Walmart has joined forces with Cropin, an AI-powered food and agriculture platform, to enhance scalable sourcing solutions across the retailer’s U.S. and South American markets. The Cropin agri-intelligence platform is designed to improve yield forecasting, monitor crop health and predict seasonal transitions with greater accuracy. The partnership’s goal is to ensure a steady supply of high-quality perishable commodities, enhance product availability, reduce waste and deliver better-quality produce to consumers.
Cropin leverages crop readiness insights, quality forecasts and risk assessments and uses automated tools to provide granular localized insights into crop health, pest outbreaks and extreme weather risks. The Cropin solution also can predict the future of crop yields and supply stability, allowing businesses to manage pricing strategies without compromising quality.
“Tech innovation is what drives real-world solutions to move forward a globally resilient supply chain,” said Kyle Carlyle, VP of Sourcing Innovation and Surety of Supply at Walmart in a statement. “By collaborating with Cropin, it enables Walmart to further streamline sourcing practices and better predict yields using their real-time Gen AI technology.”
How Walmart Supports Supply Chain Sustainability
Walmart has recently been investing in a range of supply chain stainability improvements, including:
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- In July 2023 Walmart collaborated with PepsiCo to invest $120 million over several years to establish financial, agronomic and social programs designed to support regenerative agriculture;
- In August 2023 Walmart began working with Rubi Laboratories to test technology to turn captured carbon into fibers that could be used to create apparel;
- Walmart partnered with crop supply intelligence group Agritask in June 2024 on a pilot to enhance fresh produce supply chains; and
- In July 2024 Walmart partnered with Denali to improve food waste recycling processes at more than 1,400 Walmart and Sam’s Club stores.
“Collaborating with Walmart is both an honor and an invaluable learning opportunity for us at Cropin,” said Krishna Kumar, Founder and CEO of Cropin in a statement. “As a champion and role model in the retail sector, Walmart has consistently set the bar by evolving best practices, not just for the company but for the sector as a whole. In my 14 years of driving tech and AI-enabled transformations in the agri-food industry, the last few years have been particularly promising, as stakeholders recognize that technology in upstream agriculture is no longer a luxury, but a necessity to future-proof business models.”