Grains and Spices Pte Ltd is principally a procurer of agricultural products mainly animal feed ingredients. We are directional, positional, proprietary or speculative commodity trader and we take positions based on our view of the direction or extent of commodity price movements.
The commodity which we are dealing primarily is Yellow Maize which is widely cultivated throughout the world, and a greater weight of maize is produced each year than any other grain. While the United States produces almost half of the world's harvest, other top producing countries are as widespread as China, Brazil, France, Indonesia, India and South Africa. Worldwide production was over 600 million metric tons in 2003 ? just slightly more than rice or wheat. In 2004, close to 33 million hectares of maize were planted worldwide, with a production value of more than $23 billion.Currently we are focusing from buying and Selling to Asian markets. We Specialise in Taiwan ,Malaysia ,Indonesia ,Vietnam and Gulf Markets
Vision
To become the leading global supply chain manager of agricultural products and food ingredients. We visualize being the suppliers to many of the world's most prominent brands offering them reliability, consistency, trust, traceability, and other value added services thus be "brand behind the brands".
Business Objectives and Strategies
To create a end-to-end Supply chain starting from the Origin and end at the destination
Origination:
Our experience will start at the origin. To grow we need to tie up with farmers and collectors and hence providing a consistent supply of good quality produce. We need to create physical presence across a wide network of locations allowing us to source the products from as close to the farm gate as possible directly from the origin. To support this, we need to develop a network of up-country procurement units and warehouses. We need to employ trained and experienced field managers, with proper knowledge field operating systems, enabling accurate stock and quality assessment and effective risk management. This will ensure we have complete control over procurement, logistics and storage.
We need to become a multi-product company, which will enable our country operations to cross source products by sharing resources, thereby making each country and business, cost competitive and locally effective.
Processing:
We need to engage in processing and adding value to the various agricultural products that we handle. We must process most of the products we supply before they are delivered to the final customer. The primary and intermediate processing of products in the origin enhances our origination strengths. Adding value through processing is fundamental to our strategy and will enable us to provide the required quality for our customers on a consistent basis. Our qualified and experienced managers closely monitor every stage of processing and packaging to maintain stringent quality standards. The ability to control and add value through our own processing activities is pivotal to strengthening our overall supply chain management.
Logistics and Shipping
We need to build a infrastructure in the origin to facilitate the efficient export of our products. We need to have the ability to manage the multi modal transportation requirements of our businesses. This ensures we remain competitive and flexible to meet our client's requirements, no matter how complex they are.
We need to place significant emphasis on our ability to organise every detail of the logistics chain, beginning with the aggregation of numerous small parcels into suitably sized lots for shipment. We need to invest in transportation infrastructure, combined with contractual agreements with numerous haulage companies, enabling us to move our products quickly and efficiently from up country to the port
Marketing:
Our customers expect a reliable supply and efficient service. We achieve this by getting to know our business partners and determining their specific needs. We are dedicated to building unique relationships with customers that reflect their individual requirements by providing them with customised solutions, including special grades and quality, traceability, providing organically certified supplies or fair trade produce certified supplies and tailor made risk management solutions. We need to open offices at destination countries with experienced traders who are in constant contact with our customers worldwide, these offices will form the key hub for our marketing activities
In addition to our own marketing expertise and infrastructure, we need to have an extensive network of trusted and experienced agents, with an in-depth understanding of the local markets. With our origination skills, we will be able to offer a level of service and information, which differentiates us in the market place. We need to have strong relationships with our customers, including major multinationals and support their supply chain requirements adding value and providing a reliable source of raw materials and customized solutions and services to them.
Distribution:
We need to provide timely and cost effective deliveries to customers throughout the world. With our supply chain infrastructure and our close relationships with other logistics companies we will be able to meet the specific needs of our customers which will vary in terms of location, time of delivery, volume, and packaging. What will differentiate us is our willingness and ability to service each client's unique requirements.
To become one of the world's leading supply chain managers of agricultural products we need to deliver products of a consistent standard to our customers in the destination markets. With upgrading our expertise in shipping and logistics, we will be able to manage the supply chain and provide cost effective delivery of our products. We also need to provide value-added services such as Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) services, which involves the outsourcing of inventory activities by our customers to us to reduce working capital requirements and improve just-in-time practices by tapping our inventory management expertise. In order to understand our customers' requirements, we have to maintain regular communications with them, both pre-and post-delivery, through our network of offices and marketing agents/brokers. The timely supply of products of a consistently high standard will ensure that our customers can outsource their inventory management to us, while having complete confidence in our ability to deliver.
Business Goals
We must be able to meet financial return targets: As an overriding principle, we will only participate in a product or market if such participation is able to meet our risk-adjusted financial targets. We view profitable growth as a combination of top line (volume growth), bottom line (earnings growth) and generation of a positive equity spread (i.e. return on equity minus cost of equity).
We must be able to achieve a significant market share: We aim to be amongst the top three players in each of our product segments. To achieve this, we typically target a market share of greater than 10 per cent, which is a meaningful market share in the fragmented global agricultural market. With a leadership position, we can develop a degree of customer and pricing control, which enables us to enhance our profit margins
We must be able to establish a strong presence in key Origins: We aim to be present in all the key Origins for each of our product segments in order to ensure reliable and consistent supply of products and quality of service. A strong presence in the Origins also provides us with the ability to obtain first hand market intelligence in terms of the size of the crop, the arrival/ timing of the crop, and the quality of the crop, all of which helps us both in our trade and in managing our risks better.
We must be able to establish a strong presence in Destination Markets: We aim to be closer to our customers by being present in the Destination Markets. This enables us to monitor demand and be more responsive to our customers' requirements. We have therefore set up regional marketing hubs in India ,Taiwan and Malaysia. The Asian market is serviced out of Singapore, our corporate head office.
We must be able to develop direct end customer relationships: We aim to sell our products directly to end users, rather than through dealers or brokers. We believe that this helps us understand our customers' requirements and provides us greater demand visibility. Direct customer relationships would also enable us to provide value added services to meet specific requirements. We believe this in turn strengthens customer loyalty and enhances our margins.
We must be able to identify the potential for value generation through selective supply chain integration: We will only undertake integration in an existing supply chain if we are able to increase profit margins, realise cost savings and generate incremental value from doing so.