Just participating in trade fairs won’t cut it anymore. Online wholesale is the next frontier in the organic B2B space.
◊ By Gayathry Radhakrishnan
Note: To find organic brands, organic shops and organic product suppliers in India, buy the Organic Directory
E– commerce has been growing at a breakneck pace in the Middle East, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 16.4% till 2022. With Saudi Arabia and the UAE as its key players, the online commerce sector is estimated to reach US$69 billion in 2020.
The Middle East—and the UAE, in particular—has one of the highest smart phone penetrations in the world. Its young, tech savvy population in the age group of 20-39 looks for quick, convenient and secure ways to purchase products, and is at home with technology. This makes it the ideal market in which to really explore and expand natural/organic retail. With consumer trust in online retail at an all-time high, the e-commerce sector saw a 48% increase from 2017 to 2018.
It is not only end-consumers, who are getting used to the convenience of buying online. Studies across the world indicate that online wholesale is a more efficient, profitable, and less time-consuming revenue channel. And it was created in response to buyers who cannot make it to trade shows in person.
“We import 2.5 tonne of organic fruits and vegetables per week through only online commerce.”
– Rahul Gupta, CEO, Agrovilla
Rahul Gupta, CEO of Agrovilla, one of the prime online importers in UAE, is a supplier of over 140 organic fruits and vegetables to some of the biggest retailers in the region. In his words, “When we started last year, we were importing one tonne of produce a week online and now we are at two-and-a-half tonne per week.”
Recognising the scope of online wholesale, the Middle East Organic & Natural Product Expo Dubai, began to combine online and offline for optimum results from trade show participation by pre-matching buyers with suppliers through its online initiative, O2O Connect. Launched in 2018, this programme has proven to be a success, connecting exhibitors with buyers from across the MENA region.
This is not the only digital platform the expo offers to exhibitors. It also ensures that suppliers are provided with a 1-year subscription to its wholesale website, ArabianOrganics. It allows suppliers to create an online shop by uploading images of their products, alongside their wholesale prices, so that interested buyers (who register on complimentary basis) can connect with them and do business.
Event Director, Shinu Pillai, explains, “As event managers, we want to be able to leverage all tools at our disposal to ensure that exhibitors receive robust business at the expo. Since Middle Eastern buyers are digital natives, we want to be able to tap into that and ensure that our exhibitors receive business on all 365 days of the year instead of just the 3 days of the fair. Integrating online with offline has helped increase business, and streamline the process significantly.”
Penelope Prempeh, founder of House of Prempeh from Ghana found the digital platform especially useful, as it allowed her “the opportunity to pre-arrange business meetings with distributors. We assumed that most of the visitors would be people based here in Dubai, but I had a gentleman from Sudan who was able to use ArabianOrganics to tap in and access us.”
Serbian pulse and flour company, Ecoagri Serbia’s supervisory board member, Vladimir Babic, also found ArabianOrganics useful. “The platform is really very useful for our company. We set up a number of pre-arranged meetings at the show, which translated into fruitful meetings onsite,” he says.
Pillai believes it’s time for trade fairs to incorporate the Internet as part of their services bouquet. “Online has transformed the trade show industry, and we cannot simply conduct events the way we used to in the past. If we can embrace the change, we can provide our suppliers with year-round business without increasing their trade show budget. And that’s a win for all of us,” he says.
MIDDLE EAST ORGANIC & NATURAL PRODUCT EXPO DUBAI 2019:
Dates: 3, 4 & 5 December, 2019
Venue: Dubai Convention & Exhibition Centre, Dubai
Website for Trade Fair: www.organicandnatural.com
Website for Online B2B Platform: www.arabianorganics.com
Contact Details to Exhibit/Visit:
Gayathry Radhakrishnan
T: +971 4 8747 528
Email: [email protected]
The process of testing organic process has eliminated the role of Organic farmer & in the name of organic cheated the consumer. In fact the test dependant so called Organic produce, is in fact CHEMICAL FREE ONLY OR at the most call it NATURAL, but CERTAINLY NOT ORGANIC. Now if you might have noticed, no body talks about ORGANIC FARMER, rather every businessman talks about ORGANIC CERTIFICATION & ORGANIC LAB TEST REPORT. There are mechanisms to counter this exploitation of FARMERS & CONSUMERS. This practice is a solid proof of INTELECTUAL CORRUPTION. This type of Organic produce can’t be called ORGANIC,rather it should be given the name as CHEMICAL FREE OR NATURAL. Actual Organic crop is NON ALERGIN & if we start writing it, the pharma industry shall have big objections & in Organic Industry, unfortunately we have not been able to develop any research lab or labs so far for authenticating the claims like this. What i see in the Future of Organic is that it is moving towards crashing down. Before this thing happens, we need to develop the new category of CHEMICAL FREE OR NATURAL OR BOTH. We must admit that we have lost the faith of the customer & cheated the ethical organic farmer. In this way the future of Organic Business is bleek & moving towards crashing down(one fine morning). We need to save the interest of the farmer win back the trust of consumer.