Navarre, the Basque Country and New Aquitaine jointly accelerate the digital transformation of the agri-food sector

Navarra, the Basque Country and New Aquitaine jointly accelerate the digital transformation of the agri-food sector

With 15 speakers and more than 80 registered participants, the AGROTIC HUB launch day took place, the first European cross-border consortium to accelerate the digital transformation of agri-food companies. The project is being led by NAGRIFOOD – Agri-Food Cluster of Navarra, together with CLUAE – Food Cluster of Euskadi and AGRISUDOUEST – Agri-Food Cluster of New Aquitaine.

At the meeting, the diagnosis on the state of digitization of the sector for the three regions carried out this year was presented. The report confirms that 87% of the companies consider digitization fundamental due to the benefits it brings, highlighting the greater efficiency of production processes, information for decision making and cost optimization. As for the implementation of technologies, it highlights sensor technology, cybersecurity, traceability and, above all, data management in the cloud and digital marketing. Challenges include the lack of specific knowledge and talent to address the digital strategy, as well as the need for greater economic support to boost the digital transformation of the sector.

‘AGROTIC-HUB’ opens a new stage of cooperation in the agri-food sector of the Euroregion from a more holistic approach, bringing together all elements of the value chain. The project is being implemented with funding from the “Knowledge Economy” call of the New-Aquitaine, Basque Country and Navarre Euroregion. It is the second best valued project. In this sense, it is intended to be the beginning of a long-term collaboration between the three regional clusters representing the sector.

The event brought together as panelists, managers and experts of the sector. Among them, Ivan Lütolf, President and Founder of AGRO TECH Spain. Lütolf gave an inspiring masterclass on the technologies available for the improvement of processes in the sector, stressing that there is a long way to go. He emphasized above all the importance of the predictive capacity of the data provided by digitization for better decision making based on what we want to happen.

The meeting also included success stories from the companies IPREM, Arbizu, Smart Lean Solutions, Artomaña, and UVESCO. In this way, attendees were able to learn first-hand about digital technologies that can provide solutions to common problems in an innovative way.

“To achieve better and more efficient results, it is necessary to work with technology partners,” said Pedro Galdós – UVESCO Marketing and Advertising Director – who emphasized the value of collaboration for digitization. On this point, the technology company Smart Lean Solutions agreed and added its Business Development Manager, Jon Martorel “A simple way to start digitizing the company is by implementing Lean 4.0 technology solutions that allow you, in an agile way, to manage and improve the efficiency of processes and reduce costs”.

Finally, the event was closed by Ms. Izaskun Goñi, Director of Business Policy, International Projection and Labor of the Government of Navarra, who stressed “We have a lot to build together, addressing a fundamental and cross-cutting issue such as digitization, which is an indispensable lever to advance in all these purposes”.

You can access more information about the session through this link.