By CAITLIN CROWLEY
AN AUSTRALIAN ag-tech company is allowing farmers to instantly unlock the true value of food and fibre with the click of a smartphone camera.
Zondii, whose head office is in Armidale in country New South Wales, has developed technology which picks up unique biochemical markers to detect the quality, purity and origin of products via a simple smartphone camera.
The company started with wool fibres and has expanded to fresh produce, pastures, crops and other products to save farmers time and money, while combatting food fraud, estimated to cost the Australian food industry $3 billion annually.
CEO Danielle Morton said there is a growing need for realtime, sensitive and accurate authenticity testing that keeps pace with producers’ demands and the product supply chain.
“At Zondii we are passionate about increasing profitability for farmers and start our design phase on the farm to determine the real issues,” Morton said.
“We are delivering patented technology to a farmer’s smartphone that doesn’t need the internet to operate in the field.
“We are initially applying our technology to wool classing, pasture quality and provenance to contribute towards supply chain traceability.
“Zondii is replacing outdated 20 year old technology or lengthly laboratory testing processes to bring more profit to the farmers.”
Morton will be part of an expert panel discussing traceability and product sovereignty at TSBE’s 400M Agrifood Innovation Forum next month.
The forum aims to highlight how to turn innovative ideas into reality and showcase the best new technology available to solve industry challenges.
‘400M’ describes the 400 million hectares of farming land in Australia that needs to play its role in feeding the 400 million emerging middle-income earners in Asia.
Justin Heaven, TSBE Food Leaders Australia (FLA) General Manager said 400M, now in its sixth year, is one of Australia’s leading forums of its kind.
“It’s designed to highlight the future of agriculture and food supply chains innovation here within Australia,” he said.
“We’re also excited to showcase how industry adopts innovation and how they work with new entrepreneurs to get the solutions that they want to solve their biggest problems.”
The event is in partnership with Toowoomba’s Agtech and Logistics Hub, to view the full program and book tickets for the event on July 13, head to TSBE’s website.