Maltese startup Zoegi is working on creating a marketplace for organic Mediterranean food, using blockchain and cryptocurrency solutions to facilitate transactions between buyers and sellers, in order to solve environmental problems that threaten agriculture, according to a press statement sent to Business Malta.
“As environmental problems threaten agriculture and jobs in rural communities decrease, it has become essential to change the way we live and eat and Zoegi believes that the crypto community can lead that change,” the press statement sent to BM says.
Saying that modern agriculture is responsible for one-quarter of pollution that affects habitats around the world threatening biodiversity, Zoegi believes it has become essential to grow organic and improve the world’s food supply.
“We know that we cannot keep living as we do. Something has to change and food production is in the centre of that change. We cannot keep on polluting the planet, taking resources out of small communities the way we do. It’s simply not sustainable,” says Yelena Kensborn, founder of Zoegi.
Utilising blockchain and cryptocurrencies, Zoegi aims to facilitate transactions between buyers and sellers, allowing the user to scan every product to see exactly where it comes from.
Having gained traction in Malta with a deal to supply restaurant Caviar and Bull, Zoegi expects to soon close further deals around Europe this year.
Fighting global crisis
The company wants to change the way food is produced and distributed and “to fight the global environmental crisis at the same time as bringing the economic power back to rural, economically deprived areas,” the press statement adds.
Zoegi says that by helping local farming communities they improve the environment with increased organic farming. The startup’s long-term goal is to create a decentralised economy where every community in the world would realise the value of their work and can sell their products to the international market.
Charging in crypto, not fiat, the startup is looking to identify the key influencers in the space who do not just see their crypto tokens as a digital asset to trade on an exchange but are looking at them as a means towards an independent economy, the press statement says. The team believes that this will make the public think of crypto as it was originally intended; a means to trade independently of a central authority and fix the problems of existing systems.
“The Mediterranean is the original hub for trading. Here, deals were made between Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Because of this, it has always been open to new currencies, and millions of different coins have passed the ports of Malta. It is, therefore, not surprising, that Malta has been the most prominent player in the crypto scene, with a clear eye to the future and where the world is heading,” the startup concludes in the press statement.