Perfekto Prevents Waste by Delivering Im-Pear-fect Produce

Picking the Pear-Fect Fruit

One of my childhood friends and her boyfriend started their own fruit and vegetable delivery business last year. They buy food from local producers and distribute it to their clients in Périgueux, a city in central France with about 30,000 inhabitants. Their small business is growing little by little, and my friend will soon be the first to make a salary out of it.

Fresh produce delivery businesses like my friend’s have been growing around the world. They usually allow customers to save time while purchasing from local producers and supporting local economies. Many of these delivery companies are thriving in the largest cities of developed countries, but the business model doesn’t work everywhere. Cities need to have enough inhabitants willing to pay the extra cost of getting their food delivered.

Entrepreneurs like my friend are trying to see if produce delivery startups can work in small cities. Other founders in emerging countries are launching startups based on this model in capital cities, hoping the middle- to higher-income classes are large enough to sustain the growth startups require. This business model is so popular that I even met founders launching produce delivery startups in Lilongwe, Malawi, a country with one of the world’s lowest GDPs per capita.

With so many to choose from, it’s difficult for investors to pick the right produce delivery business to invest in. Many of these companies will remain small businesses and probably won’t provide any return to investors. For a startup to really grow, its market must be large and developed enough for the startup to find customers but still new enough that competition isn’t already established and dominant. The startup must have a great founding team to navigate the difficulties of a crowded market. And it has to find a way to differentiate itself. It’s not easy to find a company like that, but I found the right candidate: Perfekto.

Perfekto is pretty similar to my friend’s business — with one major difference. It doesn’t buy the usual fruits and vegetables producers sell. It buys the food producers want to throw away. The company delivers subscription boxes of imperfect fruits and vegetables that would otherwise go to waste. And its prices are reasonable: $9.90 for an 11-pound box and $19.50 for a 22-pound box.

Perfekto’s focus on imperfect produce is an important distinction. The world’s food supply chain is broken. Customers tend to select the best-looking fruits and vegetables in stores, so distributors don’t want to buy imperfect food from producers. As a result, producers must throw away bananas with black spots, carrots with bumps and all kinds of other produce. Once in landfills, food waste produces methane, a greenhouse gas with 80 times more warming power than carbon dioxide. That food waste is responsible for about 7% of greenhouse gas emissions. In the end, it’s a waste of energy, nutrients, water, and financial resources. And the problem must be tackled as soon as possible to solve climate change and food security issues.

Perfekto is solving the food waste problem all while generating revenue. And it has crucial advantages over its competitors.

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