An Innovative Cold-storage Enabler & Digital (A-ICED) logistics platform

With the world's population expected to reach 9.7Bn by 2050, the numbers malnourished is expected to increase reaching 2Bn. Feeding the growing population requires 70% food production increase by 2050, however, a cost-effective method to bridge this should be ensuring that most food produced doesn't get spoiled between the farm-to-table.

The main causes of food loss/spoilage have been identified as:

* Insufficient post-harvest and on-farm storage technologies;
* Dated practices for handling, processing and packaging; and
* Limited market information and access, decreasing farmers' abilities to sell products at a decent price before they spoil.

There is a need to minimise loss rate so that nutrient-rich foods critical for achieving healthy dietary diversity remains reasonably priced for the general population. A good starting point is simply addressing these causes of food loss/spoilage.

Our project team will develop/validate A-ICED, a fully integrated cold storage supply chain platform for poor to middle class population aimed at bridging the gap between food production and market security, mostly caused by poor post-harvest handling.

With A-ICED, we are providing a platform that will be readily available on both smart and ordinary phones providing information to both farmers and merchants to ensure profitability while nourishing the population.