SAO PAULO (Reuters) - The Brazil unit of German agrochemicals and pharmaceutics company Bayer AG (DE:BAYGN) on Wednesday launched an online marketplace to help Brazilian coffee producers sell their beans directly to retailers and food-service companies.
The website called Made in Farm (www.madeinfarm.com.br) will help sellers and buyers "meet," negotiate and close deals online, displaying offers from farmers, who are encouraged to add information regarding production such as location, post-harvesting treatments and coffee varieties.
Bayer said in a statement that the tool may help producers - some of them buyers of its agrochemicals - access new market opportunities and boost profits, cutting out intermediaries.
"It is fully aligned with the concept of a sharing economy, where farmers in the main coffee-producing regions of the country will have a new channel to offer their products directly to the big urban centers," Cristiane Lourenço, sustainability and food chain manager at Bayer, said in the statement.
Brazil is the largest producer and exporter of coffee, and the second largest consumer after the United States. The country's coffee industry has been going through changes as many new premium brands reach supermarkets and cafeterias offer special coffee lots as consumers become more aware of quality.