Mobilising the “Internet of Things”
Australian company The Yield describes itself as being “on a mission to transform agriculture and food industries using technology”. Its sensor-based data platform, Sensing+, utilises soil and atmosphere probes to create a complete, “end-to-end” farm microclimate model for farmers to make growing decisions.
“So much of our food supply could be lost in even the tiniest variation of weather,” says chief customer officer Felicity Turner. Extreme weather events this year driven by climate change only serve to highlight how vulnerable we remain to the elements. The Yield uses what is known as ‘The Internet of Things” (IoT) to create their precision weather maps of farms. “Microclimate conditions vary enormously and affect important on-farm decisions. The Yield uses the Internet of Things, data science and artificial intelligence (AI) to power its technology being used to solve real challenges at farm level and throughout the food chain.”
IoT is a term in fashion, but remains an esoteric concept. Turner says it simply “refers to everyday devices that are ‘smart’ or connected, meaning they can capture, send and receive data”.
She says it’s The Yield’s climate models combined with a user-friendly interface that puts them at the forefront of farm technology. “The Yield’s AI capability means growers have highly localised and accurate seven-day predictions for weather and growing conditions down to crop and even row level.”
She continues: “We specialise in taking the uncertainty out of weather, not only for growers but along the entire agrifood supply chain by delivering highly accurate predictions via our patented climate models.”
The Yield currently operates in Australia, but has plans to expand into the UK and Europe. Turner says they could also one day be part of fully automated farms. “At The Yield, we use technology architecture that makes it easy for other software companies to plug in to our products, so it’s possible we may see connectivity to robotics designed by other companies in the future,” she says.
Joining up the dots
Start-up FruitsApp has global aspirations. The Italian firm is aiming to become the largest online marketplace for fruit and veg businesses. Elena Molinaro describes the company as, “a b2b marketplace for the fresh produce industry connecting suppliers to the market.” The company’s algorithm matches someone selling apples, for example, to someone looking for apples, appearing automatically on the app’s dashboard.
She says the company’s founder, Carlos Iborra, was inspired to create the app from his own experiences as a trader. “So far the way the industry has communicated between themselves has been through phone calls or emails etc. When the grower had something to sell, that grower had to call customers one by one. It was very inefficient and it took time, and we are talking about perishables, if I’m not selling my fruit today or tomorrow it could go off.”
More than being an eBay for fruit and veg, FruitsApp aims to be a complete platform for traders in the industry by also offering real time prices from wholesale markets around Europe. One of the objectives of FruitsApp is to help increase the prices received by fruit and vegetable producers around the world, by increasing the number of buyers sellers can access.
With almost 4,000 subscribers joining since its birth three years ago, the company offers a free subscription, as well as premium and sponsor subscriptions with a monthly fee. The company also takes a four per cent commission from all transactions.
For retailers, who already have established supply chains, Molinaro says there are extra perks they can take advantage of, including the ability to solicit offers from sellers, alongside the price tracker.
Molinaro says it has already benefitted retailers’ organic strategy. “The bio and organic segment is quite fragmented at the moment, so it’s easier to find buyers”.
In the short term FruitsApp is currently working on integrating a payment service within the app. It already offers logistics services through transport partnerships. But in the long run Molinaro says the aim is to become the go-to platform for fresh produce sellers globally, making transactions possible from all corners of the world.
