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Farmers cautious about doing business online
30 Jul 2002
Australia's wide open spaces would seem to be the ideal setting for a thriving online business sector in rural areas. But farmers are wary of doing business via the Internet, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show, with Internet usage in country areas lagging behind that in urban regions. In mid-2000, only 34 per cent of farms used the Internet compared with 56 per cent of all businesses.
Angus Taylor, CEO of rural portal The Farmshed, said that country users are about two years behind city users in the take-up of e-commerce. He attributed this partly to a lack of connectivity in rural areas.
The Federal Government's Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation recently published a report entitled "The Rural and Regional Guide to e-Commerce", in a bid to encourage the use of online business. The report's author, Robert Parker, says that rural Internet users are not only fewer in number but also concentrate on the "low-tech end", such as using e-mail and web sites for customer enquiries. A farmer wouldn't take the risk of selling his stock online when he can just go down the road to do it, he said.
Angus Taylor agreed and said that farmers use the Internet heavily for e-mail and information gathering but not generally for doing business. The Farmshed sends out 50,000 e-mails a week and gets a good response rate of between 10 and 20 per cent. Another company, Newbrain, is developing web-based tools for the sale and marketing of livestock and rural properties online. It has joined forces with The Farmshed and the NAB's Agribusiness portals, as well as signing up big players such as the Australian Council of Livestock Agents and the Stock & Station Agents' Association.
Australian Financial Review, 30/7/02, page 28.
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