AgGateway is a consortium of businesses serving the agriculture industry formed for its members to achieve the benefits gained when companies collaborate to share information electronically in the agricultural and food supply chains. The non-profit organization helps member companies efficiently address current and future challenges in traceability, increasing government regulation and helps member companies achieve supply chain cost savings.
 
AgGateway members accomplish this through the organization by collaborating on agriculture industry eBusiness standards,  supporting and providing eBusiness education,  encouraging and conducting implementation projects using proven tools and methodologies, involving appropriate government regulatory agencies and information technology companies in the development of eBusiness standards and tools.
 
AgGateway, founded in November 2005, grew from an idea referred to in some agriculture eBusiness circles as the “Umbrella Concept”.  The Umbrella Concept simply suggests that eBusiness can be more effectively implemented by cross-segment collaboration (under the Big Umbrella), than by each segment operating independently.  The concept was based on and understanding of four realities.

Reality #1: Larger companies in a number of the various segments of agriculture were beginning to conduct business electronically and were driving the eBusiness processes to other levels of the supply chain.
Reality #2: Efficient eBusiness activity requires transaction standards and data standards.  The effort required to expand eBusiness to a large number of trading partners, without standards, would be overwhelming and expensive.
Reality #3: Several Ag segments were beginning to develop standards independently of one another, even though many of the companies involved were actively doing business in several industry segments and could, in the end, be faced with multiple standards for their company.
Reality #4: Across the board, agricultural and food tracking and tracing had become an essential part of business.  For agriculture to achieve the infrastructure capabilities for implementation of track and trace, and to meet future governmental requirements, each segment’s electronic data needed to be compatible. 

In the greater “food chain”, segments stand alone.  Few, if any, Ag industry segments can play their role in supplying food to the nation without impacting, at a minimum, the segment just before or after them in the supply chain.  At the farm and consumer level the overlap of segments is complete.  AgGateway’s function is to address the issue of e-business standards throughout all of agriculture.