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.
