A very interesting meeting on technological innovation in the agri-food sector was held by the Committee on Research and Technology of the Parliament, under the chairmanship of the Member of Parliament for the State of ND, Professor Christos Tarantilis. Among other things, proposals and solutions in dealing with the modern food crisis were given by three Founders and CEOs of technology innovation companies in the agri-food sector.

Tarantilis, during his introductory speech, stressed the importance of the agri-food sector for the development of the Greek and global economy. He cited data from the study by EY and Piraeus Bank "The Greek agri-food sector faces challenges and opportunities".

In Greece, the food, beverage and tobacco industry maintains the first place in number of enterprises among the manufacturing sectors. It is the largest employer of domestic manufacturing, internationally. The contribution rate of the agricultural sector to the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is estimated at 4.3%.

He added that the challenges in the agri-food sector are many, both in our country and internationally. That is why there must be a timely adaptation to the new environment that has been formed by the following parameters:

a) Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has disrupted all links in the agri-food supply chain. From the production process, the storage of products, the management of cargoes and the transport of products to final destinations. A possible consequence is the creation of a major food crisis.

b) The fact that the agri-food sector should feed 40% more people by 2050. At the same time it should have increased food production by 70%.

c) The climate crisis, which brings about changes in issues directly related to the agri-food sector, food waste, reckless use of water resources, greenhouse gas emissions and soil degradation are indicatively mentioned.

Challenges to solve agri-food

According to Mr. Tarantil, technological innovation has proven in practice to be able to make a decisive contribution to tackling crises and challenges, namely:

• achieving quality, traceability and sustainability of the supply chain of the agri-food sector
• the efficient cultivation of fields, the reduction of the environmental footprint of the agri-food sector and the sustainable nutrition of the ever-growing world population
• increase productivity, using fewer resources, minimizing costs for farmers
• protecting stored food and reducing its waste
• facilitating the development of synergies between all members of the agri-food ecosystem, and of course
• protecting farmers' health and improving their working conditions

The President of the Commission then gave the floor to the guest speakers, Georgios Varvarelis, founder and CEO of Augmenta, Nikolaos Zotos, co-founder and CEO of Future Intelligence and Dr. Sotiris Bandas, founder and CEO of Centaur, who as founders of three very active companies of technological innovation in the agri-food sector gave examples of facing the modern challenges in this field and formulated proposals for the further development of the ecosystem of technological innovation in our country.