While your alarm clock might read 3 a.m. in Vancouver or 6 a.m. in Bangkok, produce markets are springing to life somewhere on Earth—but they look different than they did just a few years ago. Instead of counting cash or scribbling in notebooks, vendors are tapping phones and scanning QR codes. And those same farmers who used to stuff market earnings into their apron pockets can now watch their daily sales land directly in their bank accounts.
From night markets in Southeast Asia to dawn deliveries in Barcelona, this shift to digital payments is quietly changing how food moves from farms to kitchen tables. Local vendors aren’t just copying some global template—they’re adapting these tools to work for their communities. A market seller who spent decades carefully counting euros can now focus more time on picking the best tomatoes for tomorrow’s customers. In São Paulo, small farmers who once waited days for payments now get their money instantly through Pix, a Brazilian instant payment platform, helping them better manage their cash flow and plan their next harvest. And so on and so forth.
However, the real story goes much deeper than swapping cash for phones. It’s about the farmers, vendors, and grocers adapting one of humanity’s oldest trades to the digital age—and how their story might reshape the future of food for everyone.
U.S. and Canada
The modern grocery checkout line captures North America’s payment evolution in a single scene: an elderly shopper counting coins while a teen breezes through with nothing but their phone. In the United States, contactless payments are surging toward $1.5 trillion in 2024, with tap-to-pay leaping from curiosity in 2017 to handling a quarter of all card payments in 2024.
“The shift to digital payments isn’t just about convenience—it’s about creating more efficient, secure, and profitable operations for food businesses of all sizes,” notes Christine DeVita, CEO of DeVita & Hancock Hospitality. Her company, a leading provider of payment processing solutions and restaurant technology consulting, helps smaller businesses modernize through partnerships with Clover POS, a credit card processing system for small businesses, and U.S.-based payment platform CardConnect, integrating payment processing with business management tools.
The North American food industry is embracing this change with open arms. Toast, a company that started by helping small restaurants process payments, has grown so successful it’s now eyeing a $20 billion initial public offering. Even DoorDash, known primarily for food delivery, has spotted an opportunity and jumped in to offer financing solutions to restaurant owners. Other startups are bringing fresh ideas, too—take Vancouver’s Uni-One, which is making food distribution smoother, or RestaurantOS, which is putting AI to work, making restaurants run smarter. Even Tim Hortons is getting creative, partnering with tech startup Neo Financial to give their loyal coffee lovers new perks.
To better understand this story, look at the big retailers. Walk into any Walmart, and you’ll see their QR-based Walmart Pay at self-checkout kiosks; plus, they’ve teamed up with payment platform Affirm to offer “buy now, pay later” options—a feature now available in 4,500 stores across the U.S. Kroger has cleverly connected mobile payments to rewards that cover everything from groceries to gas fill-ups. Amazon Fresh is pushing boundaries with their “Just Walk Out” technology and smart carts. At the same time, Aldi’s work with checkout-free technology company Grabango and Circle K’s plans for AI self-checkouts across 7,000 stores show how mainstream these innovations are becoming, while in Canada, shoppers are embracing virtual debit card Interac and mobile wallets alongside their credit cards.
Behind the scenes, an equally impressive transformation is happening in warehouses and distribution centers. The old headaches of shuffling paper invoices and reconciling payments are fading away, replaced by digital systems that track everything automatically. Every transaction leaves a digital footprint, building a treasure trove of data that helps businesses predict demand with unprecedented accuracy, reduce waste, and keep storage costs in check.
Asia (excluding China)
Asia’s digital payment revolution reads like a tale of transformation, with each country writing its own unique chapter. Nowhere is this evolution more striking than in Japan, from neighborhood produce stands to supermarket chains. The Japanese Government clearly wants to go cashless. Initiatives pushing for 40% cashless transactions by the 2025 Osaka World Expo have accelerated this shift, with an even more ambitious long-term goal of potentially reaching 80% cashless transactions in the future. They could be well on the way—cashless payments reached 39.3% in 2023, representing 126.7 trillion yen (US$885 billion) in consumer spending. Credit cards now handle 83.5% of these transactions, while QR codes process 8.6%.
Japan’s transformation appears modest compared to its neighbor South Korea, where cashless transactions have become so ubiquitous—at a 95.3% adoption rate—that finding a cash-only vendor feels like stumbling upon a relic. Korean shoppers float through markets with phones ready and apps like KakaoPay and Naver Pay replacing wallets in their pockets. This digital wave rolls south to Thailand, where its ambitious plans are outpacing many Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) counterparts and targeting an entirely cashless society by 2028.
Thai vendors, for instance, are now part of a game-changing network that connects with Singapore’s PayNow system. This partnership between the Bank of Thailand (BOT) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), announced in 2021, was the first of its kind in the world. It’s all about simplicity—customers with this linkage can now make cross-border payments as easily as sending a text.
Upon announcing this initiative, Ravi Menon, the former managing director of MAS, said the linkage “shows that existing payments infrastructure and the banking system have the potential to provide seamless cross-border payment options to retail customers.” He was also sure to stress that with the rise of the digital economy, it’s imperative “to empower individuals and businesses in the region with simple, swift, and secure cross-border payments through just a few clicks on their mobile phones.”
Vietnam and Kazakhstan add their own unique twists. Vietnamese markets pulse with innovation as 43.8% of vendors embrace bank transfers and QR code payments surge past 100 million monthly transactions. Kazakhstan’s rapid adoption sees 89% of transactions flowing through digital channels, with mobile banking handling 62% of purchases.
Meanwhile, Singapore’s influence extends beyond its borders, as its digital B2B platforms and collaborative initiatives revolutionize how produce moves throughout the region. Instant cross-border payment system Project Nexus exemplifies this by carefully weaving payment networks across Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
However, Southeast Asia’s cashless transformation is perhaps best told through its apps. Walk through Singapore’s streets today, and you’ll find vendors—who once nervously counted paper bills—now confidently processing GrabPay transactions on their smartphones using the same app their customers rely on for rides, groceries, and food delivery. Across Asia, platforms like Gopay, ShopeePay, and OVO have become as essential to daily life as morning coffee, serving everyone from rushed office workers to rural farmers. Further adding to this digital evolution’s momentum was when delivery platform Foodpanda partnered with Visa to enhance payment security and provide peace of mind to countless small business owners and delivery workers whose livelihoods depend on reliable digital transactions.
An even more powerful change, though, is happening in the countryside, where farmers who once struggled to reach city customers now connect directly through these same digital tools. A simple QR code at a produce stand now tells the complete story of each vegetable’s journey from farm to table, bridging age-old divides between urban and rural communities in ways that were unimaginable a few years ago.
Europe
“What we’re seeing in Europe mirrors trends across North America,” explains Christine DeVita. “Businesses need robust, secure payment solutions that can handle everything from contactless payments to cross-border transactions.”
And the numbers don’t lie—Europeans are increasingly buying and selling food cashless from city markets to remote farm stands. Norway leads this cashless charge, with 96% of its citizens embracing digital banking and 95% using mobile payments, while Sweden has reduced cash transactions to just 1% of its GDP. The momentum continues across the region: the Dutch have carved out their own niche, accounting for a third of Europe’s smartwatch payments, and Finland saw contactless payments surge to EUR 6.8 billion in Q2 2024—an 18% annual increase. Even though 61% of Finnish citizens remain skeptical of completely abandoning physical currency, their central bank boldly predicts a cashless Finland by 2029.
The UK, ranked second only to the U.S. in fintech innovation, is driving significant shifts in payment habits, with cash usage at points of sale dropping by 35% since 2020. Meanwhile, France’s National Retail Payments Strategy for 2025-2030, unveiled in October 2024, aims to balance digital payment adoption with maintaining access to cash, as forward-thinking retailers like Carrefour introduce WhatsApp-based ordering systems. Spanish markets showcase parallel innovation, particularly in their agri-food sector.
Deep within Europe’s food supply chains, digital payments solve age-old challenges of cross-border trade. Innovative platforms like FarmToHome connect Dutch farmers directly to consumers across Flevoland, North Holland, South Holland, and Utrecht, while CrowdFarming breaks down national barriers, letting Europeans buy directly from farmers anywhere on the continent. October 2024 marked a watershed moment as the European Payments Initiative launched “Wero,” uniting BNP Paribas and 15 major banks in a push for seamless continental payments.
Europe’s strict regulatory environment, anchored by EU payment services directive PSD2, delivered an unexpected advantage by creating secure digital ecosystems where supply chain software speaks fluently with payment systems. Blockchain technology now verifies everything from organic certifications to fair trade credentials, and digital receipts tell stories of food origins and environmental impact.
Latin America
Life across Latin America is taking on a new rhythm as people change how they pay for their daily bread, fruits, and meals. In Brazil, the Pix payment system has become such a natural part of daily life that it handles 35% of all transactions and 29% of online shopping—more people tap their phones to pay than reach for cash or credit cards.
The rapid adoption of Pix reflects its transformative impact. “I think credit cards will cease to exist at some point soon,” central bank chief Roberto Campos told Reuters nearly two years ago. “This system eliminates the need to have a credit card.” Eduardo Lopes, public policy director at Nubank, Latin America’s largest digital bank, echoed this sentiment, calling Pix “the most disruptive technology in the financial segment in the country for the next few years.” Even global financial institutions are taking note. In a recent note to clients, Goldman Sachs pointed out that Pix’s growth “can limit the use of credit cards and pre-payment volumes.”
This change is spreading to other countries, too— Colombians have fallen in love with digital wallets, with users jumping from 27 million to 55 million in just two years (2021 to 2023), while in Chile, the straightforward CuentaRUT system has made card payments the choice for 81% of people.
Governments and banks are stepping up, rebuilding the financial foundations connecting farmers to families, with Mexico creating practical rules neighboring countries are eager to copy. Thanks to companies like Nubank, Ualá, Vexi, and Flink bringing digital banking to more neighborhoods and Argentina’s ZoomAgri modernizing how food moves from fields to markets, millions of Latin Americans are finding easier ways to buy and sell food.
Street vendors, market stalls, and corner shops are embracing this—92% of small businesses now accept electronic payments, marking a dramatic departure from the cash-only traditions of the past. Brazilian consumers have particularly embraced this change, conducting 95% of their banking through digital channels and driving a staggering 216% year-over-year surge in contactless payments.
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs also fully embrace this tech-powered movement. In Brazil’s Santa Catarina region, five farming families deliver seasonal produce boxes to 85 Florianópolis households 100 kilometers away, part of a network where 13 producer groups distribute 17 tons of fresh food weekly through 530 CSA subscriptions. Paraguay’s APRO also now connects 250 farming families with city customers through their EcoAgro platform, where weekly deliveries have doubled to 120 boxes of fresh, local produce flowing from the countryside to city kitchens.
Yet beneath these impressive numbers lies a complex reality: 42% of adults in Latin America still lack bank accounts, and more than half the workforce operates in the informal economy, where cash remains king. Mexico illustrates this divide, with nearly half its households operating outside the traditional banking system.
Moreover, 90% of Brazil’s small farms still manage their finances with pen and paper. Such contrasts are typical in a region that exports 25% of its agricultural bounty to global markets while grappling with domestic food insecurity affecting 37.5% of its people, well above the global average of 29.6%.
El Salvador’s story captures both the promise and challenges of this transition. Their bold move to make Bitcoin legal tender in 2021 led to 50% of households downloading the government’s Chivo Wallet app. Yet, today, only 20% of businesses accept cryptocurrency, with most quickly converting to dollars. However, their Agromarkets initiative tells a different story—50 locations nationwide now use digital payments to connect farmers directly with consumers, offering fresh produce at prices well below market averages.
Digital Payments: A Global Opportunity for Food Supply Chains
Every region is finding its own path to cashless operations at its own pace, shaped by local needs and infrastructure. Beyond regional differences, however, lies a common truth: digital payments are creating new possibilities for efficiency and growth in the food industry. The businesses seeing the most significant gains are those that understand their region’s unique payment landscape—from local regulations to consumer preferences.
By 2030, your payment system won’t just process transactions—it will be the brain of your operation and it will be borderless. “The key is choosing the right technology partner who understands both the payment landscape and the unique challenges of the food industry,” says Christine DeVita. “Whether you’re a restaurant, market vendor, or distributor, having a reliable, secure, and efficient payment system is the key to survival and growth in today’s market.”
In other words, the technology is here; it’s getting easier to use, and your competitors are already exploring it. The real question isn’t if you’ll move to digital—it’s how you’ll use it to stay ahead in a world where cash could become obsolete not in a matter of decades but a matter of years.
