Hungry for foodtech innovation

Improving food safety in SEA with tracking and tracing technologies by Tan Aik Jin, Vertical Solutions Lead at Zebra Technologies APAC

The Zebra Technologies’ Food Safety Supply Chain Vision Study found that more than half of the consumers (51 per cent) cite the fear of food borne illness and disease as the reason to learn more about where their food comes from, especially with Singapore researchers recently reporting that the COVID-19 virus can survive in frozen meat for up to three weeks.

As a result, food manufacturers are confronted with the issues of food supply chain transparency. At the same time, they need to meet food safety standards, avoid recalls, maintain compliance, and earn customer trust and loyalty.

Food supply chains will need to bear increased pressure to deliver quality and safe food from the farm, to the factory and finally to the consumer’s table. Concurrently, countries like Singapore, an emerging food tech hub of Asia, must quickly address these issues.

The age of the super farmer: How technology is enabling the average farmer by Xin Yi Lim, Executive Director, Sustainability & Agri Impact at Pinduoduo

Farmers can now harness new technologies to monitor what is happening on their farms in real time, optimise production through remote sensing and automate operations with precision farming practices and even robots.

Moreover, this greater visibility of production, together with online marketplaces, can reduce waste and make pricing more aligned with supply and demand dynamics. At the seed level, agricultural biotechnology gives scientists the tools to alter food at the DNA level to become resistant to pests and environmental factors.

COVID-19 has stressed global food systems and poses a threat, particularly to vulnerable populations. Technology will be the key enabler to help us meet this common challenge. By embracing innovative technologies to meet the growing global demand for food, we can and will make a difference. Let’s take a look at some of the up-and-coming technologies.

How small and medium-sized restaurants in Taiwan leveraged digital tools to survive by Ken Chen, co-founder of iChef

According to the latest stats by the Department of Statistics, Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), as of February 2020, 54 per cent of all F&B outlets in Taiwan started offering delivery (compared to 40 per cent in 2018 and 47 per cent in 2019).

When COVID-19 hit, the F&B industry was forced to find creative ways to increase sales. Restaurants began seeking delivery arrangements that did not involve delivery providers or third party platforms.

Hence, the need for restaurants to streamline their in-house ordering website and manage multiple platforms more efficiently emerged.

From founders to founders

Couples running a business together: Why it’s not as taboo as you think by Fanny See, COO and co-founder at Detrack

My partner, Dason Goh and I are married for 13 years, and we are also co-founders of Detrack, a logistics tech startup that created Singapore’s leading delivery tracking Software-as-a-Service platform.

Dason and I founded the company when we discovered a lack of visibility in last-mile deliveries, could not find a suitable solution in the market, then decided to take it upon ourselves to create the technology from scratch.

Our journey to success has been anything but easy. As with any coworker or colleague within the same department, we faced numerous challenges and obstacles and did not always see eye to eye on all matters.

It was through open and honest communication that we built rapport with each other, nurturing and sustaining a healthy working and romantic relationship, allowing them to successfully scale their business into its present-day achievements.

How did we manage and balance our professional and personal lives? We would like to share five important tips on running a business together as a power couple.

Why we should embrace a startup mindset in today’s volatile economic climate by Han Phay, founder and Managing Partner, Phay and Partners

While the Singapore economy seems to be getting an optimistic forecast, it is not time for us to slacken our efforts. With the unpredictable nature of the economy, businesses continue to face a daunting question:

How do I ensure my company survives through this uphill battle and continues towards success? That’s an area that we can look to startups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for.

A UOB SME Outlook 2021 Study showed that three in five SMEs who embraced going digital are expecting a growth in revenue and seven in 10 SMEs feel more confident in their business recoveries after adopting digital initiatives.

The startups and SMEs in Singapore have managed to stay afloat regardless of the economic situation and a large portion of this achievement can be attributed to their entrepreneurial mindset and methodologies.

Tech scouting and innovation partnerships: How co-creation can foster growth post-COVID-19 by Michael Goh, Deputy Head, Innovation and Technology at IPI

When management consulting firm McKinsey and Company surveyed over 200 organisations last year, more than 90 per cent said that they expect the pandemic to fundamentally change the way they do business, and almost as many believed that it will have a lasting impact on customers’ wants and needs.

By studying past crises, the firm also found that companies that invest in innovation during a crisis are likely to reap benefits in the difficult period and for years thereafter.

Those that did so in the 2007-2009 Great Recession outperformed peers in normalised market capitalisation by 10 per cent during the recession, and up to 30 per cent for several years afterwards.

To maximise their innovation capability, firms must look externally, to keep abreast of trends, identify useful emerging technologies and pinpoint opportunities for partnerships.

Trends in the fintech and money world

Are banks dying? Why fortune favours the bold and ASEAN’s neo banks by Kaspar Situmorang, CEO of BRI Agro

The similarities between taxis in the US and most legacy banks in Southeast Asia today are uncanny: inefficient and unreliable service, dependent on protectionist systems, refusal to adapt to the new digital reality, and even widespread discrimination against certain client segments deemed low-value (like micro-businesses).

Even as 2020 arrived, legacy banks still expected regulators to protect them from neo banks and other digital usurpers. After all, how did the P2P craze pan out in China in 2014?

A proper meltdown. Banks sat safely ensconced in the knowledge that regulators had their backs, afraid of triggering another financial disaster.

New-age internet platforms are breeding grounds for financial crimes. Here’s how to tackle them by Douglas Wolfson, Director – Commercial Strategy, LNRS

The online world is an easy place to hide your identity and large amounts of money routinely change hands for opaque purposes. Take for example online gaming platforms, where players routinely pay for in-game options or credits.

These non-transparent transactions provide a legitimate explanation for anyone who wants to hide the source of a large amount of money.

Live streaming, where celebrities and influencers receive gifts or sell products, is another appealing option for money launderers. A series of fake accounts acts as a conduit for money transfers that are difficult to track.

Accelerating Asian IPO markets: How long can the initial public offering boom last? by Daglar Cizmeci, Investor, Founder and CEO

Asian initial public offerings have followed these wider trends around the world, with the market accelerating at a rapid pace following on from an economic recovery in late 2020.

As a result, Asian companies have recorded their best quarter for listings of all time, owing to greater levels of liquidity during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as lower interest rates and rallying stock markets.

Firms raised US$49.3 billion through IPO share sales both domestically and overseas.

As the data shows, the amount Asian companies have raised through new listings in Q1 of 2021 has been consistently double the level of revenue generated for at least a decade.

Such a significant acceleration has inevitably led to questions as to how long such an unprecedented boom can last across Asian markets and beyond. Can IPOs sustain the public listing gold rush throughout 2021? Or will we see the market run out of steam sooner rather than later?

How a global pandemic changed (and continues to change) the way we pay by Kelvin Phua, Head of Global Payment Networks at PPRO

After a continued global effort to flatten the curve and months of social distancing, COVID-19 is finally in the rear-view. People around the world are relieved to be back to life as it was, but will things ever truly be the same?

COVID-19 shook the global economy as the largest pandemic since the Spanish flu in the early 20th century. Social distancing drastically shifted consumer behaviour and introduced a new set of challenges to stores and shoppers alike. But, as humanity has always done, we came together, adapted, and innovated.

We’ve entered a more stable 2021, adjusted to a new normal, and now we’re pausing to reflect on what we’ve just overcome. Let’s take a closer look at how payments and global commerce have changed in the last 18 months.

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Thailand SEC files criminal complaint against crypto exchange Binance; The complaint says Binance operates digital asset biz without a licence; Britain’s financial watchdog had last week barred Binance from carrying out regulated activities in the country.

Singapore flags Binance worries; The MAS says it is aware of the regulatory scrutiny that Binance is facing elsewhere and that it is following up as required with a local unit; MAS said it is following up with Binance Asia Services, a local entity, as part of standard processes to review applications for a license to provide digital payment token services in the city-state.

Tiki said to have secured US$100M in first Series E tranche led by a global strategic investor; DealStreetAsia has earlier reported the Vietnamese e-commerce major was planning to raise up to US$200M in its latest round; Tiki was most recently valued at around US$600M when it raised US$43M for the sale of corporate bonds between March and June.

Startup valuations see a correction in Vietnam amid COVID-19 crisis; The markdown in valuation has particularly gripped sectors such as travel, hospitality, and transportation that have been the worst affected by the pandemic; In new-economy sectors like fintech, education, healthtech, and logistics, however, the changes in valuations are not all that visible.

‘US startups practise a global mindset that drives them for exponential growth from day one’: US Embassy Singapore’s Digital Trade Attaché; This is supported by access to funding but is also supported by other driving factors like risk tolerance, and an open and collaborative mindset, where there is a flow of information and ideas, says Christian Koschil.

iPhone co-inventor joins SG insurtech startup bolttech’s US$180M Series A; This takes the one-year-old company to unicorn club; bolttech works with insurers, telcos, retailers, banks, e-commerce and digital destinations to embed insurance into their customer journeys at the point of need; It claims it transacts US$5B in premiums on its platform, providing a gateway to more than 5K products and 150 insurance providers.

Workmate raises US$10M from Lendable to help businesses find, manage quality blue-collar workers; The startup has raised a total of US$15.2M so far from a slew of investors, including Atlas Ventures, Gobi Partners, and Beacon VC, the corporate venture capital arm of Kasikornbank; Workmate will use the fresh capital to onboard more workers in Indonesia and Thailand on its platform.

NFT minting platform Mintable nets US$13M from Ripple, ex-advisor to Bill Clinton, others; The SG startup also offers an online marketplace that aims to make the buying and trading of NFTs easy and accessible for the masses; To date, approximately 700K items have been minted on its platform.

Accelerating Asian IPO markets: How long can the IPO boom last?; The IPO landscape across Asia faces the challenge of crackdowns on the dominance of Chinese tech firms that have dominated fundraising across the continent; Tensions between the US and China have been ramping up of late, too.

SCI Ecommerce closes ongoing financing round at US$65.4M, inks partnership with TikTok; The additional capital came from EDBI, Financial Investments Corporation, Soriano Corporation; With the help of SCI, brand partners in Indonesia can carry out sales directly through TikTok, activating a new channel for social commerce; The company further claimed that it more than doubled its 2019 revenues to over US$100M in 2020.

iMedia fully acquires online beauty store favful’s Malaysian parent Lovelife Technologies; The deal is the company’s first entry into the commerce business and goes in line with its mission of becoming the country’s #1 integrated digital media group; Over the last year, iMedia has acquired 6 firms, including Ittify, Goody25, BeautifulNara, and Moretify.

Grab-Singtel JV joins race for digital bank licences in Malaysia; Separately, AirAsia’s fintech arm BigPay is also in the race to secure a licence in Malaysia; Malaysia has receives 29 bids for digital banking licences; The central bank BNM will issue up to five licences by Q1 2022; Grab and Singtel had previously partnered to secure a digital banking licence in Singapore.

The future of food: here’s a look at the foodtech industry landscape in Singapore; According to the Asia Alternative Protein Industry Report, several leading startups in the foodtech field are HQed in Singapore; The nation-state is investing heavily in alternative protein research and development, as well as biotechnology to ramp up local food production.

Singapore Airlines launches travel experience digital platform; Pelago is both an online magazine and booking portal that publishes listicles of suggested activities in a destination city and lets travelers reserve slots; The portal focuses on Singapore for now, where visitors can book anything from a beer-sampling experience US$30 to a two-hour Singapore Airlines’ flight simulator session for US$517.

Tokyo and Singapore trail Melbourne in ‘digital nomad’ ranking; Asian cities broadly lag behind on the list of the best spots to live and work remotely, says a Nestpick report; The leading four cities — Melbourne, Dubai, Sydney and Estonia’s capital Tallinn — are all in countries listed as offering digital nomad visas or similar permits that allow people to stay longer than tourists and work independently.

A closer look at Singapore’s emerging AI-based startups; Already, the country accounts for many of the AI-based startups SEA offers; These emerging startups are enhancing innovation and providing solutions to the government, industry and the public to realise the positive impact of AI; For example, national organisations are using AI-based communication tools to improve customer engagement and deliver timely assistance.

Twitter partners with Singapore gov’t for digital skilling of workforce; In a bid to meet SG’s growing demand for a skilled digital workforce, Twitter will work with Institutes of Higher Learning and government agencies to develop a series of virtual programmes designed to introduce current students, recent graduates, and mid-career individuals to digital skills and career opportunities in technology.

 

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Deploying AI capabilities across the organisation requires a scalable, resilient, and adaptable set of core-technology components. When implemented successfully, this foundational layer can enable a bank to accelerate technology innovations, improve the quality and reliability of operations, reduce operating costs, and strengthen customer engagement.

An AI-first model places demands on a bank’s core technology

Financial institutions that have shifted from being intensive consumers of technology to making AI and analytics a core capability are finding it easier to shift into the real-time and consumer-centric ecosystem.

As AI technologies play an increasingly central role in creating value for banks and their customers, financial-services organisations need to reinvent themselves as technology-forward institutions, so they can deliver customised products and highly personalised services at scale in near real time.

At many institutions, standard practices now include omni channel engagement, the use of APIs to support increased real-time information exchange across systems, and the use of big data analytics to improve credit underwriting, evaluate product usage, and prioritise opportunities for deepening relationships.

As financial-services organisations continue to mature, the increasing demands on the technology infrastructure to support more complex use cases involving analytics and real-time insights are pushing firms to re-examine their overall technology function.

Once they have committed to modernising the core technology and data infrastructure underpinning the engagement and decision-making layers of the capability stack, banks should organise their transformation around six crucial demands: technology strategy, superior experiences, scalable data and analytics platforms, scalable hybrid infrastructure, configurable product processors, and cybersecurity strategy.

Also Read: Are banks dying? Why fortune favours the bold and ASEAN’s neo banks

Robust strategy for building technology capabilities

Banks should develop a road map for transformation that focuses on three dimensions of value creation: faster time to market with efficient governance and productivity tracking, clear alignment of demand and capacity to meet strategic and near-term priorities, and a well-defined mechanism to coordinate “change the bank” and “run the bank” initiatives according to their potential to generate value.

Faster time to market requires efficient and repeatable development and testing practices, coupled with robust platforms and productivity-measurement tools. Aligning demand and capacity according to strategic priorities works on two levels.

On one level, banks need to ensure that execution, infrastructure, and support capacity are optimised to ensure constant operation of all use cases and journeys. In addition, with constant uptime assured, work should be organised and scheduled to expedite projects having the greatest impact on value.

Finally, financial institutions should establish clear mechanisms for setting priorities and ensuring that each use case is designed and built to generate a return exceeding capital investments and operating costs.

Technology leaders should prioritise interconnected capabilities

Given the broad scope of components to be transformed, organisations should bear in mind that optimal outcomes are much likelier when they first establish a holistic strategy for technology transformation. Unfortunately, not all have found the resources to embrace fully the potential offered by the rapid advancement of AI technologies and the steady rise in customer expectations.

Some financial institutions, despite seeing the imperative to change, have maintained and modernised their legacy platforms. Various business lines have set up organically built platforms upon this foundation, making it costlier and more and more complex to maintain.

Many organisations have spent billions of dollars on multiyear technology initiatives within silos, only to find that they fail to generate the scale benefits required to justify investments. Leaders should heed these lessons, adopt a holistic perspective, and map priorities according to the end-to-end impact that each step in the technology transformation has on the value of the enterprise.

Also Read: Singapore’s Float Foods banks US$1.7M for its plant-based egg substitute

Technology transformations are fraught with risk, including delays and cost overruns, and only those organisations whose leaders are prepared to commit the energy and capital necessary to carry through with the comprehensive effort should embark on the journey.

Ultimately, this is a decision not just to survive, but to thrive, and it requires a change in mindset. Specifically, traditional financial institutions will need to break out of their legacy technology architecture and explore AI-and-analytics opportunities.

If banks are to thrive in a world where customer expectations are increasingly shaped by the AI-and-analytics capabilities of technology leaders, they must rebuild their core technology and data infrastructure to support AI-powered decision making and reimagined customer engagement.

These are the three “technology layers” of the AI-bank capability stack. The full stack also includes a leading-edge operating model to ensure that all layers work together in unison to deliver intelligent propositions through smart servicing and experiences. The AI bank of the future requires an agile culture and platform-oriented operating model that respond promptly to emerging opportunities and deliver innovative solutions rapidly at scale.

The full report, Beyond digital transformations: Modernizing core technology for the AI bank of the future, deep dives into the considerations and key transformation required when modernising an organisation’s core technology, as well as 12 actions that banking leaders should consider taking to ensure the transformation creates value for customers and the bank.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. This season we are seeking op-eds, analysis and articles on food tech and sustainability. Share your opinion and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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After building Hmlet into a co-living company with a reported value over US$150 million, I was ready for time away from the pressure and pace of venture-backed startup life.

Right at this time, my best friend, who founded the sunglasses brand Rocket Eyewear, was having trouble with prescription orders, which required coordination between customers, optometrists and optical labs.

Whereas leading online eyewear stores offered guided checkout processes that accepted prescription files and showed customers many lens options, smaller eyewear brands couldn’t offer a similar experience without spending tens of thousands of dollars on custom plug-ins.

Inspired, we decided to build a public Shopify app that levels the playing field for independent eyewear brands, allowing them to compete with larger retailers.

Development began in June 2020, and we launched LensAdvizor on the Shopify App Store three months later. By June 2021, we were profitable with monthly revenues growing over 20 per cent a month.

Here are ten valuable lessons I learned from this experience.

A successful precedent is half the battle won

When customers are familiar with your idea, they require less “education” to understand your value proposition.

When we were pitching LensAdvizor to potential stores, our opening line referenced successful precedents by name: “Dear Store X, would you like to sell prescription lenses the same way leading online eyewear stores like Zenni Optical and Warby Parker do it?”

Also Read: Dollar online store ShopinSEA expands to Malaysia (and beyond)

As a result, stores grasped our value proposition immediately and could see real-life examples of how our app would work (before we’d even built it).

Being first has its advantages

When you’re the first player in a market, you can launch a minimum viable product and iterate because there is no competition. You can solve your customer’s problem in a rudimentary way and still be 10X better than what existed before you.

In contrast, entering a crowded market requires your initial solution to at least match the benchmark established by existing players. To build the next Zoom, your solution would, at a minimum, have to offer video calling, chat, mute etc. before you add your X factor.

If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is

There’s a simple reason LensAdvizor is the only app of its kind: our market is tiny.

Before launch, we estimated around 700 eyewear stores on Shopify. Today, we serve over 50 per cent of the market.

Concocting a unique idea can feel exhilarating. Before you blaze your trail, however, try to understand why your idea does not exist.

In a world with over 8 billion people, there’s a high chance that someone has already thought of your idea and even tried to build it!

When you’re first, unknowns abound, and potential competitors scrutinise your every move.

Also Read: 10 lessons on building a great team  by a marketing employee

The world is a Zoom call away, so validate before building

Before writing our first line of code, we contacted all 700 eyewear stores on Shopify and arranged 50 Zoom calls with interested users from Shanghai to Sao Paulo. Through this process, we built our app with the conviction that at least someone out there would use us.

Always be prepared to follow up

When we email potential customers, we always expect to have to send a follow-up. Just be a little thick-skinned. Some people are busy and forget to reply. Others don’t take you seriously until they’ve received two emails from you.

You could even email a third time, but there’s a fine line between being persistent and spammy.

(Subjective) “Make more money” is the strongest value proposition

In Mark Cuban’s words, “Sales cures all.” If your value proposition centres around increasing revenue or lowering expenses, you’ve grabbed my attention. On the other hand, if your value proposition is about convenience, I tend to label it as “nice to have” and de-prioritise it.

Customers have really high expectations of technology

Things are supposed to just work. In our experience, stores rarely praise us when LensAdvizor works and convey zero tolerance if bugs appear.

Forget office hours. Do things that don’t scale

We offer in-app chat support for LensAdvizor clients, and I respond to customer inquiries about 16 hours a day, seven days a week. Being always online can disrupt my day, but I continue to do so because customer conversations can reveal new ways to improve our app.

One morning, a store in Australia wanted to add images to their lenses; in the afternoon, a store from Taiwan needed help with installation, and in the evening, a Brazilian store wanted to translate their app from English into Portuguese.

Through these interactions, we built a JavaScript insertion section allowing stores to insert images anywhere on our app, a button for stores to publish theme files if Shopify installation fails; and a translation template, stores can use to customise all our text.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: Will the likes of Grab, GoTo crush competition in SEA?

Build just enough and listen to your customers

For launch, we replicated the user flows of Zenni Optical and Warby Parker and thought every store would be overjoyed. We were wrong.

As soon as we went live on Shopify, stores asked if they could reverse the flow so that customers could choose lenses before entering their prescription.

When you launch, you have hypotheses about what would be awesome, and you build it. However, there’s only so much you know before you’re just guessing.

Instead of obsessing over the future, build the foundation and listen to customers for next steps. Soon, patterns will appear, and you’ll know with conviction what features to prioritise.

Small can be sexy

Not every idea needs to command a billion-dollar valuation. Compared to Hmlet, LensAdvizor is a minnow.

However, whereas Hmlet required tens of millions of dollars in funding and hundreds of staff to run, LensAdvizor needed only a team of two to bootstrap and reach profitability.

As we continue to reinvest our profits into upgrading our app, we hope we can continue to be the leading solution in our nascent niche of online prescription eyewear.

Set your expectations, remember to breathe, and go for it!

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. This season we are seeking op-eds, analysis and articles on food tech and sustainability. Share your opinion and earn a byline by submitting a post.

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community or like the e27 Facebook page

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Forty million.

That was the number of new users from Southeast Asia who came onto the internet in 2020. With lockdowns from the pandemic catalysing the ‘flight to digital’ and forcing consumers to shop online, the e-commerce industry has witnessed unprecedented growth.

Within the region, the industry experienced a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 63 per cent from 2019 to 2020.

And this growth is sticky. According to Google’s e-Conomy SEA 2020 report, nine in 10 users intend to continue using digital services going forward. Consequently, e-commerce within Southeast Asia is projected to grow 23 per cent CAGR to hit US$172 billion by 2025.

Amidst these eye-boggling statistics, it also means the e-commerce industry would get more competitive as more players enter seeking to get a slice of a growing lucrative market.

Retailers will need to fight harder for loyalty by establishing competitive advantages in user experience. Put simply, the best experience wins.

Besides, the increased adoption of digital services will see e-commerce platforms emphasise fighting online fraud. In 2019, US$260 million was lost to digital fraud in the region, with identity theft (71 per cent) and account fraud (63 per cent) among the leading methods. 

This figure, which puts Southeast Asia among the top regions for fraud worldwide, has been largely caused by inefficiencies in identity verification.

Also Read: Locad lands US$4.9M seed funding to provide logistics infra for e-commerce businesses

Therefore, how can e-commerce platforms stand out from the competition while fighting fraud?

All hail open banking

Leveraging on open APIs, open banking enables e-commerce platforms to securely connect to a consumer’s bank account for purposes including initiating payments or retrieving data on their behalf.

This enables e-commerce companies to build a better user experience by allowing shoppers to pay directly from within the app.

Besides bypassing traditional card interchanges and eliminating platform fees, a frictionless payment process would also decrease drop-offs, resulting in a higher conversion rate.

Open banking APIs also enable e-commerce platforms to offer alternative payment options such as buy now, pay later (BNPL). With open APIs facilitating an accelerated credit scoring process, platforms can provide risk-adjusted financing plans to increase checkout rates, without running the risk of high default rates.

With Open banking, merchants can also look forward to a more convenient onboarding process. By allowing the e-commerce platform to access their bank account data, verification of account ownership and other know-your-business (KYB) processes can be accelerated, allowing for trusted sellers to start quickly.

Crucially, open banking reduces the possibility for fraud to occur. As transactions payments are processed by the consumer’s bank, they are subjected to bank-grade security guidelines, thereby significantly reducing identity theft and account fraud.

Also Read: Why banks will benefit from open API

From the e-commerce consumer’s perspective

Firstly, the user would have the option to select their preferred payment method. If they had selected a direct bank payment, they would be automatically directed to their banking app, where the authentication and authorisation processes would take place.

Once verification and consent are given, payment is sent directly from the user’s bank account to the e-commerce platform. During this, the user is redirected back to the platform to continue the checkout process, preventing drop-offs.

Led by API platforms such as Finantier, Open Banking is changing the future of how consumers use financial services by enabling various sectors, including e-commerce, to create seamless customer experiences.

It is allowing a new generation of e-commerce platforms to emerge – one that prioritises the needs of both retailers and consumers.

This post was originally published on Finantier’s blog.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. This season we are seeking op-eds, analysis and articles on food tech and sustainability. Share your opinion and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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