Innovation in the Agri‐Food sector: Exploiting opportunities for Industry 4.0

Abstract

Agri‐Food producers have a responsibility to provide safe, secure and sustainable food in a world characterized by disruption and increasing intolerance of waste along supply chains. As such, it is critical that they adopt new technologies to ensure efficient and effective management of their responsibility. While Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies can underpin process innovation opportunities, there is a gap in research‐based understanding of how they influence innovation practice and outcomes in Agri‐Food. In this paper, we investigate how I4.0, as a set of enabling technologies, influences core process innovation practice and product innovation outcomes in Agri‐Food firms. We present case studies of two Spanish firms processing fresh food products, competing in two important subsectors of the industry, meat and fruit and vegetables. We used secondary material and semi‐structured interviews as data sources. The findings describe how, in the two cases, I4.0 has enabled responses to new customers requirements through process innovations resulting in enhanced functionality, aesthetics and meaning of the delivered products. Our paper contributes a framework identifying for researchers and managers how I4.0 technologies act as enablers of the core innovation processes and competitive outcomes.

Integrating agriculture and industry 4.0 under “agri-food 4.0” to analyze suitable technologies to overcome agronomical barriers

“…"Agri-food 4.0" term itself explains the huge accountability of firms for safe, steady and sustainable food production (Oltra-Mestre et al, 2021). Due to various factors, such as climate change, lack of irrigation, and the recent pandemic threatening the agriculture yield, there is a high demand for building flexible, prospective and redundant food supply chains by enabling innovative technologies.…”

Sustainable Food and Agriculture: Employment of Renewable Energy Technologies

“…Agricultural companies strive to deliver safe and shelf-stable food. In many countries, traceability is required to improve customer food safety and ensure the safety of the food supply [ 13 ]. In general, there are two main classifications of AFSCs: (i) fresh produce supply chains, which include fresh fruits, vegetables, and flowers, and (ii) highly processed supply chains, which include canned foods, desserts, and so on.…”

Synergy of a complex of complex technologies of the future agro-industrial complex

“…The development of sophisticated technologies has implied vertical linkages of individual enterprises along the entire product chain and horizontal links of production processes and machines within enterprises. Interaction and control connections were based on digital integration of production processes through adaptive, evolutionary and self-organizing networks [4]. Co-creation of products based on new technologies and communications gave an advantage to small and medium-sized enterprises with limited resources, which alone lacked the capabilities and skills to do this.…”

“…Integration benefits include fine-tuning the product, improving product quality, traceability and process control. Vertical links between retailers and agricultural producers enable a faster response to new consumer demands through a range of technological innovations that improve the functionality, properties and quality of the supplied products [4].…”