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Spotted: Dutch agritech company Almacena Platform is building transparency in coffee supply chains. Working directly with East African growers, the platform provides a proprietary Trade Dashboard that brings together all the logistics of moving sustainably grown coffee from farm to buyer. Buyers sign digital contracts ensuring a fair price, and both buyers and growers oversee storage, insurance, travel, finances, and more via the dashboard.

So far, 12 per cent of Africa’s tea and coffee exporters are represented on the platform, and the company seeks ways to support several targets embodied in the UN’s sustainable development goals, particularly gender equality, poverty reduction, and rural economic growth. The majority of growers in the region are smallholders, so their income is affected significantly by market price fluctuations. This is why contracts with buyers help provide security.

Almacena recently raised €3.5 million to strengthen the platform and help the business expand into South America. Transactions on the platform are recorded via blockchain, creating a fully transparent record of the provenance and route of every shipment. The digital profiles also help unconnected farmers access additional resources and support, such as microloans and communities of growers.

Other coffee-based innovations that Springwise has spotted include lab-grown coffee and more sustainable production processes.  

Written By: Keely Khoury