Plenumsoft Marina

The global seafood industry, worth  $500 billion, faces an difficult traceability challenge given its complex supply chain.

The market opportunity for businesses able to improve seafood traceability is significant: for example, in the US, 90% of seafood is imported, yet FDA inspects only 1%–2%.

Our solution integrates all the steps for following the seafood from sea to table, with data science tools to automate decision making. Positioned to understand the pain points for the fishing industry in Mexico and to integrate our solution with the national catch reporting system, export requirements and fiscal and food safety regulations. We are uniquely positioned to provide support services to our users, something that imported traceability solutions had difficulty addressing. 

Our platform works for both small-scale fisher   and big seafood processors, allowing them to share the history of the product with the final consumers, while knowing better the data of his business.

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a global problem that results in estimated fishing loss of $10 to 23.5 billion per year, representing 11 to 26 million tons of seafood .

Traceability is increasingly being applied within seafood supply chains to address a wider range of issues and concerns among consumers, seafood companies, government agencies, and the nonprofit sector about the legality and sustainability of seafood products.

Electronic traceability is the recording and sharing of relevant seafood product information via electronic means. Full chain, electronic traceability entails the electronic capture and sharing of seafood product information from the point of catch until the point of sale. It has the potential to make it easier for the seafood industry to comply with regulations and meet consumer demands.

According to official data, 80% of Mexico’s fisheries are at maximum capacity or overexploited. Mexico’s fishery data and management policies are based on self-reported, paper-based records that are inaccurate. 53% of Mexico’s national seafood production could be illegal. DNA study found 31% of seafood sampled was mislabeled. The lack of reliable data on the origin of seafood products harms marine ecosystems through overfishing, it harms the legal fishers and it harms consumers.

We are uniquely  positioned to support Mexico’s small-scale and industrial fishing fleet to adapt to the evolving traceability requirements to export to the EU and US and to comply with the national traceability legislation under development. Digital traceability contributes to reductions in illegal and unreported fishing, to improvements in food safety. Our system also helps small-scale cooperatives and large companies dramatically improve the efficiency of their operations and the accuracy of their harvest reports, thereby improving the data provided to fisheries agencies. We started in 2012 as a satellite monitoring platform but have evolved into an ERP platform to address our clients needs.

Our platform will allow fishers and companies to easily comply with the regulations. Creating and administering a plan to collect useful data from fishing activities is a complex undertaking for governments and companies alike. But once collected, multiple stakeholders could take advantage of this information to address ecological, social, and economic goals.

Also, the CRM functions of the application we built, can improve the efficiency of small-scale fisher coops and their ability to compete in the market. The inventory control functions of the system help reduce spoilage and waste.  Data from the harvest and movement of products—when captured and shared electronically—facilitate a quicker exchange of info and enable broader use and more thorough verification within supply chains. When social, ecological, and economic data accompany seafood products, information could be use to strengthen fisheries management, support legal and equitable work conditions for seafood laborers, and identify and prevent illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Digital traceability integrated with catch reporting will not solve all of Mexico’s fishery problems, but it will drastically improve the reliability and timeliness of fisheries data and can significantly reduce the market access for illegally caught seafood. Better traceability can enable recalls of contaminated or spoiled products, increase accountability for the processing companies and increase consumer confidence in food safety of seafood.

Our platform works for both small-scale fisher cooperatives  and big seafood processors, allowing them to share the history of the product with the final consumers, while having the opportunity of knowing better the data of his own business.

 Our primary focus right now is improving the application's integration with the national catch reporting system, incorporating features to comply with food safety record-keeping requirements and building out the CRM functions of the application.  All the functions are based on users and market feedback.

We are positioned to understand the pain points for the fishing industry in Mexico and to integrate our solution with the national catch reporting system, export requirements and fiscal and food safety regulations. We are uniquely positioned to provide support services to our users, something that imported traceability solutions had difficulty addressing.

IUU fishing is a global problem that results in estimated fishing loss up to 23.5 billion per year.

Plensumsoft Marina is a home-grown traceability platform to tackle illegal fishing, bad fisheries data, poor food safety practices. Helps fishers record and report landing data, and use the information for inventory and business management. We help processing plants migrate from paper based to digital food safety records, reducing the work involved and  improving the data for accountability and recalls.

We help very small as well as large businesses operate more efficiently and manage their inventories better to reduce waste and rotten fish.

Our platform works for both small-scale fisher cooperatives  and big seafood processors, allowing them to share the history of the product with the final consumers, while having the opportunity of knowing better the data of his own business.

Our customers include 4 large businesses on a 3 year contract for USD900/month and 5 small-scale cooperatives each paying USD300/month. We also carry out special programming projects. Our customers include the companies of the current and former presidents of the National Chamber of Fishing and Aquaculture Industries (CANAIPESCA). We collaborate closely with NGOs to use traceability for fisheries management. 

As a SaaS Platform, charges varies.

Our platform is being used on Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Sonora, Sinaloa, Baja California y Baja California Sur.

Our platform works for both small-scale fisher cooperatives  and big seafood processors, allowing them to share the history of the product with the final consumers, while having the opportunity of knowing better the data of his own business.

Suits to fisher cooperatives, industrial fishing fleets, seafood processing companies and companies that  export products for high value markets.

Our platform aligns with the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceabilitystandard  for Key Data Elements, Critical Tracking Events and Interoperability.

Blockchain ready, prototype module, available on request.

Capabilities for identification of fishing areas and production capabilities.

1. 58.

2.324.

3. +2000.

Cooperatives involved.

Companies involved.

New regulations introduced.

NGOs partnerships.

Revenue.

Committed to the design and development of solutions for the maritime and fisheries sector, through the efficient and effective use of technological tools and innovation. Alongside the continuous work of scientific research, technological development and focus on our customers, have been fundamental to build products according to the

sector-specific requirements.

The team has been focused on the develompent and implementation of the solution since day one.

Thanks to the Lean Startup methodology, we are used to adapt our solution according to market and users feedback.

As possible, we have tried to have a team as diverse as possible. With the specific sector we work with, and the area where our HQ is, sometimes is a little bit hard, but possible.

In our team, we have people from indigenous background, both male and females.

To get support from your network of experts to scale our company based on the effective use of proven impact resources for the implementation of a technology solution addressing the problem of seafood traceability.

We need to improve sales and channels. We are limited on know how.

Also, we need to setup and prime channels.

No really sure.

Any feedback on this matter would be appreciated.

Not sure about how MIT could help us (what model?), and also how the Solve Members usually work.

IUU fishing is a global problem that results in estimated fishing loss up to 23.5 billion per year, representing up to 26 million tons of seafood .

Traceability is  being applied within seafood supply chains to address a wider range of issues and concerns among consumers, seafood companies, government agencies, and the nonprofit sector about the legality and sustainability of seafood products.

80% of Mexico’s fisheries are  overexploited. Mexico’s fishery data and management policies are based on self-reported, paper-based records that are inaccurate. 53% of Mexico’s national seafood production could be illegal. DNA study found 31% of seafood sampled was mislabeled. The lack of reliable data on the origin of seafood products harms marine ecosystems through overfishing, it harms the legal fishers and it harms consumers.

 Plensumsoft Marina is a home-grown solution to tackle illegal fishing, bad fisheries data, poor food safety practices. Our traceability system helps fishers record and report accurate landing data, and use the information for inventory and business management. We help processing plants migrate from paper based to digital food safety records, reducing the work involved and also improving the data for accountability and recalls.

 We are uniquely positioned to develop a system that interfaces with the fisheries authorities, food safety regulators, and export requirements. We help very small as well as large businesses operate more efficiently and manage their inventories better to reduce waste and rotten fish.

We have shown that our system works and that fishers and companies want to use it.