GrainScanner success story: Trading volume skyrockets 1,600x in a single year๐
In a country vulnerable to fluctuating international situations and climate change, where self-sufficiency in grains is only at 21%, the Grain Scanner team at Greenlabs is innovating the inefficiencies in global grain trade, achieving 10% of domestic grain import market transactions within just one year of launching. We had the opportunity to chat with the leaders of the team Wonsun, Beomju, and Jungwoo about their roles and career journeys at Greenlabs.
Q: What do you do at Greenlabs?
Wonsun : Hello! I'm Wonsun, managing the agricultural trade business at Greenlabs. I set strategic business directions, handle internal/external communications, and support the team members so they can focus on their tasks.
Beomju: Hi, I'm Beomju, leading the Grain Scanner team, responsible for developing the grain trade businesses.
Jungwoo : Nice to meet you. I'm Jungwoo, certified surveyor at Grain Scanner team. I'm responsible for bringin new business opportunities based on our strategies, and generating actual revenue through sales.
Q: What career journey did you have, and how did you join Greenlabs?
Wonsun : I gained experience in trade at my first job in a trading company, learning that trade involves competitively procuring items from places with abundant supply, to places with demand. Based on these insights into distribution and trade, I boldly ventured into business thinking, "I can do this too!" Fortunately, I was able to sell my company to a larger corporation and have since handled business development tasks at several startups.
Beomju: I possess experience across the entire value chain of agriculture, from production to sales/trade, especially in products related to food grains. My expertise is particularly in the cultivation of soybeans, corn, oats, and potatoes across diverse regions such as Russia, Australia, China, Myanmar, and Korea. My career encompasses roles in farm management, acquisition, and investment. Upon returning to Korea after dedicated farming efforts in Russia, I heard about Greenlabs' initiative to establish a global headquarters. It was then that I realized I could apply and commercialize the insights gained from grain production. This realization prompted my decision to join Greenlabs, seeing it as an opportunity to utilize my agricultural expertise in a new and impactful way.
Jungwoo: At my previous position at a trading company, I gained expertise in sales involving purchasing domestic/imported rice and grains from producers across the nation and distributing them widely through both B2B and B2C channels, irrespective of online or offline platforms. I was directly involved in the entire supply chain post-sourcing, including processing, packaging, logistics, distribution, and customer service, managing over 200 SKUs. This experience, coupled with my involvement in new product planning and launch, instilled in me the confidence to create something from scratch. However, my previous employment was confined to domestic business, which made me feel limited in expanding my work scope and enhancing my expertise. Upon hearing that Greenlabs was initiating a grain trading business, I was convinced of the growth opportunities it presented. This led me to join the founding team of GrainScanner, confident in the potential for development and success.
Q: What does the GrainScanner team do, and what is GrainScanner's business model?
Jungwoo: We handle the trade of grains, the essential energy source for humanity and the most closely related to daily life. In the global grain market, scattered with numerous asymmetrical pieces of information, my goal is to innovatively reduce the Searching Cost that buyers face when trying to find a reliable packer (grain exporter) and the Selection Cost of accurately choosing high-quality products from such packers. GrainScanner positions itself as a smart trader that delivers grains more reliably and swiftly than other traders worldwide.
Q: We heard about some significant recent business achievements. Can you tell us more about it?
Beomju: In October 2022, shortly after starting the business, we signed a contract for 10 tons, and recently in October 2023, exactly a year after, we signed a contract for a total of about 16,000 tons. The reason we were able to achieve this 1,600-fold growth in just one year is due to the hard work of our team members in acquiring packers and solving buyer pain points. We plan to continue redistributing grains and food worldwide, reducing information asymmetry, and reducing costs and waste in the grain and agricultural trade process toward the innovation of humanity's food supply.
Q: You've also opened a newsletter service this year. How has the customer response been?
Jungwoo : We send newsletters to both buyers and packers. For buyers, we provide various information such as international grain prices, the right time to buy grains, which were lacking before, to help them make informed purchasing decisions. We aggregate data from many packers worldwide to provide buyers with useful information and propose purchases. For packers, we provide information about the Korean market, the timing of sales according to international prices, etc. I'm proud to say that 30% of our buyers consistently read our newsletters, and about 10% of them engage in communication about transactions, leading to sales.โจ
If you would like to receive the Grain Scanner Newsletter,
please apply to grain@greenlabs.co.kr.
Q: Do you have any memorable moments or rewarding experiences while working at Greenlabs?
Beomju: There have been many memorable moments, but the most memorable one was when our packer terminal moved quickly and accurately, responding to a buyer's quotation request within 6 hours. We consider it important to respond faster than any other company when buyers make requests, aiming for within 24 hours. To achieve this, we strengthened our internal packer terminal, allowing us to quickly respond to quotation requests within 6 hours.
Q: Your achievements are impressive! We feel the passion of the three of you in pioneering the grain trade market. What drives you to work so hard at Greenlabs?
Wonsun : Just as my 20s and 30s were different, now in my 40s, I have a strong desire to create achievements. When I joined, I wrote in my introduction (as part of Greenlabs' culture of introducing oneself on the company’s Slack channel upon joining) that I work to pursue both organizational and personal achievements simultaneously. Since joining, I've experienced significant personal intellectual growth, and my growth and achievements are aligning with those of the organization. In fact, this alignment of my growth with the organization's growth is a first in my life here at Greenlabs. I believe that if I work hard, the business will prosper, and if the business prospers, I will succeed.
At the heart of this belief is agriculture, the key theme, and I consider Greenlabs to be the best playground for me. Again, this is a first in my 40 years of life.โจ
Beomju: The first reason aligns with my personal dream, which I mentioned during my introduction: to be someone who saves lives through food. To achieve this, I recognized the need to fill my career with experiences in agriculture, especially in my area of expertise, grains. Previously, my career was focused on production and processing, so I wanted to bridge the gap by engaging in trading, thereby completing the value chain in my career path.
Jungwoo: The growth and fulfillment derived from creating something from nothing are immense! Initially, GrainScanner was virtually unknown in the grain market. However, through the process of directly verifying and negotiating with packers worldwide to secure the best price and quality for our products, and personally delivering these to our buyers, I felt the increase of my contribution within the team and our recognition in this field. Witnessing the team's growth in the grain market fills me with pride. Using this as motivation, I have also acquired a certified surveyor title this year, enabling me to impartially verify and evaluate ships and cargo, thereby offering even more validated products to our buyers.
Q: It's been just over a year since the GrainScanner team was founded. Does it have its own way of working?
Wonsun: We must prove ourselves to the market at every moment. To the buyers we meet, we need to demonstrate expertise in the origin of products, and to the packers, we must show our knowledge of the Korean market. Therefore, our working style embodies both intellectual curiosity and persistence towards outcomes. Our approach involves collecting, analyzing, and forecasting data, based on local crop conditions, annual status, and combining laws and market trends to quickly provide the answers our buyers seek.
Jungwoo: GrainScanner aims to be sensitive to market trends, accurate in understanding customer needs, and flexible in dealing with various variables in the grain trading market. Therefore, we constantly strive to grasp and analyze market situations to provide our customers with precise information. We are growing as players who, when faced with unexpected variables, do not panic but quickly find and implement solutions.
Q: How would you describe the team culture? Please share some good things about working with the GrainScanner team that you take pride in!
Wonsun: There's no need to say goodbye when leaving for the day! With prior communication and the ability to handle issues as they arise, we grant our team members ample freedom. Of course, performance matters, but even when goals aren't met, we pride ourselves on a culture that continuously learns and grows from every experience.
Beomju: We rarely have formal dinners! And when we do, it's all about eating what we crave, enjoying what we love, and heading home when we're ready. Additionally, Wonsun is among the most humble leaders I've encountered, deeply respecting team members' opinions and always ready to step forward for their benefit.
Jungwoo : The atmosphere is free-spirited, with support available in various aspects to achieve results. Everyone on the team is proactive, knowing when to work hard and when to enjoy downtime.
Q: Could you share the vision and goals of the GrainScanner team? What kind of outcomes do you plan to create in the future?
Wonsun : There are big words like food security and self-sufficiency in food. Of course, these are also our aspirations. However, we primarily aim to innovate in the most delayed area of trade, specifically in grains, which have been traded since the dawn of humanity. We want to create a fair market in this age-old domain.
Beomju : Buyers expend a great deal of time and money in the process of locating packers, and despite these efforts, transactions can still fail. Packers, eager to sell their goods, are unable to expand their distribution channels due to a lack of knowledge about who the buyers are. Moreover, when each party conducts transactions based on different information, additional unnecessary costs arise.
GrainScanner aims to eliminate all these costs and inefficiencies with its innovative solutions. GrainScanner will facilitate transactions between matched buyers and packers, thereby reducing the waste that typically occurs in trade. The savings generated from this efficiency could potentially be utilized in more valuable ways around the world.
Q: What are your own personal goals that you want to achieve at Greenlabs?
Wonsun: I want to make it a portfolio of life, a collection of achievements.
Beomju: We aim to digitalize each stage of the grain production value chain by leveraging Greenlabs' strengths in IT and digital capabilities. Additionally, we aspire to stand shoulder to shoulder with the major grain traders known as the ABCDs (ADM, Bunge, Cargill, LDC) through innovation in agricultural trade, and we hope that Greenlabs' digital products will be used around the world. Through this innovation, we pray to see a better distribution of food for humanity and, consequently, lives being saved that would otherwise be lost.
Jungwoo: Through digital innovation in grain trading, we aim to ensure that grains are supplied where they are needed around the world in a timely manner, allowing GrainScanner to have a positive impact on food crises!
Q: Finally, please share a message to the future team members of GrainScanner!
Jungwoo : If you want to innovate in trade, join us!
Beomjoo: If you want to make money, and if you can make money (laughs), come join us. You can also grow both professionally and personally, as a bonus.
Wonsun: Many perceive Greenlabs as a startup or a platform company, but in reality, these are merely the means; our essence lies in agriculture. We are sincere about agriculture, and if you have a genuine interest in this domain, we are all ready to share our knowledge with you. Wonsun Chung, Beomju Park, and Jungwoo Park together bring out the best synergy and are confident in their expertise. We are waiting for someone who is willing to join us on this journey to create tangible results together.
If you would like to talk to Green Labs Grain Scanner, please click the button below.
GrainScanner success story: Trading volume skyrockets 1,600x in a single year๐
In a country vulnerable to fluctuating international situations and climate change, where self-sufficiency in grains is only at 21%, the Grain Scanner team at Greenlabs is innovating the inefficiencies in global grain trade, achieving 10% of domestic grain import market transactions within just one year of launching. We had the opportunity to chat with the leaders of the team Wonsun, Beomju, and Jungwoo about their roles and career journeys at Greenlabs.
Q: What do you do at Greenlabs?
Wonsun : Hello! I'm Wonsun, managing the agricultural trade business at Greenlabs. I set strategic business directions, handle internal/external communications, and support the team members so they can focus on their tasks.
Beomju: Hi, I'm Beomju, leading the Grain Scanner team, responsible for developing the grain trade businesses.
Jungwoo : Nice to meet you. I'm Jungwoo, certified surveyor at Grain Scanner team. I'm responsible for bringin new business opportunities based on our strategies, and generating actual revenue through sales.
Q: What career journey did you have, and how did you join Greenlabs?
Wonsun : I gained experience in trade at my first job in a trading company, learning that trade involves competitively procuring items from places with abundant supply, to places with demand. Based on these insights into distribution and trade, I boldly ventured into business thinking, "I can do this too!" Fortunately, I was able to sell my company to a larger corporation and have since handled business development tasks at several startups.
Beomju: I possess experience across the entire value chain of agriculture, from production to sales/trade, especially in products related to food grains. My expertise is particularly in the cultivation of soybeans, corn, oats, and potatoes across diverse regions such as Russia, Australia, China, Myanmar, and Korea. My career encompasses roles in farm management, acquisition, and investment. Upon returning to Korea after dedicated farming efforts in Russia, I heard about Greenlabs' initiative to establish a global headquarters. It was then that I realized I could apply and commercialize the insights gained from grain production. This realization prompted my decision to join Greenlabs, seeing it as an opportunity to utilize my agricultural expertise in a new and impactful way.
Jungwoo: At my previous position at a trading company, I gained expertise in sales involving purchasing domestic/imported rice and grains from producers across the nation and distributing them widely through both B2B and B2C channels, irrespective of online or offline platforms. I was directly involved in the entire supply chain post-sourcing, including processing, packaging, logistics, distribution, and customer service, managing over 200 SKUs. This experience, coupled with my involvement in new product planning and launch, instilled in me the confidence to create something from scratch. However, my previous employment was confined to domestic business, which made me feel limited in expanding my work scope and enhancing my expertise. Upon hearing that Greenlabs was initiating a grain trading business, I was convinced of the growth opportunities it presented. This led me to join the founding team of GrainScanner, confident in the potential for development and success.
Q: What does the GrainScanner team do, and what is GrainScanner's business model?
Jungwoo: We handle the trade of grains, the essential energy source for humanity and the most closely related to daily life. In the global grain market, scattered with numerous asymmetrical pieces of information, my goal is to innovatively reduce the Searching Cost that buyers face when trying to find a reliable packer (grain exporter) and the Selection Cost of accurately choosing high-quality products from such packers. GrainScanner positions itself as a smart trader that delivers grains more reliably and swiftly than other traders worldwide.
Q: We heard about some significant recent business achievements. Can you tell us more about it?
Beomju: In October 2022, shortly after starting the business, we signed a contract for 10 tons, and recently in October 2023, exactly a year after, we signed a contract for a total of about 16,000 tons. The reason we were able to achieve this 1,600-fold growth in just one year is due to the hard work of our team members in acquiring packers and solving buyer pain points. We plan to continue redistributing grains and food worldwide, reducing information asymmetry, and reducing costs and waste in the grain and agricultural trade process toward the innovation of humanity's food supply.
Q: You've also opened a newsletter service this year. How has the customer response been?
Jungwoo : We send newsletters to both buyers and packers. For buyers, we provide various information such as international grain prices, the right time to buy grains, which were lacking before, to help them make informed purchasing decisions. We aggregate data from many packers worldwide to provide buyers with useful information and propose purchases. For packers, we provide information about the Korean market, the timing of sales according to international prices, etc. I'm proud to say that 30% of our buyers consistently read our newsletters, and about 10% of them engage in communication about transactions, leading to sales.โจ
If you would like to receive the Grain Scanner Newsletter,
please apply to grain@greenlabs.co.kr.
Q: Do you have any memorable moments or rewarding experiences while working at Greenlabs?
Beomju: There have been many memorable moments, but the most memorable one was when our packer terminal moved quickly and accurately, responding to a buyer's quotation request within 6 hours. We consider it important to respond faster than any other company when buyers make requests, aiming for within 24 hours. To achieve this, we strengthened our internal packer terminal, allowing us to quickly respond to quotation requests within 6 hours.
Q: Your achievements are impressive! We feel the passion of the three of you in pioneering the grain trade market. What drives you to work so hard at Greenlabs?
Wonsun : Just as my 20s and 30s were different, now in my 40s, I have a strong desire to create achievements. When I joined, I wrote in my introduction (as part of Greenlabs' culture of introducing oneself on the company’s Slack channel upon joining) that I work to pursue both organizational and personal achievements simultaneously. Since joining, I've experienced significant personal intellectual growth, and my growth and achievements are aligning with those of the organization. In fact, this alignment of my growth with the organization's growth is a first in my life here at Greenlabs. I believe that if I work hard, the business will prosper, and if the business prospers, I will succeed.
At the heart of this belief is agriculture, the key theme, and I consider Greenlabs to be the best playground for me. Again, this is a first in my 40 years of life.โจ
Beomju: The first reason aligns with my personal dream, which I mentioned during my introduction: to be someone who saves lives through food. To achieve this, I recognized the need to fill my career with experiences in agriculture, especially in my area of expertise, grains. Previously, my career was focused on production and processing, so I wanted to bridge the gap by engaging in trading, thereby completing the value chain in my career path.
Jungwoo: The growth and fulfillment derived from creating something from nothing are immense! Initially, GrainScanner was virtually unknown in the grain market. However, through the process of directly verifying and negotiating with packers worldwide to secure the best price and quality for our products, and personally delivering these to our buyers, I felt the increase of my contribution within the team and our recognition in this field. Witnessing the team's growth in the grain market fills me with pride. Using this as motivation, I have also acquired a certified surveyor title this year, enabling me to impartially verify and evaluate ships and cargo, thereby offering even more validated products to our buyers.
Q: It's been just over a year since the GrainScanner team was founded. Does it have its own way of working?
Wonsun: We must prove ourselves to the market at every moment. To the buyers we meet, we need to demonstrate expertise in the origin of products, and to the packers, we must show our knowledge of the Korean market. Therefore, our working style embodies both intellectual curiosity and persistence towards outcomes. Our approach involves collecting, analyzing, and forecasting data, based on local crop conditions, annual status, and combining laws and market trends to quickly provide the answers our buyers seek.
Jungwoo: GrainScanner aims to be sensitive to market trends, accurate in understanding customer needs, and flexible in dealing with various variables in the grain trading market. Therefore, we constantly strive to grasp and analyze market situations to provide our customers with precise information. We are growing as players who, when faced with unexpected variables, do not panic but quickly find and implement solutions.
Q: How would you describe the team culture? Please share some good things about working with the GrainScanner team that you take pride in!
Wonsun: There's no need to say goodbye when leaving for the day! With prior communication and the ability to handle issues as they arise, we grant our team members ample freedom. Of course, performance matters, but even when goals aren't met, we pride ourselves on a culture that continuously learns and grows from every experience.
Beomju: We rarely have formal dinners! And when we do, it's all about eating what we crave, enjoying what we love, and heading home when we're ready. Additionally, Wonsun is among the most humble leaders I've encountered, deeply respecting team members' opinions and always ready to step forward for their benefit.
Jungwoo : The atmosphere is free-spirited, with support available in various aspects to achieve results. Everyone on the team is proactive, knowing when to work hard and when to enjoy downtime.
Q: Could you share the vision and goals of the GrainScanner team? What kind of outcomes do you plan to create in the future?
Wonsun : There are big words like food security and self-sufficiency in food. Of course, these are also our aspirations. However, we primarily aim to innovate in the most delayed area of trade, specifically in grains, which have been traded since the dawn of humanity. We want to create a fair market in this age-old domain.
Beomju : Buyers expend a great deal of time and money in the process of locating packers, and despite these efforts, transactions can still fail. Packers, eager to sell their goods, are unable to expand their distribution channels due to a lack of knowledge about who the buyers are. Moreover, when each party conducts transactions based on different information, additional unnecessary costs arise.
GrainScanner aims to eliminate all these costs and inefficiencies with its innovative solutions. GrainScanner will facilitate transactions between matched buyers and packers, thereby reducing the waste that typically occurs in trade. The savings generated from this efficiency could potentially be utilized in more valuable ways around the world.
Q: What are your own personal goals that you want to achieve at Greenlabs?
Wonsun: I want to make it a portfolio of life, a collection of achievements.
Beomju: We aim to digitalize each stage of the grain production value chain by leveraging Greenlabs' strengths in IT and digital capabilities. Additionally, we aspire to stand shoulder to shoulder with the major grain traders known as the ABCDs (ADM, Bunge, Cargill, LDC) through innovation in agricultural trade, and we hope that Greenlabs' digital products will be used around the world. Through this innovation, we pray to see a better distribution of food for humanity and, consequently, lives being saved that would otherwise be lost.
Jungwoo: Through digital innovation in grain trading, we aim to ensure that grains are supplied where they are needed around the world in a timely manner, allowing GrainScanner to have a positive impact on food crises!
Q: Finally, please share a message to the future team members of GrainScanner!
Jungwoo : If you want to innovate in trade, join us!
Beomjoo: If you want to make money, and if you can make money (laughs), come join us. You can also grow both professionally and personally, as a bonus.
Wonsun: Many perceive Greenlabs as a startup or a platform company, but in reality, these are merely the means; our essence lies in agriculture. We are sincere about agriculture, and if you have a genuine interest in this domain, we are all ready to share our knowledge with you. Wonsun Chung, Beomju Park, and Jungwoo Park together bring out the best synergy and are confident in their expertise. We are waiting for someone who is willing to join us on this journey to create tangible results together.
If you would like to talk to Green Labs Grain Scanner, please click the button below.