EIT Climate-KIC meets the new Minister of Agriculture and the Mayor of Malaga within the framework of the Startup Smart Agrifood Summit

Málaga (22/06/2018)-The first edition of the Startup Europe Agrifood Summit, the largest international event on innovation and entrepreneurship in the agrifood sector that has brought together entrepreneurs and ICT and agrifood companies at the Palacio de Ferias y Congresos in Malaga from 20 to 22 June.

The meeting brought together more than 1,200 professionals participants from 19 different countries, more than 200 entities in the networking area, more than 70 innovative projects in the Agrifood and Food Tech sectors, more than 100 speakers and more than 80 startups from Russia, Bulgaria, Ireland, USA, México, Italy, Portugal and España, of these, 40% have secured funding. Also the event has brought a potential turnover of more than 200 million euros with more than 50 investors (USA, Israel, UK, Belgium, France and Spain).

This Summit was opened by  the new Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas and the Mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre, and both representatives of EIT Climate-KIC from Spain and France, were talking about the good harmony that exists with the European initiative and the alignment in terms of innovation and sustainability.

In the afternoon, both directors of Climate-KIC Spain and France had the opportunity to have a more in-depth meeting with the Mayor of Malaga and the Councillor for Innovation.

The event has become a meeting point for professionals and companies from the agri-food and ICT sectors, industry representatives, startups, scale-ups, entrepreneurs, universities, researchers and public administration officials with competence in the agri-food sector. For this reason, some of the start-ups selected by the Spanish edition of the EIT Climate-KIC Accelerator programme travelled to the Andalusian city to showcase their initiatives in a pitch elevator competition, where the startup INUIT was awarded, to network and attend a Masterclass.

Later, the start-ups participated in a private session or Masterclass in which they were able to learn about the experience of entrepreneurs at the level of Mercedes Iborra, from VisualNacert, winner of the award for the most innovative company in the Valencia Region, specialized in the connection of all types of ITC to improve crops. The startups in this session also had the opportunity to learn more about European funds and the guidelines for seeking European funding from an expert.

Europe’s commitment to innovative talent to promote a sustainable agri-food sector

During the summit, a round table discussion was organised by EIT Climate-KIC Spain aimed at highlighting the European commitment to innovative talent as one of the driving forces for sustainable transformation in the agri-food sector. The debate was attended by the directors of EIT Climate-KIC and EIT Food in Spain, Jose-Luis Muñoz and Begoña Pérez-Villarreal respectively, the director of EIT Climate-KIC France, Than-Tam Le, and the CSIC expert, Luis Fonseca. The debate was moderated by Juan Miguel González-Aranda, technical director – LifeWatch ERIC of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.

The agrifood sector is an industry with a great impact on the global and national economy. In Spain it accounts for 11% of GDP, and in Europe as a whole it employs 44 million people. The transition to sustainability has always been perceived with mistrust by companies that see this paradigm shift as a threat to the sector due to increased production costs and reduced competitiveness. However, the sector needs to change this perception and see sustainability as an engine of growth, a unique opportunity to reduce costs and create jobs.

It is necessary and urgent to undertake this path, since global warming is already the greatest threat facing humanity. And the agro-food sector, due to its relevance, has much to contribute. Spanish companies in the sector should see this as an exceptional opportunity to position themselves as world leaders in this process.

We must develop a new socio-technological model that involves all actors in the sector: companies, governments, cities and society as a consumer of these products. And this model must be based on the circular economy, which will play a crucial role in the sustainability of the sector and become its engine of growth.

During the meeting, the participants highlighted the importance of applying the European sustainable development strategy to the sector, which includes the circular economy as a fundamental element for its implementation. The agri-food industry must integrate the circular model into its process, and replace the linear model of produce, use and disposal with that of reduce, recycle and reuse. And this affects all stages of the agri-food product cycle: from production and consumption to waste management and the secondary raw materials market. Legislation is needed on waste, increasing recycling levels and reducing the amount of waste generated by industry.

As José Luis Muñoz pointed out during his participation in the round table, the Spanish agri-food sector “has a unique opportunity to lead the drive towards sustainability on a global scale”. “This is an extraordinary moment and there is no time to lose. Legislation is becoming more and more favourable and is removing barriers to achieving green growth. And there’s no way back. It is a path that we have to take and we have to do it together,” he said.

According to the Director of EIT Climate-KIC Spain “we are in a privileged position to promote this change in the socio-economic model and to act as an amalgam of all the agents and actors in the sector”. “We have the technology, the talent and the investors, we support the start-ups and the new entrepreneurs, so that the ideas and the technology reach the market and we promote that the administration allows and accelerates the change of model, because the pace of change forces to be fast in the positioning”, he concluded.

EIT Cross-KIC Spain

During the round table, the Spanish directors of EIT Climate-KIC and EIT Food have introduced the pioneering group in Europe EIT Cross-KIC Spain, a platform that brings together all the KICs of the EIT (European Institute of Innovation and Technology) which aims to streamline the work of the different KICs with presence in Spain to jointly and transversally transform the knowledge and talent of our country in new products and services that address the different challenges of society in the field of Climate Change, Energy, ICTs, Food, Raw Materials or Health.