Outcome of the workshop “Food 4.0 and globalization”

The digital revolution has already caused tremendous changes in the agri-food sector around the world. Participants in the supply chain of agri-food products are forced to adapt to technical progress in order to maintain or improve their competitiveness in the local, national, and global markets.

There is a growing need for cooperation outside the framework of traditional actors of agri-food products to enable innovation processes and create new business models that would be accepted by end consumers. This new type of cooperation increasingly seeks to include the information technology sector in the processes of production, distribution, and sale of agro-food products. In addition, consumer initiatives are one of the most important drivers of innovation since the digital revolution allows easy access to information on agri-food products at any stage along the supply chain. These tremendous changes are particularly important for members of the supply chain of agro-food products of countries that are on the path to enter very competitive markets (e.g. the European Union) or become more open to world markets. This is especially the case in the countries of the Western Balkans in which agriculture plays an important role both in terms of its contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) and overall employment.

In order to point out the significance and current state of digitization in agricultural production and placement of agricultural and food products in the countries of the Western Balkans, the workshop Food 4.0 was organized. The workshop was attended by numerous representatives of the Western Balkan countries that had the opportunity to hear what are the innovative digital solutions in agriculture, and the latest marketing tools that leading companies (and institutions) in Serbia are already applying in their business. One of the keynote speakers was Prof. Dr. Vladimir Crnojević, director of the BioSense Institute in Novi Sad, who presented the vision of digital agriculture in Serbia where all production processes will be completely digitized, and in this way will enable the collection of large amounts of data. These diverse data will be used to create different digital tools that enable agricultural producers to plan their production based on the real potential of the land, efficiently spend inputs, and achieve higher yields. The BioSense has already created a National Platform for Digital Agriculture – AgroSense – that has about 10,000 users covering more than 10,000 ha in Vojvodina (Northern Serbia). By providing only their email address and what they plan to produce (e.g. wheat or corn), users are able to get completely free range of services such as digital image of their land, precise weather forecast, accumulated precipitation, days when they should work on the land, digital record of already taken activities, and many more.

That such approach to agricultural production is not just a vision, was confirmed by dipl.-ing. Stanko Oparnica from Al Rawafed Serbia where he pointed out that his company fully applies digitization tools (e.g. digital field mapping, GPS, variable sowing, etc.) in processing over 10,000 ha. Digital solutions have contributed to significant cost reduction already after the first year of application, and on the other hand, they recorded increased productivity and profits.

That digitization does not only contribute to the production process, but that digitalization in its wider sense (digital communication with consumers through social media) has also a great importance in creating marketing tools, was shown by Jelena Popović-Bujić from the Iceberg Salat Centar. She pointed out that the reorientation of marketing activities from classical marketing (outbound marketing - radio, TV commercials, print ads, etc.) to innovative marketing (inbound marketing - social networks and blogs) contributed to the significant success of the company. Furthermore, innovative marketing tools allowed their customers to directly interact with the company and to express their opinion which is very important in upgrading existing products or creating new ones.

That digitalization in agriculture and food processing is one of the top priorities of the Serbian Government, was confirmed by the Assistant Minister for International Cooperation and European Integration by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Prof. Dr. Viktor Nedović, who mentioned that digitalization processes are taking place in all sectors of the Serbian economy.

“Digitalization processes in agriculture and food processing should be considered from a broad perspective, from all kind of sensors used on the field, via GPS navigated agricultural machinery, field mapping by drones, automatization in food processing, all the way to social networks. Digitalization enables innovation processes, provides higher transparency along the supply chain, and contributes to creation of a higher trust between consumers and supply chain actors”, concludes the organizer of the Food 4.0 workshop, Dr. Ivan Đurić.