PHILADELPHIA, PA - Produce doesn’t just get harvested and then, poof, magically show up in the store—there’s an entire supply chain to contend with. When one link in the chain is compromised, the entire system falls apart, which is why AgroFresh works with retailers, distributors, and growers to make data-driven decisions about produce distribution. Consistently improving, AgroFresh has recently collaborated with Zest Labs to bolster its FreshCloud Transit Insights solution.

“AgroFresh’s plant physiology expertise and decades of experience in the fresh produce industry, coupled with Zest Labs’ advanced technology, offers growers, distributors, and retailers a best-in-class solution,” AgroFresh CEO, Jordi Ferre, told me. “The collaboration offers customers unparalleled insights to help them make smart and timely decisions about transit, resulting in less waste, greater revenue, and maximum retail appeal.”

The FreshCloud Transit Insights solution was enhanced with Zest Fresh’s IoT technology, which provides customers with field-to-shelf product visibility, enabling them to make more informed and real-time decisions about transport conditions and shelf-life prediction, maximizing produce quality, safety, and freshness.

With superior tech and strategy, AgroFresh is in a state of growth, most recently looking to expand FreshCloud into new regions to serve new fruit and veg markets.

“We anticipate serving more global customers across more crops, providing them with unique intel about each pallet of produce, and helping more customers around the world reduce food waste and maximize the value of their crops,” Jordi said.

Sustainability, the topic in the back of everyone’s mind, ranks high on AgroFresh’s list of priorities, and the company is constantly searching for ways to help its customers create a more sustainable produce supply chain and minimize food waste.

“At AgroFresh, we innovate across our global business, seeking new ways to increase produce freshness throughout the entire supply chain, so waste is not an option. Sustainability is a business practice that informs everything we do,” Jordi commented.

The company has stayed true to this ethos, most recently extending its sustainability commitment to include an assessment of AgroFresh’s SmartFresh™ product in the U.S. The SmartFresh solution was found, by an independent study, to have improved the sustainability of the supply chain for apples by reducing over eight million tons of carbon dioxide emissions from 2002-2017. As a result, over half a billion pounds of apples have been sold at the retail level rather than shipped to a landfill—saving 800 million gallons of water and over 22,000 hectares of production that would otherwise have been wasted.

With solutions to keep the supply chain in check, AgroFresh helps to ensure quality, food safety, and sustainability that benefits everyone throughout the chain.

For more news on fresh collaborations and ideas to keep the supply chain running smoothly, keep reading AndNowUKnow.

AgroFresh