AgriTech startup MooMart wants to disrupt the local farm-to-fork market

Editor’s note: CommuniCart is a BrandRap project aimed at helping micro, small, and medium enterprises get access to resources that can help them grow and expand, as well as gain an online platform for their stories. This CommuniCart piece is in partnership with MooMart.

When it comes to fruits and vegetables, we often hear stories of farmers that toil daily for measly, barely profitable fares while, simultaneously, we see the consistent rise of food price tags in retail stores – which makes one question the in-betweens of the country’s agricultural supply chain. Why are consumers paying so much, and farmers earning so little? 

For 28-year-old MooMart founder Eric Choe, this muddled gray area is what he wants to disrupt. “The main concern that I wish more people knew is the fact that farmers’ markets and marketplaces are riddled with middlemen and resellers. They continuously take advantage of hundreds of thousands of farmers here in the Philippines,” says Choe. 

This year, Choe founded the agritech startup MooMart, an online market where farmers of any scale can sell their products directly to the consumer, from households to businesses. MooMart’s goal is to revolutionize the agricultural value chain by providing transparency, both for the farmers and the shoppers.

“It’s extremely frustrating for farmers as these middlemen are passing off grocery store products as farm produced storefronts. On the consumer side, it’s virtually impossible for buyers to distinguish whether they’re buying from a farmer or a reseller. There’s a growing demand to know where our food comes from and how it’s been grown,” shares Choe.

Farmers already battle so many elements on top of their grueling work, from the climate crisis impacting their harvest to the country’s prevailing issues of imported produce dependency and lack of government support for farmers. By being able to sell directly to consumers, farmers get to take home more income by eliminating costs incurred by middlemen. Shoppers also get to purchase organic produce at more affordable prices – a win-win scenario for both sides.

The platform is set to launch in December, and will let users enjoy intuitive features like options for delivery subscriptions, delivery booking and tracking, and inventory management for farmers. These features make MooMart a more seamless e-marketplace for farm produce sellers and buyers, as opposed to more catchall, saturated selling platforms.

“By digitizing the farm-to-fork value chain and using our marketplace platform, we’re able to drive more sales back to our farmers. We plan to launch in Metro Manila in December 2022 and expect to expand across all major cities like Laguna, Cavite, Batangas, Bulacan, Pampanga, Bataan, Tarlac, Zambales, Nueva Ecija, La Union, Zamboanga, Iloilo City, Bacolod, Cebu, Davao, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, and Palawan by 2023,” says Choe.

Even months before its launch, MooMart had already drummed up significant interest from investors and farmers. To date, the startup has garnered over P8 million in pre-seed funding, and has already partnered with six major farms while over 200 provincial farms have pre-registered to join.

Moving full steam ahead, Choe envisions MooMart as a pioneer startup that will spark change and growth in the country’s agricultural industry through technology – and the business already seems primed to achieve its goal.

MooMart’s website will be operational this November. For more news and updates on the startup’s launch, make sure to follow MooMart on Facebook. – Rappler.com