BFFood Presents Its 4th Edition in a Conference on Innovation, Entrepreneurship and the Future Challenges of the Food Sector

Business Factory Food (BFFood), the Galician food sector accelerator promoted by the Xunta de Galicia and led by the Galician Food Cluster (Clusaga), has launched its 4th Edition to attract talent and find up to twelve innovative projects in the acceleration or consolidation phase, which address the real challenges presented by companies in the food sector. The submission period for initiatives, which has been open since February 2 on the accelerator’s website, ends on May 13 at 2:00 PM.

Conference Development

The Infoday held on May 3, organized by Clusaga and FEUGA, served to present all the details of the accelerator’s 4th Edition and to recap the achievements of previous editions, as well as to address innovation, entrepreneurship and the future challenges of the food sector. The event featured the participation of Clusaga Vice President, Ignacio Losada, who highlighted “the journey of the 25 innovative projects promoted in the three previous editions of BFFood“. Following this, Rubén Aguión, Director of XesGalicia, and Francisco Javier Pereiro, General Director of FEUGA, delivered welcoming remarks.

Following these interventions, the presentation of the INTEC European Foundation report on Agrifood sector trends in 2022 took place, delivered by its Vice President, Juan Francisco Delgado. The speaker took the opportunity to convey his congratulations for the initiative that BFFood represents, given that “it is difficult to find such unity in agri-food chain innovation”.

Subsequently, two round tables took place. In the first, Rubén Recamán, CEO of Galinsect; and Iria Varela, CEO of ODS Protein, spoke from their experience as projects that were part of previous editions of BFFood. The former highlighted the “decisive role that BFFood played in moving his project forward“, while Varela positively valued “the relationship with mentor companies as potential clients“.

They were accompanied by Yago Campos, R&D&I Director of Hijos de Rivera; and Pedro Arenas, Open Innovation Manager of CEAMSA, as members of two of the mentor companies of the accelerator. Campos focused on the importance of putting “passion into doing things”, while Arenas spoke about how BFFood allows “approaching innovation from a comprehensive perspective”.

Subsequently, in the second round table, Xosé Ramón Vázquez, new BFFood Manager, recapped the accelerator’s steps since its inception in 2018. He also presented the real challenges of food companies for which participating projects must find solutions, and the 22 tractor companies participating in this fourth edition.

He was accompanied by Noelia Vilar, Technology Transfer and Valorization Manager of FEUGA, who invited those present to “seize the opportunities of the food value chain, joining opportunities such as BFFood”; Yolanda Falcón, Director of Portfolio Management of XesGalicia, who declared her intention to “share the successes of the accelerator’s new projects”; and Inmaculada Rodríguez, General Director of Unirisco, who expressed her “gratitude for being able to collaborate with the accelerator”, and emphasized the importance of “market transfer of scientific development”.

To close the conference, Roberto Alonso, Manager of the Galician Food Cluster, reminded those present that the deadline closes on May 13 for the call to submit applications for BFFood. As a final note, Patricia Fernández, from GAIN, thanked “the execution of previous editions”, highlighting the “component of BFFood that allows addressing the challenges of the future”.