The conference, of which the Balkans and Black Sea Cooperation Forum was an official partner, gave the floor to agribusiness leaders from education, science, business, and the public sector. They identified trends,assessed implications, and reviewed the resulting challenges and policy options while confronting decision makers for the near-future agriculture.
The forum was attended by 235 delegates from Greece and abroad. The participants analyzed trends, identified challenges, presented innovative tools, and exchanged views on how to modernize the production, processing and distribution of agricultural products with high added value in Greece and the wider region through digitization and digital transformation.
Delegates and media endorsed the AgriBusiness Forum as the best ever event in the field of agricultural technology and food-production in Greece thanks to the high quality of speakers, the content-driven sessions, and its parallel networking and training activities. These activities included the Masterclass, a workshop for agricultural entrepreneurs, and the Hellenic Challenge, a pitch contest with prizes. A field visit provided knowledge on geothermal energy, as well as ample networking opportunities for leaders and experts in the Greek and European agricultural industry.
The key message of the AgriBusiness Forum 2018 is the necessity for fast adoption and implementation of cross-sectoral synergies in the agri-food value chain, being the only viable solution for a productive, innovative, and sustainable agriculture in Greece. The forum had seven interactive sessions: CAP in Greece and the EU post-2020, Financial Instruments, New Technologies and AgriDistribution Logistics, Smart Plant Farming, Smart Livestock Farming, and Industry and Academia synergies. These provided excellent opportunities for exchange of information and debates.
Key highlights:
- Synergies and partnerships across the agricultural value chain in order to reduce the costs of agricultural products
- Connectivity between education, research, and market-players for providing products of high added value
- Medium and long-term branding and marketing, focusing on a permanent and inclusive approach on a country, product, and label basis
- On-site training and capacity building so that producers can adopt new technologies to reach planning and product optimization
- Supporting innovative companies (scale-ups) so that they create products or services of high added value
- Consolidating agricultural representation to a single-powerful hub in order to address the interests of the agricultural sector and strengthen its messages at the national, regional, and international level.
The AgriBusiness Forum is committed to strengthening the existing knowledge and team-competences to innovative food and agro-technical cale-ups, promoting innovation and cross-sectoral cooperation for the digitization and digital transformation of the food value chain, as well as networking and integrating partnerships between businesses, sciences, and institutions for the improvement of the Greek and European food systems in the digital era.
The next edition of the AgriBusiness Forum will be held on 7 - 9 November 2019. It will be open to a number of Greece's neighboring countries.