USA: SourcingDirect.com Partners with SafeNet Consulting to Create an Online Agribusiness Exchange

SourcingDirect.com of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, announced that it has released its online digital cash commodity additives and ingredients trading exchange for immediate operation. The system's design was the result of 25 years of first-hand trading experienced by its co-founders. The company partnered with SafeNet Consulting of Minnetonka, Minnesota, to create an advanced architecture that allows it to fulfill the unique trading requirements of the food, feed and petfood additives and ingredients marketplace. In 1999, the FDA estimated the domestic agribusiness marketplace to be between $750 billion and $1 trillion. The food, feed and petfood additives and ingredients sector of this market is estimated to be between $50 and $100 billion annually. A majority of these products are bought and sold through brokers and traders who charge a fee for their services. SourcingDirect.com's system allows its customers to conduct business online and save up to 80% of the fees traditionally charged. The company selected SafeNet Consulting as its development partner in the fall of 1999 to create a core engine and integrated feature set. "We chose them over all the other organizations we interviewed because they presented the strongest combination of Internet talent and knowledge of agribusiness," said John Bowlsby, co-founder and CEO of SourcingDirect.com. "We established a number of development criteria and benchmarks to make the exchange not only powerful but easy to navigate. With SafeNet's leadership, we were able to meet and exceed our product design and benchmark plan and bring the product to market on schedule," said Bowlsby. SourcingDirect.com's product is initially targeted at the domestic feed mill and petfood cash commodity marketplace. Products available on the exchange will continue to be broadened over the next few months and international trading is scheduled to commence in early summer 2000.