Tabe Choku provides C2C marketplace for farmers to sell online

Tabe Choku is an online marketplace managed by a Japanese startup called vivid garden Inc. that is connecting farmers and consumers to purchase and sell directly.

During Japan’s self-quarantine period, the oversupply of food that were originally sold to the food service industry and schools became a problem. Schools were closed, and restaurants, bars and nightclubs were strongly requested to shorten their opening hours or, in some cases, closed completely. The demand for grocery stock among these sectors plunged. On the contrary, as people spent more time at home than ever before, there was a growing demand for grocery items; and because of the pandemic, people turned to ecommerce to purchase them.

Filling the gap caused by the self-quarantine

Tabe Choku are connecting suppliers and consumers to save the farmers and their quality food. This consumer to consumer (C2C) ecommerce platform helps organic farmers with commitments to be evaluated fairly, and gain reasonable profit from their produce. It also benefits consumers by allowing them to choose farmers, and communicate even with them prior to purchase. This lets customers know where their food come from, and how safe they are.

Tabe Choku has been supporting farmers across the country by covering the shipping fees from March 2. This time, the company has announced to extend this discount period and also increase the number of producers on their ecommerce platform.

Criteria on farmers’ impact on environment

Before COVID-19, Tabe Choku imposed a strict standard on enrolling farmers, which was to keep the use of agricultural chemicals and fertilizers on the products less than 50% of the general criteria.

However, the company mitigated the standard after May 1. During the quarantine period, the number of inquiries from farmers across the country who lost their regular sales channels soared. Their food had high quality but unfortunately didn’t meet Tabe Choku’s prior standards. Since Tabe Choku’s mission is to evaluate farmers fairly, and to realize a society that reevaluated their commitments, the company decided to modify the criteria to save the producers in face of the urgent situation.

The new criteria to become a supplier at Tabe Choku are as follows: farmers who do not over contaminate or cause serious environmental pollution; and those who use agricultural chemicals or chemical fertilizers need to specify the names, amount and number of times the chemicals were used.

Having impact as a socially responsible business

Tabe Choku aims to gather grocery items that are produced with commitment and make sure that they are properly evaluated without any exploitation or stress from middlemen. By eliminating exploitation, farmers can earn decent profit from what they produce. This thus accelerates eco-friendly agriculture and reduces health risk of farm workers and consumers. And because producers are also sellers at Tabe Choku, unfair discount or price competition can be avoided, leading to fair assessment of farming. Because labor shortage is a frequently discussed topic related to Japanese agriculture, Tabe Choku’s business model may contribute to attracting more workers to engage in farming in days to come.