Spain is one of the leading agricultural producers in Europe, so it’s no surprise that they are also leading the way when it comes to sustainable agri-food systems. The Spanish agri-food startup Plant on Demand (POD) was named as one of the top 20 food-tech startups in 2021.
We all know that buying locally produced organic food is more sustainable and better for the planet. However, more often than not buying local implies a more traditional face-to-face experience. But as the world becomes more and more digitized why should the world of local produce be left behind?
Local producers, cooperatives, and food hubs are suffering due to a lack of tools specially adapted to the management and commercialization of their local businesses. As a result, they are forced to use very basic tools and inappropriate methods such as WhatsApp, spreadsheets, or generic e-commerce tools. Their small businesses suffer hugely from these inefficient methods, wasting their precious time and resources. Furthermore, the lack of any network or platform for these producers means that farmers, who are very often struggling with similar issues, are unable to connect and support each other. Which only leads to a continuation of the earlier mentioned issues and producers lose profits and also miss out on the possibilities of sharing logistics and client databases.
Not only do the producers suffer from this outdated way of working but things are also made more difficult for consumers wishing to buy organic local products as they are forced to make their purchase orders through a spreadsheet and often pay a huge price for getting their purchase delivered
It is interesting to note that one and possibly one of the few possible positive impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic is that people are buying more locally. A huge plus for the environment and local producers.
According to a recent survey YouGov 64% of people asked want to support local businesses and buy local products.
Plant on Demand has a solution to this messy and inefficient way of working so that more and more businesses and clients can buy and sell local produce in a sustainable manner.
POD is an e-commerce, ERP, CRP, and logistics management platform for local producers and food hubs. It allows the creation of an online shop fully adapted to the agri-food needs that is connected with a back-office platform for managing sales, inventory, sales documents, route optimization, payments, and more.
It can be used for single producers who want to sell online and digitalize their processes or for groups who decide to cooperate and work together, offering a platform for selling their products jointly and automatizing the management.
The platform was brought to life by co-founders Alejandro Wonenburge and Santiago Corral who both wanted to modernize the way that small food-agri groups buy and sell their products whilst creating a positive and sustainable impact.
The founders explain that they wanted to offer a solution to the outdated and manual methods used among and within food hubs. They created POD with three core values at the heart of their enterprise: Technology, Humanity, and Nature – all connecting and interdependent on each other.
Technology
Technology and agriculture go hand in hand in the modern world but at POD they are setting a new trend of technology – one that isn’t based on mass production and one that doesn’t exhaust the earth and its natural resources. The startup uses a Cloud solution to help local producers digitize their operations making transactions between their customers more efficient. The platform integrates the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques in order to predict the supply and demand of local products so that they anticipate demand and in turn plant in a sustainable manner
Humanity
Plant on Demand is at the end of the day a tool with people at it’s heart. The platform allows producers to reconnect with their client base through giving them back their precious time as local producers can save 1 day of work a week using the platforms for sales management so they can concentrate on what really matters. As well as connecting local producers with their customers, the platform also acts as a way for producers to connect with the entire food supply chain, creating a strong and reliable network of local producers for retailers and end consumers to interact with. They are dedicated to supporting and helping each agent within the supply chain to collaborate and connect with one another through sharing knowledge and expertise and supporting both new and more modern approaches to producing organic produce.
Nature
The agricultural sector very often conflicts with nature but this startup’s goal is to help small food producers to work with nature and to protect biodiversity and seed variety. They work to reduce the supply chain and through doing so cutting emissions and carbon footprints to show that there is an alternative sustainable method to farming and food production.
So far the platform has helped 100 eco and local producers in Spain to cooperate and work together to revolutionize the agri-food community into a more sustainable and modernized market so that local producers are not forgotten.
