Why this program?

• France, with the largest agricultural area in Europe (28.3 million hectares in 2022), has seen significant changes that highlight a growing concern for food sovereignty. Vineyard area nearly halved, vegetable growing area more than halved, and forage crops reduced by a quarter.
• Europe has nearly 10 million farms. Farmers, particularly those running small businesses, often work long hours in the fields, leaving them with limited time for sales, deliveries, data sharing, invoicing, or payment processing.
• The global food supply chain is centered around wholesalers and logistical hubs, widening the gap between producers and consumers. This setup leads to unequal distribution of produce and revenue, and often sidelines small businesses.
• On the other hand, consumers are increasingly interested in buying local products and are demanding greater transparency regarding the origins and environmental impact of the items they bring to their kitchens.

Program Overview

Direct Market is a B2B digital marketplace designed to support agricultural small businesses, particularly farms, in marketing their products locally. Its goal is to enable retailers to source local goods more efficiently while offering consumers access to fresh, locally grown produce. By simplifying the local supply chain and ensuring complete transparency, Direct Market supports producers, buyers, and consumers to benefit from a more connected and sustainable marketplace.

At its core, Direct Market serves two key groups, agricultural small businesses and buyers such as merchants, wholesalers, restaurants, schools, and e-commerce merchants. The platform’s marketplace allows buyers to place orders from multiple producers seamlessly, with Direct Market managing several critical processes:

• Sourcing products from producers
• Preparing and consolidating orders
• Delivering orders to buyers
• Handling invoicing and secure payments
• Offering producer profiles and transparency on pricing

Through a partnership with CIC France bank, producers are paid promptly, even before buyers complete payment, which ensures and bolsters the financial health and resilience of small businesses.

In addition to the marketplace, Direct Market offers a toolbox that enables small businesses to set up branded, white-label marketplaces promoting local products while benefiting from Direct Market’s technology and data insights. This custom-made solution meets the specific needs of various stakeholders in the supply chain, combining flexibility with scalability.

Direct Market also brings critical business intelligence by gathering and analyzing data on pricing, volumes, product locations, and value-sharing across the supply chain. This surfaces new insights and enables smarter decision-making, addressing a long-standing data gap in the local food ecosystem.

As part of its ongoing growth, Direct Market is integrating AI and marketing automation to scale its operations and enhance its Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) capabilities, allowing seamless data exchange with major retail chains. To foster greater transparency, Direct Market provides consumers with a traceability tool that shows the full journey of a product through the supply chain, including sustainability metrics, accessible via QR codes at the point of sale.

With support from the Mastercard Strive EU Innovation Fund, Direct Market will further expand its software as a service (SaaS) marketplace solution, enhancing its performance and scalability to accommodate growing user demand. This partnership will also help integrate EDI with large retail chains, improve data security at scale, and leverage AI-driven business insights. Ultimately, this program aims to strengthen Europe’s local food systems by supporting the growth and resilience of small-size, independent producers.

About Direct Market

Direct Market is a forward-thinking company dedicated to transforming Europe’s local food supply chains by empowering small agricultural producers and fostering sustainable commerce. With a mission to make locally sourced food more accessible and transparent, Direct Market leverages cutting-edge digital tools to bridge the gap between independent producers and professional buyers. The company is committed to improving food resilience, promoting fair value distribution, and supporting environmental and social sustainability across the entire supply chain. As a leader in the digitalization of local food markets, Direct Market plays a pivotal role in driving innovation, ensuring that producers receive fair compensation and consumers benefit from transparent, ethically sourced products.

About Agoralim Direct

Direct Market’s white-label marketplace for Rungis International in the Île-de-France Region - Greater Paris.