Food Markets Get a Taste of New Services

Foodmarketexchange.com and Foodtrader.com Inc. are beefing up their respective food and agricultural exchanges with new services and capabilities.

FoodMarketExchange.com will announce in the first quarter of next year several services, including inspection reports of factories and suppliers, cargo and shipment insurance quotes, and a bill-of-lading feature added to electronic payment fulfillment.

The business-to-business e-marketplace for buyers and sellers of Asian food products will also roll out letters of credit in wired transmissions and a hosted logistics (shipping, tracking and delivery) service, according to officials of FoodMarketExchange, which has its headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand.

Also in the first quarter, Foodtrader.com will add compatibility with Extensible Markup Language-based product catalogs and taxonomies and real-time notifications regarding authorization for changes to purchase orders.

The Miami-based exchange will also include purchase requisition, order creation and management capabilities to track and route online orders to appropriate suppliers.

Foodtrader.com will also feature logistics optimization capabilities to allow buyers and sellers to create delivery and routing schedules, integrated supply chain planning and replenishment, and online analytical processing reporting on operational and strategic criteria that users determine is essential to their business needs.

Foodtrader, which recently added a Société Générale de Surveillance quality inspection testing and verification service to its exchange, will have an internationally recognized quality inspection seal on its site within the next few months so that sellers such as farmers, packers and processors will have an opportunity to obtain an SGS rating.