Trade information by mobile

Between the Common Catalogue on one side and regulations on the entry of new agricultural products on the other, it does sometimes seem like the EU just doesn’t want farmers to grow diverse crops, either within its borders or indeed anywhere else on Earth. Anyway, on the latter issue, maybe one of the answers is for developing world farmers to trade more among themselves. One of the bottlenecks to that, of course, is the availability of price and other information. So it was really interesting to read in The Economist about tradenet, an internet application developed by a software company out of Ghana that enables users to exchange market information, including by SMS text messages. Mobile telephony is of course expanding at tremendous speed in Africa. Tradenet is basically a sort of eBay for agricultural products, where you can put in your bid by cell phone. And more. Listen to this: “we will incorporate the ability to generate digital maps of your country with overlays of pricing for commodities, as well as include key markets in neighboring countries, where you can zoom or pan around vector maps.” Cool or what?

2 Replies to “Trade information by mobile”

  1. Dear Luigi,

    Thank you for relaying our story. More on http://www.tradenet.biz/help/EN/features.htm.

    We are just at the early stages of something we hope will change real people’s lifes in Africa ! But we still have a long way to go and need support from all of you !

    Patrice Annequin
    MIS unit manager, deputy chief of party

    email: pannequin@ifdc.org (professional)
    email: patriceannequin@gmail.com (alternate)
    mobile: 233 244 067 658
    skype: pcme_annequin
    web : http://www.tradenet.bizhttp://www.wa-agritrade.net

    MISTOWA / IFDC Ghana
    PO Box 1630 – Accra (Ghana)
    tel 233 21 780 830 – fax 233 21 780 829
    email info@mistowa.org – web http://www.mistowa.org

    IFDC
    PO Box 2040 – Muscle Shoals, Alabama 35662 (U.S.A.)
    tel 1-256-381 6600 – fax 1-256-381-7408
    email general@ifdc.org – web http://www.ifdc.org

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