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India’s Ecozen Solutions wins maiden Rabobank Food Loss Challenge Asia
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Saturday, 17 November, 2018, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Singapore
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India’s Ecozen Solutions has won the inaugural Rabobank Food Loss Challenge Asia, launched to highlight agri-tech solutions to the growing global problem of food loss and wastage from farm to market.
Rabobank, a leading global bank in food and agriculture and sustainability, invited submissions from regional agri-tech start-ups as an initiative to facilitate constructive dialogue across the agri-industry spectrum between solutions providers, food and agriculture corporates and small holder farmers
Ecozen, which is enabling the farm-to-fork movement of perishables by providing solar based cold rooms at the farm level, was chosen from five finalists at the event finale held in Singapore recently.
It won both the jury’s prize of $15,000 and the audience’s prize of $5,000. The event finale was held at Rabobank Asia’s Food and Agriculture Advisory Board meeting, the bank’s premier event bringing together C-Suite level decision makers of leading food and agriculture companies.
The Rabobank Food Loss Challenge Asia took place against the backdrop of regional and global food loss – every year 1.3 billion tonne of food are lost worldwide, while the world’s population is forecast to exceed nine billion by 2050. To meet increased demand for food, global production will have to rise by at least 60 per cent, despite arable land and natural resources nearing their limits.
Entries from across Asia and further afield were judged by Rabobank Foundation and partners of Rabobank – Singapore’s Temasek global investment company; Archer Daniels Midland, one of the world’s largest agriculture processors and food ingredients providers; Charoen Pokphand Group, a globally-integrated agri-industrial and food business; Olam International, a leading agri-business supplying food, ingredients and raw materials to customers worldwide, and UPL, a provider of integrated technology-based solutions for crop protection, seeds and post-harvest solutions.
“We chose Asia for the Rabobank Food Loss Challenge because of the size of the problem of food losses in the region, but also because of the huge potential to solve it due to the presence of so many start-ups with very bright people,” said Diane Boogard, chief executive officer, Rabobank Asia.
Albert Boogaard, head of innovation, Rabobank Foundation, said, “At Rabobank Foundation, our mission is to improve the income and lives of smallholder farmers using our banking knowledge, network and financial products. In Asia, over 80 per cent of farmers are smallholder farmers, and we believe many of these start-ups, while reducing food losses, also help improve the lives of smallholders.
“One of the main objectives of the Rabobank Food Loss Challenge was to connect start-ups to investors, users and other stakeholders to stimulate cooperation between them – already our leading entries and the top five finalists have been exposed to senior representatives of world-leading food and agricultural businesses and investors,” he added.
Prateek Singhal, co-founder and chief operating officer, Ecozen, said, “A win at the Food Loss Challenge Asia is a validation of our efforts and product offering. Food Loss is a key issue in all developing countries and we at Ecozen are striving to build solutions to prevent this.”
“This Challenge will help us to reach out and collaborate with like-minded businesses and organisations working towards tackling food loss. Further, it can also provide access to capital which would fast-track our product development and business expansion plans,” he added.
“Rabobank has been very supportive in preparing for this challenge, mentoring and guiding at every stage. Our business model of leasing of cold rooms to farmers and connecting them via platform to organised buyers who are looking to source perishables from them was well appreciated by Rabobank and the audience. We are looking forward to collaborate with them in future to scale this model,” Singhal said.
Ecozen has implemented its solutions in the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, including Indonesia and Vietnam, with the help of Covestro, and is looking to expand further into other developing countries, including African and South-East Asian markets.
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