In 2016, Ximena Adriazola Du-Pont joined the ranks of the 3% of startups worldwide that have a female CEO.
Just 2 weeks ago, the 22-year-old was presenting her success story to a meeting of young entrepreneurs in Lima.
Dubbed an “Agripreneur”, Ximena hopes to eliminate food waste with her company, Bio Natural Solution.
Ximena Adriazola Du-Pont
As many consumers of fruit and vegetables know, sometimes the shelf-life of tomatoes, bananas and peppers from your weekly shop can be frustrating – with the fruit often losing its ediblity after a day or two.
Ximena’s idea uses a 100% natural product which wraps around fruits to extend their longevity in the commercialization stage.
A competition winner of the 2017 Future Agro Challenge Peru on November 24, 2017, Bio Natural Solution’s product Bio Natural Cover extends the shelf-life of fruits and vegetables 200% after harvest, in a natural way, with an edible coating.
With this win in Peru, their company is invited to join the other 59 countries’ winners for the final selection for the Agripreneur of the Year at the FAC Global Championships. The competition is the highlight event at the Global Agripreneurs Summit 2018, to be held in April, 2018, in Istanbul, Turkey.
At the summit, “Selected agripreneurs will gain access to world class mentors, investors, potential clients, and new market opportunities.”
The summit for agripreneurs is a gathering of innovative interests from all over the food and agricultural industry, including food technology, food security and sustainability, food waste, food safety, agroforestry, packaging and logistics, and agriculture education, production, and processing.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) highlighted the problems of 1300 million tons of food being wasted every year globally, corresponding to approximately 1 billion dollars a year lost. This waste translates into a 33% loss of all food produced in the world for human consumption.
Over all of Latin America, the FAO reports that 127 million tons of food is wasted each year. The FAO estimates that, “food losses in Latin America would be enough to satisfy the dietary requirements of 300 million people”
In Peru, the FAO says 22% of food wastes are generated during handling and storage, this loss is valued at $200 million.
The FAO says that one of the several complex elements of a solution for food security is the resilience of food production systems and that the carbon footprint of food waste of vegetables is 21%. Thus, the extension of the shelf-life of produce is of importance to the goal of the international community to end hunger and malnutrition worldwide by 2030 and to reduce greenhouse gases.
Partnering with the Innovate Peru Program, the Peruvian Ministry of Production (PRODUCE) has funding of approximately $3,400,000 available for biotech, agrotech, and foodtech solutions.
The Innovate Peru Program is backed by the Ministry of the Environment, (MINAM), German development agency GIZ, and the National Council for Science, Technology, and Innovation (CONYCIT).