What a startup from Singapore, Brazilian coffee, and agribusiness giants have in common

From the coffee plantation to the coffee packet, there are several traceability requirements, including the beans’ origination stage.

Where does the coffee come from? What attitude was it planted in?

What are the characteristics of the coffee, such as sugar content and acidity?

These are some of the questions that a laboratory analysis of the beans answers.

And every coffee that goes to a trader or an industry goes through this evaluation to prove it meets the buyers’ requirements.

Using artificial intelligence models, Singapore startup Profile Print proposes to reduce the analysis cost for each coffee sample and make the process more streamlined.

Alan Lai, CEO and founder of ProfilePrint, says in an interview with Exame that a sample analysis costs between US$50 and US$60, the result of which takes two weeks to come out.

The machine developed in Asia reduces the cost to US$15, and the result comes out the same day or the same hour, depending on the volume of data analyzed.

With a portion of green coffee in the palm of his hand, Lai inserts the beans into a sort of drawer, and in a short time, a device connected to the computer already gives the entire diagnosis.

The exact process applies to cocoa beans, something that has caught the attention of food industry giants.

Louis Dreyfus, Olam Agrícola, and Sucafina Brasil signed contracts with the startup in February as part of a group of investors that includes Cargill and Sinar Mas – one of Indonesia’s largest conglomerates.

This shows the importance of having more precision in grain analysis and the demand for innovative solutions.

WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF BRAZILIAN COFFEE IN THE WORLD?

Brazilian coffee exports grew 46.9% in 2022, breaking revenue records by reaching US$9.2 billion, according to the Council of Brazilian Coffee Exporters (Cecafé).

With this revenue, coffee accounted for 2.8% of Brazilian exports and 5.8% of national agribusiness exports.

The volume of the national coffee industry is huge: at least one out of every three cups of coffee consumed in the world has Brazilian raw material, according to a survey by the International Coffee Organization (ICO).

With such volume and importance, Alan Lai, CEO of ProfilePrint, sees room for Brazil to be “the fastest growing market for the company, due to its operations in coffee and the adoption of a lot of technology in the field.

The business follows a subscription model, which costs $400 per month for the service, which includes the machine and data generation.

Coffee producers can also purchase the Singaporean technology, comments ProfilePrint’s CEO.

In addition to evaluating the quality of the crop almost in real-time, traceability is a means of “obtaining a fairer sale price from buyers, especially for specialty beans.

HOW DID THE COMPANY ARRIVE IN BRAZIL?

Founded in 2017, with headquarters in Singapore, the company was born from the market opportunity seen by Alan Lai.

“It is a global movement to know more about what we consume; I see consumers interested in the origin of the food around the world,” says the CEO.

Thus, the company serves not only coffee and cocoa chains but also peppers, teas, spices, rice, and other ingredients used by the food industry.

Experienced in the fintech business for private equity funds, the investor saw in agriculture a way to serve a complete chain “from the grower to the barista”.

Moreover, as he says, this variety of raw materials is found in Brazil.

Therefore, coming here was already expected, and he says he made a point of visiting farms and talking to producers, traders, and buyers.

“Other coffee markets are also on our radar. Australia, for example, is an important market but a smaller one. When we look at area and productivity, we look at South America and especially Brazil,” says the CEO.

COFFEE AND CARBON MARKET

Excited when telling about the company, Alan Lai says he foresees a 300% growth by 2023 but does not clarify the comparison.

Still, part of this optimism also lies in the opportunity with the carbon market.

His thesis is that this market should grow in Brazil and the world, becoming a reality for coffee growers, as the advance of climate change is damaging the crop.

By knowing the level of emissions generated by the coffee plantations, it is possible to make corrections, such as soil management and more precise applications of inputs.

Thus, the producer and all stakeholders contribute to decarbonizing the production chain.

“The carbon footprint of the food chain will be significantly reduced,” comments the CEO.

With information from Exame

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