Students from Kazakhstan invented an unusual way to save food from catering facilities. Now restaurants and cafes will publish tasty products on a special channel on Telegram app with discount up to 80 percent before selling it. This way, the food will find its consumer and won’t be recycled. According to statistics, 20 percent of dairy products and meat, 35 percent of seafood and a third of ready-made dishes are wasted every year. The global economy loses nearly a trillion dollars annually on this. The planet is affected as well – recycling food waste results in the production of 9 percent of all greenhouse gases.
“These topics are touched upon overseas, the same cannot be said for our country. Now more and more people are in favor of the eco-system and raise other issues. However, eating food is a colossal problem as well, because 25 percent of all fresh water is used to grow vegetables and fruits, and all this is thrown away. Now we are working on the introduction of this principle into Kazakhstan’s realities. Catering facilities can cut costs and increase profits. For users, this is a very profitable opportunity to buy food at a discount,” said Bagdaulet Shakizada, the Project Manager.
The students named their project Sarkyt. Now it covers more than ten facilities, so far only in Nur-Sultan and Almaty. However, according to the developers, the project will be a tremendous success. Indeed, 80 facilities out of a little more than 100 surveyed by the developers are ready for cooperation. The students plan to launch a special mobile application soon, the functionality of which will be much greater.
“This will be a marketplace type platform, where a user can enter and open a map with all the facilities. He or she can find cafes that are close or with the biggest discounts. This will be very convenient. The user can pay in the same application and pick up his or her order. On the other hand, café or restaurant will have its own page, where a manager will publish discounted dishes. They will add a menu with their own prices and then add discounts. You can leave your comments there,” noted Shakizada.
“Well done guys! They came up with a good idea. Products will not be wasted, people will just buy them at a lower price. We are also ready to cooperate. People will be happy,” shared Darkhan Kabdyrov, Co-Owner of a coffee house.
The Sarkyt team includes students from Nazarbayev University, Eurasian National University and a Chinese educational institution. They have already become finalists of the NURIS startup support program of Nazarbayev University, where they received help in finalizing the business model in a couple of months. Their goal is to reduce food waste. They are set to enter the CIS market with their development.
Translation by Saniya Sakenova
Editing by Galiya Khassenkhanova
