Breaking down silos between agriculture, manufacturing, retail and policy is essential in order to build resilient supply chains and create opportunities for genuine transformation.
Caroline Mason, who spent 20 years in food manufacturing at Co-op and Waitrose, and now running the Seeds to Thrive agri-business consultancy, said recent global challenges had highlighted vulnerabilities in supply chains ‘when efficiency is prioritised above all else'.
"We have learned the hard way we need to design beyond just-in-time efficiency to ensure we can maintain supply during disruptions and we now need a system that will provide for us in scarcity because of how our climate is shifting," Ms Mason told the event hosted by Savills in central London.
Kelly Shields, technical director at the Fresh Produce Consortium, said her regular meetings with Defra centred on ‘what the UK will be short of this month'.
Defra
"I find it depressing," said Ms Shields.
"Defra should be asking, ‘What can we do?' We must use data to work with our growers to find solutions. She said Government departments like the Food Standards Agency also worked in silos which was not helpful.
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Anna Woodley, managing director at Trinity Ag Tech, said buzzwords such as ‘natural capital' were overused and could be distracting.
"When we unpeel those terms we come at it from a solutions driven approach and a collaborative approach comes from that, rather than looking at the hot topic," she said.
AI
She added data and technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) were key to increasing supply chain resilience.
"It is about good quality methodology for everything we are trying to do and helping people understand what is good and what is bad," Ms Woodley said.
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"AI can solve complex data challenges to enable us to push forward with solutions at the farm level and beyond. We are going to see more of that. Defra are getting the vibe that AI for ag is going to be an important topic."
