Agrifood

The Agrifood sector refers to the intersection of all actions and procedures within the food supply chain, such as agriculture, farming or food production and processing systems. The European Agrifood sector faces several challenges, such as environmental concerns, the lack of digital literacy or the adoption of new technologies, these issues have been exacerbated during the years due to the COVID pandemic and the economic crises. 

Over the last 10 years several developments have further shaped this sector, including cross-country interdependencies, the development of new technologies and the impact of geological instability. In order to discuss these challenges and the opportunities that they can bring, the Agrifood Thematic Working Group was established as a space to discuss and analyse the future of this sector. 

The objectives of this Thematic Working Group are to, on one hand, tackle the challenges identified in the Agrifood sector, such as the lack of digital innovation and the scarce enabling technologies available, and to, on the other hand, promote and improve the collaborative efforts between the entities in this particular sector.

The purpose of this working group is to share and exchange knowledge and experience between entities in the Agrifood sector, through the development of training and activities that facilitate the interaction and collaboration of not only EDIHs but also SMEs, start-ups, farmers and technology providers. Moreover, this opportunity will allow participants to identify and share best practices, coordinate resources and produce essential documents and tools to inspire and guide others. 

On the 21st and 22nd of May, the TWG members will meet in Ireland for the “AI in Agri Policy workshop”. This workshop will give EDIH members an opportunity to understand the outcomes of previous workshops and to feedback into the process with a structured report developed by the EDIHs.

On the 21st and 22nd of October 2025, the members of this group will meet in the Netherlands for the “Synergy Days 2025” one of the most important conferences in the AgriFood sector.

Previous meetings:

The latest meeting took place on March 13th of 2025. Participants met to discuss the next steps of the working group, and the new action plan for 2025. EDIH members had the opportunity to hear about upcoming webinars and workshops in the agrifood sector and review the outcomes of the Agrifood thematic working groups workshop held in Brussels during the EDIH conference.

On the 26th of November of 2024 the working group meet in person prior to the EDIH Network Summit 2024 in Brussels. In this workshop the EDIH members took the opportunity to brainstorm and discuss a collaboration workplan for 2025. Participants had the chance to define their priorities, elaborate collaboration schemes and actions, design a common calendar and exchange ideas and innovative strategies. The leaders of the TWG took their contributions and developed a workplan for 2025 so participants can better leverage each other’s strengths to create impactful digital services, for not all the SMEs but also their regions as a whole.

On October 14/15 of 2024, the Agrifood TWG members participated in the Synergy Days event in Barcelona, the most important conference connecting the digital innovators of the European agri-food sector.

On the 16th of July of 2024, the Working Group participated in a thematic session to discuss “IoT: opportunities for the agri-food sector from a practical perspective”. This first thematic session was dedicated to the Internet of Things (IoT), recognizing that making efforts to capture information and data in the agri-food sector is a strategic and preliminary step in the process of digitisation of SMEs, a purpose for which IoT can play a decisive role. 

The Agrifood TWG kick-off meeting was held on the 23rd of April from 10:00 to 11:30 CEST. The objective of this meeting was to define the priorities of the working group for the year to come with the help of all the members of the group.