Blockchain

Innovative Use of Blockchain in Agriculture: Interview with Keith Agoada, CEO of Producers Token.

Producers Token is building a global innovative agricultural community and marketplace for farmers and consumers with blockchain technology. Producers Token is “uniting producers on a smart value chain, and providing them with free digital technology and digital marketing tools… to unlock greater consistency, profitability and capital resources”. The CEO Keith Agoada, will be discussing the Producers Token project with us in this interview.

1) Please tell us your name and about yourself?

Keith Agoada, CEO of Producers Token. I’ve been an entrepreneur in the agriculture value chain for the last 11 years. My work and mission has been to create innovative marketing models that disrupt the marketing of agriculture by creating more transparency for consumers and shifting supplier power to the producers who grow, process and pack our agricultural products.

My initial experience was as founder and CEO of Sky Vegetables, a pioneering urban agriculture and hydroponic greenhouse company. Since then, I’ve consulted for global leaders in agriculture finance, natural product distribution and organic farming.

2) What is Producers Market?

Producers Market is a technology driven marketplace that connects agriculture producers with their supply chain. It is a platform ecosystem intended to facilitate direct buyer-seller relationships domestically and globally. We are pioneering the integration of distributed ledger technologies, smart contracts and cryptocurrency in the multi-trillion dollar agriculture value chain globally.

3) What is the technology behind Producers Market?

Producers Market builds and integrates emerging technologies into proprietary user interfaces on digital devices – smartphones, tablets and web apps. This technology empowers producers, and buyers with digital transactions, contracts and traceability. The technology is designed to connect in communities of consumers to their supply chain to raise awareness and connectivity to the farmers and farmworkers who create the products they buy every day.

4) What are the Major Features and Services you provide at Producers Market?

Producers Market is providing an open-platform for vetted producers to connect directly with a network of buyers at every level of the supply chain. We are breaking down the financial, communication and marketing barriers of brokers, sales agents, and other intermediaries that generate profits by separating agricultural producers, wholesale buyers and consumers. We are eliminating the 3-5% (often more) sales related fees and replacing this with a 0.5% transaction fee. We believe that with our technology wholesale buyers; i.e. the brands, retailers, and distributors will be able to transact directly with the groups that create the physical products on the supply chain.

5) What is the market size of Blockchain in Agriculture and what benefits will Producers Market bring to this Industry?

We are working to disrupt a multi-trillion dollar value chain of transaction. Distributed ledger technologies (blockchain, smart contracts, cryptocurrency) will greatly impact millions of farmers, and billions of consumers globally within the next five years. We are working to become the global leader in the dissemination of these technologies into functional formats.

6) How does the producer vetting process work and what are the advantages?

Our producer vetting program has two major steps; the first is the digital application which collects and organizes the information of the perspective producers. The second step is performing a site visit to meet the producers in person and verifying the information that has been provided.

Producers Market specializes in organic, and non-GMO value chains but is not exclusive to these categories. We work with all producers that are committed to transparency, traceability, and plugging their information into our system to provide connectivity to wholesale buyers and consumers.

7) At what stage of development is the Producers Market project, what is next on your timeline and what are your business targets from now till 2020?

Producers Market has built the first version of its B2B marketplace, and digital marketing platform. In the next 18 months the company will be implementing the following activities:

  1. Integration of distributed ledger technologies, smart contracts and digital transactions into an application format.
  2. Scaling up of our digital community, and B2B marketplace.
  3. Launch of our FarmToken asset-backed agricultural exchange.
  4. Launch of our Producers consumer packaged goods brand, and B2C (consumer direct) commerce platform.  

8) Could you tell us about your team and customer support?

Our team is comprised of experts from across the agriculture value chain that work directly with our programming and UI design teams to build innovative technologies that are directly applicable to our platform users.  Our agriculture value chain experts are responsible for managing the customer support programs with our wholesale buyers, and agriculture producers.

9) How Safe is Producers Market, would you like to talk about your compliance and security measures?

Our parent company, Producers Token, is a ‘security token’ that is registered as a regulation D investment vehicle with the SEC.

Producers Market follows all domestic and international agricultural trade laws that apply to each country in which we operate. Producers are responsible to manage the logistics, and documentation required to execute contracts. Producers Market does not manage logistics, or customs. We provide the digital tools for producers and buyers to operate their businesses with more profitability and less friction.

10) Do you have more information for our readers?

We encourage the readers to check out our producerstoken.com website, and to read our White Paper to get the full scoop on our disruptive vision in the industry.

For more information, visit Producers Token website: https://www.producerstoken.com

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