Belgian importer Special Fruit has announced a partnership with Agrinorm, an agtech startup headquartered in Zurich that uses its AI-powered analytics platform to identify trends and areas of improvement, and to synchronise the quality and commercial teams so the right products go to the right customers.
'A first in the sector and a game-changer is how Agrinorm enables companies to manage quality together with their supply chain partners,' Special Fruit stated.
Daria Reisch, co-founder of Agrinorm, commented: 'The key to success is in the ability of companies to collaborate and exchange information with each other. A farmer should know which variety performs best, so he can plant more of it next year. And a distributor should see if it rained in the field, so he can predict the shelf-life and choose the right channel. Quality management is the new source of competitive advantage for fresh produce companies. Those who manage to prevent quality issues will have lower costs, a more negligible environmental impact, and be desired by customers.'
Special Fruit CEO Bert Barmans added: 'If you discover quality issues when the product is at your warehouse, it is often too late to resolve them. We are strengthening our collaboration with suppliers to ensure already at the origin that only compliant products are shipped and that our customers will get the right quality.'
