This adventure started with a family business in Calabria and the need to change the future of agriculture. Osvaldo DeFalco did an internship in Lithuania while studying Economics in Rome and, when he came back, he specialised at Luiss. The periods spent in New York, where he studied English and worked as a waiter, and in Milan, where he worked as financial adviser for two years, are at the base of his first intuition, which he had almost by chance while walking in the streets of Milan.
De Falco (in the photo) told FreshPlaza that "there is an underlying issue here. City shops sell organic clementines at €2.80 while local producers like my father only make €0.20. There is something wrong with that." The solution was to bypass the entire chain putting producers directly into contact with consumers. But how to do it?
"The solution is really simple, actually. Anyone, wherever they are, can grow their fruit naturally. The difference is that, instead of tractors, Biofarm members use a smartphone."
Osvaldo DE Falco presents Biofarm to the partners of H-Farm & Cisco's Food Accelerator Program.
What is Biorfarm exactly?
"On Biorfarm.com, anyone can adopt trees, create their own digital orchard, follow the organic production of local producers adhering to the platform and have the produce delivered at home."
"By visiting Biorfarm.com, you can create your own organic production choosing among clementines, oranges, lemons, olives, Fuji, Golden and Renetta apples or pears. Each adopted tree gives you a right to part of the harvest, so you can receive seasonal fruit at home within 48 hours from harvesting."
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Biorfarm users
"Users are constantly increasing but it is the relationship established with producers that's important, in addition to the fact that Google is now interested in start-ups. There are people placing orders from abroad, mostly women. Many are gifts - there are aunts giving trees to nephews, sons giving an orange tree to their mothers. There are also those who choose trees for weddings and managers who get trees for their employees at Christmas."
Future projects
The start-up has recently won the H-Farm and Cisco's Food Accelerator Program, which will provide the resources necessary to expand and perfect their business model.
"We are now based in Veneto and two new organic producers will join us shortly - one from Sicily with lemons and almonds and one in Puglia with wine. We are working to revolutionise the way people buy their organic products. We want to develop the largest shared commercial farm, where users can know their producers and therefore the food they bring to their tables. We are currently assessing new businesses to become our partners - by the end of January, we will select 30/35 new national producers. They will share their experience, while we will share our technology, packaging and logistics."
Challenges
"We managed to talk to mentors, tutors, entrepreneurs and international investors who helped us perfect our business model. With H-Farm's initial investment, we will build a network of organic producers who, thanks to the new platform, will be able to provide a constant direct supply of fresh seasonal fruit to users."
"There are multiple challenges. We need to select a reliable logistics partner that can work like a courier while respecting the cold chain. In addition, we are also studying how to improve our packaging and meet summer fruit demand, as well as how to include the foreign users who are asking to become digital producers."
The fact that the internet is used to restore a human contact, now lost in the big cities, may seem like a paradox. But this is precisely Biofarm's strategy - to put us into contact with something that used to exist, to invest in tradition but in a digital way. The digital world applied to agriculture is giving something back that seemed lost. Is this the road to the agriculture of the future?
For further information:Biorfarm
Email: info@biorfarm.com
Web: www.biorfarm.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/biorfarm
Twitter: twitter.com/biorfarm
Instagram: instagram.com/biorfarm#