Organisation Name: Airofresh INTL Pty Ltd

Name: Jonathan Taylor

Category: Food Science

The Problem And How You Are Solving It: Food security is a global issue. Wastage, rots and storage limitations.

Chemicals decline in effectiveness from the moment they are applied and are costly to purchase and apply. Chemical applications often leave residues on produce and in many cases reduce taste and goodness. In long-term storage’s the chemicals become useless reapplied (which normally does not happen).
Contaminants mainly come in from the field and are stored in atmosphere (ambient, controlled CA and chilled).
Often the storage’s may be contaminated already along with the bins that are not cleaned properly.

Current methods are to protect produce by spraying or applying expensive chemicals to destroy latent contaminants on the produce.

Produce contributes to its own senescence by generating cumulative gases including ethylene.

Gases are very difficult to remove and in most storage’s are not.
In the case of ethylene being a drying gas, there are also ramifications to reductions in produce weight.

The problem overall is reductions in the availability of fresh, good value produce due to rots, moulds, internal browning, virus, bacteria and premature senescence.

Airofresh INTL developed a technology that addresses the problems detailed herein with a multi-process unit, driven by light frequencies that is not Ion, Ozone or photocatalytic.
We adapt atmosphere to effectively address all the described issues.

Your Business: Airofresh is a commercial enterprise with an environmental approach.
The desire to drive environmental benefits based on profit-driven motives in an adverse economic climate.
Researchers and business-driven principles working together for profitable outcomes with environmental benefits.
Enhancing local employment where the products are used through manufacture and servicing

Organisation Name: Hydrox Technologies

Name: Mark Trenchard

Category: Manufacturing

The Problem And How You Are Solving It: Hydrox Technologies is:

Improving mulch film performance: Plastic mulch film expands in the sun becoming loose and flapping in the wind. This causes heat and moisture loss. Flapping mulch also damages seedlings and fruit. Our mulch film shrinks in the sun to lay tightly against the bed
Reduce labour costs: In USA mulch film is made elastic to overcome the flapping problem. This film is weak and tears easily, necessitating manual labour taking 11 manhours per acre to lift. Our mulch film is retrieved by machine using 2 manhours
Reduce plastic usage: Existing film is made thicker to strengthen it, thereby using more plastic polymer, increasing the cost per metre. Our plastic is 30% thinner and 300% stronger performing well and saving plastic used reducing selling price
Reduce costs: Mulch film and drip tape are expensive outlays. We will supply these bundled together at direct ex-factory prices
Reduce disposal costs: Mulch film incurs transport costs and landfill disposal fees. We will collect the film and dispose of it at no cost
Bio-security: Soil and organic material that contaminates used mulch, prevents its transportation to recycling centres contamination increases recycling costs. We will recycle it using on-site mobile pyrolysis machines.
Recoup energy: The energy resource contained in the plastic is recovered by pyrolysis producing diesel and oil.

Your Business:
We manufacture an improved and unique type of plastic mulch film.
Farmers use black plastic mulch film when growing high-value vegetables such as tomatoes and melons.
It is also used as a clear sheet to accelerate the germination of broadacre crops such as cotton and maize.
It consists of a thin sheet of LDPE plastic laid along the entire length of a growing bed, in which holes are made for crop plants to grow, and its edges buried along its length to hold it in place.
Mulch film is used to heat the soil, retain moisture, reduce weeds, keep fruit clean and to prevent soil-borne disease.
Farmers can achieve up to 400% increase in crop production when using mulch film, which is replaced at the beginning of each season.
Hydrox intends to be the market leader and besides having a much better product will insulate the company from competition by taking complete stewardship of its products.
It will also manufacture and supply, directly to farmers, all other plastic products associated with open field protective cropping such as drip irrigation pipe (tape), crop cover and low tunnels.
Hydrox will further establish a franchise division for Contract Lifting and Baling the used plastic at the end of the season.
This waste plastic will form the input for a Pyrolysis Division which will recycle the waste into diesel and bunker oil for use.

Organisation Name: Fresh Supply Co.

Name: David Inderias

Category: Food Traceability & Safety

The Problem And How You Are Solving It:
Brand recognition, clear brand identity, and authenticity are hugely important to large agricultural producers exporting overseas – as well as connecting consumers with their food domestically.
We do this by linking physical product, to provenance information about what makes the product so premium on the blockchain.
We make sure that when consumers request this information, what they say is content localized and relevant retail context.

Your Business:
We integrate into existing producers operations and capture information about their product – which is then pushed to the blockchain.
We also label the products with digital identifiers.
This information is when requested at the point of sale is has user and market-specific retailer advertising allowing a cross-selling approach by the retailer.
The producer gets a share of the advertising revenue.
Using the same blockchain core we add IOT transit information and replace expensive trade finance tools (Letters of Credit) with digital escrow payments – we currently work with AliPay and National Australia Bank.