AuctionsPlus: Online Saleyard Pilot Report

Australian Pork Limited (APL) commissioned AuctionsPlus, a regulated online saleyard to investigate the current pig industry, market and sales channels to see whether an alternative to physical saleyards and unregulated online platforms could be found using the AuctionsPlus platform. The investigation intended to:

• Examine the technical feasibility of the AuctionsPlus platform for selling pigs
• Examine the interest in the market for using AuctionsPlus as an alternative selling mechanism
• Conduct 6 pilot sales in Victoria, to prove both the technical feasibility, and market interest of the platform
• Provide a report including an assessment of the trial and any recommendations.

Following the conclusion of the trial, APL would be in an informed position about whether there was feasibility in the use of a regulated online sales platform that would reduce biosecurity issues and provide an alternative sales option for producers.

This report includes findings from stakeholder engagement with producers, agents and buyers and a summary of a two-sided market and evaluating a digital marketplace. Results of this investigation highlight a lack of producer and buyer support for an online auction facility. This is primarily due to the unique characteristics of pig trading, the decreasing number of commercial producers seeking auctions and the general unsuitability of intensive, meat producing livestock to a digital marketplace.

AuctionsPlus concluded that conducting pilot auctions would not yield any further information about producer or buyer intentions than the stakeholder engagement found. Moreover, AuctionsPlus were not able to find livestock agents or assessors who were qualified and interested to operate the pilot auctions.

Download the full report