The hub, which will likely be primarily based in Campinas, São Paulo, is FAN’s second outdoors Europe, after the one in Haifa, Israel, and the primary outdoors Horizon Europe-associated states. It’s going to supply a 2-3 month programme for agrifood-tech start-ups, enabling them to speed up, additional validate their expertise, and put together for coming into the market. Functions for start-ups to hitch the programme will open in December.
FAN has expanded to Latin America as a result of it’s a “key area after we are speaking about meals, accounting for 14% of world meals manufacturing and 45% of internet worldwide agrifood commerce,” Benoit Buntinx, Director of Enterprise Creation at EIT Meals, informed FoodNavigator.
“The area subsequently performs a pivotal function in world meals safety and addressing different world challenges, together with the local weather disaster.”
There are additionally sure rights to think about. “There’s a particular have to assist agriculture whereas defending tropical forests and the rights of Indigenous Peoples.”
Agrifood-tech’s new horizons
FAN’s previous hubs, which have included Haifa in addition to Paris, Helsinki, Bilbao, and Munich, have utilised tutorial and company data to teach agritech start-ups into readiness for going business. Corporations reminiscent of PepsiCo, Nestlé and Givaudan have offered experience to nascent agrifood-tech firms.
Prior to now, start-ups which have labored within the programme have included Farminsect, which ‘affords farmers an answer to make use of regional natural residues to supply insect larvae’, and Spoontainable, which develops edible ice-creams spoons. Whereas there are as but no confirmed start-ups for Brazil’s hub since functions haven’t opened, start-ups in Brazil and Chile have already expressed curiosity.
The programme “is especially centered on supporting start-ups to be partnership-ready, assist them to run a expertise validation pilot with the appropriate associate in order that it accelerates their entry to the market,” Buntinx informed us.
“Due to this fact our most essential worth proposition is to attach the start-ups with our community of over 200 companions from all EU nations (and now Brazil/LATAM), together with analysis centres, corporates, and buyers throughout the entire meals system, from main manufacturing to upcycling of meals waste and meals packaging.”
The programme additionally offers start-ups entry to key occasions. “EIT Meals supplies most publicity to the start-ups by facilitating their participation in prime agrifood-teach occasions, such because the EIT Meals Enterprise Summit, Future Meals Tech, Anuga, and extra.”
Brazil’s EIT will concentrate on key themes reminiscent of meals bioprocessing, subsequent era of plant-sourced options, and sustainable meals packaging. The three themes, in accordance with Buntinx, had been chosen “primarily based on the suggestions, curiosity and challenges shared by our EIT Meals companions (particularly corporates), according to EIT Meals’s three Mission areas. We then mentioned with our Brazilian associate which might be essentially the most related themes for LATAM stakeholders, and determined to concentrate on these three themes.”
Whereas the agrifood-tech start-ups will likely be anticipated to innovate, they may also be chosen in accordance with how far they fulfil FAN’s three mission areas: “More healthy Lives By Meals”, “A Web-Zero Meals System” and “Lowering Threat for a Honest & Resilient Meals System”.
“The brand new hub will likely be adopting the identical pointers and choice standards as all the opposite FAN Hubs in Europe,” Buntinx informed us. “It implies that one of the crucial essential eligibility standards is that the making use of start-ups ought to display that they’re creating an modern resolution that may straight generate impression according to EIT Meals’s three Mission areas.”
