AlimTech to boost agri-food industry with €17 million investment in technology solutions

AlimTech, a project led by digital transformation company TSK, aims to research, develop, and implement cross-cutting technology solutions to ensure traceability, safety, quality, and sustainability in the agri-food industry. In fact, it emerged from the industry’s need to adapt to the current global situation from a scientific and technological perspective.

To this end, AlimTech plans to invest €17 million between now and June 2025 as part of the Strategic Project for the Recovery and Economic Transformation of the Agri-Food Industry being driven by the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Tourism. The project is supported by the technology consultancy Doit Development and involves 15 innovative companies in the food industry, including SMEs, start-ups, and large companies from various autonomous regions of Spain, as well as 12 technology centers and universities.

22 collaborative projects

The project also includes 22 collaborative projects in the areas of sustainability, digitalization, and traceability and food safety, which will contribute to improving the competitiveness and productivity of the agri-food industry of the future. These projects focus on the stages that are common to any area of the agri-food industry, such as the reception of raw materials, the formulation of ingredients, the production process, general facilities and energy generation, quality control and food safety, and the storage of finished products.

Each of them will apply one or more technologies (artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, robotics, blockchain, etc.) in these stages of the chain, with the aim of increasing productivity, enhancing production quality, reducing energy and raw material consumption, improving the treatment of by-products, and ensuring traceability and food safety.

AlimTech is regarded as a proposal of general strategic interest for the economy and society as a whole, for its ability to drive and transform the economy both in Spain and globally.

Commissioner’s meeting

Representatives of the companies and technology centers that make up the consortium met last Friday at Grupo Carinsa’s premises for a working meeting. The meeting was attended by the Special Commissioner for the Strategic Project for the Recovery and Economic Transformation of the Agri-Food Industry, Jordi Carbonell, and the Director of the Commissioner’s Technical Office, Galo Gutiérrez, who were briefed on the project.

The companies that form part of this business group include: TSK, Grupo Carinsa, Yllera Bodegas & Viñedos, Agerprix, Cedrion, Kolokium Blockchain Technologies, Christeyns, Insekt Label, Domca, Frutas Fajardo, Keyter Technologies, Natra, Fruselva, Garaia, and Canonical Robots. The technology centers and universities supporting the project are ITCL, Asincar, CSIC - Instituto Cajal, Tecnalia, Eurecat, the University of Lleida, Gaiker, Leitat, GMV, the University of Cadiz, the University of Cordoba, and the Polytechnic University of Madrid.

The Strategic Project, which aims to strengthen the agri-food industry industrially, has received applications from 22 business-boosting projects worth €755 million from 350 participating companies.