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Nutriset × Wakeo: When Supply Chain Intelligence Helps Humanitarian Nutrition Move Faster
In 2024, an estimated 673 million people faced hunger worldwide, a figure that reminds us how fragile food security remains when climate shocks, conflict, and economic turbulence collide.
For mission-driven organizations working in humanitarian nutrition, that reality creates an uncompromising operational constraint: logistics can’t be “good enough.” Every avoidable delay increases the risk of stockouts on the ground, precisely where needs are most urgent.
That is why the collaboration between Nutriset and Wakeo got recognized with the “Prix Coup de Cœur” (Audience Choice Award) at Les Rois de la Supply Chain 2026. This matters beyond the trophy. It shows how route intelligence, predictive ETAs, and decision automation can become a force multiplier for impact.
Nutriset’s mission: innovating to fight malnutrition at scale
Founded in Normandy by Michel Lescanne, Nutriset has spent decades turning food science into field-ready solutions.
One innovation reshaped the humanitarian nutrition landscape: Plumpy’Nut®, the first Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), developed to treat severe acute a peanut-based paste that requires no water, no cooking, and no refrigeration, enabling treatment closer to communities rather than only in clinical settings.
Over time, Nutriset’s impact has scaled dramatically: the organization reports 147+ million beneficiaries reached since 2005, operating across 140+ destinations, while reinvesting 10% of revenue into R&D (including maternal health support and HIV/TB-related nutritional products).
Nutriset's Global Reach in Humanitarian Nutrition
Nutriset’s work is visible in the field through a wide partner ecosystem, including UN agencies and NGOs such as Save the Children, as well as direct collaboration with governments to support national nutrition programs and emergency response efforts. In Somalia, for example, Nutriset’s nutrition products help support children in care settings.
A supply chain that looks simple on paper but it isn’t
From the outside, Nutriset’s flows may appear manageable: a limited number of product families, a contained supplier base, and a defined set of humanitarian and institutional customers.
But humanitarian supply chains are shaped by variables most “classic” networks rarely face simultaneously: volatile corridors, infrastructure constraints at destination, sudden urgency spikes, and delivery environments where the last mile can determine whether a shipment delivers impact or misses its window.
Nutriset’s team describes the issue in plain terms: the battle doesn’t end at the quay. Once the container arrives, inland logistics becomes a time-critical challenge. If the handover window is missed, the consequence can be two additional weeks lost, an unacceptable outcome when treatment is urgently awaited.
That reality drove a simple requirement: anticipate risk earlier, and make routing decisions based on reliability, not promises.
The partnership: co-constructing visibility into better decisions
Nutriset and Wakeo began their collaboration in the first phase of the partnership focused on real-time tracking and alerting, then expanded into analytics, e-booking recommendations, and critically - Trusted Routes, Wakeo’s route intelligence recommendation engine.
The approach is “co-construction” in the real sense. During the first six months of the product launch, Wakeo and Nutriset worked in short feedback loops, with users sharing input on a daily basis to show how they used the tool and what they needed. That feedback continuously shaped improvements so the product evolved in line with real operational workflows.
Nutriset’s perspective: fewer blind spots, more time for the mission
As Oriane Bettinger, Operation Director at Nutriset explains: “Nutriset can’t afford any unnecessary delay because the people we support, from children to pregnant women, sick patients, and elderly people, need immediate help. With Wakeo, we can better plan our shipments even before they leave, and make more informed decisions by factoring in reliability and risks.”
This is not a “nice-to-have” efficiency play but a mission resilience.
Closing the loop: one example route, end-to-end
To make the value concrete, Nutriset shared a real example: from Le Havre to Dar es Salaam.
Step 1: Compare options in Trusted Routes
In May 2025, the team compared 31 options and prioritized two criteria: reliability and risk.
Several routes at the time passed through ports flagged as higher risk due to geopolitical uncertainty (including concerns tied to the Strait of Hormuz). The selected option operated by Maersk, offered a reliability rating of “B” and no alerts at departure, arrival, or intermediate ports.
Step 2: Book in one click
With the booking module, Nutriset could send a booking request to its freight forwarder in one click, reducing manual back-and-forth and ensuring the chosen plan is executed faster.
Step 3: Track execution with predictive ETA
Once the shipment departed, Nutriset monitored progress in real time, with a predictive ETA recalculated continuously. In the end, the vessel arrived only +2 days late, in line with Trusted Routes’ estimated transit time (53 days).
Step 4: Feed performance back into better future decisions
This is where the project becomes more than visibility. Wakeo describes the virtuous cycle like this:
“Each completed shipment makes the next one smarter.”
In practice: plan with route intelligence → book faster → track execution → analyze actual performance → reinject reality (delays, real costs) into the algorithm—so the next decision improves.
