WORKSHOP ON "NEW E-COMMERCE MODELS FOR INTEGRATED FOOD AND AGRI SERVICES AND PRODUCT"

21 st November, 2001 – Brussels, Belgium Rapporteur: Oskar Einarsson 1. Introduction...... 1 2. Presentations...... 4 3. Discussions...... 5 4. Summary and Conclusions...... 14 Appendix 1. Synopsis of presentations...... 16 Appendix 2. List of Participants...... 21

1. Introduction

In the framework of the IST programme, the European Commission, …Workshop on 21st Directorate-General Information Society organised a consultation November 2001… workshop on 21st November, 2001, in Brussels on:

"New e-Commerce Models for Integrated Food and Agri Services and Products"

This workshop sought to explore opportunities for clustering of projects …opportunity- addressing the above issues. There are great changes taking place in the clustering of projects sector; on the one hand the growth of prepared ready made meals for the working in the field of mass market and on the other the emergence of a serious market for high e-business in food quality fresh foods. Also the development of a Virtual Enterprise approach and agriculture… to deal with these changes and the use of ICT to facilitate delivery to the customer and traceability for quality, compliance and legal protection purposes. New and emerging ICT solutions are critical to the success of the EU Agri-food sector. In the invitation to the workshop the objective of it was defined as the following: …mature industry E-business is opening up new opportunities for validating and characterised by implementing new business models. E-commerce, both business-to- modest economic consumer and business-to-business is radically changing the ways in growth… which companies and markets are organised. Companies are changing their business processes (ordering, payment, bill of lading, customer procedures, logistic handling, after sales services, customer focus). Nowhere in the agri-food sector are all these ambitions present, e.g. a

1 mature industry characterised by relative modest economic growth rates …more value in the and a place where consumer spending on food and drink represent a form of high quality steadily decreasing proportion of European household budget. services and However notable social trends, like the consumer desire for exotic products… products and services with more diversity in the choice of food and the increasing importance of fresh, organic and safe products is a particularly challenge where successful new business models in e-commerce might reverse and improve the situation. Within the realm of quality …fast moving consciousness, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, or so called convenience consumer goods can meals could also be a challenge in a new business model, where the be addressed methods of Effective Consumer Response approaches can be used to differently… address individualising of offers, using effective information exchange through the value chain and the perceived value of the prepared food industry could be drastically changed by that. Companies have to provide more value in the form of high quality services and products for increasing critical European consumers. The …addressing the European Union is strongly involved in its greatest challenge ever to date, entire value chain – becoming enlarged. New member states from e.g. East Europe countries, from “stable-to- which are faced with increasing consumer’s demands to restructure their table”... agricultural markets towards becoming competitive at global market places. Agrifood industries’ role in delivering quality services and safe products for Europeans consumers is key. This sector should lead the agricultural sector in order to add value in different ways, like nutritional information rich products and anti-diseases modified products. These added values will increase the competitiveness of European AFIs (AgriFood Industries). The leadership of the AFI should also allow to make a reality the objective of controlling the food products ‘from stable to table’ in different ways. The use of IT will allow tracing the food product from the origin site … AgriFood includes through all the different chain links of the value chain. AgriFood does not all items of food, both just address the “early” part of the food supply business, but in this raw materials as meaning here the term is used to address the whole value chain in food prepared food… making, including raw materials, processing and trading, including equally fresh and prepared products, equally originating from the sea as the field,

2 and everything there in between. Both, the value added of services/agrifood products and effective value chain will increase the possibility to produce safe agrifood products. These issues are of strategic importance for the continued positive European economic regional development.

…participants from The workshop brought together a group of leading players, service all relevant projects in providers and research institutes from relevant technology and business the field of fields, which are participating in projects in this field. The setting was AgriFood… relatively informal with short flash presentations and an in-depth exchange of views.

3 2. Presentations

Commission officials, Mr. Bror Salmelin, head of unit DG INFSO C3, and …integrated projects Mr. Oluf Nielsen, scientific officer, did the opening of the workshop and in the 6th they introduced the outline of the 6th framework programme and discussed framework… the changes that will take place, as it will replace the 5th framework. In the 6th framework programme a different approach will be taken and the concept of integrated projects introduced – based on specific themes. The …thematic network integrated projects will be addressing different sectors, different for clustering… technologies, and therefore imperative for the AgriFood sector to start to discuss how it can partake of this new modality. The importance of …preparing for an starting thinking in terms of integrated projects was emphasised, pointing integrated project… out the possibility of using the last call of IST, the 8th call, to build a cluster of the projects as a Thematic Network and do preparatory work of an integrated project, that will then be ready to take off in the 6th framework and build the working base for e-business technologies and applications in AgriFood.

The next part of the workshop was presentations by the participants. In …interesting and nearly all of the presentations, a project in the subject field of the varied presentations workshop was presented. The projects either emphasised supply chains, of projects in the applications, models and/or technologies, and the various aspects they field… address within the AgriFood industry. Application areas are e-commerce in trading fish products, fish auctions, flower auctions, flower sales, food & drinks, forestry, animal feed, etc. Traceability and information exchange was presented. The need of best practices was emphasised, standardising information exchange and the prerequisite for dissemination of the available technologies. The presentations laid a valuable foundation for the discussions taking place later. A synopsis of the presentations can be found in appendix 1 at the end of the report.

4 3. Discussions

In the beginning the following points were presented as a basis for …discussion should discussions: focus on electronic trade in food and What are the new opportunities for doing business in a new way, agricultural deploying e-commerce in the AgriFood sector? products… What are the new service and business models needed?

What are the main structural changes needed in the sector?

What are the core issues in supply chain management within the sector?

This should be discussed in light of the rapid development that is bringing about important changes. The next generation information society is …new generation of coming through and has an element being of virtual nature. There is a need information society… to address lifestyle changes that will come and how can e-commerce support this change? Growing part of the population is interested in quality, freshness and exotic products. An additional important aspect is the parallel trend for “Fast Moving Consumer Goods” (FMCG) in the prepared food area, earlier referenced as “TV dinners”! These are food items of convenience and are very important in the area of a new …Europe diverse approach. Can this industry be a part of the new quality consciousnesses markets – needs to of the consumer? Can it also be a part of the new personalisation - have a common individual meals made on order by e-ordering? Can this be achieved approach – through the Efficient Consumer Response Models’ approaches, which are conserving cultural facilitated by e- and m-commerce infrastructure and applications back differences… through the supply chain? Will there be a cyber society that can react to these changes? It is certain that there are trends of change, as the consumer is getting more critical and wants individual, personalised services. Can e- commerce support that? Traceability, legal issues related to trade, safety and consumer concerns are important. Can this be done in co-operation with the new Food Safety Organisation that is being realised next year? Need to address enlargement and rural policy development. How can a European wide market emerge and how can the technology support it? How can technology support liberalisation of the agricultural market and

5 take note of the global trade emerging? Europe has a lot of diversity – how can that be built into one coherent market and synergies being reaped?

In the discussions following this outline, the following points crystallised:

…clear distinction There is a clear distinction between B2B and B2C and these two trading between B2B and models need to be addressed separately. The issues are very different and B2C… the perceived value is not the same. In B2B the importance lies in being able to cut cost in information exchange, esp. with reference to increased demand of traceability. In B2C the emphasis is to enable electronic trading, do personalisation and customer profiling for the ease of the customers selecting the products they are interested in. The challenge on the other hand in B2C is, how to resolve the logistics? – How can the …ever increasing produce be delivered to the customer, given global access to different choice of exotic and sites? At the same time the customer is faced with an ever-increasing traditional products… choice of exotic products, different traditional curing methods and the ability of tailoring their own lifestyle of how to purchase food items.

Business-to-Business issues.

Parallels between the manufacturing industry and the food industry are …parallels between clear and there are many common issues, the main difference being the manufacturing and perishable nature of food products. Issues that the manufacturing industry food industry… has been addressing for some time and resolving regarding e-business, is fully applicable within the food sector, such as “just-in-time” thinking, addressing the value chain holistically, personalisation of products and the …opportunity for need to be consumer focused. The specifics of the food industry, is the technology transfer… emphasis needed on quality, distribution methods, scheduled delivery, different curing and preservation methods. A very important issue is the vulnerability in society regarding food and its security. Extended products are what is coming, i.e. the dual nature of the products, where on one hand it is the tangible product and shadowing it the intangible information that will accumulate through its product-life-cycle, i.e. information relating to …logistics the main traceability and tracking, origin, age, quality data, etc. This was referenced issue in electronic as an “electronic avatar” of the product – its data mirror image! This

6 trading in food relates to the concept of an extended product, as the information defining industry… the product, its origin and its up-to-date life-cycle tracking data is attached to it. This is a very important aspect in traceability. By this the consumer and/or the trader should be able to assess the product by the information available, its quality, origin, etc. This does not necessarily entail being able to construct/view the product “physically”; rather build its “virtual” qualitative image, specified by certain data parameters.

…new information A very important aspect now is the requirements that will enter into force st requirements in fish January 1 , 2002, relating to specific information for trading in fishery trading… products. The following requirements will be needed for display for all products, or:

 the commercial name of the species …traceability an important aspect…  the production methods, whether the product come from wild fisheries or aquaculture and

 the area where the fish was caught.

To facilitate traceability, at all stages of the marketing process, fisheries

…traceability products will have to be labelled or accompanied by a document important as a quality indicating the three sets of information described above as well as the parameter and also as scientific name of the products. This has a dual role, one is the quality certainty of aspect of the product and the last, and not the least, the certainty of the sustainability of sustainability of the natural resource the food item is coming from. natural resources… This will impose a very stringent requirement of traceability and the need enabling exchange of information electronically as the products move …integration of through the supply chain, i.e. from one stage to the other. An important information exchange aspect is standardisation of information layout and possibility of with back office integration with back office systems to be able to utilise the information systems important… directly as it flows along with the product through the supply chain.

…e-business models As the requirements will be - the need to be able to respond effectively important… and economically to the official requirements of tracking and tracing - e- business methods become essential, as real time information has to be at hand all the time, as the products cannot be traded without them at hand

7 concurrently.

An important issue is profitability of this new way of doing business and

…new business carrying information across and also the new business models needed to models being address this and then their ability to be sustainable. Added value in the profitable and supply chain is imperative, but the industry is faced with the fact, that this sustainable… information requirement for tracing and tracking is required and has to be resolved in an economical way. These requirements can partly be added to the price of the products, but improvements in the handling of the

…added efficiency in information flow is needed, because the perceived value of it may not be the value chain for obvious to the consumer, but officially it is required, if the produce is to be information traded. The need to offset the cost has therefore to come through added exchange… efficiency in the value chain.

Integrated production is therefore of importance and clear need for networks –need for networks having clearly defined routes of how to …certification of obtain data and how to control it and employing clear-cut standards of information how to interpret it. Important aspect is certification and how trust can be important… built into the data handling. Due to the official requirements that are foreseen, the question remaining is not whether this is value adding to the process of trading in food items, rather this will be a prerequisite for being …need to make SMEs able to do business within the food industry. Large players can handle the able to participate in requirements easily and have already in many instances imposed stringent the market… information requirements to their suppliers. It is although imperative that available solutions allow for small players in the market, individual farmers, fishermen, their co-operatives, etc., being able to participate in the value chain without being forced to adhere to stringent data …too stringent infrastructures set up by the dominant players. The large firms have requirements will be a traditionally requested EDI capabilities for data interchange, but it is threshold for important to extend the use of XML in this regards, as it will be more participating in economical for the small players and should enable them to preserve their trading… independence and choice of trading partners. A clear structure in the data requirements and common understanding of how to interpret both format …XML important for and content is therefore needed. data exchange… It is certain that the technology is available, whether looking at it from the

8 software point of view, or various hardware instruments that might be needed and sensors. A part of this is to assess technologies that are being …technology developed under KA IV and also the importance of mobile/wireless available – need to communication. Ubiquity in information exchange will become an define how to deploy? important aspect and with the 3G systems, new technology will be … available that could benefit rural areas and could enforce regional aspects and integration. Agriculture and food processing is important in the outlying regions, and also in the accession countries, and the need is to bring them quickly into the overall frame of reference of information exchange, tracking and tracing, as not to hamper their viability of doing trade European wide.

Common definitions are needed, as traditional aspects of defining freshness, taste, food quality, are usually done using subjective measures.

…common, objective One aspect of this was introduced at the meeting, but it is an existing definitions of quality project running under the Life programme called “Quality Food Index”. parameters needed… This project is trying to develop a way of objectively assessing the quality of fish. It is based on the need of information exchange on quality and having a common understanding and perception of quality. Implementation of certification is very important and also how can the concept of quality/freshness be incorporated into the produce – how can food items become integrated products having an objective information defining it? How can the information become a part of the product-life- cycle and also given the fact that there are continuous changes that need to be tracked?

Earlier in the presentations was presented the results of a Spanish study of how people, esp. in SME firms, perceive e-business. The main findings were that although quite some discussions have taken place regarding e- …understanding of e- commerce, a general understanding of the concepts are lacking. As business concepts understanding is lacking, it leads to lack of confidence in doing business lacking in SMEs… electronically and it is therefore imperative to address cultural change in this regards. The question therefore remains: “How can trust be built, how can things be changed and people motivated to use e-trading methods”? There is quite certain a need for paradigm shift and a cultural change. It is

9 therefore important of piloting clear examples of how this can be done to …need to build trust build trust and demonstrate the advantages that can be gained. Clear and confidence in examples of best practice that can be replicated are needed. Added value trading methods… can be very subjectively perceived, it is therefore important to present the added value in such a way that everyone understands it. An example was taken from the floral auctions. There was not a great believe in the system earlier on, but as the system and the improvements the electronic trading system presented became obvious, the sceptics have been won over and it is now fully supported, as it has been seen to be beneficial. A part of this is culture, as there might be reluctance regarding sharing perceived power …need to address in the value chain. It is therefore important that the perceived value is cultural aspects and seen with the same eyes along the supply chain and the most powerful power in the value players participate and share their power with others and everyone has an chain… understanding of how the processes of trading are.

An important item is the logistics, especially in food items due to their perishable nature. The failings of dot.coms were relayed to the very issues

…good logistics of logistics. Final delivery of products was not addressed and that was imperative in food fatal in many instances. It is therefore important to look at models that trading… inherently from the beginning define the logistics needed for trading between partners. Time, location, etc., needs to be addressed and assessed, clearly defined what is the most economic and convenient route.

…need for economic, Wireless services will be important, as mentioned earlier. It was timely and convenient suggested to build up trust in the methods, it is also important to use the routes… technology to deliver other reliable information, like weather data, information which is very important whether addressing farmers and/or fishermen.

Supermarket chains have very great power and can mould how things are done. They can use their information to prompt development and be the catalysts of looking at consumer needs and drive the process of developing …different sizes of new food and products. The Quick Response (QR) concept is very players and power important in the food supply chain, as freshness relies on that. This term structures… has also been defined as Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) and is the equivalent to the just-in-time concept used in manufacturing. Everyone

10 wants to have the maximum variety, but at the same time minimise the inventory at each stage. The product flow in the value chain is therefore …efficient consumer imperative, quick response time and effective logistics needed. To response important… achieve this a good co-operation has to be in place, common understanding and effective information exchange. At the same time the value chain has to be effective and the actors taking part have to be value …need to remove adding. The supply chain can be streamlined by use of electronic bureaucracy and have information exchange with official entities, like custom, food inspections, effective certification etc. There is a need for liberalisation in the market and certifications of of products, entities, as to cut down on bureaucracy that is hampering trade across producers and borders. Creating better effectiveness and quicker response, can be transport… achieved through e-business.

Business-to-Consumer issues.

While in the discussion related to B2B issues, the emphasis was focused on costs and profitability, and also on technology, a different aspect was perceived regarding the B2C perspective. The consumer is not a fixed

…consumer more integral part of the value chain as an individual, although he is the ultimate aware of quality and user of the products. The consumer has become much more aware of health issues… issues related to health, quality, ecological products, buying nearer to the source, etc., but all these things require information exchange and better

…food products very information regarding the products, their origin, processing methods, specific and call for shelf-life and time spent in the supply chain. Food is very different and different trading diverse products. It can be ranging from simple raw materials to complex, methods from other sophisticated consumer food products. The need for creating transparency commodities… in the value chain was emphasised and how can the consumer be allowed to be better aware of how things are processed and put together?

Quite many of these issues can be addressed with e-commerce, the customer buying on the web, and/or the information made available as an integral part of the product. It was although stated, that if the consumer wants more quality, it has to add value; if it is adding value, it can be …e-commerce can charged for and should therefore not be a cost burden in the value chain. address new concerns The greatest challenge is although the logistics, how can products

11 by the consumer… purchased globally on the web, be delivered to the customers? Although this opens up a wide array of access to exotic food items, food items cured …what is the most in different traditional ways in different regions, there is a need to look at economical way of this as a part of the value chains. As very few items allow to be shipped getting the produce in across countries, without specific arrangements, like chilling, freezing, the hands of the etc., the shops and/or the supermarkets need to be an integral part of this consumer?… new approach of product presentation and the personalisation taking place. It was also presented at the workshop, that still in many places, it is relatively small part of the population that is effectively connected to the …relatively few used web and has adopted the e-trading mode. to buying on the web… Perceptions of lifestyle changes are the keys of developing the change needed. People are now more critical of what they want and get. Some items are just for feeding, while other has more dimensions to them in

…need for lifestyle addressing broader array of needs. changes… Trust is an important thing, reliable information also, and the need for standardised form of description in describing food items. This has all to …trust imperative… be resolved and presented as a part of the cultural change. Earlier on this has been addressed through branding, as branding has the image of standardised quality, standardised content and therefore builds trust. Branding in the information age can therefore take on a different …cyber-branding – perspective, as it does not necessarily have to be directly related to the new approach… product, rather the certified environment of information presented.

In the B2C environment, where customer profiling and personalisation will be the key element of added value, it is imperative that trust and consumer confidence is maintained. This has to come through a legal …customer profiling environment that builds trust and where handling of personal data is important… adhering to strict rules and regulations.

Quite an important aspect from the consumer point of view is traceability. The challenge lies in, what will the consumer want to know? Trust needs …reliable to be built up. As soon as trust has been built, information exchange is not information in the as important as trust eliminates the need for it. Reliable information has background – built on although always to be in the background, as if something critical happens,

12 trust… there is a need to identify the products at risk and being able to withdraw the products from the same lot immediately.

As a final statement, trust and consumer confidence is the main issue needed.

13 4. Summary and Conclusions

Based on the presentations made and the discussions held at the workshop, …clear synergy of it appears that the themes for clustering and co-operation of projects building a cluster addressing e-business applications in AgriFood can be founded on three addressing common main important pillars, namely: issues…  Tracking and tracing – harmonisation of information and usage; …evoke cultural  Addressing cultural issues relating to e-trading of food and change… agricultural products;  Building trusts within the supply chain and define extended …create awareness products and their nature - incorporating standardised approach and trust in new and modelling. business models… Additional subject matters raised, which are more of a horizontal nature going across these pillars and partly building the base are:

…harmonisation of  Supply management issues within the AgriFood sector. information Appropriate supply chain models and business cases; exchange…  Information and knowledge management. Specific industry intelligence and applying it in an automatic way and exposing it to users. …supply management  Logistics and their harmonisation with e-trading. important…  User involvement issues in relation realising effective technology implementation and demonstrate benefits. …user involvement… Developments in these areas will lead to the creation of new way of trading and applications. However, the development must be founded on widely agreed and harmonized standards, if they are to provide the seamless usage, which is critical to widespread adaptation. To be able to

…use industry exchange information, standardised data format is of importance, not just accepted ad hoc the data content, but also how it can be interpreted. There is a need for standards… detailed discussion on how this can be achieved; achieved without having to go through the tedious international standard setting. In the beginning the importance is on building industry ad-hoc standards, widely enough

14 accepted, to allow for meaningful trials and demonstrations.

Awareness building, demonstrations of benefits, addressing various supply

…awareness chains in different fields, in different regions, of different nature, is of the building… uttermost importance. As crystallised in the discussions, the technologies are available, infrastructure available in most areas supporting the applications, but clear-cut benefits to seed the concept into the grassroots’ players and clearly demonstrate the benefits, is the most valuable

…engage the grass approach. Bottom up approach is needed, but at the same time the top root… down approach building the supply chain is also important as dominant players can bring change around quickly, as harmonisation is needed from all links in the value chain. Democracy is although of importance and co- operation from all participants.

Clustering is clearly needed and there are synergies that can be realised. …clustering to There is a need to have a venue of exchanging ideas in a systematic way. address common Very specific issues need to be addressed, which is not possible to do issues… within other venues and in a different context.

15 Appendix 1. Synopsis of presentations.

Jim Browne Issues discussed were the ones in traceability and food safety. Need to increase confidence in the food and feed industry. Presented Electronic Commerce business models, esp. one used in the poultry chain. Discussed procurements from suppliers and SRMs on the one hand, and sales to customers and CRM on the other. Discussed results from the project ChainFeed (IST-10625) and approach in Smartisan (IST- 26267). Conclusion is that food and feed sectors are classic extended enterprises – migrating to Virtual Enterprises. ICT mediated Extended Enterprises (i.e. Virtual Enterprises) facilitate traceability and value added in the chain. Process modelling and appropriate methodologies are essential. Bjarki Brynjarsson Discussed state of the art seafood supply chain. Presented his vision of the future supply chain and called upon partners ready to take part in a project regarding transformation of the food supply chain based on e- commerce solutions. Important to address issues related to food safety, tracing, tracking, quality, etc. Based on the project IT FOR FOOD (Esprit). Fernando Ubieta Discussed ideas to set up Best e-operation models in SMEs belonging to the Food & Agri sector. The need has been identified, but there is still lack of effective business models. He focused especially on the agrifood sector in Castilla in Spain. His vision was to select some of the best practices in the Agrifood sector and use them as dissemination examples; to build awareness, transfer knowledge and involve all players in the value chain. Rubin Riestra Presentation of the project FAIRWIS (IST-12641), which is establishing a Trade Fair Web-based information service. The core of the results of the project is a web based integrated IT application solution to support trade fair organisers to manage their entire business cycle for “real fair” in the physical exhibition environment as well as web based “virtual fairs” and related on-line events. Can be used to support small players in the AgriFood industry to promote their products.

16 Mike Harkin Shared with the workshop his views on e-commerce in rural settings, addressing consumer confidence in food and which parameters are relevant to build the confidence. The point “e-business starts in your own business” was emphasised and that the approach has to be from the root up, as it cannot be imposed upon people. The need is to talk about innovation, not automation. Problems regarding adoption in rural setting are lack of awareness and absence of demonstrable, relevant applications to drive adoption. Werner Krott Presented an internet fish auction market, developed by PEFA.COM. He presented how they are selling fish on the internet across Europe and discussed the state of affairs and outlook. They take care of all the logistics, as needed for the supply chain and emphasised the need for that. By co-ordinating movement of goods through the supply chain, traceability is easier and done in a documented way. Benefits to all players are clear. Currently they trade just in whole fish, but the concept can be extended to include various products, whether from the sea or the field. Fernando San Martin Presented the project MEDIAT-SME (IST-11570) that is developing methodology and tools for world best introduction of innovative market mediation system and services in traditional SMEs. Part of their findings is non-awareness of the possibility of electronic trading. Through the project tools and methodologies, things are now available to bring the concept to a real case to work with and disseminated the benefits for SMEs to address the issue of e-trading to their benefit. The AgriFood industry is a very prominent benefiting from this. Christina Tsangari Presented the project E-FLORA (IST-21058), a trial project in the field of open market services for large-scale e-commerce transactions in the floriculture sector. The main aim was to set up B2B business model and addressing the supply chain and also for managing business intelligence, product lifecycle management and CRM. Through this customer satisfaction and loyalty can be improved, operational costs reduced, more efficient production planning, etc., along with gaining experience with electronic trading. Increased competitiveness of

17 deploying these methods is definite. Pierre Le Louët Presented the project E-CANNED (IST-20185). The goals are to explore how SMEs in traditional industry can apply e-Business in their operations. The project is addressing the canning industry. The aim is to look at the supply chain, both upstream and downstream from the participants, and build business cases that can be of value to other traditional industries of how improvements can be brought about, employing the newest technologies and ease trading in a global setting. Tünde Kállai Presented a national project in Hungary, addressing introduction of an agricultural portal there. The project aims to engage up to 4000 end- users (private farmers) in connecting them to the internet and become aware of modern technologies of ICT. The subjects are from very simple word processing to electronic commerce using automated mediation services for B2C activities. Very large awareness action. Alvaro Oliveira Presented two projects, LOGSME (Esprit) and SMARTISAN (IST- 26267). Logsme was addressing supply chain logistics, including collaborative forecast, while a part of Smartisan is addressing extended agrifood products. Emphasis is on integration across the supply chain and accurate and timely information being readily available. Objective is to take cost out of the supply chain and improve services. The trends for the next 5 yrs. were presented as integration of small producer clusters and certification of safe and organic products, building trust. Additionally, effective and cheaper supply chain integration and management with tracking and tracing. Improved customer relationship, profiling, wider product choice, extended products and customised offerings. Finally this will lead build the base for M-commerce (Mobile). Fredrico Morais Presented a study of e-commerce in the Spanish food & drinks industry, looking at challenges and opportunities. This was done through focus groups and also by semi-structured questionnaire. Their main findings were, although e-commerce strategies are being discussed, they do not still form a part of the culture of the companies. Supply chain management is lacking from a forward looking vision,

18 and as introduction of e-commerce technologies require quite some process re-engineering, reluctance is towards the changes needed. Need to present in a clear way the benefits that can be reaped, so take- up can be accelerated. Julio Font Presented the company Agromare, but they are working in Spain promoting use of e-technologies in the fresh food industry. Their aim is to bring in knowledge and use it to increase the efficiency for complete fresh food supply chain, as well exposing the industry to the new and more comprehensive information available and trading platforms. They see the future in B2B platforms, built on systems developed for traceability. Adding to this, automation of agrifood auctions and real time market information systems. Discussed a proposal currently up for evaluation, Fruitrace, addressing traceability in the fruit sector. Jan Blok Presented the Aalsmeer flower auction system and their electronic trading in flowers. Aalsmeer is one of the biggest flower auctioneers in the world, having a global system and a global trading of flowers and flower products. Presented how the system is built up and how it functions. Discussed issues related to its introductions earlier on and how it has won over the sceptics, as soon as its efficiency and effectiveness presented itself. Currently the main auction system is based on direct connections through ISDN, but a sales and mediation system is operated on the side, using Internet as the medium. Karel Charvat Presented two projects from different key actions, or WIRELESSINFO (IST-21056) from KA 4 and PREMATHMOD (IST-28177) from KA 3. Wirelessinfo is for improving access to existing information related to agriculture and forest management. The project will look at user- friendly data format, database access, etc., using different ways for data transmissions, especially including wireless technologies like GPRS.

Premathod is addressing use of mobile technologies in farming, improving methodologies of data access, data collection and data analysis for precision farming, and cost optimisations of measurement

19 method. The second part of the project will be education of farmers in the subject field, using e-learning technologies.

20 Appendix 2. List of Participants

FOOD-AGRICULTURE CLUSTER

Organisation Name Email INNOPOLE, S.L. F. UBIETA [email protected] EXODUS C. TSANGARIS [email protected] Inmark R. RIESTRA [email protected] Deloitte O. EINARSSON [email protected] ISITA – Irish Society for IT in M. HARKIN [email protected] Agriculture FIAB- Spanish Association of F. MORAIS [email protected] Agrifood and beverage industries Lesprojekt sluzby K. CHARVAT [email protected] Hungarica T. KALLAI [email protected] National University of Ireland J. BROWNE [email protected] Ibermatica S.A. J. M. MUNOZ [email protected] NYHERJI B. A. BRYNJARSSON [email protected] Flevo Forum Network E. VLIELANDER [email protected] PEFA.COM W. KROTT [email protected] PEFA.COM J. VADER [email protected] CARSA F. SAN MARTIN [email protected] Hungarica SPRL A. SZOBOSZLAY [email protected] SEMA P. LE LOUET [email protected] AGROMARE J. FONT [email protected] Help Service Remote Sensing S. HOLY [email protected] Norwegian University A. ROLSTADAS [email protected] Flower Auction Aalsmeer J. BLOK [email protected] BIBA/University of K.D. THOBEN [email protected] Bremen/Germany BIBA/University of Bernd E. HIRSCH [email protected] Bremen/Germany ALFAMICRO A. OLIVEIRA [email protected]

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