MEC - An eco-friendly marketplace in agri-food sector

The issues of food losses and food waste have reached such proportions that global economies are looking for solutions to limit their impacts. In this work, we describe an innovative e-marketplace for the agri-food supply chain (ASC), designed in the context of a R&D project (MEC) aimed at supporting the operators in reducing waste products and finding new sales channels. The MEC project involves the development of new knowledge management methods and technologies aimed at the design, modelling and experimentation of a new logistics network. Within the MEC project our purpose is to create a virtual commercial and logistics network, also functional to open the market to small businesses; to reduce the food products losses and waste; to extend the value to the uneaten food, waste and otherwise lost products; to strengthen the market of agricultural and agri-food specialties with a strong local/regional connotation through product management and control systems that allow for an improvement in the chemical, physical, organoleptic and nutritional qualities of the products at the time of consumption; to create a technological platforms for the integrated management of logistics for various commercial channels and the use of models for decisions based on the integration of "field" information with those acquired directly from the customer/final consumer, in the order and purchase and after-sales assistance. The system will be implemented as a web-based platform aimed to offer users: a decision support systems to aid sales services, also through demand forecasting algorithms that will allow optimization of the processes for locating goods with consequent maximization of consumption and reduction of waste; a route optimization systems, to strengthen distribution logistics services that will allow the selection of the best itineraries, also from the point of view of environmental sustainability; a systems for the valorisation of scraps, lost and wasted products through the definition of models of optimal use for energy production purposes of products no longer destined for food consumption; an ecosystem and social services related to the reduction of waste, production of energy from renewable sources, reduction of greenhouse gases linked to the optimization of the distribution phase, support to the third sector for the procurement of food for people in need. The expected results is the improvement in the competitiveness and sustainability of national agri-food supply chain linked to a reduction in the amount of product lost and/or wasted and pursued through a coherent set of innovative measures.