Opening the event, Cogeca President Thomas Magnusson stressed how important innovation is to the agri-sector.  “Since 2009, Cogeca – the voice of European agri-cooperatives - recognizes and celebrates outstanding innovation practices of European agri cooperatives. I am very pleased with the quality of the projects submitted this year. Agri-cooperatives make sure that innovative solutions are workable at farm level as they take into consideration all aspects of the project from the technical, social, environmental and economic aspects of it. The EU has a key role to play in boosting innovation in the sector and increasing competitiveness, investment, growth and jobs and I am glad to see that greater focus will be put on research and innovation in the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)”.

The use cases in IoF2020 contribute greatly to this goal. Our Spanish partner DCoop Sociedad Cooperativa Andaluza (DCoop) received the runner up prize in the category ‘Innovative use of ICT and digitalization’ for deploying new technologies on olive and livestock farms as well as in processing facilities. These ICT tools provide full traceability of the product and offer the consumers a better understanding of its added-value. We would like to congratulate DCoop to this marvelous achievement and look forward to collaborating in the coming years.

For more information on the work of DCoop within IoF2020, please visit the Automated Olive Chain use-case of the IoF2020 fruit trial.

Besides this, at a Business Presidency Forum in Brussels that took place on 29 November 2017, Cogeca called for a coherent EU strategy to promote the digital transformation of the agri-food chain. In specific, the association emphasized the crucial role of agricultural cooperatives in driving the sector towards the uptake of digital technologies. Launching the event, Cogeca President Thomas Magnusson pointed out that “Digital technologies can help to achieve a more sustainable and competitive agriculture sector. Failure to uptake many innovative technologies on farms in the past have been down to the size of the farm, a lack of training or the high investments required. Agri-cooperatives can help their farmer owners overcome these challenges”.