Wanted: companies that wish to purchase waste streams and upcycle them into products

Olympic Fruit is located in the Dutch heart of the vegetable and fruit business in Barendrecht. We are a modern international fruit partner for producers, wholesalers and retailers. Collaboration lies at the heart of our partner role and forms the foundation for chain-effective operations. Connecting the right partners and supporting them with relevant specialist services ensures our ambitions are within reach. 

With every service provided, we strive to build trust and inspire excitement and creativity. Whether it’s grower connections, geographical distribution, species selection, promotion planning, shopper insights, brands, private labels and many more, our full commitment and dedication ensure we are constantly meeting or exceeding expectations.

Currently we have more than 700 tonnes of waste per year in various fruits. These are in citrus, grapes, stone and soft fruit. Waste occurs in the receipt, processing and storage of our fruits. The vast majority of the waste is now picked-up by the local waste treatment service and through a process of bio fermentation, used in energy recovery. 

The following categories of food waste are generated: 

• Citrus fruits (orange, mandarin, minneola, lemon & lime)
• Ginger
• Melon
• Kiwi
• Cherry (seasonal)
• Grapes

As an example: in the spring of this year, we developed a mandarin beer in partnership with a brewer. That was a huge success. Not only did we upcycle waste mandarins to a new product for consumption on the market, but the waste from that upcycling process was also recycled to provide compost. And it was delicious.

In order to progress in our sustainability goals and further expand on the possibilities of waste treatment, we want to partner up with more companies/parties.

What we are looking for:

We are interested in companies that wish to purchase these waste streams and can upcycle them into products higher up the ladder (from composting up to human consumption), or partner up with us to provide possibilities in upgrading the waste together into other and better usable products.Does your company have a solution? Then we would like to get in touch with you!

What we are not looking for:

Solutions focused solely on reducing the created waste in our production process.

What we offer:

• Opportunity to start a pilot collaboration 
• Opportunity to get follow up contract(s) and/or structural collaboration when the pilot is successful

Conditions for Participation:

• You can demonstrate a working prototype/product/service.
• Able to start a pilot project in 3-6 months.

How does it work?

• Send in a short and concise pitch deck with your solution;
• As soon as you have uploaded your pitch, you will receive a confirmation so that you know that we have received your pitch;
• Your pitch is only visible to Olympic Fruit;
• After the deadline, Olympic Fruit will assess all pitches individually and invite the companies with the most interesting solutions for a 1:1 conversation to get to know each other and look for opportunities to collaborate.

Pitch Format

• Send in a short and concise pitch deck of your solution (max 4 pages / 12 slides) with description of the following two parts: 
  • A description of your product or solution: 
    Give a short description of your product or solution, as detailed and visual as possible. In which phase is the solution?
  • A description of your company & team;
    How and when was your company founded? In which phase are you? How many people? In which market are you active? Also a short description of the (managing) team.
• The pitch deck may be submitted in free form (presentation, slide deck, letter form), but must be uploaded as a PDF file (landscape or portrait A4 - max 30MB). Videos, example websites, etc. can be included as a link.

Timeline

• December 7 at 17.00 CET: Deadline challenge
• December 8 – December 20: Review period 
• January 2024: 1:1 conversations
• Q1/Q2 2024 onwards: Discuss and start collaboration

Terms & Conditions

• Participation is open for startups, scale-ups, SMEs, grown-ups, innovators and scientists with an innovative product and/or technology.
• You will remain the owner of your intellectual rights, concept or solution in your pitch, until you agree otherwise.
• We strongly advise you to document everything you share with others and mention that information provided is confidential and intellectual property rights remain with you/ your company until agreed otherwise.
• Be aware of the fact that your pitch (and concepts and ideas in it) will be viewed and be shared with (internal) stakeholders. Keep IP sensitive unique (technical) details out of your pitch, keep it a secret that you can share later.
• Download Terms & Conditions