A photograph of Rickard Sandahl.

Mylla.se is a digital marketplace where food producers sell directly to their markets. Mylla’s mission is to reduce the distance between those producing food and those consuming it. By removing the middlemen, producers get paid better and buyers get a better price. Founder Rickard Sandahl describes how Mylla’s platform facilitates relationships between producers and consumers which are better for people, the environment , and the local economy .

Mylla is a digital marketplace that facilitates direct transactions between food producers and buyers. These buyers can be consumers, restaurants, hotels, cafés, and the public sector. Mylla ensures a smooth process whereby the goods of the producers are gathered together in one order and then delivered to the door of the buyer.

As a company, we’re driven by our mission to reduce the distance between those who produce food and the rest of us who eat it. We believe that, as human beings and consumers, we are moving closer and closer to authenticity. The era of standardized, mass-produced, and high-volume products is coming to an end. With the Internet giving everyone an outlet to sell things, our need to buy standardized products at one big store is declining. Marketplaces like Amazon and Alibaba have given DTC (Direct to Consumer) brands an enormous opportunity to sell to a global audience.

In the grocery sector, however, this has not been the case: As people start to purchase more groceries online, the need for standardization is less obvious. The major grocery chains fulfil a purpose with their physical stores due to these being located close to where people live: However, when people buy more groceries online, the need for these stores is reduced.

That opens the market to marketplaces in the grocery sector, too. Suddenly, a smaller brand can also get the opportunity to sell directly to its consumers in a way that the big brands alone used to do. Mylla aims to be that marketplace. With full transparency, every player along the grocery chain must show what value it adds and be able to justify that. In the current marketplace, there are too many middlemen who are simply not needed in an efficient food chain: As a result of this, these middlemen may become redundant.

By connecting our platform to the producers, we can get data showing exactly where different produce has been grown, or about the life of a cow. We know when produce is ripe and when it’s ready to be sold.

On the buying side, we have consumers and restaurants who have a pretty good idea about what they will be buying during the coming week, but also during the next six months, if they have the time to plan for it and the incentive to do it. However, with each week of buying groceries, the platform will know what they will most likely be buying based on their previous consumption behavior, and thus we can forecast both the type of food and the amount with some accuracy.

One of the major problems and inefficiencies of the food chain is food waste on the producer side, that is, food that is unsold or partly damaged. This waste is of no value today. However, when we start to match up the data we get from the producers with the data we get from the buyers, things start to happen! We know which products are in demand, and we know the quantities; and this is now being matched with the supply data obtained from the producers. Suddenly, the inefficiencies disappear and we start to find the true price of a product. There is no need for consumers to look for discount prices: The algorithm will do the work for them if they know in advance what they want. If many consumers want to buy a specific piece of meat from a specific producer, then the price will go up and you as the consumer will have to specify the maximum price you are willing to pay during the automated buying process.

If it’s not as important to buy from a specific producer and you are willing to try something else, then the price you pay falls automatically. What we are talking about here is a digital auction taking place without either the seller or buyer being involved. It all happens automatically, in the best interests of both parties and not in the best interests of the major grocery chains. The software for the digital auction is only of use if the data is available, showing once again how important transparency is.

Producer data regarding the type of product, weight, and volume and so on is necessary for automated purchasing. However, there is one more aspect of this data that will have a huge impact on the profit margins of the producer, for example, the price paid by the buyer, the environment, and society itself. This is the condition or quality of the product. Today, we pay the same price for a tomato that is ripe and perfect as we do for one that is older and, well, not so perfect. Or is it perfect? Yes, it is, for chefs wanting to make a tomato sauce! There is no need for them to purchase the expensive tomatoes that all consumers want. Thus, the value of the product varies with its condition. Using IoT freshness sensors, it’s possible to update prices in real time according to the quality of the tomatoes.

When we have data indicating their condition, the fresher tomatoes demanded by consumers will thus command a higher price. However, products previously impossible to sell can now be sold to buyers interested in tomatoes in this condition who will then happily pay less. However, it’s still more than nothing, which is what they were getting paid before.

When not just the origin of a product, or its labels and type, is important, but also its condition, then more food will be available for purchase and the level of price elasticity will increase. This will have a huge impact on society.

Thus, the demand for authenticity is pushing the grocery market in the same direction as so many other industries, with marketplaces taking on a key role and smaller brands playing a bigger one. When the producer itself is the brand, it can start building in value using storytelling and so on. Small producers will always be more authentic than large-scale corporations are, and this will be of importance when customers make choices on the basis of their interests.