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 should supply a 2-3 month programme for agrifood-tech start-ups, enabling them to speed up, additional validate their know-how, and put together for coming into the market. Purposes 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 worldwide 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 educational and company information to educate agritech start-ups into readiness for going business. Corporations similar to PepsiCo, Nestlé and Givaudan have supplied experience to nascent agrifood-tech corporations.
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 provide 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 principally targeted on supporting start-ups to be partnership-ready, assist them to run a know-how validation pilot with the correct accomplice in order that it accelerates their entry to the market,” Buntinx informed us.
“Due to this fact our most vital worth proposition is to attach the start-ups with our community of over 200 companions from all EU international locations (and now Brazil/LATAM), together with analysis centres, corporates, and buyers throughout the entire meals system, from major manufacturing to upcycling of meals waste and meals packaging.”
The programme additionally provides start-ups entry to key occasions. “EIT Meals offers most publicity to the start-ups by way of facilitating their participation in high agrifood-teach occasions, such because the EIT Meals Enterprise Summit, Future Meals Tech, Anuga, and extra.”
Brazil’s EIT will concentrate on key themes similar to meals bioprocessing, subsequent era of plant-sourced options, and sustainable meals packaging. The three themes, in response to Buntinx, have been chosen “primarily based on the suggestions, curiosity and challenges shared by our EIT Meals companions (particularly corporates), consistent with EIT Meals’s three Mission areas. We then mentioned with our Brazilian accomplice which might be probably 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 can even be chosen in accordance with how far they fulfil FAN’s three mission areas: “More healthy Lives By way of Meals”, “A Internet-Zero Meals System” and “Lowering Danger for a Honest & Resilient Meals System”.
“The brand new hub will likely be adopting the identical tips and choice standards as all the opposite FAN Hubs in Europe,” Buntinx informed us. “It signifies that one of the crucial vital eligibility standards is that the making use of start-ups ought to exhibit that they’re growing an progressive answer that may straight generate affect consistent with EIT Meals’s three Mission areas.”
