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FBN Expands AI-Powered Platform for Ag Commerce, Financing, and Farm Intelligence

FBN Expands AI-Powered Platform for Ag Commerce, Financing, and Farm Intelligence

National Post5 days ago
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SAN MATEO, Calif. — Farmers Business Network (FBN®), the collaborative peer-to-peer farmer network generating farm-level intelligence and a leading marketplace for North America's agricultural sector, announced new investments and platform expansions alongside $50 million in funding to fuel new product lines and AI deployment.
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The funding will support FBN's mission of powering the prosperity of family farms. Backed by leading investors, including GV (Google Ventures), Temasek, Arteqin, Colle Capital and T Rowe Price, the company builds on its digital platform to simplify agriculture's supply of goods, financing and services, while becoming the farmer's trusted personal AI partner.
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FBN's farmer network has grown to over 117,000 farms, representing 187 million acres in the U.S. and Canada. Its Amazon-like e-commerce platform offers more than 7,200 products from crops and livestock with direct-to-farm delivery on most orders within 24 to 72 hours. According to recent farmer surveys by Stratus Ag Research, FBN was visited by 35% of farmers when shopping for inputs, and the number of farmers buying inputs online grew 86% vs. 2023. In 2025, more farmers returned to FBN to purchase inputs than ever before, as producers focused on profitability. FBN's Finance platform has now extended nearly $3 billion in total financing to growers.
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'Our commitment to putting farmers first means a relentless focus on efficiency and convenience,' said Diego Casanello, CEO of FBN. 'Our goal is to reduce a farm's operating costs 20% or more compared to brick-and-mortar retail. We're working to maximize grower savings and ensure every dollar they spend goes as far as possible.'
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To better serve its members and build for the future, FBN is evolving to focus on its core digital strengths. This has meant making difficult choices to align its workforce with strategic priorities. These essential changes, while challenging, position FBN to deliver exceptional and sustainable value to its members through innovation.
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FBN is increasing its strategic investment in advanced AI development. 'Artificial Intelligence is enabling us to provide our farmer members with more personalized and relevant insights,' said Casanello. 'Simultaneously, it offers new tools to automate our marketplace operations, reducing costs and improving the customer experience.'
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FBN launched 'Norm', the first Large Language Model (LLM) to answer farmer's agronomy questions. The model has been now trained to help farmers with crop marketing related inquiries. Future versions are expected to include personalized agronomy, finance and risk management support.
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The company is broadening its marketplace offerings – all while improving the fast and convenient service farmers have come to expect and rely on. FBN has significantly expanded its private label product portfolio in 2025 and opened the platform to third-party sellers, allowing them to offer their own brands directly to FBN members via a suite of seller tools and commercial services.
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Today's announcement includes these expanded product portfolio features:
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More Private Label and Third-party Crop Protection Products: FBN is enhancing its crop protection, biological and nutrition offerings for major commodity crops like corn, canola, cotton, soybeans, alfalfa and wheat, creating one of the industry's broadest and most trusted portfolios under its Willowood USA ® and Farmers First ® brands, while opening up the platform to more third-party sellers.
Canadian Growth: FBN Canada has expanded its wheat crop protection portfolio, added bulk liquid fertilizer and equipment financing, and will open two new distribution centers in 2026.
New Seed Platform: FBN is opening the marketplace for third-party seed offers, with leading brands like Seitec Genetics ®, featuring products for corn, soybean, sorghum, alfalfa, and cover crops.
Expanding Livestock: FBN's rapidly growing livestock marketplace will continue to expand with new products including feed from Ridley ® & Sweetlix ®, fencing, and a growing assortment of farm & ranch supplies.
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Farmers Business Network, Inc. (FBN®) is a pioneering digital marketplace and farmer-to-farmer network dedicated to empowering family farmers globally while promoting sustainable agriculture. With over 117,000 members, FBN's Farmers First® promise unites growers and ranchers in their quest to maximize profitability and increase food production. FBN leverages data, AI and direct-to-farm delivery to simplify the agricultural supply chain, boosting convenience and transparency, reducing farm input costs, enhancing access to financing and services, and providing personalized farm insights. Its Gradable® joint-venture helps thousands of farmers adopt and earn rewards for regenerative practices while simplifying the access of regenerative products for the world's leading food companies and grain buyers.
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Trump raises tariffs on Canadian goods, BoC keeps rate steady and Telus' new network deal: Business and investing stories for the week of Aug. 3
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From Laos to Brazil, Trump's tariffs leave a lot of losers. But even the winners will pay a price
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CTV News

time38 minutes ago

  • CTV News

From Laos to Brazil, Trump's tariffs leave a lot of losers. But even the winners will pay a price

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The United Kingdom agreed to 10% tariffs on its exports to the United States — up from 1.3% before Trump amped up his trade war with the world. The U.S. demanded concessions even though it had run a trade surplus, not a deficit, with the UK for 19 straight years. The European Union and Japan accepted U.S. tariffs of 15%. Those are much higher than the low single-digit rates they paid last year — but lower than the tariffs he was threatening (30% on the EU and 25% on Japan). Also cutting deals with Trump and agreeing to hefty tariffs were Pakistan, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. Even countries that saw their tariffs lowered from April without reaching a deal are still paying much higher tariffs than before Trump took office. Angola's tariff, for instance, dropped to 15% from 32% in April, but in 2022 it was less than 1.5%. And while Trump administration cut Taiwan's tariff to 20% from 32% in April, the pain will still be felt. '20% from the beginning has not been our goal, we hope that in further negotiations we will get a more beneficial and more reasonable tax rate,' Taiwan's president Lai Ching-te told reporters in Taipei Friday. Trump also agreed to reduce the tariff on the tiny southern African kingdom of Lesotho to 15% from the 50% he'd announced in April, but the damage may already have been done there. Bashing Brazil, clobbering Canada, shellacking the Swiss Countries that didn't knuckle under — and those that found other ways to incur Trump's wrath — got hit harder. Even some poorer countries were not spared. Laos' annual economic output comes to US$2,100 per person and Algeria's $5,600 — versus America's $75,000. Nonetheless, Laos got rocked with a 40% tariff and Algeria with a 30% levy. Trump slammed Brazil with a 50% import tax largely because he didn't like the way it was treating former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is facing trial for trying to lose his electoral defeat in 2022. Never mind that the U.S. has exported more to Brazil than it's imported every year since 2007. Trump's decision to plaster a 35% tariff on longstanding U.S. ally Canada was partly designed to threaten Ottawa for saying it would recognize a Palestinian state. Trump is a staunch supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Switzerland was clobbered with a 39% import tax — even higher than the 31% Trump originally announced on April 2. 'The Swiss probably wish that they had camped in Washington'' to make a deal, said Wolff, now senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. 'They're clearly not at all happy.'' Fortunes may change if Trump's tariffs are upended in court. Five American businesses and 12 states are suing the president, arguing that his Liberation Day tariffs exceeded his authority under the 1977 law. In May, the U.S. Court of International Trade, a specialized court in New York, agreed and blocked the tariffs, although the government was allowed to continue collecting them while its appeal wend its way through the legal system, and may likely end up at the U.S. Supreme Court. In a hearing Thursday, the judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit sounded skeptical about Trump's justifications for the tariffs. 'If (the tariffs) get struck down, then maybe Brazil's a winner and not a loser,'' Appleton said. Paying more for knapsacks and video games Trump portrays his tariffs as a tax on foreign countries. But they are actually paid by import companies in the U.S. who try to pass along the cost to their customers via higher prices. True, tariffs can hurt other countries by forcing their exporters to cut prices and sacrifice profits — or risk losing market share in the United States. But economists at Goldman Sachs estimate that overseas exporters have absorbed just one-fifth of the rising costs from tariffs, while Americans and U.S. businesses have picked up the most of the tab. Walmart, Procter & Gamble, Ford, Best Buy, Adidas, Nike, Mattel and Stanley Black & Decker, have all hiked prices due to U.S. tariffs 'This is a consumption tax, so it disproportionately affects those who have lower incomes,'' Appleton said. 'Sneakers, knapsacks ... your appliances are going to go up. Your TV and electronics are going to go up. Your video game devices, consoles are going to up because none of those are made in America.'' Trump's trade war has pushed the average U.S. tariff from 2.5% at the start of 2025 to 18.3% now, the highest since 1934, according to the Budget Lab at Yale University. And that will impose a $2,400 cost on the average household, the lab estimates. 'The U.S. consumer's a big loser,″ Wolff said. AP Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this story. Paul Wiseman, The Associated Press

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