Covid-19 dealt a severe blow to some parts of the agribusiness chain, in primary agricultural production especially. Recovery is largely tied to the ability of Europe and Italy to disburse resources quickly. And it is equally important to update strategies.
The premise is a critical horizon, amid economic recession and rising unemployment that will also have an unprecedented impact on consumers’ spending abilities. Venture capital investment in the agribusiness sector also declined, -16 percent in the first quarter of 2020, according to estimates by Dutch financial group Rabobank. FoodBytes–Rabobank’s platform connecting startups, businesses and investors in sustainable agribusiness–proposes to consider six areas of development. In sharing this approach, we add some notes of our own.
1 – Functional foods
The first element to consider is the marked trend of consumers in the Covid era to buy functional foods. That is, foods that are beneficial to health and helpful in strengthening the immune system.
One limitation to new product development, according to RaboResearch analysts, is the price factor. Indeed, in the recessionary phase following the Covid-19 pandemic, a general need for savings is expected. Emerging brands should therefore aim to enter the functional food market with minimized prices. With the confidence to recover marginality, progressively, once consumer confidence is established.
Instead, a strength lies in the opportunity to offer functional products in line with usual consumption, which therefore do not require large advertising investments. FoodBytes cites examples of common ‘enhanced’ beverages (tea, coffee, waters) and enriched snacks (e.g., bars). Such as Shaka Tea, a calorie-free drink that contains the antioxidant Hawaiian makiki plant and is marketed at the ‘competitive’ price of less than US$3 per bottle. Vive Organic cold-pressed organic juices and Kuli Kuli snacks made from moringa, a plant native to India rich in B vitamins, C vitamins and amino acids.
2 – Ecommerce
The lockdown imposed by the new coronavirus has been an exceptional driver for e-commerce:
– demand grew to unprecedented levels, +178.5 percent in Italy during Easter week (Nielsen data),
– many consumers accustomed to physical retail have moved to online shopping out of necessity.
There is a potentially bright scenario ahead for home delivery of food products, as there is already for other consumer goods (electronics and home appliances first and foremost). Provided they are actually prepared to support the demand, in terms of IT capacity and delivery. What unfortunately did not happen in Italy, as seen. Where the very giants of the national retail industry have performed a resounding flop.
Rabobank cites the example of Oddbox (UK), a startup that grew out of the FoodBytes stable and offers home delivery of products that are close to expiration or have apparent defects (e.g., fruit and vegetables of substandard shape) at discounted prices. With the idea of adding to consumer savings the shared satisfaction of reducing food waste.
3 – Short supply chain for fresh
The demand for fresh food has increased significantly, according to RaboResearch researchers. The sale of oranges in the US has increased by 60 percent precisely because of the beneficial properties associated by consumers with the vitamin C-rich citrus fruit. No less so in the Bel Paese, where conspicuous price speculation has also been reported.
RaboResearch analysts point out how the logistical problems of the retail sector during the Covid-19 emergency led consumers to favor buying fruits and vegetables from local producers. In Italy, too, as we have seen, there has been the widespread development of local initiatives by small farmers to deliver their produce to their homes.
ConsumAtors, we add, have learned in recent months to organize their spending on a weekly basis. And so it is that the model of weekly delivery of a box of organic, km0 fruit and vegetables, perhaps other products as well (eggs, dairy products, meats), now represents an unmissable opportunity forpeasant agriculture.
The model cited in the report is Seal the Season (U.S.), which matched the demand for fresh food with the supply of local producers through home delivery of frozen seasonal foods, with guaranteed fair remuneration for small farmers. In less boundless countries such as ours, even more can be done by being clear about the values associated with short supply chains.
4 – Sustainable food packaging
The collective obsession with protecting food from the new coronavirus-irrational and unnecessary, as we have seen-has caused the consumption of single-use food packaging to literally explode. A catastrophe for the environment, consider:
– The huge amount of completely unnecessary waste,
– The significant contribution of plastic production to global warming.
The win-win solution, according to Rabobank, is to offer packaging in ‘sustainable’, plant-based materials at low cost. Such as Corumat and Element Packaging, two companies followed by FoodBytes. Our point of view is more radical. The best packaging is that which does not exist (quoting Stanislao Fabbrino). Therefore, there is a need to insist on the reuse of containers and their refilling by serving bulk food. There is no shortage of examples, nor the capacity for innovation. And tax benefits are also available, by the way.
5 – Hygiene
Food pathogens, as we often repeat, know no holidays or lockdowns.
Campylobacter
, salmonella, E.Coli (also in STEC variant), Listeria m. are the most prevalent. Their prevalence is also high in Europe, although at levels of less concern than in other areas of the planet(USA and Canada above all).
Rapid pathogen testing systems represent the great opportunity to verify and measure their presence as early as the agricultural and breeding stages. This is the only way to effectively prevent food safety risk products from entering the market. All the more so considering that the results of traditional analysis often come when food has already been distributed to the final consumer. Particularly when dealing with foods with a short shelf-life. Fourth and fifth range but also animal products (e.g., eggs and meat).
The availability of rapid analysis serves the essential function of mitigating the risks of serious losses that are too often underestimated. Damage claims (which, while they may be covered by product liability policies) are small potatoes compared to the risk of exclusion from the vendors’ lists of large-scale retailers, taking into account that news of alerts in the retail network circulate more rapidly than in official alert systems. Then there is the added risk for operators of being placed on blacklists of non-EU importing countries, from which it is very difficult to get off.
InstaBact is the Italian startup we are pleased to collaborate with, already operating in rapid pathogen detection systems on fresh vegetables and fruits, eggs and poultry meat. Systems that can among other things be developed on other commodities such as meats of other species and dairy products. Also with a view to reducing food waste, as early detection of heat-sensitive pathogens can enable timely changes in the fate of products, from fresh to the processing industry. In the FoodBytes incubator, however, are the companies FreshCheck, SnapDNA and Yarok MicroBio.
6 – Automation in agriculture
Robotics in agriculture is referred to as a need for progress. Rabobank refers to labor shortages in European agriculture as a result of the lockdown, although this problem is clearly more complex as it is often linked to the exploitation of laborers. Where caporalato – which exists in Italy but also in Spain and other countries-is systematically tolerated by the processing industry, outside of rare positive examples as that of Coop Italy, the first retailer in the world to have implemented the SA8000 social sustainability standard, already in 1998.
Rather, precision agriculture, as we have already pointed out, should be seen as an opportunity for a drastic cut in the use of agrotoxics. In line with the European Farm to Fork (f2f) policy, market trends increasingly oriented toward organic production, and above all, common sense. Eliminating chemical weeding on extensive crops (cereals and soybeans) should be the top priority, in the writer’s humble opinion.
FoodBytes cites two enterprises in its circuit. Augean Robotics, which offers Burro, a robotic cart for data collection that promises to increase productivity by up to 30 percent. DataFarming, on the other hand, offers useful solutions for agronomists to control processes in precision agriculture.
Full ahead!
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".
