VerifiK8

Emmanuelle Bourgois. I have been working internationally for various governmental agencies, development banks and international organizations, including FAO, as a legal adviser and trade facilitation specialist for the past 20 years. I founded FairAgora Asia, a BOI(Board of Investment) promoted Thai based company, to offer cheaper yet credible certification to SMEs in the food and agro industries in South East Asia. FairAgora Asia has collaborated with BonSucro on number of missions, showing their competences, relevance and professionalism in delivering services on sustainability, review, translation and workshop organization to engage with stakeholders.

I chair the Franco-Thai Chamber of commerce Sustainability & CSR Committee as sustainability has been the connecting driver among her legal, environmental, social and governance expertise's dots during her trade facilitation journey. , working internationally for various governmental agencies, development banks and international organizations abroad.

The problem our innovation addresses is scaling sustainability to a fragmented base of smallholders in a cost-effective way, proportionate to the needs of smallholders. VerifiK8 offers a technological solution to foster continuous improvement of smallholder farmers in sugarcane and shrimp industry in Thailand and Vietnam, while also being readably scalable to other countries and regions. While certification is a goal in the process of VerifiK8’s work, our mission is to drive better social and environmental conditions for farmers and the entire food supply-chain. 

The problem our innovation addresses is scaling sustainability to a fragmented base of smallholders in a cost-effective way, proportionate to the needs of smallholders. VerifiK8 offers a technological solution that would improve the lives of the 330,000 farmers in Thailand and Vietnam, while also being readably scalable to other countries and regions. While certification is a goal in the process of VerifiK8’s work, our mission is to drive better social and environmental conditions for farmers and the entire food supply-chain. This is done through our step-wise ladder of progress and inclusive verification system that works with farmers on their path of improvement, with processors on their supply prevision, and with buyers, retails and brands on risk prevention. By connecting the supply-chain nodes with relevant numbers, a sustainable supply base can be enlarged with scalable responsible sourcing. Making improvements at the farm level would impact the lives of farmers in two ways. Firstly, by upgrading environmental and production standards, farmers will produce higher value-added products that would increase their financial well-being. Secondly, improving professionalism by promoting working contracts, adopting a grievance mechanism, and amplifying the voice of workers, will ameliorate such issues as debt bondage common in the region.

VerifiK8 offers the incentivization of environmental compliance and social improvement through an inclusive verification system. VerifiK8 is an easy-to-use technology tool, offering a web-based platform and mobile application with data input and monitoring tools allowing managers to assess their progress towards agri-food standards. 

The innovation of VerifiK8 is thus the analytics and dashboards, designed around a unique conceptual approach to incentivize environmental compliance and social improvement through an inclusive verification system. 

VerifiK8 begins with the farmers and workers. They input environmental and social data into their desktop or mobile application. This data affords business operators with productivity management to increase the quality of their products and farmers. The input of social data aids the traceability of employment practices by having employers and employees agree upon contractual conditions from their user profile. Further, VerifiK8 incorporates an integrated grievance mechanism whereby workers can confidentially comment on working conditions. The various inputs aggregate as dataflows of environmental, production, and social data and are cross-checked between user inputs. The data is then stored as a blockchain and passed from upstream to downstream supply-chain nodes. This process greatly increases the transparency of the supply-chain. 

VerifiK8 currently works with sugarcane and aquaculture, with plans to expand into rubber, rice, potato, and fisheries. VerifiK8 impacts three main groups:

1) The farmers: making improvements at the farm level impact the lives of farmers in two ways. First, by upgrading environmental and production standards, farmers will produce higher value-added products that would increase their financial well-being. And second, improving professionalism by promoting working contracts, adopting a grievance mechanism, and amplifying the voice of workers, will ameliorate such issues as debt bondage common in the region. Beneficiary smallholders can experience greater profits through access to value-added markets. This includes women in aquaculture through our AIP project, and those vulnerable to labor exploitation through our labor transparency project with USAID. These beneficiaries can access a data monitoring tool, a grievance mechanism, and a fair hiring process.

2) Through increased traceability, buyers and processors can protect brand reputation through ethically sourcing their products. These buyers are the paying customers. 

3) Consumers are incentivized to make better product choices through increased knowledge of product sourcing.

Our project is well-aligned with The Elevate Prize and the selected dimension because it has a direct impact on the lives of farmers living in a precarious financial situation. Not only does our application give them access to certificates ensuring them a responsible product and therefore more income, but it also allows them to professionalize and contractualize their work. In this way, we are helping to improve their working conditions and to abolish child and immigrant labor.

Facing the fast-growing demand for sustainable food, most buyers struggle to find the right suppliers due to lack of transparency and traceability in their supply-chain, or due to the complexity of a smallholder supply base. The current traceability systems and tools stop at farm gates and do not get beyond processing plants and mills, limiting data to food safety. Thus, social performances and environmental footprints at the farm-level are not covered. When approaching traceability solutions from the bottom-up, a further dilemma results; small and mid-scale producers – which represent 70% of the agriculture and aquaculture production in Southeast Asia – do not have the knowledge and financial resources to reach the requisite compliance level of certification schemes. Without a cost-effective and simple mean of reaching standardization, these farms are excluded from value-added markets, and the sector fails to upgrade. Brands and retails are looking for scalable, yet inclusive, responsible sourcing solutions, and are willing to invest in projects where they can co-design, test and iterate new approaches. Processors are looking to execute the additional social and environmental requirements from their buyers with the bottom of their farm pyramid.

VerifiK8 transparency solution is designed for these industry needs with affordability and scalability. Both processors and mills are demonstrating their interest in technological tools to support their transparency needs, by entering into partnerships with brands and seeking affordable tools. VerifiK8 is validating its business model by expanding its income streams, on-boarding supply-chain stakeholders (suppliers, mills, standard owners, certification bodies). The current testing and adjustment of the business model on two different commodities, in different geographies, is key to identify the core component of the right business model and prepare VerifiK8 for scalability. VerifiK8 currently works with the sugarcane industry in Thailand and aquaculture in Vietnam. The structure of the application and web platform is designed to adapt to the contexts of new countries and certifications. As such, VerifiK8 has the capacity to reach across borders and supply-chains. To achieve the full replicability of the system.

VerifiK8 is a low-cost product in comparison to other traceability products and solutions currently offered in Thailand and Vietnam. VerifiK8 is an inclusive verification system that incorporates supply-chain actors directly into the verification process. This is facilitated in collaboration with our local staff offering area expertise, our partner consultancy company, FairAgora Asia, and the design of our technological platform. VerifiK8 is more than a management tool, as we add a layer of environmental and social data to revenue data to ensure that farms are on a pathway to improvement. VerifiK8’s approach incorporates production and environmental data with social improvement tools through a stepwise ladder of progress built to foster improvement at the farm level. Our unique ladder of progress system goes above and beyond the approaches of other tools in the market. Through our cost-effective monitoring, training, and auditing approach, we encourage continued and sustained improvement. The social layer that VerifiK8 adds to product traceability is the real-time grievance mechanism, workers voice tool, and fair hiring process; all of which serve to empower farmers. 

The competitive start-up environment poses an external challenge for VerifiK8 as many companies develop tech tools. It will be decisive for VerifiK8, to prove that it offers the superior product. Protecting the confidentiality and anonymity of user data poses another challenge. Data privacy is both a legal and ethical issue. VerifiK8’s response to this challenge is twofold. Firstly, VerifiK8 will incorporate a standardized hiring process into the application that will be stored in a blockchain to be relayed through the chain. Through this input method, the working contract will be understood from both sides, while transparency is preserved. Secondly, VerifiK8 is incorporating a user chat-box as a grievance mechanism. This will empower workers to provide critical feedback of their working conditions. Red-flags in the industry can then be identified, and proper actions taken. By triangulating data from the manager, employers, and sectors, data can be utilized to protect workers. Another challenge for VerifiK8 is to sustain farmer engagement from a bottom-up approach. We have incorporated sugarcane mills into the project by hosting a co-creation workshop to innovate approaches to social issues on sugarcane farms. VerifiK8 strives to continuously improve its services through an engagement loop. 

VerifiK8 has worked to assess proof-of-concept viability in a number of ways. First, a need was identified within agriculture and aquaculture supply-chains. The need arose from environmental issues such as mismanagement of aquaculture ponds leading to loss of shrimp and productivity, to social issues extending to forced and child labor. Second, a solution was created and a plan developed. VerifiK8 saw the need for a cost-effective inclusive monitoring tool that addresses the need for transparency in supply-chains, such that farmers can effectively and holistically manage their farms, and companies and consumers can ethically source their food. Third, conceptual and commercial viability was confirmed by our partners. Buyers in the industry recognized the need, including Thai Union, PepsiCo, and Nestlé, along with organizations that fight human trafficking, including USAID. Each has commended VerifiK8’s concept, and taken action through partnerships. To assess the commercial viability, Verifik8 has worked on-the-ground with farmers to gauge their readiness to use the application. engaging smallholders on the ground with other supply-chain stakeholders through ladder of progress training, co-creation workshops, and capacity building.

Currently, we have 5 people in the team, experience in agri-food systems, IT development, and regionally focused expertise both in agriculture and aquaculture. This number is capable serving in 5 years. 

1) Emmanuelle Bourgois (France) – Principle Investigator – Lawyer and compliance specialist. She has been working more than 20 years for international organizations such as FAO and USAID. She is the founder and CEO of FairAgora Asia and VerifiK8.  

2) Yann Laurent (France) - Master in agronomy. Aquaculture and Fisheries Information System Senior Expert. Yann is a co-founder working part time at VerifiK8 and is also working for the Department of Fisheries of FAO as International Consultant to support Member Countries to reinforce their national fisheries statistics supply-chain. He designed Verifik8 and leads its development from France. 

3) Juliette Alemany (France) – PhD in agronomy. Juliette’s PhD at the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea implied numerous contributions to several scientific surveys and projects in close cooperation with fishermen. She was involved in three European working groups to design new stock assessment models and review the general methodology to be followed by the European Union in case of data-limited fish stocks. 

4) Thanyasiri Deeying (Thai) – Her experience in administration and accounting, along with her networking and coordination skills, make her essential to the team.  

5) Grid Ganjina (Thai) – BSc. in Biotechnology, extensive experience as a project manager working for international organizations. Well-versed in project management, team building, communication, project planning and implementations of projects. 

Our ultimate goal is to scale our operations in the next five years and maximize our impact by incorporating over 600,000 farmers. We are in discussion with Amanda Seafood, who is seeking ASC certification following the European market’s new seafood standards. Amanda Seafood has 600 farms. If VerifiK8 is able to facilitate certification, then it will be able to grow with ASC’s expansion. We have partnered closely with the Vietnamese staff from WWF Vietnam; however, we will need to hire a Vietnamese team of 7 staff within 6 months to adequately scale. In sugarcane, having identified farmers ready and able for technological adaptation, our Training of Trainers program is now engaging farms in our stepwise approach. A greater interest by mills in utilizing VerifiK8 will steer farms to adopt the technology. We plan on expanding to the following ways: - Transform Thailand sugarcane farm pilots into paid customers: Mitr Phol, Pepsi Co, Nestlé, and another large multinational Target: o 3000+ farms in Thailand - Showcase VerifiK8's replicability to new commodities to demonstrate i) scalability as a data-driven solution for value creation in supply-chains ii) disruption potential in compliance industry. New products include rubber, rice, potato, and capture fisheries. - Consolidate key partners to secure data streams. Transform tech innovation discussions with standards owners and certification bodies. Scaling in Thailand (Sugarcane), Vietnam (Aquaculture). T

Agriculture

USAID Thaialnd Counter Trafficking in Persons - increase labor transparency in Thai sugarcane industry 

Winrock International - increase labor transparency in Thai sugarcane industry 

PepsiCo and Nestlé - global sugar buyers

Bonsucro  - Standard owner for sugar production 

Aquaculture 

 Diginex - an IT company specialized in blockchain technology 

Mekong Club – MoU agreement eMin project 

Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Aquaculture Improvement Project (AIP) 

Denmark– formal agreement – An international NGO working on environmental protection. They are contributing financially to our AIP project 

WWF Vietnam – provides local support and ground implementation to deploy and manage our AIP project 

The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) – a certification body working with VerifiK8 on the Aquaculture Improvement Project, providing support for business development and giving feedback to improve the tech tool 

Hatch Aquaculture Accelerator – investor for Aquaculture Improvement Project