Consumption, technology and climate: Italy’s new food supply chain starts again from 118 companies mapped in the report curated by Cariplo Factory
From agritech to distribution, more than ten years after the end of Expo 2015, food is once again at the centre of the public and economic agenda in Italy. This is no longer simply a matter of celebrating excellence and tradition, but of managing a complex phase of transition. The agri-food sector, a strategic pillar of the Italian system, is today exposed to unprecedented pressures: the urgency of the climate crisis, the scarcity of resources, the reduction of cultivable land and soil consumption, global geopolitical tensions and new patterns of consumption. In this fragmented scenario, the response cannot lie merely in improving what already exists, but in a profound ecological, technological and cultural reconfiguration of supply chains, capable of redefining the very concept of food and production.
The contours of this quiet evolution are outlined in the new report, Next-Gen Food: The Future of Food, the Food of the Future, curated by Cariplo Factory, one of Italy’s leading innovation hubs focused on digital transformation and the circular economy. The study provides a detailed mapping of 118 small and medium-sized enterprises operating across the entire food supply chain, from agritech to alternative foods, from processing to distribution. It presents solutions emerging from the ground up, at a time when the industrial system is struggling to provide timely answers. What emerges is a dynamic ecosystem: 39% of the companies are already working with technologies tested in operational environments, three out of four have received awards and recognition, and more than six out of ten have secured investment.
Looking at the geography of innovation, the Italian map reveals a marked territorial concentration. Northern Italy confirms its role as the main epicentre, led by Lombardy, which alone is home to 32% of the companies monitored, followed by Veneto at 12% and Emilia-Romagna at 11%. At the same time, strong signs of dynamism are also emerging in Central and Southern Italy, particularly in Tuscany at 8% and Apulia at 5%, demonstrating how sensitivity towards new technologies applied to land and agriculture is spreading across the whole peninsula. From a market perspective, most of these businesses adopt a business-to-business model, focusing on the transformation of industrial processes and supply chains, while 31% address the end consumer directly and 5% work with the public administration. In terms of corporate maturity, the landscape is varied: 19% are at pre-seed stage, 23% at seed stage, 26% at early stage and as many as 32% have reached the growth stage, with one in four already planning international expansion, mainly towards Europe.
At the heart of this transformation lies the adoption of frontier technologies. When asked which factors will drive the sector over the next five to ten years, the founders of the companies are in no doubt: artificial intelligence and advanced analytics rank first, selected by more than 23% of respondents, closely connected with digital agriculture, IoT and advanced sensor systems, as well as robotics and automation. As Edoardo Bogino, Chief Innovation Officer at Elior Ristorazione, points out, the integration of these technologies will make it possible to move “from reactive management to an increasingly predictive approach, with significant impacts both economically and in terms of sustainability”. The most widely represented segments among the companies analysed are, in fact, agritech and innovative farming, alongside foodtech linked to processing.
Within this framework, sustainability, the circular economy and health protection cease to be mere marketing labels and become structural prerequisites for entrepreneurial action. Half of the companies mapped identify the strengthening of food safety and healthiness, in balance with the environment, as a priority objective, while 34% focus on health and personalised nutrition. This awareness translates into rigorous scientific measurement of impacts: around one third of companies already use tools such as life cycle assessment or carbon footprint calculation, alongside digital traceability and blockchain systems designed to guarantee end consumers full transparency on the origin and history of what they bring to the table. Professor Giuseppe Banfi, Scientific Director of the IRCCS Galeazzi–Sant’Ambrogio Hospital, stresses the urgency of “technologies designed to help people select food carefully and choose healthy, balanced diets without looking for shortcuts”.
Despite the high value of these projects, the path towards full industrial maturity still faces significant obstacles. The unresolved issues remain linked to the difficulty of accessing structured scale-up finance, reported by seven out of ten entrepreneurs, to the entry barriers imposed by large-scale retail channels, and to the complexity of a regulatory framework that is often too slow when compared with the pace of technological innovation. And yet, the ability to attract capital is there: among the companies that have closed an investment round, 19% raised between €500,000 and €5 million.
The challenge of Next-Gen Food, therefore, extends beyond laboratories and cultivated fields to become a systemic issue. As Claudia Sorlini, Vice-President of Fondazione Cariplo, observes, the crucial objective must be to “create connections between innovation, institutions and territories, so that solutions developed from the ground up can be tested, adopted and scaled within supply chains”. Only by building open and inclusive networks will it be possible to transfer the value of innovation to local areas, transforming these pioneering ideas into everyday infrastructures and reshaping our relationship with the planet’s resources, starting from nutrition.
Cover image: Next-Gen Food: The Future of Food, the Food of the Future © Cariplo Factory
