Rabobank announces launch of 20 Start-ups to help reduce food loss in Asia

ASIA – Rabobank, a Dutch multinational banking and financial services company, has announced 20 start-ups; Food Loss Challenge Asia that focus on critical holistic solutions addressing the issue of food loss throughout the supply chain.

According to Rabobank, Food Loss Challenge Asia is a competition where start-ups pitch their ideas to reduce food loss to food & agri industry leaders and investors. Through the Food Loss Challenge Asia, Rabobank aims to look for solutions with its partners to address the global problem of food loss.

“With Asia’s population projected to reach over 5 billion by 2050, we rely on innovative and technological solutions to help us curb food loss along the value chain and promote the sustainable development of rural prosperity in the region.

Through our networks, we connect start-ups to our corporate and rural clients to help us in strive to grow a better world together,” said Diane Boogaard, CEO Asia of Rabobank.

“This is Rabobank’s first Food Loss Challenge event globally. We received an overwhelming number of 127 submissions from 29 countries across Asia, Africa, Middle East and Europe.

The quality of submissions is very impressive. We came across many good proposals to address food loss, not only at the producer’s level but also across the whole supply chain,” said Mark van Binsbergen, CEO of Rabobank Singapore and one of the Food Loss Challenge Asia judges.

“The startups demonstrated an ability to deploy their technology with the awareness of how it would add value to their end-users,” said Arindom Datta, Asia Head of Sustainability Banking at Rabobank, and member of the Food Loss Challenge Asia project team.

“Whilst the 127 solutions put forth addressed pain points along the food value chain, notably logistics, storage and refrigeration, many focused on enabling data-driven farm management especially for the small holder farming community.

Many startups are trying to provide critical holistic solutions addressing the issue of food loss integrating diverse players in the supply chain,” Arindom added.