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Cogoport, RBO Trading and Milvum secure grant for ingredient sourcing
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Tuesday, 16 July, 2019, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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The Hague
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Royal Blue and Orange International Trading (RBO Trading), a conscious and ethical food ingredient, equipment and logistics platform that uses Blockchain or artificial intelligence (AI) and aims to improve the speed, efficiency and cost of shipping food ingredients from-farm-to-fork in the small and medium enterprise (SME) agriculture and food restaurant industries, and collaborators Cogoport Europe and Milvum have secured a major grant. They are all based in The Hague in The Netherlands. The marketplace will support the sourcing of best quality and most cost-effective food ingredients and logistics with end-to-end verifiable social impact.
The system will immediately benefit farmers, producers of food, logistics providers and ultimately consumers across Europe, the Middle-East and Africa, who otherwise do not benefit from volume-driven sourcing or purchasing power of goods .
Targeted to launch for all markets in mid-2020, the platform has now been awarded a major subsidy from Innovation Stimulation (MIT) – a joint initiative from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Province of South-Holland (Zuid-Holland), which invests in projects that are innovative, have universal social impact and increase connectivity.
RBO’s conscious and ethical platform using blockchain ranked among the 10 most important investment propositions from over 100 applications that were considered by MIT.
RBO Trading is a key supplier of ethical and conscious food ingredients and equipment to the quick service (fast food) Industry. It is a global approved supplier for three multinational chains and several local food companies.
Sukai Ceesay, chief executive officer and founder, RBO Trading, said, “SME restaurants and food suppliers struggle to get real value when shipping/importing their products – and that impacts their ability to compete in the food industry where larger enterprises have huge purchasing and negotiation power. I firmly believe that when you support small- and medium-sized businesses to thrive and prosper, you indirectly help big companies as well.”
“Our end-to-end, conscious and ethical flow of food ingredients, equipment and logistics platform using blockchain and AI will give every farmer and food manufacturer a chance to grow their business and show their product for what it is. The simple disclosures on our marketplace are integral for food security, ethical flow of logistics and finances from product origin, to channels travelled, traceability and verification,” she added.
Ceesay said, “When launched, it will make the supply chain more transparent and drive down unit costs for its participants. Cogoport is already delivering these benefits into other SME sectors and digital transactions will help us expand to more regions quicker.”
Carmit Glik, chief executive officer, Cogoport Europe, said, “We are delighted to collaborate on this project with Milvum to support RBO Trading on this innovative B2B conscious and ethical sourcing of food ingredients, equipment and logistics platform with blockchain/AI.”
“In two short years, Cogoport has delivered a digital transformation to make shipping transparent and better for SMEs. Our global online freight marketplace provides clarity for shippers by reducing their costs with a simpler, more efficient and effective booking platform,” she added.
“Our SME customers in the Netherlands and across the wider BENELUX region say Cogoport is already saving them between 10-15 per cent on every container shipment. As we remove archaic and time-intensive processes we will be able to deliver similar digital efficiencies to farmers in the food supply chain,” Glik said.
Milvum, a digital transformation agency, is currently developing the blockchain shipping platform, which will link directly into Cogoport’s existing global shipping portal.
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