What is Food Security ?

We focus on Emerging Technologies in combination with Farmer’s empowerment & smart processing methodologies to promote Food Safety. Although anticipated benefits of modern technologies suggest a level of food production that will sustain the global population, both political will and sufficient investments in modern agriculture are needed to alleviate the food crisis in so-called developing countries. Food security and hunger alleviation on a global scale are within reach provided that technological innovations are accepted and implemented at all levels.  Rural cooperatives and farmers’ organizations play a crucial role in the eradication of hunger and poverty. One of the ways they achieve this is to empower small agricultural producers, and in particular women farmers. We will support our neighbouring farmer’s community with information and input, which will enable them to have sustainable pre-harvesting support: we will provide input material for some products the farmer seeks and what we need for our business model to match this.

Empowering women farmers improves food security for all. Women comprise on average 43% of the agricultural labour force in developing countries and produce the bulk of the world’s food crops. We focus on involving the farmer’s ecosystem in our commercial and sustainability focus by sourcing quality fruits and vegetables which are preferably organic but also help the producing farmers to maximize their returns with their harvest in the market: the result will be less waste or loss due to lack of storage, transport or low quality of the harvested products.

Why food security ?

Food Safety & Security is a global challenge! in many parts of the world, food security is emerging as a serious threat. Increasing population, land and water constraints, changes in dietary habits with increasing affluence, the impact on global food production of floods and droughts in major food producing areas, falling food exports, and a rising number of importing countries – all are contributing to these uncertainties.

Moreover, about $940 billion worth of food is lost or wasted each year throughout the entire food supply chain. In developing countries, food losses have significant implications on the income of smallholder farmers, who dominate food production and account for a large proportion of the poor and undernourished populations. On-farm losses reduce the quantity of crops to be sold, thereby reducing the income of farmers, especially smallholders.

Food safety concerns also lead to quality losses and can have devastating impacts on nutrition and health. For example, aflatoxin contamination in Africa is a significant concern due to health risks from exposure as well as the lack of market incentives to improve safety standards. Without improvements along the product value chain, this hinders consumers as well as smallholder farmers from fully benefiting from high-quality, nutritious foods.

The problem is likely to be compounded in the future by climate change. Agricultural practices also are related to local government policies with an adverse effect on the food market and use of land, pesticides, herbicides and technology. On the other hand on part of the same sector is also becoming more aware of changing consumer behaviour towards healthy and sustainable agrifood practices.

Sustainabiliy of Food & Agricultural practices have attracted investors massively as its fits the contemporary line of sustainable food thinking.

Mahler’s Investment Strategy is based on the following three parameters:

• The food & agricultural production and supply chain is very globalized in all ways with its positive & negative effects of sourcing, pricing, availability, and quality
• Food consumption in “developed nations” is focused on organic and sustainable farming methodology leading to more food security & quality: the less privileged are already happy with food availability or not able to access sustainable input material for quality food.
• Healthy and safe secured food for everyone has become a global business opportunity for the Indian Agrifood sector!

On the global scene we see distribution chains from and to Emerging Markets in Asia and other regions such as Africa or The Carribean & Latin-America. India is overall the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world! With our focus on the European Union as our primary market, we have our office in Amsterdam, because the Netherlands is the second largest agrifood trader globally. This means that we have untapped opportunities that are still unleveraged!

Across the region, the future growth potential is huge, as incomes continue to rise, urbanisation gathers pace, life expectancy increases and consumer demands rapidly evolve, not least due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore we want to capitalize on this untapped food security opportunity by allocating our investments for development of the stakeholders communities, business growth and finally investment returns. With IEFP we want to invest in the food chain from many angles with a variety of partnerships with a global view.

Therefore ,our investors believe in healthy and sustainability of the food value chain. They consider investing in food security as the best way to leverage trade and uplift the lives of the many farmers in India and abroad.