What brokers do well
They know who is buying this week in a district. They move fast on phone. They finance informal gaps. For a one-truck trial, a good broker is fine.
Where brokers fail mills
Price opacity, no quality record, and no proof of offtake when you want a bank working-capital line. You also cannot rank in Google as a supplier if your only channel is a middleman.
Marketplace mechanics
You list rice husk or pellets with moisture and tonnes. Multiple buyers quote. You accept one. The RFQ remains in history. BioTradX is that workflow.
Practical split
Use brokers for emergency trucks. Use a marketplace for repeating tonnes. That split is how serious mills already buy coal. Biomass should not be less organised.