I wish I had named this thread Competitor and Industry Analysis as this is more an industry opportunity. ShoreTrade seems like a good opportunity for Cirralto to hook up with and integrate with Spenda.

ShoreTrade - Digital Seafood Marketplace Platform, started in Australia, expanding overseas.

The Sydney Fish Markets is the largest fish market in the southern hemisphere, trading $154m of seafood per annum. The aquaculture industry, however, does not trade through the Fish Market because the price discovery through Dutch Auction system it uses does not meet that industry's need to offer at a fixed price.

Enter ShoreTrade. Founded in 2018 by Peter Manettas, an established Sydney restaurant operator. ShoreTrade is a trading platform for the seafood industry. It aggregated daily market pricing, trading volumes and supply-demand data across the country. The Sydney Fish Market will be rolling out ShoreTrade, which will bring to an end the Dutch Auction system used since 1945.

"Specifically, the technology enables a presale, meaning buyers can request products from the market, sending alerts to all those who have or intend to have the species, which enables fishers to negotiate a price to go out and catch what they need.

"This “catch-to-order” concept is a reversal of the way the market currently works, and offers price stability and reduced wastage.

"From a three-hour trading window most mornings, Sydney Fish Market will soon become a 24/7 trading house, with orders streaming in from buyers all around the world communicating their exact requirements."

"Earlier this year, Mr Manettas raised $8 million from investors in Australia and Singapore to expand aggressively in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand and the US." (AFR 22 Oct 21).

Recent AFR Articles follow:

How this startup is turbocharging the Sydney Fish Market’s trade

Jessica SierJournalist

Updated Oct 22, 2021 – 4.59pm, first published at 11.49am

For two and a half hours from 5.30am on any given weekday, more than half a million dollars worth of fish changes hands at the Sydney Fish Market. Over the course of a year, that adds up to more than $154 million.

It’s an impressive amount, but following a widespread technological upgrade, the largest fish market in the Southern Hemisphere is poised to be turbocharged.

Sydney Fish Market chief executive Greg Dyer and ShoreTrade founder Peter Manettas. Renee Nowytarger

“We’re about to undergo a true business transformation,” said Greg Dyer, chief executive of Sydney Fish Market.

“The entire business model will change, from a very traditional auction to a very different kind of operation.”

Sydney Fish Market has relied on its Dutch auction structure since 1945 to connect buyers and sellers of everything from lobster to ling, but a bigger, digital trading mechanism is being adopted.

Since it was privatised in 1980, the market has traded as a joint venture between fishers and traders. Each morning, the day’s catch is sent to the market from fishers all over Australia and New Zealand.

From the market floor, a Dutch auction then finds equilibrium between supply and demand. Fishers and traders haggle and barter until they find a price, which varies from day to day.

Unreliable system

This unreliability does not suit everybody, particularly the aquaculture industry, which, despite being one of Australia’s fastest-growing industries, does not often trade through the Sydney Fish Market.

“We’ve not been able to transact in aquaculture because we haven’t been able to offer a fixed price,” said Mr Dyer.

“The auction we have is done and dusted by about 8am, so there’s quite a lot we’re missing out on.”

Enter Peter Manettas, restaurateur and founder of ShoreTrade, a Sydney-based start-up that builds and operates marketplaces specifically for the seafood industry.

Mr Manettas grew up around the morning auctions of the seafood industry in Darling Harbour where his family business, Nick’s Restaurant and Bar Group, owned six restaurants at one point.

Hundreds of inefficiencies

From working experience on the buy and sell sides, he could see the hundreds of inefficiencies plaguing the seafood supply chain.

In 2018, he founded ShoreTrade with a view to build a trading platform that handled the particular needs of the seafood industry, aggregating daily market pricing, trading volumes and supply-demand data across the country.

Specifically, the technology enables a presale, meaning buyers can request products from the market, sending alerts to all those who have or intend to have the species, which enables fishers to negotiate a price to go out and catch what they need.

This “catch-to-order” concept is a reversal of the way the market currently works, and offers price stability and reduced wastage.

From a three-hour trading window most mornings, Sydney Fish Market will soon become a 24/7 trading house, with orders streaming in from buyers all around the world communicating their exact requirements.

Aggressive expansion

Earlier this year, Mr Manettas raised $8 million from investors in Australia and Singapore to expand aggressively in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand and the US.

“The scale of the Sydney Fish Market rollout is huge,” he said. “This transformation is very ‘old world’ meets ‘new world’, and to see a major primary industry adopt this technology should be a signal to others.”

The two parties have negotiated an exclusive licensing deal, giving Sydney Fish Market sole access to the technology in the fisheries sector in Australia and New Zealand by early 2022. It will run alongside the market’s move to the new Sydney Fish Market building on Blackwattle Bay.

Mr Manettas said the data available would be “extraordinary”.

“Whether its migration patterns of fish, sustainability aspects of the industry, different species coming in from different places, the level of decision-making is going to be at a different level,” he said.

The NSW government has tipped in some money for the Sydney Fish Market upgrade, and part of the appeal of the powerful data flows is their capacity to generate fast and accurate reporting.

“The Department of Primary Industries in NSW likes to get reports and data from fishers to make sure they’re compliant with quotas and regulations,” Mr Dyer said.

“As part of this new system we’ll be able to help with that transmission of data too.”

Fish markets under threat as new digital auction platform ShoreTrade raises $2m

Yolanda RedrupReporter

Oct 23, 2018 – 12.01am

A Sydney-based restaurateur is making waves in the seafood industry, having raised $2 million to launch an online auction platform that aims to remove the need for early-morning fish markets.

A common face around Sydney's Darling Harbour, Peter Manettas has been involved in the food scene for 15 years through his family business, Nick's Restaurant and Bar Group, which owns six restaurants in Darling Harbour.

But the Manettas family legacy is in the seafood industry and Mr Manettas is looking to launch the country's first seafood delivery service, called ShoreTrade, which he said gives all consumers the chance to buy the best fresh catches directly.

Peter Manettas, the CEO of Shoretrade, which has raised $2 million to create a blockchain platform for the seafood industry. Nick Moir

He told The Australian Financial Review he wanted to stop the "antiquated process of the old pen and paper".

He said fish were auctioned each morning to a crowd of about 100 people before passing through various hands and arriving in a home kitchen about a week later.

"What we've built on a logistics scale is completely new and custom built. It allows the fisherman, a cooperative or a processor to list their catch, then that catch will open to buyers all over Australia and internationally, if they're approved," Mr Manettas said.

"It will then let them purchase the fish and track its delivery because it's integrated with logistics companies including airlines all around the country."

The company has raised $2 million from Investible's first venture capital fund, as well as from its club of angel investors.

ShoreTrade will compete with China's Gfresh marketplace, and is in testing ahead of an official launch early next year.

Creel Price,, the founder of Investible says Mr Manettas' relationships in the seafood sector are unparalleled and his vision for the digitisation of the industry is unique. Kate Geraghty

Well respected

"Peter Manettas is exactly the type of driven founder with proven industry experience we are looking for," Investible founder Creel Price said.

"His relationships within the industry are unparalleled and his vision for the digitisation of the industry is unique. ShoreTrade has the potential to be a global disrupter because it benefits both fisherman/co-operatives and purchasers."

Though not yet officially launched, the platform has already signed up 4000 users and attracted interest from the US, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and India.

While it's been well received by industry, established markets like the Sydney Fish Market have not been as welcoming.

Sydney Fish Market threat

"The Sydney Fish Market will be threatened to an extent. There is still a market for that, but as a clearance house not a trading platform," Mr Manettas said.

"I said to them in the early stages – why sell to 100 people at 3am when we could sell to 5000 people on the platform?"

ShoreTrade has estimated that fishermen will bank 7-10 per cent more from each sale by bypassing the traditional fish markets.

Unlike fish markets that hold auctions at set times, sellers and buyers will be able to use ShoreTrade at any time and buyers will be able to get notifications of when their favourite fishermen post a catch. They can also set fixed prices, or stipulate how long the auction will last.

A month after ShoreTrade is launched Mr Manettas intends to implement a blockchain feature to provide traceability of the fish through the supply chain.

He said every part of ShoreTrade had been designed in consultation with the industry.

"We've even developed the app in the dark to ensure fishermen are able to easily and intuitively use this when out in the dark on their boats."

Plenty more fish as online seafood marketplace ShoreTrade raises $8m

Yolanda RedrupReporter

Mar 8, 2021 – 1.00pm

Digital seafood marketplace ShoreTrade has closed an $8 million funding round to support a massive global expansion plan targeting Asia and the US.

The start-up, which is helping fishermen move off pen and paper and sell their catches directly to the end buyer, was founded by Sydney entrepreneur Peter Manettas.

ShoreTrade CEO Peter Manettas wants to digitise the fishing industry. Janie Barrett

The latest round comes with a $70 million pre-money valuation, and was led by Investible and Luxem, while Singaporean alternative investment manager Vulpes came in as a new investor. It also had support from undisclosed wealthy investors.

Speaking to The Australian Financial Review, Mr Manettas said the platform had experienced substantial traction since launching in 2019, with purchases being made by wholesalers of up to $60,000 in a single deal, and also local restaurants buying up a few hundred dollars of seafood daily.

“It has a wide spectrum of users ... COVID accelerated the growth of the platform because people had to find new markets to push their product into, when their usual markets fell out from underneath them,” he said.

“We have just under 500 registered fishermen or fisheries on ShoreTrade, ranging from small mum-and-dad fisheries jig catching calamari, through to major organisations with multiple arms and species.”

Mr Manettas has been linked to the Sydney food scene for more than 17 years, with his family owning six restaurants in Darling Harbour.

The capital will support ShoreTrade’s expansion through China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand and the US.

“We plan to be quite heavily established across [those] six strategic areas, with satellite networks and we’ll continue to vertically integrate the supply chain with investments in those areas.

“The food service industry and export markets drive domestic demand for seafood, but Australia has some of the best seafood in the world. Our platform opens up the opportunity for both large and small players to access this at a global scale.”

The company is also building a new feature which is poised to launch in the coming weeks, which will let buyers proactively use the platform to request what they’re hoping to purchase.

Thanks to COVID-19, there were substantial price drops in the last year of seasonal seafood produce such as lobsters, with fishermen forced to offload their hauls at large discounts.

Mr Manettas has raised $8 million to facilitate the company’s offshore expansion. Nick Moir

Compounding local challenges caused by the lockdowns, China placed import restrictions on seafood, as well as beef and other goods.

As a consequence, as part of the federal budget the government allocated $4 million into a national marketing campaign to encourage Australians to eat more Australian seafood.

Mr Manettas said his big goal was to digitise the entire fishing supply chain. He had created an investment vehicle alongside ShoreTrade to invest in or acquire companies involved in areas such as seafood infrastructure or digital aquaculture.

His vision is to eventually roll up the investments into one entity and take it public.

“We want to give the fishing industry back to the people,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s an Australian who wouldn’t pull $5 from their pockets to support the seafood industry.

“ShoreTrade increases the profits for fishermen and aquaculture farmers, as well as increasing traceability from farm to fork.”