The Mittersill start-up “farmlifes” brings farmers in front of the curtain with a click and shows who is behind the products.
After just a few clicks you can be sure who made the mountain cheese or the bread? If the two start-up founders Lisa Rieder and Herbert Astl have their way, that should soon be possible.
The two young entrepreneurs from Mittersill are currently working flat out on this idea: Ten farmers are currently testing their “farmcode”. In other words, a kind of specially developed app with which regional products can be traced back 100 percent.
This is made possible by specially created QR codes on the products, which after scanning with the mobile phone camera reveal information about the product and the farmer free of charge.
“The whole thing is a seal that is simply printed on the label,” explains founder Lisa Rieder. What is special about it? Even with processed products, you get an overview of where the ingredients come from. That seems to score: the initial feedback is very good. The five-person team plans to launch its new app on the market as early as December. The aim is not only to create a “smart sales channel” for farmers on a subscription basis. “Often, consumers have an outdated image of agriculture through advertising and do not know how digitized and automated it already is,” says Rieder – she and her founding colleague and partner grew up on farms. The “farmcode” is not their first innovation – in 2019 they founded the social farmer’s online network “farmlife”, which serves as the basis for the new app.
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