MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name:

Local food Hub by Make.org Foundation

One-line solution summary:

An online food hub to provide producers with local business opportunities

Pitch your solution.

Nowadays many factors urge consumers to eat local food: the wish to get fresh food with more flavors, to know where the food comes from, to eat seasonal products, or even to help farmers getting better prices for their products. However, while consumers request more local and healthy food, producers often struggle to find local commercial opportunities mainly because they do not know how to get in touch with local buyers.

Our solution is an online hub to connect French producers with buyers from local supermarkets, food manufacturers and, public and private catering.

The aim is :

to provide French producers with broader business opportunities

to foster shorter, local supply circuits
to promote the local economy
to raise consumers’ awareness about healthy and local food.

Our vision is to expand to globally help producers to sell locally, and to promote new producer-market connections.

What specific problem are you solving?

Our daily food is usually produced and packaged thousands of miles away. As a consequence, producers’ work has lost value: most of the farmers are disconnected from their markets and their consumers. They usually rely on few buyers and have lost bargaining power.

Selling more food locally is a way to tackle this issue: it establishes a closer relationship between producers and consumers, and enables farmers to increase their profit margins by reducing transportation costs. It directly contributes to sustainable development as it also increases the consumption of fresh, seasonable, and relatively unprocessed food.

Many French producers are interested in selling locally as they want to add value to their products and to diversify their sales.

However, farmers often struggle to find local commercial opportunities. They usually do not know how to get in touch with local retailers such as supermarket chains or school canteens. As a consequence, consumers do not have much choice when buying groceries or having a meal outside the home, even though the demand for local products is high.

That is why we want to help farmers finding new local commercial opportunities and foster the consumption of local food for all.

What is your solution?

We think the consumption of local and seasonal products can be increased in France. To do so, we want to help food producers to be better known to local buyers.

Our solution is the development of an online hub, which will gather farmers and buyers (supermarkets, colleges, high schools, retirement homes, primary schools, municipalities, hospitals...) from the same area.

Farmers will be able to register on the platform by providing key information :

their location
the type of products they sell
their production capacity
their logistics features

Thus, the registered buyers will easily get information about new suppliers, and will be able to order more local products.

To access the service, both producers and buyers will have to sign a charter and commit to offering quality and seasonable products.

We hope such a tool will provide new outlets for farmers by giving them more visibility.

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

“Local Food Hub” first serves farmers, but also has an impact on buyers and consumers’ lives:

Farmers: thanks to our solution, they will access new markets and find new outlets. They will diversify their sales channels and won’t be exposed to a single client anymore. With few stages between producers and consumers, the platform will also help to reconnect their activity within local needs and expectations. It will add value to farmers’ work. Eventually, by cutting transport costs and giving producers more bargaining power, our solution will increase farmers’ margins.

Buyers: they place the order with local producers, and are guaranteed to buy fresh and seasonal products. They have more information about the way food is produced.

Consumers: they have easier access to seasonable local products. They are able to eat fresh food with more flavors, to know where the food comes from, to have information about the way it has been produced, and even to help farmers getting a better price for their products.

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Improve supply chain practices to reduce food loss, scale new business models for producer-market connections, and create low-carbon cold chains

Explain how the problem, your solution, and your solution’s target population relate to the Challenge and your selected dimension.

The problem we identify is directly related to food supply chain practices. Our idea is to promote local products consumption to help producers to reconnect with their consumers and to add value to their work.

By offering French farmers new outlets, we develop new producer-market connections. We foster the purchase of fresh and relatively unprocessed food and help consumers having access to local products.

By reducing food miles, we also improve the supply chain in a sustainable way.

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?

Paris, France

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Concept: An idea being explored for its feasibility to build a product, service, or business model based on that idea

Who is the primary delegate for your solution?

Axel Dauchez

More About Your Solution

If your solution has a website, provide a link here:

https://about.make.org/about-mieuxmanger

Which of the following categories best describes your solution?

A new application of an existing technology

Describe what makes your solution innovative.

Our online food hub represents an inventive new concept as all categories of buyers are represented. Indeed, we have one main competitor Agrilocal. It represents an existing similar approach that allows public buyers to place an order to farmers from the same area. Our solution is more accessible as it provides an access for private buyers as well. Therefore, its opening to the private sector (supermarket chains…) will provide an easier access to the products to the general public, thus multiplying the core utility of the project. The producers can maximize their sales as well, while the buyers easily find access to fresh and seasonal food. The platform could enable them to share information and to be more aware of local possibilities. It is the perfect occasion for farmers and all buyers to meet.

Describe the core technology that powers your solution.

The core technology used is matching technology. The platform centralizes information and data depending on the farmers’ location and capacity of production. It allows both actors to get in touch with each other thus facilitating communication and providing information.

Provide evidence that this technology works.

Firstly, we should bear in mind the fact that our project remains a concept that is feasible but not yet put in place. Nevertheless, we can affirm that the technology used effectively works, as it has been exploited by some companies. Indeed, our solution builds on an already existing technology that will be applied to the food sector.

Some online platforms already use the technology for their own activities; Doctolib for instance connects geographically close doctors and individuals in order to facilitate appointment taking. This principle is similar with our B2B hub which will gather farmers and buyers.

Moreover, we know that there is a high demand regarding local food as 77% of French consumers claim trying to buy local and 63% assert favouring local products in order to support farmers near their home. Therefore, this would answer the citizens’ wish to find more easily local products in supermarkets and restaurants, hence giving our platform its full meaning and legitimacy.

Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:

Software and Mobile Applications

What is your theory of change?

1. Activities:

An online platform providing information about food producers, depending on their location

2. Outputs:

More visibility for farmers to local buyers

3. Short term outcomes:

Farmers sell more products to local buyers networks

4. Medium term outcomes

Farmers recruit new B2B clients, and get a better bargaining power
Lower transport costs

Few stages between producers and consumers

More information about products origin

More fresh and seasonal products available for everyone

5. Long term Outcomes

Better margins and wages for farmers
A better connection between farmers and consumers

Quality and local food for everyone

Select the key characteristics of your target population.

Rural
Peri-Urban

Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?

3. Good Health and Well-Being
10. Reduced Inequalities
12. Responsible Consumption and Production

In which countries do you currently operate?

France

In which countries will you be operating within the next year?

France

How many people does your solution currently serve? How many will it serve in one year? In five years?

Our main goal is to serve farmers (approximately 450 000 farmers in France in 2019).

As the solution is still a concept, we currently do not serve anyone yet.

Our goals :

In 1 year : 3 000 farmers registered on the platform
In 5 years : 60 000 farmers registered on the platform

What are your goals within the next year and within the next five years?

Our goals within the next year:

understanding the specific needs of the platform users (farmers & buyers)
finalization of the business model
organization of the governance structure
creation of a Minimum Viable Platform
recruitment of farmers and buyers
placement of the first orders

Our goal within the next five years:

a well finalized platform

a stable and independent structure
recruitment of 60K farmers (everywhere in France)
a 40% raise of farmers’ local sales

What barriers currently exist for you to accomplish your goals in the next year and in the next five years?

1/ Technical barriers: we need to develop an online platform which takes into account farmers’ and buyers’ expectations and needs.

2/ Recruitment and communication: we need farmers and buyers to acknowledge and register on the platform.

3/ Farmers & buyers retention: we need farmers and buyers to use the service and be satisfied with it.

4/ Governance: we need a stable governance structure.

How do you plan to overcome these barriers?

First, we would like to stress that the “Local food Hub” solution is the result of Make.org Foundation’s specific approach.

Make.org Foundation’s mission is to positively transform society in 3 years by leveraging the collective intelligence of civil society. To do so, Make.org Foundation has created a threefold approach:

Collecting inputs from hundreds of thousands of French citizens, associations, businesses, media, and experts via Make.org’s collective intelligence platform and structuring the whole into actionable project streams (identified as “Great Causes”). One of the “Great Cause” we have launched in 2018 was dedicated to “Better food for everyone”.
Expanding on the listed Great Causes, breaking them down into six to ten actions and deploying them incrementally at a national scale by way of coordination with all other stakeholders.

The “Local food hub” solution is an action initiated as part of the Great Cause dedicated to “Better food for everyone”.

Accelerating the organised and collective efforts by unlocking and concentrating financial and skill-based sponsorship into the actions.

We plan to use the strengths of our approach to overcome the barriers:

1/ Tech: as part of a large partnership with the Foundation, an UX agency is helping us develop digital solutions. We will use this expertise to understand the needs of the users.
2/ Recruitment: using our partners’ network (Companies, Farmers Unions, Media…)
3/ Retention: continuously improving the platform
4/ Governance: we have an expertise of complex project architecture and will ensure a quality representativity of the various stakeholders.

About Your Team

Your Business Model & Funding

Partnership & Prize Funding Opportunities

Why are you applying to Solve?

MIT Solve appears as a major opportunity for us to share our concept and to try to make it a reality beyond a simple idea. Winning this contest could be the key factor to boost our project by fulfilling its potential. Moreover, being a part of an international community of solvers represents a great challenge to overcome. It would also be an opportunity to benefit from extra support and financial allocation, also essential to the achievement of our plan.

In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?

Business model
Solution technology
Product/service distribution
Funding and revenue model
Marketing, media, and exposure

Please explain in more detail here.

We are looking for support regarding 3 key components of our solution :

Solution technology: to build an effective user-centered matching platform
Business model, funding and revenue model: to make sure the solution is financially viable
Marketing, media and exposure / Product, service distribution: to improve the recruitment process of farmers and buyers. The aim is to become the French reference.

What organizations would you like to partner with, and how would you like to partner with them?

We would be interested in partnering with Antropia ESSEC as this organization mainly supports French applications to MIT Solve. They could represent a determining asset in the implementation of our solution. Moreover, they have proved to be helpful in the realization of other projects and the expansion of start-ups. Working with the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research (FFAR) would also be a great asset since they are experts in the field of nutrition. Our solution could benefit as well from Yum! Brands’ experience of large distribution scale.