In the fight against food waste, ugly can be beautiful
New report shows fast-growing impact of innovative online trading place, B.good: saving ugly produce from being wasted, and matchmaking local farmers and small food businesses to boost mutual value.
With around 30% of food going to waste, in the wake of World Food Day, as the UN calls for systemic change to global food production, small South Korean start-up, B.good, is bucking the trend. It is challenging perceptions around marketability to save hundreds of tonnes of ‘ugly’ (non-grade) fresh produce from going to waste, while supporting thousands of local farmers and small businesses to make ends meet.
B.good is an innovative online business-to-business (B2B) marketplace, specialising in non-grade or ‘ugly’ fresh produce, which allows farmers and small businesses, such as restaurants or caterers, to buy and sell conventionally shunned fruit and vegetables in a quick, efficient, and cost-effective way. Their unique method uses big data to track the real-time price of produce and cuts up to six middlemen from regular wholesale models, offering more competitive prices to buyers, while at the same time helping sellers to avoid losing sales of ‘ugly’ but perfectly edible produce.
BRODIE has been working with B.good since the start of 2022 to develop its first vision and impact report, unusual for such an early-stage business. Data shows B.good has gone from a standing start in August 2020 to connecting up to 6,400 local South Korean farmers across 22 cooperatives with around 120 small businesses, such as restaurant owners and food processors, and stopping over 265,000kg of 25 types of produce from going to waste saving 240,023 kg CO2e and 30 million litres of water.
And as an indicator of the speed of its growth, in the three full months since the end of June 2022 (the end of the data reporting period) the business has shown a further 7% uplift in transactions.
South Korea has one of the world’s highest per capita rates of food waste: up to 130kg of food a year. While 95% of South Korea’s food waste is recycled efficiently on a large scale thanks to decades of Government investment, the unpalatable truth is that an estimated 5 trillion won worth of fresh fruit and vegetables grown in South Korea are wasted because of their appearance, despite being fresh, nutritious, and edible.
Added to this, farming is a dwindling sector in South Korea. Estimates show that around 75% of farmers are over 50 years old and less than 1% are under 30. B.good is committed to helping make farming a fair and attractive sector for more people to work in – part of this is ensuring they have a fair and stable income – by offering farmers a better price and a channel to sell produce which may not otherwise have a market.
“We believe that all food grown should be eaten. Our mission is to contribute towards achieving a zero-waste society. For us, that meant creating a thriving marketplace for non-grade (‘ugly’ or imperfect) food which otherwise would have been rejected by conventional standards and thrown away,’ said B.good Chief Strategy Officer, Lee, Jaeyoung.
“We want to make it easier for hardworking farmers trying to make a sustainable living and small businesses who need competitively priced fresh fruit & vegetables — no matter what they look like — to get together to buy and sell. By making the trading system simpler and more agile through a web-based platform and removing some of the conventional barriers to supply and demand, we’re tackling several challenges at once and building long-lasting impact. Waste is avoided, farmers can maximize their income and small-to-medium-sized food processors and restaurant owners can reduce their costs.”
Mr Chang, Sehun, Founder and CEO of B.good said, “Ensuring everyone has affordable access to a nutritious diet, produced in a sustainable way, is one of the greatest challenges the world faces. The journey to establish B.good has been one of discovery, learning and insight, not least in facing the complex, interconnected social and environmental impacts of waste in our current food production systems.
The value of agricultural produce is not all about marketability, such as shape and size. Fruits and vegetables – produced sustainably - are the basis of any healthy diet and a source of nutrition which should be available to everyone.
Our vision is that B.good will serve consumers by guaranteeing more access to diverse agricultural produce while supporting local farmers and strengthening our own commitment to environmental, social, economic, and cultural sustainability.”
A full copy of the report can be downloaded at https://bgoodimpactreport.imweb.me/
Notes to Editors:
The global food system is responsible for around 30% of total greenhouse gas emissions (UN 2021).
Around 14% of the world's food is lost after harvest, up to, but not including the retail stage of the supply chain, and an estimated 17% is wasted in retail and at the consumption level (FAO 2022).
Food loss and waste undermine the sustainability of our food systems. When food is lost or wasted, all the resources that were used to produce it - including water, land, energy, labour and capital - go to waste. In addition, the disposal of food waste in landfills leads to greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change. Food loss and waste can also negatively impact food security and availability and contribute to increasing costs of food.
The focus of the UN’s World Food Day 2022 is to bring together producers, governments and businesses to find global solutions to improve food security for all. The aim is to transform agri-food systems and implement sustainable and holistic solutions that consider long-term development, inclusive economic growth, and greater resilience. Find out more at www.fao.org/world-food-day/about
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BRODIE develops sustainability trends and market insights for a number of leading companies. We have also developed a breadth of sustainability strategies and action plans, including executive and stakeholder engagement and communications as well as business analysis and planning.
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