ProducePay unveils Visibility solution to improve transparency, reduce food waste

Agtech company ProducePay says its new Visibility solution provides fresh produce marketers and retailers transparency of produce shipments from the field to their final destination.

The solution ensures buyers delivery of high-quality produce shipped from around the world and reduces rejection rates that undermine grower economic stability and leads to significant food waste, according to a news release.   

By combining technology with on-the-ground agronomists, Visibility adds a critical capability to the company’s Predictable Commerce Programs, giving growers and buyers greater control of their businesses in an increasingly volatile and unpredictable fresh produce supply chain, the release said.

ProducePay says its Visibility solution gives buyers the ability to monitor and manage produce shipments via a digital dashboard on the ProducePay platform.

The release said benefits and features include:

• Real-time, comprehensive information on produce quality, quantity, shipment status and more, captured by agronomists in the field and at shipment, ensuring high-quality produce deliveries are in full, on spec and on time. 
• Real-time order tracking including order progress, shipping conditions and location, as well as access to historical transaction data — unlocking greater transparency compared to the typical experience in conventional produce transactions. 
• End-to-end visibility enabling multiple stakeholders to efficiently manage order progress, including acceptance, adjustments, invoicing and rejections — saving time and resources for more effective planning.  

“Delivering high-quality produce across global supply chains is fraught with challenges, leading to high rejection rates, frequent disputes and disappointed customers — not to mention a staggering level of food and economic waste,” ProducePay CEO Patrick McCullough said in the release. “We hear it from our customers all the time — more predictability means more profitability. By giving total visibility into quality and orders from farm to final destination, we’re bringing retailers surety of supply, empowering marketers to fulfill their commitments to deliver produce on time and in full, and giving growers greater confidence that their produce will be accepted after shipment. This is the definition of predictable commerce.”

The solution will help reduce food waste, Tony Fadell, engineer, designer and Principal at Build Collective, one of ProducePay’s investors, said in the release.

“ProducePay assesses and tracks produce from the field to the store, giving farmers credibility and buyers the quality assurance they value,” Fadell said. “The result: produce gets bought in accurate quantities, it’s higher quality when it gets to the store, less food gets wasted. All while giving farmers access to upfront financing so that they can grow their crops and plan their next harvest without waiting for payouts from retailers. More profits for farmers and retailers is a win-win-win for farmers, retailers, people that want fresh fruit and vegetables, and our planet.”

In July 2023, ProducePay collaborated with one of the world’s largest growers and distributors of table grapes, Four Star Fruit, to pilot the Predictable Commerce Program, the release said.

Leveraging ProducePay’s Visibility solution, the partnership helped one of the nation’s leading retailers achieve less than 1% rejection rates in their table grape shipments — an 80% improvement compared to the standard rejection rate in traditional sourcing programs, according to the release. 

“We’ve never experienced such a high level of quality assurance before,” Jack Campbell, CEO for Four Star Fruit, said in the release. “Providing our retail partners with enhanced transparency — giving them line of sight into harvest and supply chain — empowers them with the confidence to bypass additional intermediaries to fulfill year-round supply of top-quality produce.”

Since its founding, ProducePay reports it has facilitated the trade of more than $10 billion worth of fresh produce across 64 commodities and 20 countries in North America, Central and South America and Europe. In 2024 alone, the company is expected to finance more than $2 billion in fresh produce transactions, according to the release.