'Consumers have a right to know where their food comes from'

Marko Kozjak, Co-Founder of the food traceability platform VeeMee, based in Croatia, took a big leap recently, quitting his job as Director of Procurement and Sales at a FNV company, so he could focus his full attention on VeeMee.

"We started our company back in 2016 in Croatia and the whole idea was that we wanted to create a neutral way to share standard information about the fresh products that consumers are buying, by way of using a PID (Producer Identity). Every producer and company is issued a QR code which can be scanned via a free app and can be used on any mobile device. We would like to put the trust back in the hands of the grower," shared Marko.

VeeMee founders Marko Kozjak (left) and Nikola Vido (right).

As well as creating the app for traceability, the company has just started a second project to combat food waste.

"Our idea has always been to find the right solution to the issues in the fruit and vegetable sector, and we would like to continue developing new solutions to improve the industry by using the internet of things. We just started the first trials with a new service to combat food waste in supermarkets. From my past experience working in the industry, just one company could have around 5,000 tons in waste annually, which is huge when you imagine what the numbers must be when you add up the waste for all of Europe," said Marko.

The new program has a solution for when a truck is refused by the retailers, for a variety of reasons.

"Retailers usually reject a truck when more than 3% of the goods in it have an issue. Many would assume that this would be because of quality or cosmetic issues, but it can also be because of incorrect labels or packaging. What we do is go through the shipment and sort or repackage everything so it can be sold by the supermarkets within 24 hours. This has a big impact, imagine the costs and the effects of the environment when a shipment that has been rejected has to go all the way back to Spain, or a destination further afield, only to be disposed of on arrival. Of course, there are still some products which are not salvageable for retail, but these goods are still fine to eat and we make sure they go to the needy," Marko explains.

For now, VeeMee is operating in Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia. Serbia is not yet in the EU, but the company hopes that VeeMee will become a pan European program.

"We are hard at work trying to build up partnerships in countries like the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Italy. I have found that some traders are a bit hesitant to give away the information about origin. I really believe that this is unfounded and that customers have a right to know where their fresh fruit and vegetables comes from, which is why the service is free to consumers and is in English, making it accessible for every one to use."

For m

ore information:

Marko Kozjak
VeeMee

Tel: +385 998080565

Fax: +385 998080565

Email: marko@veemee.hr

veemee.eu