ftalks Food Summit Latam 2023 brought together the Latin American foodtech ecosystem in Mexico for the second time to share the most urgent challenges facing the food system today.
The event took place last Thursday, June 22, at the Deloitte University facilities in Mexico City, where 250 global leaders, including specialists, representatives of the public and private sectors, investors, and startups, met to discuss the future of food. .
KM ZERO Food Innovation, an innovation Hub that promotes and facilitates collaboration between people and initiatives that drive change towards healthier and more sustainable eating, was the convener. Raúl Martin, CEO of KM ZERO, was the one who welcomed what he called “the future of food”.
Foodtech is undergoing a revolution, KM ZERO has been going on for seven years now and we saw at the time that this food needed innovation and the number of quality projects that are coming out is very surprising, especially in Mexico and the American continent. We have to be able to help them to get ahead in the end.
Raúl Martin, CEO KM ZERO
During his participation, Fadlala Akabani, CDMX Secretary of Economic Development recognized the importance of food security. He highlighted that the capital’s Central de Abasto sells 1,000 million pesos a day, equivalent to 1% of the national GDP in unprocessed food consumed by a population of 50 million people.
“Mexico is an enormously attractive country in the food and gastronomy sector with many opportunities and conditions that bring together the entire food value chain. In addition, it has one of the oldest and most sustainable ecosystems such as the chinampa, which can show respect for the environment”, highlighted the Spanish ambassador in Mexico, Juan Duarte Cuadrado.
The diplomat reiterated the success of KM ZERO in betting on Mexico to hold this type of meeting and strengthen the food system, which is not without weaknesses.
And it is that the ambassador recognized that the current and conventional food system consumes a large amount of natural resources, is responsible for the loss of biodiversity and economic and social inequalities, something that requires immediate attention from governments, the scientific community, investors and industry, that is, everything public, private and civil society sectors, he said.
Innovation is a valuable tool that is well targeted and can help drive the transformation to a much more sustainable, resilient and fair food system.
Juan Duarte Cuadrado, ambassador of Spain in Mexico.
“The system requires a transformation due to the impact represented on people’s health and the climate, added to challenges such as the lack of labor, inflation and ruptures in the supply chain,” said Beatriz Jacoste, director of KM ZERO .
This challenge is increasingly urgent considering that we will have to increase production by 70% to supply the world population, which will increase by 2 billion people in 30 years. “Innovation must be delicious and affordable, if we want new products to be culturally accepted,” Jacoste stated.
Therefore, he stressed that the future of food will depend on sustainable actions and for this, open innovation is required as a tool to address the challenges of the food sector.
The participants in the meeting agreed on a call for consensual action and to encourage the entire food chain such as farmers, industry, distributors and consumers to work together and for large companies to make premium products affordable in order to benefit the population. with healthy foods that allow for better nutrition.
Regeneration of the food system.
Jelle Van Loon, Regional Representative for Latin America of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) declared that all the actors in the chain should be involved for technological development in the sector. According to what has been said, more producers are aware of the practices that can help reduce costs, optimize applications of agricultural inputs and care for soils in the current context of climate change. Therefore, from 386 producers in 2021, it increased to 948 in 2022, thus presenting strategies for the transformation of supply chains towards resilience and sustainability.
Biotechnology, key to the future of ingredients and new proteins.
At the meeting, success stories such as Michroma or Terraflos were presented, which show that the future of ingredients is biotechnology, since thanks to it, it will be possible to improve the quality of food, generating less impact on the environment; in addition to bringing with it benefits such as water reduction, as well as the reduction of the carbon footprint.
In another of the reflections of the day in the field of proteins, it was concluded that, although there are many projects underway, however, much remains to be explored and done to reach the final consumer permanently with new proposals. Science and technology play a fundamental role in the development of ingredients to offer new ways of eating that are more sustainable and healthy by processing complementary proteins such as insects and primary products to generate ingredients with more added value.
During ftalks, important companies and organizations such as Nestlé and Red de Banco de Alimentos de México, shared how they are reducing food waste and emissions generated by the industry based on data. In addition, the relevance of the issue of decarbonization of the food sector was highlighted and the importance of the industry being leveraged in science and technology with the intention of reformulating food was highlighted, in order to achieve that the new proteins reach the consumer. through clean label, affordable and more sustainable products.
Alliances for the future of the food industry.
Throughout the day, companies such as SuKarne, Grupo Nutresa and El Consejo Nacional Agropecuario, AC presented real examples of companies and institutions that have been working for a long time taking environmental, social and good governance factors into account in their ESG strategies for the future. of the food industry.
“Synergy is the key to generating change and transforming the food system with new technological trends to build sustainable change where there is collaboration between the public and private sectors” Patricia de Fátima Toledo, Vice President of Sustainability of the National Agricultural Council.
At the same time, the speakers highlighted the importance of collaboration with startups to transform the food sector. “The collaboration between the industry and startups generates a way of being more efficient and gives value options to customers. These good practices allow us to know what is happening outside the corporations, contributing knowledge to generate fantastic food creations”. Nora Maya, director of innovation at Ingredion Mexico and Central America.
during panel Data Driven Companies: The power of data, in which Miguel Ángel Vergara, CEO and Co-founder of Instance, participated; Jacques Botbol, CMO of Tastewise and Pablo Rodrigo, CEO of Trazable and who was moderated by Marisol García, Editorial Director of the Emprende magazine and the portal Entrepreneur.comtopics such as the importance of having relevant data for your business and how it can be used to produce the products that consumers expect were addressed.
Startups that provide solutions to the most urgent challenges
ftalks Food Summit brought together more than 250 people, more than 70 international speakers, including 30 startups who shared experiences creating solutions to the most urgent challenges facing the food system. The KM ZERO initiative makes it easier for startups to enter new markets, and with this, opens up business opportunities to promote the most innovative companies and projects in the consolidation of new solutions.
From KM ZERO we are playing an increasingly important role as a bridge between America and Europe for the agri-food industry, facilitating these connections for companies, investors and startups in the sector.
Beatriz Jacoste, director of KM ZERO.
One of the central axes of KM ZERO is to support startups, which is why, on this occasion, 12 of them from LATAM and other countries in the region and North America, participated in the ftalks Food Summit LATAM Startup Awards contest, in this occasion supported by Santatera Capital.
The startups participating in the ftalks Food Summit LATAM Startup Awards were: 4BUDDIES, Ainwater, Alma Tierra, Flatbowl, Fructus Vía, Iczia, Coffee Kreis, PawCo Foods, Origeen Greener Cities, Creative Food Labs, Unruled Foods and Tierra Foods.
Winning Startups ftalks Food Summit
The winning startup in the category of Sustainability It was the Chilean Ainwater, which uses artificial intelligence to optimize the wastewater treatment process; while in the category of Innovation The recognition went to Coffee Kreis, a Colombian startup that transforms coffee waste into sustainable products for daily use such as mugs and thermoses.
These startups will receive support from the KM ZERO team, access to corporations and investors, and the chance to participate in ftalks Food Summit in Valencia in October.
As every year, both in Valencia and in Mexico, the totem given to the winners of the ftalks awards is made with new biomaterials obtained from by-products of the food industry. On this occasion, Radial Biomateriales was in charge of making the totem, created through fungi with by-products of the agave industry.
Finally, the general director of KM ZERO Beatriz Jacoste invited in ftalks to reflect and act on the impact that the food industry has on the lives of people and the planet.
ftalks Food Summit LATAM had the support of ICEX, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of Spain, Grupo Arancia, Ingredion, Familia Martínez, IMAG Organics, Syon Capital, Santatera Capital and with the collaboration of Deloitte, Thimus, microTERRA, Chefs ‘ Manifesto, Tastech by Sigma, Grupo Bimbo, Premios Goula, New Ventures, Sustainable Food Group (SFG), Hopefoodly, FoodHack and Conecta Iberoamérica.
Editorial Team The editorial team of EMPRENDEDOR.com, which for more than 27 years has worked to promote entrepreneurship.