Full Harvest Reduces Food Waste Faster by Expanding Supply Chain Digitization to All Produce Grades
“Adds USDA Grade 1 Produce to Become Leading Online Marketplace Serving Entire Produce Market for Commercial Buyers and Sellers
Full Harvest, a proven leader in the battle against food waste, today announced its expansion beyond surplus to all USDA Grade 1 produce on its online marketplace for commercial buyers and sellers. Solving the food waste problem faster by bringing the entire produce market online for more efficiencies, the addition expands its reach to retailers, food service companies, and direct-to-consumer distributors, among others. Full Harvest is now the leading end-to-end online produce marketplace, including logistics automation, for all grades of produce – from USDA Grade 1 to surplus and imperfect – on spot, program, and contract terms.
Globally, an estimated 2.5 billion tonnes (40 percent of food grown) goes to waste each year according to the World Wildlife Federation. Unfortunately, while agriculture and food-related industries contribute more than $1.2 trillion to the U.S. GDP, and the fruit and vegetable market size alone will top $96 billion this year, the produce industry is predominantly offline. The lack of accurate data and operational transparency caused by offline inefficiencies exacerbate the food waste problem.
Having already helped growers sell over 85 million pounds of surplus and imperfect produce to date, Full Harvest is leveraging its marketplace, previously only for excess produce, to now digitize the entire produce supply chain and provide valuable data and insights, which is critical to solve the food waste problem. Full Harvest enables increased market matching and transparency that quickly improves bottom lines, shortens the time from harvest to production by shipping direct from farms, and reduces the carbon footprint associated with transporting the produce.
“Everything edible should be consumed. We are on a mission to eliminate food waste in the produce ecosystem and create a more sustainable produce industry,” said Christine Moseley, Founder and CEO of Full Harvest. “While imperfect and surplus produce was an important first step, the entire produce industry needs to move online to maximize efficiency and eliminate waste. At Full Harvest, we’re doubling down on our mission to help produce buyers and suppliers get the real-time data and access they need to make the produce supply chain smarter, more efficient and more sustainable – regardless of produce type or grade.”
USDA Grade 1 is the primary produce grade used in the food industry to ensure consistent cosmetic and quality standards for consumers. Produce must meet stringent guidelines on shape, color, size, texture, and quality to be considered USDA Grade 1. Expanding Full Harvest’s marketplace to include USDA Grade 1 gives its current buyers and suppliers, most of which buy and sell all grades of produce, a one-stop shop to manage their produce online – saving them time and money, while still providing access to sustainable options.
While Full Harvest has an extensive grower network established, additional suppliers are invited to learn more about the marketplace and sign up here: https://www.fullharvest.com/farms. Interested produce buyers can learn more about the benefits of joining the Full Harvest marketplace here: https://www.fullharvest.com/buyers.”
*This article is excerpted from perishablenews.com website, published 3rd May 2023