New Green Market is one of the latest digital players in the market. Just like all other platforms, they want to prove themselves the next couple of years. New Green Market wants to make the chain more efficient by tackling the logistics segment, as well as the peaks for growers and traders. “It’ll require perseverance, but that’s what we want to achieve”, says CEO Merthus Bezemer.
By: Cindy van der Zwet
New Green Market originates from the Lef 3.0 transaction system. This system had already been active on the market for a few years, when it was given a new look by the end of last year. New Green Market’s goal is to improve the chain and make it smarter. According to CEO Merthus Bezemer, this is only possible by being more on top of the orders.
“Almost as if you’re holding the transaction in your hands. At the moment, a transaction often seems to consist of the two worlds of the chain partners, which are completely separated. As a grower, you supply a product without having any further influence on the processes. That must change. Through this new marketplace, we want to collaborate and organise the market more efficiently and share more data with each other”, says Bezemer.
Pick-up logistics service
The first service that he mentions is logistics. In the current situation, growers often organise transport by calling their own carrier. “Transport companies sometimes have two vehicles behind each other, going down the same road. That’s inefficient”, says Bezemer.
To address this problem, New Green Market introduced the ‘pick-up logistics’ service. It means that they arrange the logistic process from grower to buyer. “On our platform, we can see how many containers are ordered. Growers label the orders, which are subsequently collected. We immediately scan the orders when we pick them up at the nursery, so the customers can follow them via the track & trace system”, explains Bezemer. They’re still running pilots with the system at the moment.
Another stumbling block which needs to be removed according to Bezemer, are the high peaks. They’re concentrated in the morning hours for all parties in the chain. It doesn’t have to be like that, he feels. “When they’re asked whether they’d like to receive their orders at an earlier time, all traders respond positively. We strongly believe in ‘today for tomorrow’. Why not just pick the order? It takes away a lot of the pressure for traders and growers. I realise that we can’t change this overnight. We’ve got to be patient. It’s a new message that we’re trying to promote”, indicates Bezemer.
Hundreds of transactions
New Green Market focuses on (international) trading companies and growers. There isn’t a minimum number of units for orders, the marketplace is for both large and small transactions. At the moment, around 120 growers and 60 buyers have signed up. A few hundred transactions are made through the system every day. But this number is growing and New Green Market is scaling up their system in a targeted way.
They’ve just established the so-called Product Market Combinations, they’re going to tackle the various segments one by one. They’re currently mainly focusing on the higher segment, the specialised wholesalers. “Assortment, quality and fast logistics are important to them”, motivates Bezemer.
When wholesalers sign up with them, they go out to find suitable suppliers. “This leads to mini ecosystems, and together, we can ensure that the chain is improved and that more information is exchanged. That’s how we work”, explains Bezemer.
He adds that New Green Market won’t be of added value to every segment and every grower. They aren’t targeting parties with a focus on large-scale retail for example. “Those plant and flower flows are already organised very efficiently in most cases”, notes Bezemer.
Growers pay 3% transaction costs. All participants (buyers and growers) pay a monthly membership fee of €50. Buyers decide how the two parties arrange payment.
The winner takes it all
Bezemer is positive about the future. He expects the platform to grow mostly in a European context. New Green Market has four shareholders: Merthus Bezemer himself, Digital Trade Connection, VANAD Group and Floramedia. The latter company also has a large network outside the Netherlands.
Bezemer thinks that international growers in particular, can benefit from New Green Market. “It can make them much more visible. We’d like to connect those parties to the market.” This can also be done through Floriday, something he wouldn’t mind. “If that’s going to be the meeting point for all platforms, we’d like to join in.”
According to Bezemer, New Green Market’s strength is their independence. The shareholders themselves don’t have an interest as a trading party, which makes the marketplace transparent and fair, according to him. “We make the same agreements with all participants. No shady deals or anything like that”, he clarifies.
New Green Market is one of many platforms and the CEO realises that they’re now in the phase where each platform has to prove itself. The strategic game has begun and it won’t be finished for a while. “It’ll require perseverance and I’m convinced that the winner takes it all. There isn’t room for twenty platforms in the future.”
