Tech Startup, Trying to Be Amazon for Farms, Runs Into Ag Giants

Inside a packed arena last December, 2,700 farmers sipped coffee from paper cups and listened to remarks on the Midwestern economy: incomes down, costs up and bankruptcies rising. The speaker wasn’t a politician or an academic. He was Charles Baron, co-founder of Farmers Business Network, or FBN, a Silicon Valley startup that is trying to build an Amazon-like online marketplace for agricultural supplies. Mr. Baron, pacing the stage in a black-and-green flannel shirt, warned the audience that big companies often sell seeds and herbicide sprays at inflated prices, protecting their profits. FBN, he said, allows users to compare prices across products and suppliers, helping farmers negotiate. “It is critical that you have control,” said Mr. Baron. FBN doesn’t have a lot right now. Some of the world’s biggest farm suppliers, including Bayer AG, Corteva Inc. and Syngenta AG have refused to sell their brand-name seeds and crop sprays to the startup. Executives say traditional stores remain central to their business. Major farm retailers and wholesalers have urged farmers and suppliers to avoid the platform, in some cases circulating letters and emails warning that FBN’s goal is to gather and secretly sell data on crops and farms. Mr. Baron says it doesn’t. And after FBN purchased a Canadian agricultural supplier in 2018, some large farm-supply companies stopped providing their products to the business, leaving FBN unable to sell them. That maneuver sparked an investigation by Canadian regulators, which is ongoing. Low-cost, web-based companies have upended retail, grocery and other American industries over the past two decades, offering consumers an array of choices in products at low prices with speedy delivery. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the phenomenon, pushing more shoppers online. The $40 billion U.S. farm supply business is a holdout. FBN wants to change that, undercutting bricks-and-mortar retailers on price and delivering supplies directly to farmers. Its battles, involving some of the industry’s biggest players, show how hard it can be...WSJ subscription