AgFlow Launches Mobile Application

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Digitalizing Agricultural Markets

AgFlow users can now access hundreds of cash price quotes across grains, oilseeds, and vegoils directly on their mobile. AgFlow is taking the digitalization of agricultural markets one step further by bringing cash price quotes to mobile devices. From now on, traders, analysts, risk managers, brokers, and purchasing managers will never miss a cash price update again, keeping informed on the go. The mobile application is now available on Android and iOS.

The Price Reporting Agency Model

AgFlow launched in 2013 with the aim to challenge the Price Reporting Agency (PRA) business model. Historically, Price Reporting Agencies are privately owned publishers who provide assessments on the physical prices of commodities. In practice, Price Reporting Agencies employ teams of journalists whose job is to get in touch with active players involved in transacting physical cargos – such as commodity brokers, traders, or purchasers. Concretely, PRA journalists form an opinion on where they feel the market is and use their feedback as a basis to formulate price assessments. While the PRA model has seduced many users in the past, it comes with one main issue: it solely relies on manual labor.

And this creates many challenges:

• Non-scalability – journalists can only input so many price assessments per day
• Slow-pace – again, journalists can only work at a certain pace
• Price assessments are based on human judgment – making it impossible to challenge market prices as there is no evidence of how an individual assessment was made
• Data accuracy – the level of accuracy may vary depending on employee and source
• Lack of transparency – PRAs do not share their sources making it difficult to verify the accuracy of price assessments
• Lack of consistency – as employees and sources change, making it tough to ensure across different price assessments

These issues are the very reasons why AgFlow has set out on a mission to digitalize agricultural markets. But what does ‘digitalizing agricultural markets’ even mean?

As Nabil Mseddi, General Manager of AgFlow, says: 

“We are on a mission to digitalize agricultural markets. This means that the way our customers consume information is incredibly important to us. We know that traders, brokers, and analysts alike are extremely busy and significantly rely on immediately available data from their phones. Therefore we have designed a mobile application that is available on Android or iOS. It can be fully customized by our users, meaning they can track the prices that matter most to them with a click of a button. We believe this is a big step forward in providing the clearest and usable service possible for anyone that is actively involved in agricultural trading, whether this is corn, barley, wheat, palm oil, or any of the commodities we track.”

The AgFlow Method

We have built a network of contributors who provide us with privileged information that would typically only be available through personal connections. AgFlow contributors supply us with cash price quotes, freight indications, vessel lineups, and crops and export quality metrics.

Step 1 – Data Collection

We collect cash price quotes, freight indications, and vessel lineups, which come in various forms from a global network of contributors – including brokers, traders, trade associations, government agencies, surveyors, and inspectors.

Step 2 – Data Standardization

We then parse the data received from our network of contributors. Parsing is the process during which we write code to standardize all the different formats containing cash price quotes, freight indications, and vessel lineups. Parsing will ensure that all cash price quotes share the same nomenclature. Since our data standardization is automated, it enables real-time integration of new data into our database and provides clarity to AgFlow users.

Step 3 – Data Aggregation

Once cash price quotes are standardized, we make them available on our web-platform and mobile application, along with market trend indications (1-year historical price curves, on the web platform, 6-month historical price curves on the mobile app). That’s not all; we also provide price aggregations to help our users to see the big picture and navigate with ease through a multitude of data points. 

As for freight indications and vessel lineups, they are also aggregated for clarity before we upload them on the AgFlow web platform. 

Thanks to the AgFlow method, our users have access to agricultural commodities physical pricing information that is: 

• Transparent: we share the name and contact details of the sources behind the quotes
• Accurate: we do not under any circumstance alter cash price quotes values
• Shared at a rapid pace: it takes us less than 15 minutes to publish cash price quotes we receive
  

As a result, AgFlow’s method has had a positive impact on its price reporting by:

• Improving speed
• Improving coverage
• Ensuring complete transparency
• Fostering unparalleled consistency
• Creation positive network effects for its users and contributors

On top of digitalizing the price reporting process, AgFlow has become a community creating a tangible and traceable impact on business for its users and contributors. 

The AgFlow mobile application contains hundreds of prices across grains, oilseeds, and vegoils that are updated daily and will give the user an immediate reference point on where a particular market is. The mobile application allows the user to customize their home screen so that they will immediately see the pricing information that is most relevant to them. It can be used on the go and is fast enough to be used as a reference point during a meeting, at a conference, or while traveling.

What Is Available On AgFlow’s New Mobile Application?

From now on, all PriceDiscovery users will have access on the go, at no extra cost, helping them to gain:

• The most granular level cash price quotes available
• Their favorite price flows in a few seconds
• Price aggregations
• 6-month historical price curves
  

That’s not all – AgFlow users also have access to an abundant amount of details related to price       data: on top of specs, incoterm, and export country, we also include:

• Direct contact details of each source behind the physical prices
• Destination port
• Shipment type
• Specification buyer, seller, traded, or nominal price

What’s more:

“The AgFlow mobile application is so easy to use that any stakeholder in the business can smoothly set it up and access the information they need immediately but also means that everyone has the same, instant access to a rich source of information. To me, this is extremely important, and I am excited to see how this adopted by our larger customers”,  says Nabil Mseddi, AgFlow General Manager. 

Over the last twelve months, we have been working to diversify our offerings. We now have three other products – TradeFlows, TrendDiscoveryAPI, and RiskManagement API. But PriceDiscovery remains the core offering within our “Trading Solution”, which are essentially products designed to address the needs of agricultural traders or anyone active in the market. 

The AgFlow mobile application is now available on iOS and Android devices alike and is free of charge for all PriceDiscovery subscribers. 

How To Get AgFlow’s Mobile Application

If you already are an AgFlow PriceDiscovery user: 

Download AgFlow App for iPhone on the App Store
Download AgFlow App for Android on the Play Store

If you are not on AgFlow yet: 

Step 1: Request a 7-day free trial 
Step 2: Once your free trial is activated, download the mobile application 

Download AgFlow App for iPhone on the App Store
Download AgFlow App for Android on the Play Store