The China Cuisine Association has announced that China's first food and beverage e-procurement management platform has been established, allowing food and beverage companies to complete procurement efficiently and inexpensively.

Statistics from the association show that over 40% of the revenue from food and beverage companies is used to by materials and equipment. In 2008, the procurement costs of China's food and beverage industry were about CNY600 billion. At present, the main procurement method in China's food and beverage industry is still the traditional spot purchase, which needs experienced procurement staff to contact the suppliers in agricultural products wholesale markets. This kind of procurement method has been used for dozens of years and it has great limitations, said Bian Jiang, the person in charge of the e-procurement platform project. Primarily, the opacity of the procurement process directly affects the management and service quality of these companies.

The Internet e-procurement management platform introduced by the China Cuisine Association allows both food and beverage companies and suppliers to connect through with international standard financial software and create various online management forms with information such as prices and origin of materials. Food and beverage companies and suppliers can connect online and their supply and demand information and transaction situation will also be provided by the platform.

Bian explained that food and beverage companies can publish their needs in the B2B system and search for suitable suppliers; meanwhile, suppliers can also publish their goods supply information to offer references to food and beverage companies. In addition, the platform will take measures to ensure the credit worthiness of these suppliers.

China's food and beverage e-procurement management platform is expected to be launched in late July 2009.