Indian-based start-up Ecozen Solutions has won the inaugural Rabobank Food Loss Challenge Asia, which was launched to highlight agri-tech solutions to the growing global problem of food loss and wastage from farm-to-market. The company, which is enabling the farm-to-fork movement of perishables by providing solar-based cold rooms at the farm level, was chosen from five finalists at the event finale held earlier this week in Singapore.

Ecozen Solutions has implemented its solutions in the ASEAN region including Indonesia and Vietnam and is looking to expand further into other developing markets including Africa and Southeast Asia. Ecozen’s business model revolves around the leasing of cold rooms to farmers and connecting them via the platform to organized buyers who are looking to source perishables from them.

The Rabobank Food Loss Challenge Asia was organized against the backdro of regional and global food loss. Each year 1.3 billion tons of food are lost worldwide, while the world’s population is forecast to exceed nine billion by 2050. In order to meet the increased demand for food, global production will have to rise by at least 60 percent, despite arable land and natural resources nearing their limits.

Ecozen Solutions won both the Jury’s Prize of US$15,000 and the Audience’s Prize of US$5,000, reports Rabobank. The event finale was held at Rabobank Asia’s Food & Agriculture Advisory Board meeting, the bank’s premier event bringing together decision makers of leading food and agriculture companies.

“We chose Asia for the Rabobank Food Loss Challenge because of the size of the problem of food losses in the region, but also because of the huge potential to solve it due to the presence of so many start-ups with bright people,” comments Rabobank Asia CEO Diane Boogaard.

Albert Boogaard, Rabobank Foundation’s Head of Innovation, also notes: “At Rabobank Foundation our mission is to improve the income and lives of smallholder farmers using our banking knowledge, network and financial products. In Asia, more than 80 percent of farmers are smallholder farmers and we believe many of these start-ups, while reducing food losses, also help improve the lives of smallholders.”

“One of the main objectives of the Rabobank Food Loss Challenge was to connect start-ups to investors, users and other stakeholders to stimulate cooperation between them – already our leading entries and top five finalists have been exposed to senior representatives of world-leading food and agricultural businesses and investors,” he adds.

Prateek Singhal, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Ecozen, says: “A win at the Food Loss Challenge Asia is a validation of our efforts and product offering. Food loss is a key issue in all developing countries and at Ecozen, we are striving to build solutions to prevent this. This challenge will help us to reach out and collaborate with like-minded businesses and organizations working towards tackling food loss. Furthermore, it can also provide access to capital which would fast-track our product development and business expansion plans.”

Entries from across Asia and further afield were judged by Rabobank Foundation and Partners of Rabobank – Singapore’s Temasek global investment company; ADM; Charoen Pokphand Group, a globally-integrated agri-industrial and food business; Olam International and UPL, a provider of integrated technology-based solutions for crop protection, seeds and post-harvest solutions.