What actually happens to the vegetables and fruit that don't make it from the field to the store—simply because they don't meet the current supermarket beauty standard? Munich-based Carsten Wille, Christopher Hallhuber, and Georg Lindermair asked themselves this question, and in response, the food startup etepetete founded.
Sometimes a brief aha moment is enough to get an idea rolling. Carsten Wille would classify his 2014 conversation with a supermarket employee about everyday food waste as such a moment. Because according to a Study by the Consumer Center Every year, 11 tons of food worth approximately 25 billion euros end up in the trash. The blame lies with manufacturers, retailers, and agriculture—but of course, also with consumers themselves. They're used to finding only flawless vegetables and fruit on supermarket shelves.
Second chance for crooked vegetables
But what actually happens to the fruit and vegetables that don't meet the standards due to their shape or color and therefore don't even make it to the market? A great deal of it remains in the fields, as Carsten Wille discovered during his initial research following the supermarket discussion with organic farmers in the Munich area. Or it is diverted to energy production in biogas plants.
Since Wille believes that even crooked cucumbers, carrots with two legs, and oversized zucchini deserve a second chance, he founded the food startup etepetete in 2014 with his school friends Christopher Hallhuber and Georg Lindermair. Wille and Hallhuber dropped out of their business studies to start their startup, and Lindermair ended his career as a real estate agent.
Vision: make etepetete bigger
And the three founders were right in their decision: Since 2015, the Munich-based startup has been delivering its organic boxes full of "crooked" vegetables to its customers. Meanwhile, etepetete has even established itself as the largest provider in the organic box market, delivering nationwide—in contrast to, for example, organic box providers, which are very regionally focused. Wille comments:
"Most organic boxes available are limited to a small radius. However, we want to appeal to a broad customer base and provide as many people as possible with healthy organic fruit and vegetables, which is why we decided to expand etepetete. This was our vision from the beginning, and we're thrilled that we're not only so well-received here in our Munich hometown, but that we're also delivering our boxes weekly throughout Germany."
This is how the etepetete service works: The customer orders a “rescue box” directly via the Company website and also determines the delivery interval. The boxes cost from 20 euros for around 5 kg and are filled with either vegetables or fruit – or both.
From Munich to all of Germany
The etepetete boxes are then packed in the hall at the Munich wholesale market. Etepetete, by the way, was the first food startup to move into its own hall at the Munich wholesale market.
From there, the boxes are sent to customers via CO2-neutral shipping. The advantage of this system, which isn't regional for all parts of Germany, is obvious to Wille:
"This way, we bypass all the middlemen that a regular supermarket can't avoid. We buy directly from the producer, pack the fruit and vegetables ourselves, and ship directly from Munich to all of Germany."
However, according to the company, further logistics locations are being planned so that even shorter transport routes can be guaranteed in the near future.
The boxes themselves contain only fruit and vegetables from organic farms that sell their harvest to the Munich-based startup. According to the company, etepetete buys their non-standard produce from the farmers at the regular price.
Customers cannot currently choose which types of fruit and vegetables are packaged weekly, but this should be possible in the future, taking seasonality and regionality into account.
And how is business going?
"Since our founding, we have steadily gained new customers and are in the process of launching new box models. Unfortunately, we can't give exact figures, but we ship boxes in the five-figure range every month,"
says Wille. In total, over 250,000 boxes have already been delivered to customers throughout Germany. The growing demand is also reflected in the team, which grew from 20 to around 40 employees last year.
Start where food waste occurs
And despite this positive development, the founders are still driven by their original idea: to do something about food waste. Or better yet, to reduce it!
"We want to start where food waste occurs: namely, in the field itself. Together with partner farmers, we want to plan our own fields because we know exactly what quantities we need for our customers. We take a different approach than the supermarket and can plan more precisely. This means we don't let it get to the point where vegetables and fruit have to be destroyed in the first place."
