How do French agri-tech start-ups contribute to the sustainability of food value chains?

ABSTRACT

The development of digital technologies is one of the solutions being implemented to empower the food industry, especially now, when the sector is struggling to meet sustainable development goals by 2030. The attention of digital solutions has been widely given to its use at the production segment of the food value chains; that is, on-farm activities. We argue that digital technologies can enhance productivity and resilience along the entire food value chain, while increasing sustainability in this domain. Our results show complete digitalization of food value chains in France, driven by innovative start-ups, with some stages more digitalized than others. Indeed, digital technologies are shown to support the three dimensions of sustainable development goals: economic, social, and environmental. However, their benefits should be equally accessible to all actors in this field, and we therefore suggest further research.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital technologies
• food value chains
• sustainability
• start-ups

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the French National Research Agency under the Investments for the Future Program, referred as ANR-16-CONV-0004.