How many times have you picked up a delicious piece of fruit and discarded it due to doubts that its unrealistically perfect shape and color were the result of chemical treatment? Or, how many of you have been deterred from purchasing by the idea that your favorite fruits and vegetables come from imports, and you have no idea exactly where or how they were produced, nor how they made it to the shelves in the store? Judging by the trends flowing from the European Union into Beautiful Croatia, more and more customers are seeking apples with spots, crooked carrots, and imperfect oranges because they hope that such appearances guarantee that they are locally grown and/or sustainable products.
Thanks to one of the most successful domestic startups, Agrivi, customers can quickly and easily find out all the information about the origin, variety, production process… by scanning the QR code on the product. Agrivi launched this project in partnership with Kaufland, the only chain that allows tracking the complete history of products in its stores – from seed to table.
Benefits for customers and farmers
Two years ago, Kaufland introduced a Model of contracted production of fruits and vegetables, under which it collaborates with carefully selected local producers in the cultivation of specific varieties from seed selection, monitoring development, to placement in stores. By collaborating with Agrivi, its suppliers can not only provide necessary information to end customers (by scanning the code on the product and leaflet) but also optimize and improve their own production. As COO of Agrivi Mate Knezović stated in the ninth episode of the podcast “How to make it in Croatia”, their software can be used by multinational companies, retail chains, and farmers regardless of size.
Kaufland is their first retail partner, and they planned the entire collaboration project together, almost from scratch. Given that farmers can monitor everything from weather conditions to yield projections, using the software/platform significantly reduces the time needed for administration while also raising the quality of production (for example, the software can alert if something is wrong with the crops). Kaufland, on the other hand, can offer end customers all transparent information about the products in their assortment, optimize the procurement process, and, as stated in the podcast by Daniel Šturm, a member of the Management Board for procurement at Kaufland Croatia, help farmers track and reduce their carbon footprint. Thus, Kaufland is the first retailer in Croatia that, by introducing this innovation, contributes to the digitalization of agriculture/suppliers and thereby impacts the European Green Deal, which mandates tracking CO2 emissions.
