February 10, 2025 (press release) –
A supply chain the size of Walmart’s is less linear than its name implies. It’s more similar to a web: Each connective point, each alternate route to the center, makes the web stronger.
Comprising the web are people and products. Each new point strengthens the web, and progress relies on Walmart’s sourcing team, whose search for innovative approaches to supply chain improvements – and ultimately the customer experience – leads them to more than 100 countries around the world.
In India, Walmart is working alongside an agritech startup to pilot a creative solution to food waste, which will help bring better, fresher products to the customer while giving us the ability to source fresh produce from totally new countries of origin. All this serves a greater goal: augmenting the supply chain and creating more sustainable alternatives for customers everywhere. We all win.
The world’s largest retailer and the startup mindset
GreenPod Labs is based in the Indian city of Chennai, where it’s asking an interesting question: How can we slow down the ripening of fruit in transit? The benefits here are wide-reaching. It extends the travel time in the supply chain, helping the produce stay fresh longer, and delivering a better product.
And GreenPod is succeeding in answering its own question.
The company is producing small sachets filled with plant extracts that activate the natural defense mechanisms of fruits and vegetables and slow the rate of microbe growth, all of which serve to slow the ripening of fruit and mimic that “still on the vine” freshness.
Testing the product has proven a truly international effort.
GreenPod’s team is providing the sachets from India, which will be applied to mangoes in Peru before shipping to the U.S. Upon arrival, Walmart will partner with the University of California Davis to evaluate efficacy in multiple environments. It’s one example among many of the kind of global collaboration Walmart enables, alongside brilliant people and partners, to bring better to the world.
“Working with a global player like Walmart revalidates the importance of our work in reducing fruits and vegetables post-harvest losses and quality degradation,” said Deepak Rajmohan, the CEO of GreenPod Labs. “It’s been a great learning experience to interact with the sourcing and innovation team to understand the current challenges.”
A meeting for growth
Walmart and GreenPod Labs met at the Walmart India Growth Summit in 2024, an event that’s part of a global series designed to connect entrepreneurs, suppliers and innovators with the company’s extensive global supply chain.
Tech innovation is what drives real-world solutions to move forward a globally resilient supply chain. As a people-led, tech-powered company, we are always looking for new ways to innovate.
Pilots like the one with GreenPods Labs build on Walmart’s history of innovation and enable sourcing to provide amazing items to customers around the world. Every innovation that lands something greener, fresher or better on our shelves is a step in the right direction.
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