bidr.co.nz, an innovative rural trading channel, recently launched in the New Zealand market has been embraced by the rural community.

Initially focused on livestock, bidr.co.nz (bidr) will extend its product offering in the future to enable farmers and agents to bid, buy and sell all things rural online.

This new rural marketing channel was developed by PGG Wrightson in consultation with their customers and key strategic partners.

With its current emphasis on trading livestock, bidr has been described by many as a virtual saleyard.

This real time marketing channel, which so far has specialised in feature livestock sales (including stud bull sales, store lamb, store bull and dispersal sales), has been welcomed by farmers and livestock agents around the country due to the strong results achieved to date.

In the months to come, bidr will continue to extend its livestock product and service offering with weekly auctions commencing from 2 July.

PGG Wrightson (PGW) General Manager Livestock and bidr Chair Peter Moore is delighted with the results bidr has achieved to date.

Peter Moore said, “The development of bidr has taken place over a number of years as it was important for us to get it right. The input from our agents, customers and strategic partners during the development process provided us with valuable insight. This collaborative approach allowed us to deliver this new channel successfully and we are pleased at how well the market is embracing this new technology.

“The global livestock market is constantly changing, and this has a significant flow on effect to the New Zealand market and our business. bidr is an example of PGW’s focus on technical excellence and innovation, along with our commitment to future-proof our business to add value to our customers’ farming operations.

“While bidr is a PGW innovation we welcome other livestock agencies to join us. The more, the better for the market. Already one other agency has come on board and we expect more to follow soon.

“There are a number of features which makes bidr an attractive and effective sales channel for vendors and buyers, but the key benefits are:

• we have put in place strict protocols and an accreditation process for assessing and listing livestock to provide confidence to all parties involved. It was important to us to provide that confidence from day one and we believe we have delivered on that promise (our standard and testing process has been independently verified by AsureQuality). We have 71 accredited assessors and the same number of accredited listed agents so far, but with an ongoing training programme in place that number is increasing every month. We literally have the country covered by PGW accredited agents from Northland to Southland,
• by trading stock online in real-time, it offers farmers much greater flexibility to buy or sell as and when suits them, while opening up a geographically wider audience and,
• due to reduced animal movements (less transportation) there are potentially greater animal welfare benefits relative to other sale channels,” Peter said.

Read reviews of Bidr auctions