By Kuruvilla Chalishery September 15, 2021
With a focus on the middle mile, we at FarmUnboxed have started to execute bulk shipments of fresh produce from the Indian sub-continent to the Middle East region. After executing over 40 container loads of cargo (500 tons of fresh produce) we realised the 3 key elements we need to digitize to make this a scalable model.
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- Logistics: Despite having large established players in logistics, the cold chain is broken, offline and complex.
- Finance: Very few established finance institutions want to participate in the fresh produce trade due to the nature of the risk. This leads to a lot of unorganized players adding layers with little or no value.
- Quality: This is by far one of the most elusive pieces in the puzzle. There is a lack of standardization of the product; laboratory tests are time-consuming and expensive. To add to this every country has their own standards.
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When we research this space, we see several start-ups have already moved in the right direction to solve each of these problems individually. As FarmUnboxed we have an opportunity to digitize this space and create a trusted ecosystem along with the buyer/seller to make international business seamless.