The discussion focused on the role of innovation in reducing food loss and waste (FLW) toward informing policy and decision-making for food systems transformation.
Food Loss and Waste reduction is a significant lever for generating broader improvements of food systems towards increasing food security, improving food safety, market quality, contributing to sustainability and increasing efficiency
It is critical to work with partners to bring innovation - in approaches, technologies, policy and data - to the field level, in order to generate long-lasting impact.
In my capacity as the CTO of Bringo Fresh, I was invited to CFS 47 Side Event to contribute as a panelist and share how Bringo Fresh is driving Food Loss and Waste reduction through innovation and technology.
The side event was organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with the One Planet Sustainable Food System Programme, on the margins of the 47th Session of the Committee on Food Security (CFS)
The event was moderated by Mr Máximo Torero Cullen, Chief Economist of FAO.
In his opening remarks, Mr Torero highlighted the importance of FLW reduction as a significant lever for generating broader improvements of food systems towards increasing food security, improving food safety, market quality, contributing to sustainability and increasing efficiency.
Mr Torero also underscored the critical importance of working with partners to bring innovation - in approaches, technologies, policy and data - to the field level, in order to generate long-lasting impacts.
Below is an excerpt from my panel contribution:
Bringo Fresh is a social enterprise that increases small holder farmer incomes by granting them access to an organized market . We started our operations in 2017. We are based in Uganda working with over 40,000 farmers.
How is Bringo Fresh driving food loss and waste reduction through innovation?
We have shortened the supply chain by connecting producers and consumers directly via our online platform reducing post-harvest handling
We keep produce fresh for longer, by consistently using reusable plastic crates and recyclable boxes across our supply chains.
We have infused food loss & waste messaging as part of sales and marketing campaigns
We are actively training small holder farmers on post-harvest handling practices including facilitating farm certifications.
What are the underlying factors that contributed to Bringo Fresh success in applying the innovations described?
Digital Technology – we are constantly collecting and aggregating supply side and demand side data on our website. This data has been valuable for production planning on the farmer side, warehouse stock, and determine order volumes on the demand side.
Strategic Partnerships – we have established strong relationships with farmer-centric organizations to ensure we deliver the much-needed post-harvest training necessary to manage loss and waste at the farm level.
It was a wonderful event and we learnt a lot from the other panelists. The response was amazing. Many organizations around the world have reached out and asked us about our model and how we have managed to address the obvious challenges. We managed to network with some really important contacts in the food loss and waste reduction space
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