A new company hopes to revolutionise the way unsold produce is handled with an online portal to connect buyers and suppliers.
Agronomex aims to build a one-stop, eBay-style platform whereby growers can advertise their unsold produce to potential buyers in the processing, foodservice and independent retail sectors.
Produce will be classed either as edible, or non-edible for animal feed or anaerobic digestion, with suppliers setting a minimum price for buyers to bid on. They will upload pictures, add a company logo and set out what certification standards the crops have been produced to. Crucially, the platform also offers the opportunity to sell produce in advance of harvesting, ensuring nothing has to go to waste in the fields.
All transactions will be handled via the website, with buyers undergoing credit checks to guarantee payments to suppliers and in turn offer them more favourable payment terms of up to 90 days.
Founder Pascale Martin intends to begin a pilot test phase by the end of the first quarter of 2018, with users offered a six-month free trial as the system is tweaked. After that there will be three levels of subscription – one for users looking for a one-off sale of unsold produce, a standard yearly membership and a premium annual membership for companies to trade on a regular basis.
“The starting point was to find a way to tackle this large volume of fruit and veg waiting at the farmgate,” explains Martin, who comes from a financial background at institutions such as HSBC, BNP Parisbas and Citi. “We noticed it’s problematic from a buyer and seller perspective to deal with this, so our challenge was to create a tool suitable for both. More than being just a marketplace, our objective is to create an alternative market, which is missing in the UK, to facilitate the trade of this type of produce.”
While Martin acknowledges other trading platforms exist, she says there is nothing similar in the UK dedicated entirely to fresh produce and with the same extent of functionality around the transactions.
With the Global Food Programme estimating some 40 per cent of edible waste is at the farmgate, Martin said she was shocked by government statistics about the high levels of food that go to waste in this country, a figure that is leading to more being imported. She believes her platform will offer the opportunity to reduce the amount of fresh produce imported at a time when it would be more logical to maximise domestic production.
Agronomex is currently looking for growers, food manufacturers and buyers to join its testing phase and hopes to get 50 users on board by the opening months of the new year. “We will keep the ratio of three suppliers for one buyer, which reflects the real world,” she adds. “It’s a pragmatic solution, and is about optimising what has already been done.”
The business has already been named a finalist in a number of agri-tech competitions and hopes to raise its profile to encourage as many suppliers and buyers as possible to take part. From there, it’s all about building users and helping cut down those damning statistics on farmgate food waste.
