would say having worked in varied sectors and not coming from an agricultural background.

[00:06:31] Aaron: So I don't have a bias towards one sector. Right. Um, this is something that, um, uh, myself and I think many of my colleagues who are not from an agricultural background, have never seen in any other sector. Most other sectors are relatively, uh, have relatively efficient marketplaces. So there's, there is information asymmetry, but it's not at the same, um, uh, uh, level as it is within food and agriculture.

[00:06:59] Aaron: Mm-hmm. Now, anytime that there's a, there's a gap, uh, That ex that is, that is there to be exploited. Mm-hmm. Um, it's great for the parties who have traditionally, um, benefited from that, but it also gives a great opportunity for, uh, solving, uh, challenges and for, uh, disruption within that industry. So we really enjoy, and I think Alicia and Ben will both probably touch on this as well, whether it's from data and analytics or kind of, um, actual, um, uh, solution selling within buyers and sellers.

[00:07:29] Aaron: It gives us such a broad scope of work to solve so many challenges cuz there is so much opportunity, uh, cuz of the fact that there is so much information, a symmetry, traditional mindsets mm-hmm. And, and essentially inefficiency within the supply and value chains of agriculture.

[00:07:47] Right.

[00:07:48] Kingsly: So, so, um, talking about, uh, these traditional mindsets, uh, I I look back to, um, the advent of Covid 19 and in many industries.

[00:07:57] Kingsly: Uh, the advent of Covid 19 actually changed the way or at least altered the way a business was done. Alicia, do you think there's been a shift, uh, towards digital marketing as opposed to, uh, say traditional methods like word of mouth or perhaps physical conferences in the food industry since, um, covid 19?

[00:08:16] Kingsly: And, and how has this impacted the way food traders promote and sell their, their products, um, if at all? Yeah, so

[00:08:25] Aaron: I

[00:08:25] Alicia: think there's been an absolutely massive impact, um, on digital transformation in agriculture, especially since Covid 19. And I wanted to even add a little bit to the kind of question you, you, you just posed Aaron, and it segues well into what I'm about to say now.

[00:08:41] Alicia: Um, I think that one of the most fascinating things I've seen is this kind of forced adaptation in agriculture. So, like Aaron said, There's this really kind of traditional mindset in agriculture, and I've worked all across the supply and value chain and see time and time again how there's this kind of clinging onto what works or the status quo, but how covid 19 really brod people into having to look at how to change their businesses.

[00:09:09] Alicia: Right. And I think Trigg has really seen a lot of that change and a lot, and benefited even in some ways from that change. So, um, what we see here at Trigg specifically is a large amount of people actually starting to look at how they can leverage both data and also digital marketing in their way of working.

[00:09:31] Alicia: Um, now that Covid nineteen's kind of subsided, we, we do see people wanting to go back into some of that in person. Mm-hmm. I think that is that traditional nature of agriculture. Um, however, they are seeing at the same time the cost effectiveness of potentially paying for an advertisement or an online exhibition or looking at ways of connecting with people, new players, right.

[00:09:54] Alicia: In remote markets, um, from home. And I think that impact is starting to be seen and it's lasting now past the pandemic. In fact, I was actually reading, um, an article published by McKinsey and Co, where they said that 70% of B2B decision makers are now preferring they're buying to happen virtually.

[00:10:15] Alicia: Meaning either through a platform, self-service platform mm-hmm. And, and or, uh, in a remote setting. So via digital meeting. Um, and I think that's really indicative that, you know, even past Covid that digital marketing and digital sales will, will remain. Well,

[00:10:32] Kingsly: certainly I think in, in my experience, uh, I have also, uh, seen in the market that digital marketing is perhaps here to state.

[00:10:40] Kingsly: I remember before Covid 19, uh, we had to travel to various markets around the world to meet with our clients. Um, before then, hardly any of them were available to be, um, pitched on a Zoom call or anything of that nature. But right today, um, everyone is used to zoom. Everyone has, uh, an account on Zoom and I think yes, definitely this year to stay.

[00:11:03] Kingsly: Now lemme just move a little bit to to Benjamin. Um, Benjamin, last week I was in South Africa, uh, and I spent some time in Cape Town visiting some of the farms in, in, uh, citrus Do. And uh, it is always very exciting for me, but I want to learn from you if you could reveal something intriguing or perhaps unexpected that you are witnessed in the South African market, but not only the South African market, the wider African food trade market that might perhaps astonish our listeners and shed light on the region's unique potential.

[00:11:39] Benjamin: Yeah, I think, um, the main thing that's come to light for me is that, um, exporters out of, let's focus on, on, on Africa as a, as a source of, of food and a source of production for the rest of the world. So Africa primarily exports to, to other regions of the world, uh, whether it's Europe, the Middle East, uh, the far east.

[00:12:05] Benjamin: Um, so Africa is like a food basket that gives to the, to the rest of the world. And one of the big changes that I've seen, especially in, in, in the last few years is, um, uh, Africa's reliance on the eu. So the EU used to be like a massive trading partner, especially for, for South Africa. Um, and the EU has, uh, introduced a lot of new regulations, um, in recent years.

[00:12:32] Benjamin: Uh, and this is primarily like food safety regulations and also, Uh, environmental regulations, so food safety regulations. This would be regulations surrounding the use of, say, say, pesticides and herbicides. And on the environmental side, um, uh, also, uh, it would be say the cold treatment regulations imposed by the EU last year on citrus exports from South Africa.

[00:12:57] Benjamin: Um, and these regulations are making it, um, more costly for exporters out of Africa and say South Africa, uh, to service the European market. Um, so the main trend we're seeing as a is less of a reliance on the eu, um, as a, as a trading partner and in favor of diversification, uh, to other markets, uh, whether it's the Middle East or far East.

[00:13:21] Benjamin: So, exporters, producers and exporters are really looking at, at alternative opportunities, um, outside of the European Union. So they've burned their fingers a few times, uh, in the last few years. Um, and these new regulations just keep on coming and it's making it increasingly expensive, um, to go to European markets.

[00:13:43] Benjamin: Um, and it's becoming less and less lucrative. So exporters and producers are looking at alternatives, um, since that's definitely a ship that we're seeing. Um, the European Union is not gonna go away as a trading partner, but we're definitely seeing diversification, um, to, to other markets where producers and exporters are decreasing their reliance on the European Union.

[00:14:06] Benjamin: Um, and, and looking at alternative markets. And the other thing that we're seeing is, um, there's a big push for, um, trade on the African continent among African countries. Mm-hmm. So the African, the African Free Trade Agreement, um, is one big piece of legislation that if it can pass and it, if it can be implemented, uh, successfully, they can really break down barriers, uh, for trade on the African continent among countries.

[00:14:34] Benjamin: Um, among African countries because intra African trade, um, is very low if you compare it to other world regions. Uh, so that is another thing. Um, it's not a trend that's currently there, but it's something that will definitely, uh, happen in the future. So that's definitely something, uh, to look out for.

[00:14:52] Benjamin: Yeah. But the major thing is, um, a decreased reliance on the European Union as a trading partner for Africa, and we're definitely seeing that in South Africa. I, I, I couldn't

[00:15:01] Kingsly: agree with you. Um, more Benjamin, uh, talking about, uh, the African Free Trading area. Um, this is something that I've spoken about extensively.

[00:15:09] Kingsly: In fact, I recently published a book, um, and the book is called, uh, cargo Insurance Penetration in Africa. In this book, uh, I look at, uh, the impact of, of after, uh, on trade and African continent with over 54 or 54 countries who have so far signed that agreement. And, um, just like you, I do agree. That we are going to see, uh, an increase in intra Africa trade.

[00:15:34] Kingsly: Um, but obviously there are other measures that needs to be coming to place like carbon insurance to cover the goods as they move from one country to the other. Let me just move a little bit quickly to, to error. Um, like I said, I was in South Africa last week and one of the topical issues in South Africa is, um, power failure by Escom.

[00:15:58] Kingsly: Um, in ports around the world, there has been congestions or port strikes, um, in the states, in the uk, um, and then Covid 19 came and, and it, you know, kind of, uh, sh rocked the boat for everyone. As someone with extensive experience working with major food and agri enterprises, could you please shed some light on the challenges currently confronting, um, the industry?

[00:16:23] Kingsly: Uh, could you or do you have any valuable advice for. Agri players, uh, as they navigate the future.

[00:16:33] Aaron: Certainly. Um, I think it segues well into, um, what, um, yourself and Ben were discussing. In fact, I think, um, that segue was almost so good. Um, even myself, I thought it might have been pre-planned. Uh, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben was teaming you up beautifully for your book, which I think that everybody should, should read.

[00:16:53] Aaron: And, uh, hopefully we can link a description somewhere to, to get a copy. And, and I'd appreciate, uh, reading one myself. Cause I think, um, it, uh, it ties back to what I'm going to say, which is as someone who has had the privilege of working with, um, From the very top of the value in supply chain to the very bottom.

[00:17:10] Aaron: So even further up than most people would probably consider. So I'm working with the liquidity at the very top of the market. Mm-hmm. So the hedge funds, the private equities, the sovereign wealth funds that, that fund the sustainability, the csr, the e s G initiatives that then go into the, uh, actual, uh, group level and subsidiary companies, which we would, would consider as big marketplace themselves.

[00:17:35] Aaron: Mm-hmm. But above them usually sit a liquidity or, or, or, or well capitalized partner, whether that's a, a public sector partner or whether that's actually a private liquidity holder as well. Um, so I get to see kind of that, and, and keep going down the value in supply chain with the group level of the company and down again to the actual service provider, whether it be, um, a, a, um, uh, insurance provider or a ag tech solution provider, even a freight forwarder.

[00:18:03] Aaron: And then down to the actual, um, other side of the chain, which is the, uh, actual buyer, whether that's retailer, wholesaler, importer, distributor, manufacturer, et cetera. And, and what we see a lot with that whole value in supply chain is that key word of, of kind of what, uh, Ben was mentioning there, which is, um, supply chain flexibility.

[00:18:24] Aaron: Mm-hmm. So, um, because of the traditional mindset within tr within, uh, food and agriculture, um, we have a massive bias, uh, which I think bias is a key word that we need to, to kind of get out of within food and agriculture. Um, and in order to get out of it, we need to be very self-aware of it. We have a bias to, uh, go with what's historically worked, as Aicia said, uh, that means using traditional supply chains.

[00:18:49] Aaron: Traditional supply chains mean using traditional roots of supply and demand markets. We would usually call them. Uh, buy and sell market supply and demand. Um, and I think this ties into what, what we consider our main competition to be within trig. It's not other agritech companies, it's, it's actually dating apps.

[00:19:09] Aaron: Uh, because essentially what you are trying to do is, is, is connect, uh, buyers and sellers the way you would connect, uh, two partners looking for each other on, on a dating application through an arranged marriage or through any other third party, uh, uh, pre-validated form of making a connection. So supply chain flexibility, I think is, is, is, is the, is the word of the year.

[00:19:31] Aaron: Uh, setting up new supply chains is always something that I think unless you are married, which most, most kind of supply chains are not, uh, we always advise that you, you date and trial. To see what else is out there on the market mm-hmm. Until somebody puts a ring on your finger and enters into a strategic partnership with you where that strategic partnership is so evergreen and mutually exclusive, that it can never be beaten by any new relationship.

[00:19:58] Aaron: Now unless you have that, which probably most of the market does not, you need to always be open to looking at what is potentially out there that could be innovative and new in terms of companies which are implementing technology. That could also be, uh, price gouging or, or based on cost benefits. So very transactional and price based.

[00:20:17] Aaron: It could also be very strategic in terms of looking to the future and your future goals and achievements and what you want to achieve as a company. Um, so we would always say, always execute and, and look at supply chain flexibility, whether you are a buyer, seller, or service provider. Mm-hmm. Always try all new options.

[00:20:34] Aaron: Always do your research in due diligence and always look at, um, The, the byproduct of the hard work. And don't be scared by setting up a new supply chain because actually, um, this can be one of the most beneficial things to do, even though it might be short term pain, actually. Um, it's historically proven that should you get it right with the right level of research and due diligence, you actually could be significantly benefiting in the long run by the instance buying from a new emerging market, but actually going through all of the specifications, uh, packaging, uh, regulatory issues with a tier two supplier in emerging market, rather than just buying from a tier one supplier in an established market.

[00:21:17] Aaron: You might not just get a better price, you might also get a better service, but you're going to need to go through those pain points doing that tick box exercise at the beginning. So I come back to, um, Supply chain flexibility, uh, both for supply and demand markets, as well as service providers we see as being a hot topic, um, which I don't think we are fully taking advantage of within agriculture.

[00:21:40] Aaron: And we feel that it's due to the biases that exist, whether it's confirmation bias, um, or just sheer laziness. A lot of organizations are not taking advantage, um, of potentially, um, some really great opportunities, um, by dating. Um, yeah, so that's what I'd say.

[00:21:58] Kingsly: Thank you very much for that. I, I like that you, you alluded to, um, dating apps perhaps, um, an easier description for, for treat for me would've been something like Tinder for agri industry now, but, but, um, jokes aside, like in the dating industry, um, trust is a big issue even in the agri industry as well.

[00:22:23] Kingsly: Uh, I just want to turn a, li my attention to Alicia. Uh, for, for many exporters and buyers around the world, um, particularly your food products, there's always this, you know, worry on the back of your minds, uh, about, you know, relation relating to trucks. Uh, I, I send my money to the other part of the world.

[00:22:41] Kingsly: Am I going to get one the product? Am I going to get the product quality, which I, I, I expect to get? Um, I would just like to find out from you, how is Street helping to solve this problem, if at all?

[00:22:54] Alicia: Yeah, absolutely. And, and I agree with you having been a trader myself, um, trust and transparency in setting up some sort of metrics for protection we're a big part of my job.

[00:23:05] Alicia: And also I think a huge reason why agriculture sometimes tends to not adapt to some of what Aaron just said quickly enough, right? Because there's always this theater and also associated risks with starting new supply chains, right? Um, and I think Trigg, and I know TRI really supports with this in a couple of ways.

[00:23:28] Alicia: So for those who don't know it, Trigg actually stands for Transaction Bridge or Trade Bridge. So our whole mantra here at TRI is actually connecting buyers and suppliers or facilitating trade, right? And as a startup, we've taken a lot of different approaches at solving that exact fundamental issue you're describing of trust and transaction bridge, right?

[00:23:51] Alicia: Um, we've, what we do, and I can kind of walk very, very high level through some of those solutions, but, um, it's all about facilitation and essentially matchmaking. So in some cases, we're actually crawling our internal network, external network, looking for matches that we feel are both validated and also a good fit for starting a business transaction.

[00:24:16] Alicia: Um, we also sometimes get involved ourselves in trades, so we'll actually take ownership of the goods. That helps some of our, especially emerging market suppliers, mitigate a bit of that risk. Um, we also provide data, right, for transparency, right? Because a very big thing too is looking at supplier buyer accountability when transacting in the open market.

[00:24:39] Alicia: So again, kind of pulling on what Aaron said, you may be working with a supplier in a happy quote unquote marriage for 30 years. But then one day through trig's data, you've unlocked that actually they've been constantly quoting you 30% higher than market average. Right? Or they've been sending you fruit, let's say two weeks later than everyone else because of a restriction that they had, uh, maybe due to seasonality or the domestic market, right?

[00:25:10] Alicia: And we kind of uncover some of this to not only practice supply chain flexibility, But also create that transparency for better business practice, right? Mm-hmm. So it's a bit of a multi-pronged approach to creating trust. Some of it is kind of uncovering and unveiling, but some of it is also just through mar marketing matchmaking and true facilitation of international trade deal.

[00:25:36] Alicia: Uh, thank,

[00:25:37] Kingsly: thank you very much for that, Anisha. I just want to turn my attention now to to, to Benjamin. And, you know, a big part of what you do is, um, analyzing global markets. And I want to find out if you, in the course of your job, have been able to identify, uh, one emerging market that you believe calls, uh, kind of a, a hidden journey, if you like, for food traders and, and if it is possible, and if you're okay with it.

[00:26:07] Kingsly: Um, can you share a comparing reason why you think it is promising and, uh, a lucrative opportunity?

[00:26:15] Benjamin: Yeah, sure, sure. Uh, uh, for this I, let's also keep it to, to the African continent. Um, I think there are, there's a lot of challenges, uh, with trade in, in Africa and on the African continent. Uh, lots of logistical challenges, regulatory challenges and so on.

[00:26:32] Benjamin: But I think there, there's also great opportunities on, on the African continent, um, and let's keep it to, to say fresh, uh, fruits and vegetables. If you look at, say, vegetables, for example. Um, and you look at the markets that have grown the most from 2021 to 2022, um, some of the big markets are on the African continent, and the major one is, is Nigeria.

[00:26:57] Benjamin: So, Nigerian vegetable imports grew 260%. Oh, really? From, from, uh, 2021 to 2022. I mean, that's a, that's a massive, uh, growth, and that's a massive potential, uh, especially for the countries surrounding it that can supply it with, uh, with, with vegetables. Um, and if you look at the fruit, uh, fruits and nuts side, it's, it's relatively the same.

[00:27:19] Benjamin: Uh, Nigeria grew 114% in terms of imports. Um, and, uh, in the, in the case of brutes, south Africas, for example, very uniquely positioned to, to supply Nigeria. Um, again, this points to that, that intra Africa, intra Africa trade and, and the importance, uh, of that. So, um, and if you look at a little bit beyond Nigeria, I mean Madagascar in terms of vegetables grew, uh, 64%.

[00:27:46] Benjamin: Um, and it was the third bo, the, the country that showed the third most growth globally. Uh, after Nigeria, Rwanda showed the fourth most growth in terms of vegetables at 58%. Um, and Kenya the fifth. Um, so all your, all your major, uh, all your market that markets that have shown significant growth, um, in terms of imports, uh, for, for fruit and vegetables, have been on the African continent.

[00:28:11] Benjamin: Um, yeah. On the fruit side, I mean, again, Rwanda, Zambia say shells, uh, showed around 50% growth in terms of imports, uh, of fruits and nuts from 2021 to 2022. Um, so I think attention should really be paid to, to the African continent and, and sometimes Africa is seen as, as a supplier of fruit and vegetables and food to the rest of the world, and it's often overlooked as, as a market itself, um, that, that consumes these goods and commodities as well.

[00:28:42] Benjamin: True. Uh, so I think Nigeria, uh, can play a, a quite a big role. It's a, it's, I think it's Africa's second largest economy. It's between Nigeria and, and South Africa, and it's a relatively fast growing economy as well. Um, So I think Nigeria is a, is a massive opportunity. Uh, but it also comes with a lot of difficulty in doing business.

[00:29:05] Benjamin: Um, it, it's does not function like a lot of the other, uh, the, the other economies. Uh, it's, it can be very informal and difficult to do business in Nigeria, but I think if we can overcome those obstacles, um, Nigeria can, can be a really good opportunity. Um, and, uh, so Rwanda for example as well, it, it's a very fast growing economy.

[00:29:28] Benjamin: Um, it's expected to grow by almost 8% in 2023. Um, and it's showing like 50% plus growth year on year, um, over the last 12 months, uh, in terms of both vegetable and fruit imports. So it's just gonna grow from there. So I think there's great opportunities on the African continent itself. Um, and if, yeah, if you want to look off the African continent, uh, China has shown, um, has shown great, uh, Appetites and, and, and growth for, for vegetable imports.

[00:30:01] Benjamin: I think they grew, China grew, the imports grew, uh, 36%, um, in terms of vegetables, uh, over the course of the 12 months from 2021 to 2022. So mean. China's also, it's a massive, massive market and there's also great opportunities there, but, um, let's keep the focus to, to the African continent. I think, uh, Nigeria, there can be a great opportunity if you can come overcome the barriers of, uh, of doing business there.

[00:30:30] Benjamin: Thank, thank,

[00:30:30] Kingsly: thank you very much menthol for, for that. So yes, Ben, I'm very excited to hear you talk about the, the opportunities that exist in Africa and, and from, from my perspective, I see this as a validation that, um, uh, after the Africa free trade area is actually, uh, something to reckon with.

[00:30:48] Kingsly: And from the growth that you're seeing, I'm, I'm guessing that, you know, if the, the vegetable imports in Africa has increased in Nigeria and Rwanda and all these other countries that you've mentioned, these have not been supplies from outside of Africa. I'm, I'm guessing so that means intra Africa trade is already, um, increasing as it were.

[00:31:11] Kingsly: So for all those who are listening in today, um, I'll urge you to go onto treat and perhaps you may be able to find your next supplier of vegetables. Uh, you never know. Let me turn my, my attention back now to, to Aaron as, as head of of Enterprises. So V of Enter Nations. Um, can you, can you discuss the role of strategic partnerships in strengthening the food eco, um, food trade ecosystem?

[00:31:38] Kingsly: Perhaps could you provide an example of a particularly memorable collaboration, collaboration that led to a remarkable growth for the parties involved? And you don't have to go into details, but if you can, or if you're comfortable with it, then please do share.

[00:31:53] Aaron: Certainly, um, I'll keep this one quite brief because I think any of the, uh, any of the examples I would be able to give where they have had remarkable growth.

[00:32:03] Aaron: Um, so that would be above and beyond what we was, what, what was expected during, um, any sort of kind of contractual agreement, uh, would be under, uh, a kind of nda, uh, anyway, especially given the size of the enterprises that we work with at tri. Okay. Um, but one thing I can kind of give insight to is a particular, um, initiative that we had, uh, within our team, um, within the team that I was leading, um, whereby we tasked ourselves with the ability to open the doors up for, uh, suppliers from, uh, potentially, um, uh, tier two.

[00:32:41] Aaron: Um, so I would say that these weren't either not from established supply chains. Um, Or maybe they kind of weren't the market-leading suppliers in their country of origin, um, and opening up the doors that would give them the ability to grow and become a tier one. So, um, we call this like, um, supply chain mobility where they're able to actually move up in the tiers.

[00:33:02] Aaron: Mm-hmm. And we see it as quite key as the higher you get in the tiers, the more difficult, the more exponentially difficult it is to move up. So one thing we're able to do for them was open up doors that they would not be able to open up without the, uh, bridge of trid. Um, and we did this through something called guaranteed buyer meetings.

[00:33:21] Aaron: Um, so this is where we would essentially lobby, uh, a supplier into a buyer relationship, but it would usually be with a tier one buyer. So we're talking about the main demand markets like Europe. Uh, north America. And then, um, I'd say secondarily the Middle East, uh, and kind of China as well. Uh, and opening up the doors to retailers, uh, within these regions that are notoriously, um, bureaucratic, difficult to reach.

[00:33:49] Aaron: Um, and also just difficult to actually do business with, uh, based on the fact that there's a lot of kind of, uh, validation and credibility building that needs to happen, which goes back to the whole point of trust, um, especially if you're not a tier one existing supplier or you don't already have that established supply chain.

[00:34:05] Aaron: So the way we were able to do this, It's through, um, navigating strategic partnerships by lobbying our relationship with a lot of these organizations as a provider of consultancy intelligence and other solutions. And then lobbying in validated suppliers who would struggle over the course of years to open these doors, to open them, um, with one validated introduction, um, which was preempted.

[00:34:31] Aaron: Um, where kind of both parties would have a little bit of a rundown on each other, um, including the, the landscape, uh, the potential opportunities, the key decision makers involved, so that they were actually going on what we would call, uh, instead of them going on a blind date. Uh, which even if it took the supply years to facilitate, probably wouldn't have the best outcome.

[00:34:53] Aaron: It was almost like we were lobbying them, um, into a date. Uh, as both validated parties and friends of church. I see. Um, so we had great success with this and we saw some penetrations into, um, European and North American retail, um, from suppliers that we think would've been able to do it, but it would've taken an extremely long time, would've been extremely more, well, would've been much more difficult for them to do so had we not facilitated that.

[00:35:21] Aaron: So, um, I think that's one example of, um, supply chain mobility, um, and remarkable

[00:35:25] Kingsly: growth. Brilliant. Thank you very much for that, Erin. So since we, we started having this conversation today, we have spoken of countries in Africa. Um, we have spoken of countries in, in Europe, in the United States in Middle East.

[00:35:41] Kingsly: And what strikes me is that, you know, if you are in the global food trade space, then um, by its very nature, you are either buying food from one part of the world or you are supplying to another part of. Work. This brings me nicely to my next question for, for Alicia. In your experience collaborating with food traders across these diverse regions, have you come across any cultural or perhaps regional practices that offer invaluable insights or innovative strategies for overcoming challenges in the global food trade?

[00:36:16] Kingsly: And if you have, um, could you share a captivating example that demonstrate the, the richness and adaptability of the industry that we also learn?

[00:36:27] Alicia: Certainly. So, I, I think, you know, just backing up for a second and looking at the supply chain, like you said, it's extremely intertwined, complex, and ultimately it's very fragile.

[00:36:40] Alicia: I mean, having worked, like I said, in all different facets, it starts at the farm. You have one frost during blossom, suddenly the entire crop is jeopardized, right. And then it moves to late stage harvest. You have a hail event, and then suddenly you lose, I don't know, 30% of your crop again, right? Then you finally make it that apple or that that fruit onto the container and it's out on the port and suddenly there's a three week delay, right?

[00:37:07] Alicia: And now your fruit is jeopardized at arrival. I mean, it is constantly, and this is across all agricultural sectors, right? Mm-hmm. It is such a vulnerable supply chain. And I, and I don't wanna stress that, or I couldn't stress that enough because, um, the whole world lives off of this supply chain. And I think people forget that, right?

[00:37:27] Alicia: Agriculture is enabling the world to essentially do desk jobs or not be on the land, right? And this supply chain is extremely important that it continues to function. So I think one of the major challenges, um, you know, looking into the future, but also since the birth of Covid 19, Is that topic of, and we've talked about it quite a bit today, is supply chain vulnerability.

[00:37:52] Alicia: Hmm. I think that truly is, um, one of the biggest questions moving forward. And then you can pull in sustainability environment. There's so many kind of peripheral topics that relate into that. But supply chain resiliency ultimately is what we need to solve in the future. And I think we can look to a lot of Ag techs, um, and I hope that ag Techs, especially those getting funded, are supporting to solve some of these problems.

[00:38:18] Alicia: And I think Trigg and also optimize are both extremely good examples of ag tech startups, um, that are actually looking at different parts of, of the supply chain and solving some of these issues through innovation. Right? Right. So I think thought leadership innovation that will really drive the change.

[00:38:39] Alicia: Um, and also ensure that our supply chains stay stable. Um, and I, and I mean, that's just in the supply chain, right? I, I, I follow a lot of kind of Ag techs also working on the actual, um, supply side. I mean, they're optimizing water use. They're looking at precision farming techniques to optimize inputs, labor expenses, um, ethical labor, right?

[00:39:02] Alicia: There's so many topics that touch agriculture and the supply chain, and I'm really, you know, calling out to all those AgTech listeners out there as well, keep doing that good work, because I think, you know, looking into the future, um, we need to solve some of these problems. Thank,

[00:39:18] Kingsly: thank you very much for that, Alicia.

[00:39:19] Kingsly: And I, I, I agree with you. However, um, despite, you know, uh, the amount of technology that we, we introduce into this space, uh, at its very core, some of the problems that we have experienced in the market have rocked certain markets around the world. Take an example of South Africa. So recently in South Africa, like I said earlier on, um, there's the problem Escom, uh, a couple of months ago, I think that was in October, there was a port strike in Cape Town and then before that there was adverse weather conditions in the port of Durban.

[00:39:54] Kingsly: Uh, the, the, the, the elections, presidential elections are coming up, I think next, next year, something next year. So there are quite a few things that are going on that technology, I don't think on its own, will be able to resolve. So I just want to tend to Benjamin and, and ask, um, how are all these events impacting the food export outta

[00:40:17] Benjamin: South Africa?

[00:40:20] Benjamin: Yeah, that's a, that's a very good question. Um, and let's start with, with, with weather. Um, there's not much you can do when a, when a major weather event, uh, weather event hits, uh, like the floods, uh, last year. Um, Uh, it's how you recover from that, right? And so, so we recover relatively well from that, but that's, that's very much to governance, a governance issue.

[00:40:47] Benjamin: Mm-hmm. Uh, and South Africa has over the last few years, not had the best, uh, the best governance and, and, and infrastructure maintenance and so on. So oftentimes, uh, the, the, the recovery can be slow from say, a weather event that knocks out infrastructure. Uh, but over the weather we have, we have very little control.

[00:41:08] Benjamin: But I think the major, the major problem we have, uh, in South Africa is, uh, escom the government run power utility, um, and the fact that there's simply not enough, uh, electricity to, to provide the whole country with electricity all the time. Uh, so we have a system called load shedding, which is pretty much just the turning off of certain municipalities or regions.

[00:41:36] Benjamin: Electricity, um, during, for specific periods of time, uh, to prevent the entire grid collapse. So this is done in different stages, and I think currently we're floating around stage five or stage six, and that's roughly six hours, uh, of electricity's disruptions, uh, every day. And that's usually done in two hour increments.

[00:41:59] Benjamin: Now this is having a devastating impact, uh, throughout the entire agricultural supply chain, uh, on the production side. For example, if, if it's electricity load shedding, then all your irrigation systems are come to a standstill, right? And you can't irrigate during that period. Uh, on the processing and packing side, uh, your entire packing lines come to a standstill.

[00:42:22] Benjamin: Um, so you can't process or pack food, say if it's all during working hours, you lose six hours a day. Mm-hmm. Right? So you lose that kind of capacity on the packing and processing side. Uh, but I think the major, uh, those are overcomeable, but I think the major impact is on the, on the, um, coal chain side. Uh, this causes interruptions, uh, in your coal chain and that has fruit quality implications.

[00:42:49] Benjamin: And South Africa is not very close to its primary, primary destination. Countries or countries to which it exports. We have a relatively long, um, export journey, sea journey for, for most perishable products. I think that's, that's our major, a major problem is the fact that we have. Uh, we, we have disruptions in our cold chain, and then it also causes delays.

[00:43:12] Benjamin: It causes port delays, uh, where certain, uh, infrastructure at ports cannot operate because it's simply too expensive, uh, to run, say, with backup generators or to have a backup system in place for those hours. Uh, so it causes, uh, fruit quality issues, and then it causes delays in the supply chain and congestion in the supply chain as well.

[00:43:32] Benjamin: Um, in the citrus export season, for example, uh, the ports are barely coping, uh, in, in terms of loading capacity already. And then you introduce load shedding, uh, and then there's simply not enough, um, export capacity for, for all the fruit that there is. So this ma it causes massive congestions at the, at the ports, uh, on top of, already, um, on top of a system that already struggles to keep up with the amount of fruit.

[00:43:59] Benjamin: Um, and this is, this has been raised by, by, um, The Citrus Growers Association of South Africa multiple times that, uh, load shedding and, and the lack of proper port infrastructure is probably the biggest risk, uh, for the fruit, uh, fruit export industry. Um, and we are just growing in terms of the volumes that we're producing in exporting and the port infrastructure cannot keep up.

[00:44:24] Benjamin: And, uh, the, the country is simply not supplying enough electricity, uh, to support this growth in, in, um, in food production and, and export volumes. So that's probably the biggest risk is, um, is port congestion. Uh, but that is simply poor governance, uh, and, and poor maintenance of infrastructure, uh, from the government side and then the lack of, uh, electricity.

[00:44:48] Benjamin: Uh, but that is also very much governance issue, right? Uh, so yeah, that's, That's not great news for, for South Africa as a whole, but there is some positive news, at least it's not South African News, but the Maputo cargo terminal, uh, in Mozambique, um, opened up last week, uh, the 16th of May, if I'm not mistaken.

[00:45:10] Benjamin: Okay. Uh, which provides an alternative port for a lot of South African, uh, citrus exports, or not, not massive volumes, but especially those, uh, that traditionally go through Durban port, um, can be rerouted to Toma Puter through, through Mozambique. So, um, the situation is not fantastic. We need to outsource our exporting facilities to other countries at this point.

[00:45:33] Benjamin: Um, but yes, so Escom and, and poor governance surrounding it is probably the biggest risk for South African food exports at at this point in time. Thank, thank you very

[00:45:45] Kingsly: much. Um, for, for that Ben. Um, as, as you were talking about, about these issues, um, I cannot help but, but, but, um, look back at the cases that we have solved in South Africa as a result of, um, whether delays or temperature fluctuations in transit.

[00:46:03] Kingsly: And one thing that, that, um, from our side as a service provider to the operat industry in South Africa, one thing that we see increasingly is that, uh, claims are going to be rejected more and more on the grounds of, uh, um, breaching in coaching co, um, temperature or in the coaching. Um, and I wrote an article which is currently on LinkedIn.

[00:46:27] Kingsly: Perhaps I've also added to, um, at, at the end of this, um, podcast for everyone, anyone who wants to have a look at it. And in this article I was looking at how, um, exporters from, from South Africa in particular can overcome the challenges that. You know, the power outages by Escom can have on their claims outcomes.

[00:46:49] Kingsly: So it could be things like, you know, um, during the periods of power outage, if you are using your generator of power supply, then you have to log it, um, to show that yes, there was power outage, um, between this period and this period. But during that period, I had alternative power supply, and as such, my coaching was not interrupted.

[00:47:08] Kingsly: So that's something that I also put, um, but let, let me move over now to, to, to, Erin. We, we, we probably couldn't go through a session like this without talking about one of the most topical issues in the startup world. Ai. So this, um, chat g BT and everything else everyone is talking about, you know, um, large language models and, and, and things like that.

[00:47:35] Kingsly: I'd just like you to, uh, look at perhaps these topics, which are. Been historically very slow to influence the agriculture industry. Um, however we see that the tides are, are gradually changing. Um, as the head of, um, enterprise relations in, could you share some insights into how treat the treat platform is rev revolutionizing global trade and bridging the gap between buyers and suppliers around the world.

[00:48:05] Kingsly: From, from your perspective, how can agribusinesses leverage a tech solutions

[00:48:11] Aaron: to improve their businesses? Certainly. Um, so I think, um, uh, the emergence of, um, the kind of most recent, uh, iterations of AI have, have done a great job of, uh, really making, um, Some of these disruptive technology innovations, tangible, um, I think to both the personal and professional world, which I think, um, uh, once again it comes back to biases.

[00:48:38] Aaron: Um, we can only be, um, uh, aware of, of how something could be potentially impacting us if we're, if we are kind of, if we see it as tangible. So I definitely think the emergence of AI has made a lot of people rethink, um, the way in which they work. And I think agriculture has not been immune to that, which I think is very, very good for us as a sector and as an industry.

[00:49:01] Aaron: Cuz there's certainly many inefficiencies that we can solve, um, and could be helped by technology. Um, I think how can businesses, uh, within food and agriculture leverage, um, technology? Um, I think that one, one main way would be to really, uh, it comes back to biases. Be self-aware of what actually is out there and available, um, for your specific role or responsibility within a business.

[00:49:30] Aaron: So let's say that for instance, you are a CEO and you don't have much time, well, actually there's many different types of AI and different types of technologies where you can have a virtual assistant or a virtual note taker, or you could be automating many of your, um, um, nets to kind of multiple shareholders, stakeholders with ai.

[00:49:54] Aaron: Um, you could save time, which is probably your main currency in those types of C-suite roles. Um, maybe you are in sales, um, and you could use a better c r m system. Or you could be better utilizing, um, certain types of technology that can help to optimize your conversion rates within sales. Uh, let's say that you're on the trade level and you want to do more arbitrage, but you don't have the time to do the quantitative analysis yourself.

[00:50:20] Aaron: So I, I'm not going to kind of give away any secrets because I don't think that, um, it is as simple as that. But one thing I would say is just to be, uh, very self-aware of the potential. Uh, technology disruptions that are coming your way for your particular role and responsibility. Mm-hmm. Um, and, and use that fear of being replaced by AI technology, ag tech, use it to actually do research on, well, instead of fighting against this change, how could I implement it into what I do?

[00:50:52] Aaron: Um, and we find that that's the best way to use tech is to have this hybrid of a human utilizing technology rather than a tech, rather than technology replacing a human. So I would say similar to a, uh, to a supermarket. Uh, the ideal scenario for most shoppers would be, um, would be, uh, assisted, um, self-service.

[00:51:14] Aaron: So you can choose when to use the checkout. Mm-hmm. And you can choose when to use the self-checkout. Um, I don't think that the best way is to have only one or the other, just human with no tech or just tech with no human. I think a hybrid approach is always best, but in order to do that, we really need to look at what could we be using in agriculture, um, to optimize, um, across the value and supply chain.

[00:51:37] Aaron: And I think that very much comes down to an individual stakeholder level and what you can use within your job. Thank you very much

[00:51:45] Kingsly: for that. Um, so in the Alicia, when, when we started off this program, um, we did speak about, uh, various different topics in the agriculture industry. We have just spoken about ai, we've spoken about, or you did speak about, uh, mention E S G and things like that.

[00:52:04] Kingsly: I just want you to talk to us a little bit about emerging trends in the food industry as a, as a keen observer, which of these do you believe will significantly shape the industry in the coming years? Uh, can you share with us your thoughts on how food traders can proactively prepare and adapt to these trends, seizing the opportunities, and perhaps staying ahead of the curve?

[00:52:30] Alicia: Absolutely, and I, and I think this is, uh, a really fascinating question and, and in part one, that I can't on my own by any means solve, um, cuz these are some really fundamental trends, um, that it'll take an entire ecosystem of thought leaders and experts and doers to, to achieve. But boiling it down for me into kind of maybe three major trends or, or even challenges, um, in the, a agri industry, it would be for me, sustainability.

[00:53:01] Alicia: So sustainability policy, especially in the European Union, we've seen a huge increase in sustainability policy, especially since covid 19, cracking down on not only domestic agricultural production and trade, but also international production and trade. I mean, just yesterday I was reading an article about, um, this isn't necessarily b2b, a agri, but you know, on a consumer level in France, they've restricted all flights or they've, they've banned all flights that can be replaced with a two and a half hour train ride, right?

[00:53:35] Alicia: So we're starting to see a lot of sustainability policy come at a very rapid rate since 2020. Um, and I think that is one major place to stay, um, alert because it will, it's coming to agriculture, um, as one of the main focal point industries where, where change will happen. So that's the one looking at E S G, um, as a big thing there.

[00:53:59] Alicia: The second, um, is also just general environmental pressures. So Ben, really, I think South Africa is a very interesting case study for environmental pressures, um, meaning climate change, but also political change. So I think as well since the advent of Covid 19, we've seen a lot more, um, political uprising.

[00:54:22] Alicia: I mean, another major producing fruit producing region, which we haven't really spoken about much today is Chile. Um, a dear family member of mine, um, actually lives there and has worked in the fruit industry there. And there's been a huge rewriting of the Constitution in the last couple of, um, of months as well as rewriting of, um, the water policies.

[00:54:45] Alicia: All with good reason, but of course the shifts the way we view traditional agriculture and also interact the supply chain. Right. Excuse me, I'm close that up. So, um, looking at kind of some of these environmental impacts also happening in Chile. Uh, there's been major droughts, major kind of impacts on the actual supply side level.

[00:55:07] Alicia: So water scarcity in a lot of regions. Um, it's cha it's happening everywhere. Climate change, right? And then the third, which we've spoken about quite a bit today is supply chain vulnerability and resiliency. Um, that's a really big kind of topic that I and Erin and and Benjamin work on quite closely through tri.

[00:55:30] Alicia: Um, and we've touched on how that can kind of be solved and what some of those issues are. Right. Uh, but those to me are the, really, the three kind of major topics. And what I'd also suggest, and this is a lot of what Erin said for a agri businesses, is to align with thought leaders in this space. So, Don't just kind of stay in your tunnel and look at the status quo, but align yourself with some of the major players, consulting firms, ag tech startups, um, and try to see how they're solving these issues proactively and as a traditional business.

[00:56:06] Alicia: Align with them as much as possible. And like Erin said, don't be afraid to ask yourself that question. How can I optimize? Right? How can I improve? Because I think we only achieve these goals through actual self-reflection, uh, on both a personal and a B2B professional level. Um, so yeah, I think, um, that kind of summarizes for me, it's an interesting time.

[00:56:30] Alicia: Absolutely. In agriculture. Um, I think since 2020 it's been an interesting time holistically for the entire planet. We've been through a lot. Um, and agriculture is just one, one industry that's going through a massive reshaping, um, quite quickly.

[00:56:50] Kingsly: Every good thing does, unfortunately come to an end. And even though I would like us to go on, uh, because I found our conversations quite fascinating, listening to each and every one of you with very deep industry expertise in your various domains, I have to be cognizant of other commitments. And so to bring us to a close, I'd like to conclude with some rapid fire questions.

[00:57:14] Kingsly: Um, without thinking, I'd just like you to quickly answer, go around the table starting with Alicia, and just gimme single one word or one sentence answers. No, not too much thought. If you are a fruit or vegetable, what would you be and why? Alicia,

[00:57:29] Aaron: go

[00:57:31] Alicia: e Everyone knows I'd be an apple because my family has an apple, uh, commercial apple farm in upstate New York, and I just, yeah, it's crunchy, it's snappy.

[00:57:40] Alicia: It's kind of like me.

[00:57:41] Kingsly: Fantastic. Ben,

[00:57:42] Benjamin: where would you be? Well, I'd have to be a grape. Uh, my s in the wine industry, it would be, uh, sacrilegious if I don't pick grape there.

[00:57:53] Kingsly: What

[00:57:53] Aaron: about you, Aaron? Uh, I'd be a blueberry, uh, simply because it's my son's favorite fruit, so I can't say anything

[00:58:01] Kingsly: else. My, you are very dedicated, blueberries are very delicate to move from one part of the world to the other.

[00:58:07] Kingsly: So ladies and gentlemen, thank you all very much for spending your time with us today, and I want to give you a massive, um, thank you to all three of you for spending an hour of your time with us at, uh, Caran podcast from me. Um, it has been a pleasure and I'm looking forward to working with you again sometime in the future.

[00:58:26] Kingsly: Thank you. And Cheers. Thank you. Cheer

[00:58:31] Aaron: ley. Cheer. Thank you very much. Thank you. It's been a pleasure.