Within the framework of the JeParticipe platform (http://jeparticipe.carrefour.com) built in partnership with MiiMOSA, the leading crowd-funding platform for agricultural and food projects, Carrefour is co-investing in the Tomates Gourmandes (gourmet tomatoes) agricultural transition project alongside consumers.
In February at the Paris International Agricultural Show and as part of its partnership with MiiMOSA transition, Carrefour launched the JeParticipe website. The platform provides members of the general public and stakeholders in the agri-foods sector with the means to finance agricultural, food and energy transition projects; MiiMOSA transition therefore provides stakeholders involved in transforming their models with a concrete funding solution.
A few weeks after this collaboration was announced, Carrefour is supporting its first project – Tomates Gourmandes – for which €50,000 has already been invested, of a total of €100,000 raised. This funding is in addition to subsidies from the ADEME (the French Agency for the Environment and Energy Management), supplementing the company's finance plan.
The amount raised will enable Nathalie and Olivier, the two fruit and vegetable farmers from France’s Indre region who are behind the project, to purchase two wood boilers and so generate some 2880 MWh/year. This way, they'll be able to heat the area over which their tomatoes are grown in their greenhouses so as to guarantee their quality. They grow their tomatoes in managed greenhouse environments without using pesticides. What they produce will be sold locally, and in the region’s Carrefour stores in particular.
Through crowd-funding, they were able to borrow quickly and straightforwardly, grouping together a community of 102 contributors who invested in the project alongside Carrefour, which is supporting a transition project for one of its suppliers.
With its transition package, MiiMOSA has developed an original funding solution, bringing together various players from the agri-foods sector in order to help and encourage producers to upgrade their farming, livestock-rearing and production methods as part of a progress and agricultural transition initiative.