The Los Angeles Post

Arrow Electronics and Posner Center for International Development Collaborate on Innovation in Technology Award

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DENVER, May 20, 2019 – Arrow Electronics and The Posner Center for International Development have awarded the 2019 Arrow Innovation in Technology Award to Moving Up the Coffee Chain via Blockchain, a project that will tap technology to connect Honduran coffee farmers with roasters in the United States. A collaboration between iDE and Bext360, the project’s goal is to show how blockchain can be applied to market-based interventions in global development.

iDE creates business solutions to alleviate poverty, while Bext360 uses blockchain technology to provide transparency in the supply chains of goods such as coffee and palm oil. Through Moving Up the Coffee Chain via Blockchain, the two organizations will connect coffee producers and buyers with financial and agricultural technology solutions, proving that market-based approaches can reduce poverty.

“We’ve been building markets in the developing world for over 35 years, and we see inequality as a pervasive problem. Blockchain technology is so exciting because it could unlock the potential to give farmers more opportunity for sustainable, equitable trade, and thus more agency over their lives,” said Lizz Ellis, iDE CEO.

Small coffee growers in Latin America are struggling because the price of beans has fallen to historic lows, while production costs have continued to rise. Without improved access to overseas roasters, small growers are leaving the industry – damaging local communities and putting the coffee supply chain at greater risk.

The Arrow Innovation in Technology Award provides a grant for a project that embodies the spirit of innovation in technology to benefit humanity. This initiative must employ technology in creative ways to directly support communities around the globe.

Arrow’s Innovation in Technology awards honor the world’s brightest innovators and emerging technologies, transforming ideas into real and influential achievements that will help people and the communities in which Arrow works.