Trial runs for a new online platform designed to provide an electronic global marketplace for day-to-day trading of dairy products are set to take place over the next few months, according to its backers.
The platform, Cream, is designed for dairy companies to trade value-added product over an e-commerce platform.Two suppliers - one local and one foreign - have signed up for a trial, the company's chief executive and co-founder Kevin O'Sullivan said.
Cream will differ from the bi-monthly GlobalDairyTrade auctions as it will be a 23-hour-a-day, five-day-a-week operation. O'Sullivan said the platform, which had a research and development grant from Callaghan Innovation, is not designed to be a speculative tool.
O'Sullivan and his team are in talks with local companies and producers and those in the United States, Australia, Ireland and continental Europe. Over time, Cream intends to replicate its platform for commodities beyond dairy, such as meat.
"The key difference is that all transactions on the platform result in a physical delivery of dairy product and the platform is therefore not usable by speculators," O'Sullivan said.
"It is clear to us that an alternative, round-the-clock trading platform can sit alongside a fortnightly global auction to offer buyers and sellers more choice and opportunity in managing these complexities."
Tech investor David Ross joined Cream a year ago as chairman of the advisory board and information technology specialist Bruce Maunder joined as a technical director in 2013.
KPMG, one of New Zealand's leading providers of audit, tax and advisory services, is a business partner and adviser to the company.
