ProducePay launches visibility solution to improve transparency and reduce waste in fresh produce supply chain.
Buyers now have end-to-end visibility from farm to final destination, assuring delivery of high-quality produce with up to 80 percent less rejection rates.
LOS ANGELES, March 14, 2024 – ProducePay, the agtech company on a mission to transform the global agricultural industry into a more predictable, connected and sustainable supply chain, today announced a new Visibility solution to provide fresh produce marketers and retailers full transparency of produce shipments from the field all the way to their final destination. In doing so, the solution ensures buyers delivery of high-quality produce shipped from around the world and reduces rejection rates that undermine grower economic stability and leads to significant food waste.
By combining best-in-class technology with on-the-ground agronomists, this solution adds a critical capability to the company’s Predictable Commerce Programs, giving growers and buyers greater control of their businesses in an increasingly volatile and unpredictable fresh produce supply chain.
ProducePay’s Visibility solution gives buyers the ability to monitor and manage produce shipments from their fingertips – seamlessly accessing an unprecedented level of detail and control all within a centralized, digital dashboard via the company’s platform.
Benefits and features include:
- Real-time, comprehensive information on produce quality, quantity, shipment status, and more, captured by agronomists in the field and at shipment, ensuring high-quality produce deliveries are in full, on spec and on time.
- Real-time order tracking including order progress, shipping conditions and location, as well as access to historical transaction data – unlocking greater transparency compared to the typical experience in conventional produce transactions.
- End-to-end visibility enabling multiple stakeholders to efficiently manage order progress, including acceptance, adjustments, invoicing, and rejections – saving time and resources for more effective planning.
“Delivering high-quality produce across global supply chains is fraught with challenges, leading to high rejection rates, frequent disputes and disappointed customers – not to mention a staggering level of food and economic waste,” said Patrick McCullough, chief executive officer of ProducePay. “We hear it from our customers all the time – more predictability means more profitability. By giving total visibility into quality and orders from farm to final destination, we’re bringing retailers surety of supply, empowering marketers to fulfill their commitments to deliver produce on time and in full, and giving growers greater confidence that their produce will be accepted after shipment. This is the definition of predictable commerce.
Tony Fadell, engineer, designer and Principal at Build Collective, one of ProducePay’s investors, voiced his support for the breakthrough technology: “We know first-hand agriculture’s key problem: fruits and vegetables spoil. They spoil at different rates for a variety of reasons. ProducePay assesses and tracks produce from the field to the store, giving farmers credibility and buyers the quality assurance they value. The result: produce gets bought in accurate quantities, it’s higher quality when it gets to the store, less food gets wasted. All while giving farmers access to upfront financing so that they can grow their crops and plan their next harvest without waiting for payouts from retailers. More profits for farmers and retailers is a win-win-win for farmers, retailers, people that want fresh fruit and vegetables, and our planet.”
In July 2023, ProducePay collaborated with one of the world’s largest growers and distributors of table grapes, Four Star Fruit, to pilot the Predictable Commerce Program. Leveraging ProducePay’s Visibility solution, this first-of-its-kind partnership helped one of the nation’s leading retailers achieve less than 1% rejection rates in their table grape shipments – an 80% improvement compared to the standard rejection rate in traditional sourcing programs.
“We’ve never experienced such a high level of quality assurance before,” said Jack Campbell, chief executive officer for Four Star Fruit. “Providing our retail partners with enhanced transparency – giving them line of sight into harvest and supply chain – empowers them with the confidence to bypass additional intermediaries to fulfill year-round supply of top-quality produce.”
Since its founding, ProducePay has facilitated the trade of more than $10 billion worth of fresh produce across 64 commodities and 20 countries in North America, Central and South America and Europe. In 2024 alone, the company is expected to finance more than $2 billion in fresh produce transactions. For its impact, the company has been added as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Innovator Communities, was named one of Fast Company’s 2023 World’s Most Innovative Companies, placed on Inc. 5000 and Forward Fooding’s FoodTech 500, and has received World Finance magazine’s AgTech Sustainability Award.
ABOUT PRODUCEPAY
Founded by Pablo Borquez Schwarzbeck, a fourth-generation farmer, ProducePay is eliminating the economic and food waste caused by the volatile, opaque and fragmented nature of today’s global fresh supply chain. The AgTech company’s Predictable Commerce Platform is giving growers and buyers greater control of their business by providing unprecedented access to each other, capital, trading, insights and greater supply chain visibility. Consumers receive fresher produce more efficiently, knowing it is grown and delivered in responsible ways. This transformational approach is unlocking economic value, and creating a more sustainable global fresh produce industry.
To learn more about ProducePay, please visit ProducePay.com.