A new app called Viehworld is intended to lead the livestock trade in Austria into the digital age. Since September cows can be bought and sold there, and recently sheep and goats. In order to be able to trade on Viehworld, the e-AMA login is required, which only proven farmers, cattle dealers and processors have.
The founders are Florian Aspalter and Wolfgang Schiessl. Aspalter is a part-time farmer, trained banker and, as an asset manager, takes care of all financial matters, according to the Viehworld website. Schiessl is a veterinarian and runs a practice with other veterinarians. The founders are certain that they know what needs animals and farmers have. Co-founder Mario Fraiss and his IT company acted as technical partner for the implementation and development of the viehworld app.
According to the newspaper “Standard”, the app has been downloaded 5,000 times so far. The idea for the mobile phone application came to the veterinarian Schiessling in the course of his work: “80 percent of my work is done with cattle farms and mostly with young farmers.” One of the main problems faced by young farmers is lack of time. “I thought about where you could save time.” The answer: horse trading.
The seller bears the costs of an online cattle auction. If there is a trade agreement, 5 percent of the sales price remains as a fee at Viehworld. The app itself and the first sale are free.
The marketing behind Viehworld deliberately aims to polish up the image of young farmers, as co-founder and part-time farmer Aspalter explains according to “Standard”: “Our target group is very innovative, even if it is often not perceived as such.”