AgroSustain is a Swiss start-up active in the field of Agriculture Technology (“AgTech”), spin-off from the University of Lausanne (UNIL), working in partnership with Agroscope, the Swiss center of excellence for agricultural research in Changins, Nyon, and the University of Lausanne. Combination of leading research institutions and support from best Swiss and international entrepreneurship programs, e.g. VentureLab, Venture Kick (Stage 3 Winner), Innosuisse, Geneva Sustainability Award, Dalle Molle Foundation Award for Quality of Life, BRIDGE, European Union (EU) Climate-KIC and EU Horizon 2020 SME Instrument Stage 1, provide an ideal support for successful start-up development.Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations estimated annual food waste at an equivalent of CHF 1’000 billion, out of which CHF 60 billion of fruits and vegetables get lost every year caused by fungal pathogens in mid / downstream operations (post-harvest, in storage facilities). Metabolites of some of the broadly spread fungi in food storage facilities can have additional negative effect on human health e.g. aflatoxin – poisonous carcinogen produced by Aspergillus species. To this day, no efficient, cost-effective, organic treatments against molds are available on the post-harvest market.
AgroSustain has developed a pipeline of plant-derived anti-fungal compounds against broad range of agronomically important fungal pathogens present in pre
and post-harvest. AgroSustain’s first product extends shelf life of fruits, vegetables & cut flowers infected with mostly spread molds in post-harvest, by minimum 7 days. Hence, it leads to a significant reduction of food waste and CO2 emissions. Post-harvest application of AgroShelf+ on stored perishable food can be done with spray or related patented technology in storage facilities, with no to minimal installation costs.
AgroSustain’s co-founders team worked and lived in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa and Oceania. Business network and field experience will be leveraged in countries such as Kenya, Zambia, Ethiopia or Russia where the impact of reducing food losses due to molds will be the highest, also allowing to make more fruits & vegetables available for people thanks to plant-inspired solutions.Company's ambition is to reduce global food waste in post-harvest by 1% by 2030.
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