Two brothers have combined their contrasting career skills to launch a mobile grain trading app which could help Norfolk farmers get better prices for their crops.
Henry and Josh Dewing have collaborated on the Dewing Grain app which combines market data, news and podcasts while giving growers the ability to monitor prices, get quotes and make sales.
After spending their childhood playing on tractors and growing up on Norfolk farms, the brothers followed very different professional paths – with Josh becoming a wheat trader for the family business in Aylsham, and Henry working for a technology company in London.
They said the app, being launched today, was the perfect way to pool their respective industry knowledge while helping farmers maximise their incomes by understanding the markets better and responding more quickly to opportunities.
Henry, 27, said: “Because I have been working in software and tech, I realised that everything is going this way. You can get a date, order food, even do your banking by using digital apps.
“To come back and offer something for Dewing Grain, and to do it alongside Josh, has been awesome.
“Grain trading is a space that has not been disrupted by technology. This app is putting all this information in farmers’ pocket, giving them the ability to make a decision wherever they are. The key is simplicity.”
Although the market information on the free app is available to anyone, farmers will need an account with Dewing Grain to request quotes for their cereal crops.
Josh, 30, said although the app aimed to speed up the process of getting the best price for a crop – which often involves farmers needing to call several merchants to barter – it would not replace the traditional communication channels.
“It is not going to replace what we do as a job,” he said. “We are still here for a conversation.
“The farmers coming through now are business people – their business has diversified into all sorts of things, whether it is glamping and holiday lets or weddings. So the chances are they already use apps like Instagram or Airbnb. This is just one more tool they can use.
READ MORE: Turkey farms are preparing for a downsized ‘Covid Christmas’ dinner“I would say 90pc of farmers are open to new ideas. With this, they have got lots of information in their phone and they know where the wheat market is and they know what to do about it.
“Right now people are more focused on their phone than ever. If you want to buy stocks and shares you can do that through an app really easily. Now with Henry’s app you can do it with grain too.”
Henry said although the idea was originally conceived to help his father Andrew’s grain trading business, he now hopes to market the software to trading companies in other sectors, via his DueTrade company brand.
“There are lots of other industries like meat and timber trading that still work in a traditional fashion,” he said. “There is so much potential for disruption.”
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