Making the food supply chain less wasteful

A company in the UAE finds the most efficient ways to use food that would otherwise be discarded

Spotted: An estimated 30 per cent of the food produced for human consumption globally is lost or wasted somewhere along the food supply chain. This not only makes it harder to feed everyone and raises the cost of food, but it also represents a substantial waste of resources. Food loss takes place all along the food supply chain – during production, post-harvest, and at the processing and sales stages. To tackle this problem, Right Farm is using predictive technology that facilitates routing, operations, and purchasing, getting food to where it can be used most efficiently.

For example, the company’s platform can be used to help producers direct disfigured fruit and vegetables to pulp-making firms instead of landfill. The platform makes this profitable by focusing on sourcing at the right price and at the right time. Other end users of the rescued food include restaurants, hotels, catering companies, and other food businesses across the UAE.

While there are other companies that offer this service, Right Farm stands out due to the variety of its partnerships with other companies that make use of food waste. This includes institutions that use waste as compost or as feedstock to grow insects for use as protein.

In addition to an existing base of around 200 institutional customers in the UAE, Right Farm has an ambitious expansion plan to venture into markets elsewhere in the Middle East and across North Africa.

Awareness of the issue of food waste is growing rapidly, and there are a number of startups that are working on finding new uses for food that would otherwise be lost. Springwise has spotted a startup using waste bananas to speed up fermentation, and a platform that uses AI to help restaurants reduce food waste.

Written By: Lisa Magloff