Cargill launches digital business studio for food and agriculture innovation...

Cargill is launching its first digital business studio in Asia, in a three-year partnership with the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).

Promoting agricultural innovation in the Asia-Pacific region

The Singapore-based studio will support local founders with investments that aid Cargill in bringing solutions to the market and promote agricultural innovation in the Asia-Pacific region. It will be a space for Cargill to incubate and scale transformative startups in close partnership with customers.

At least five new startups

Cargill seeks to develop a portfolio of at least five new startups. The startups will be selected based on their contribution to pressing industry challenges, including creating more efficient, transparent and cost-effective food supply solutions.

Experienced entrepreneurs being recruited

Cargill is recruiting experienced entrepreneurs with a passion for solving some of the most important challenges facing the global food and agriculture system. Entrepreneurs will have access to investments in resources, business management and innovation processes proven in other markets.

Solutions to meet changing needs

The studio will enable digital innovation, offering solutions to the changing needs of the food and agriculture industries. Examples of some challenges and opportunities are outlined below:

Farmers across Asia are facing challenges such as inconsistent crop yield, poor access to credit/financing and limited visibility of constantly changing crop prices. Digital solutions are expected to play a critical role in improving farmers’ livelihoods through promoting productivity and profitability.
Small to medium-sized restaurants and retailers in Southeast Asia use highly manual processes to source ingredients from a fragmented supplier base. New digital solutions can increase reliability and flexibility within the ingredient supply chain, providing direct access to a unified business-to-business ordering system.

Emerging trend: start-ups to support sustainable supply chains and promote innovation

Food and consumer packaged goods businesses are increasingly looking to digital start-ups to promote supply chain innovation. This emerging approach is particularly being used to help businesses meet sustainability commitments. Here are a few recent examples we’ve seen:

PepsiCo Europe looks to digital start-ups for sustainability solutions

Sainsbury’s to invest £5 million in sustainable start-ups

Tesco and WWF announce innovation accelerator programme winners

Check out our waste and sustainability and collaboration and best practice hubs for related content.