Over the recent years eFresh.com has become known as the leading global portal for fresh products and the new management team will continue to build the Internet portal and look for opportunities to expand further.

“eFresh.com is a meeting place for everyone active in the value chain of fresh products. The Internet offers a cost efficient solution to do business in a fast and transparent way. With eFresh.com you can set up your own website and have it on-line within 20 minutes. This can be directly focused at your target audience. We are offering a new-generation company guide in which you can find every ambitious business in the fresh products industry”, says Joost van Odijk on behalf of the eFresh.com management.

eFresh.com is globally active and has membership representation in over 100 countries. These members are active in fresh product categories such as citrus, meat, cut flowers or vegetables. For example in China the Internet is already a generally accepted tool to promote producers and develop new business. Government spends much effort and attention endorsing such initiatives as they know it’s critical to a growing economy and remaining competitive.

With her unique positioning in the various sectors of fresh products and her international network, eFresh.com is an ideal platform for international trade promotion.

“It’s great to develop and grow this opportunity out of The Netherlands. eFresh.com builds international bridges leveraging technology and an entrepreneurial spirit. That’s a role which suits us very well”, says Joost van Odijk.

eFresh.com has developed many contacts and relationships with buyers all over the world, and they increasingly import fresh products from emerging markets such as China, Africa or Latin America.

As result of globalization in supply and demand, transparency with regards to food safety and sustainability has become imperative for fresh products. However, in parallel there is a competitive situation in the value-chain, which enforces cost reductions and more efficiency. This requires innovation and an open view to new markets for both producer and buyer. eFresh.com helps them both in achieving this goal.

In addition to online services, eFresh.com organizes trade missions and buying events to bring together relevant market players.

Q&A

1/ What happened to the “old” eFresh.com?
Some of the major backers pulled out leaving the company with high expenses which couldn`t be covered. On top of this the business had become spred over too many activities which made development and proper commercial growth very difficult. The reorganisation has allowed a clear focus and concentration on key services.
The portal will grow as a meeting place encouraging trade development through business introductions and buying events

2. Who is part of the new organization?
eFresh.com is headed by Joost van Odijk, former manager at Unilever and Pepsico. There is a dedicated trading desk to the Chinese market. In addition, eFresh.com has an international network of partners in Latin America, India and Africa.

3. Where is the organization located?
eFresh.com is located in Rotterdam , The Netherlands.

4. How does eFresh.com make money?
eFresh.com offers her members a website with company information and a product catalogue within the portal. This is the basic FREE service. Paying members receive extra attention and introductions to potential business partners. Trade associations looking to increase exposure and use the opportunities arising from ecommerce have also teamed up with eFresh.com. Furthermore, there will be cooperation with trade fairs and international events to provide on-line presentation and profiles of their participants and activities.

5. Who benefits from eFresh.com?
eFresh.com is intended for entrepreneurs in all sectors of the fresh products industries who are looking for new customers and new ways to do business in a more efficient manner. Many producers typically focus on growing or breeding high quality products, but don’t spend time on promotion or marketing of their own company or its products. As a result of this, they cannot be found by buyers and they become dependant on others for their sales and pricing. eFresh.com can be a tremendous help to these producers as well as to all traders and buyers who understand that a specific trade tool is a fast and efficient roadmap to new business partners.

6. What’s wrong with the traditional auction or cooperative for growers or breeders? Doesn’t that work well?
The classical forms of commercial cooperation in agriculture have been effective for a long time. However, these structures are based on trading dynamics from the 19th century. Over the last twenty years globalization and technology have changed the landscape for producers and the trade. Competition has grown and consumers are now much better informed. Too much value in terms of both money and time is lost in the existing supply chains. There is limited transparency and scarce availability of information on product or producer. There is no proper benchmarking or comparisons to help a buyer make sound business decisions. This becomes critical to everyone. To retailers. To traders. And especially to the consumer. They demand transparency, efficiency, low costs and a great product. The whole year around. This is only possible with the help of technology and good commerce. Cooperatives might address this as well, but the Internet is indispensable in fixing this and progressing the fresh industries forward. Traditional organizations are too defensive and stiff to adjust themselves. But their members will have to change if they want to survive.

7. Should the government play a role in these developments?
The government should give much more attention to ecommerce and endorse initiatives such as eFresh.com. Many agricultural organizations live from government support and government protectionism, but without parallel efforts to improve their competitive position and decrease this reliance on “hand-outs”. eFresh.com is regularly consulted to find European producers who can export and deliver products to new, emerging markets. But many of these suppliers are not familiar with the Internet and as a result miss potential new revenue and new business partners. The government should play an active role in changing this and education companies on the massive possibilities available.

8. Will their be possibilities for product or company promotion with the “new” eFresh.com?
Of course. eFresh.com offers her members a website with company information and a product catalogue within the portal. This is the basic FREE service. Paying members receive extra attention and introductions to potential business partners.

9. Will there be advertising opportunities?
We have advertising opportunities for service providers, trade associations as well as buyers or suppliers from the industry. Through search ranking, promotional banners, buying events and campaigns we offer opportunities to represent your company to meet and exceed your business objectives.

10. Will there be trade specific new information?
We work with leading news providers both local and global to provide you with the latest news feeds from the industry.

We call it a lot of fun and do new, innovating, projects with passion (and a drive for success).

Hello world! We present Odin3, for the love of startups.

This is feedback we at Avartize.com like to hear Thank you Ken Cook!

Last month, Avartize.com launched in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The first campaigns started by Lowlands (a 3 day music event with Snoop Dogg, Lilly Allen, Peaches and others) and 3FM (a Dutch radio station). Both campaigns were very successful. In just a few days these overlays were used more than 500 times.

Started with mostly Dutch campaigns, it was surprising to see that just a few days after the launch, the Japanese picked up the news. After the Japanese the Brazilians found out about Avartize.com and this week, we see a huge pike in traffic from the United States. Avartize.com is now globally active, as hoped.

With traffic from more than 103 different countries, with more than 555 active campaigns and more than 2887 Twitter users adopting those overlays Avartize.com is starting to spread the overlay mania to Twitter.

Unfortunately there were also some problems. Twitter has much difficulties keeping their API up and running, for instance during the recent DDoS attacks. This affected Avartize.com and other services depending on this API from running smoothly. Hopefully Twitter will deal with those problems and prevent them from having this impact in the future.

What’s next?

In the upcoming month we expect the increase in campaigners we had in the past days to continue. Next to this we see that more and more business see the value of overlay campaigns. We will help those businesses to set up and promote their campaigns. Also we will roll out some other paid features to generate essential revenue to back our growth. In the course of September it will be possible to become a featured avartizer which will help you to promote your Avartize campaign.

Today Avartize.com is up and running in silence beta mode!  Avartize.com gives you, the Twitter user, the option to easily pimp your profile picture, also known as your avatar.  Set your state to “busy,” tell your friends you’re on fire — or let everybody know you are out taking in that special event.

At Avartize.com, you also have the option to create your own overlays, so people can pimp their avatar with your artwork!  Do you organize events?  Let visitors utilize your overlays.  Supporting a good cause?  Show it by making your avatar purple, totally free!  One click and it’s done.  No installation or coding needed.  Just create an Avatize.com account, upload your transparent image, and off you go!

And, when you get tired of your customized avatars, Avartize.com gives you the option to return to your old standby, pimp-free profile picture once again.

Founders
Avartize.com was founded by the Sneaker Entrepreneurs: Annedien Hoen, Strategy Master; Tanja de Bie, Design Master; and Leon Berenschot, Technology Master. Last week, Jelmer de Jong joined the Avartize.com team to ensure the optimal marketing and business proposition of Avartize.com.

Starting today, Avartize.com is live and available to you.  In the upcoming weeks, the team will expand its service even further.  Stay tuned!