Sunday, December 6, 2009

distributed contract farming to meet bulk demand

Jaguar trading is constantly on the lookout for large commodity orders of various grains, nuts, beans/legumes, oil seeds, fruits & vegetables, herbs & spices, various cash crops, coffee, sugar, cocoa, rubber, timber, jute, cotton etc from its trading partners, clients, industrial, food processors and bulk buyers.

Jaguar farm network strives to find bulk commodity buyers and once it has future orders in hand or potential orders in place, it works backwards to break down the order to small, distributed farm level. Based on the availability of acreage in the system, open availability from its farmer members, host of factors including distance to market, local growing conditions, weather, timing etc, it can request as many small farmers as needed to work on the commodity needs of its clients.

The farm network is always trying to balance the diverse factors in play, primarily the open availability of farm acreage from the network farmers. Also in play are important consideration like minimizing production costs, maximizing yields, optimizing logistics all the while trying to reduce the carbon foot print of the commodity shipped and also trying to reduce the energy costs of the entire cycle. Sustainability is key to long term success of the farming network.

Small distributed farms tend to make much better returns from their land holdings, labor etc than relying on selling local produce with little control on their margins in the long run.