Food & Beverage industries have gradually embraced new technology due to the unfortunate COVID-19 pandemic. Within the UK and the wider European Union, this has been exacerbated further by Brexit according to Drink Development Consultants.
The mixture of the Covid pandemic along with the UK withdrawal from the single market area has affected many industries unimaginably, and technology has come to the rescue in a big way. From the consumer angle, e-commerce reached a new high with people forced to buy their essentials from home rather than physically browsing through supermarkets and malls.
In the context of the Covid pandemic, consumers’ use of shopping apps to order household essentials increased significantly. This resulted in the fast-tracking of a new omnichannel system like never before. The explosion of ‘data-enabled smartphones’ in the years leading up to Covid had already led numerous retailers to embrace apps and use them for multiple purposes. The availability of real-time data enabled better and faster decision-making across the supply chain.
Digitalisation will remain a food supply chain catalyst for the next decade
It is well understood across the food industry that continued modernisation, including investment in data infrastructure, is essential. It’s a first step that many participants still need to take – which is why food and agriculture still represent the lowest penetration of digitalisation relative to every other sector of the global economy. However, recent supply chain shocks and the emergence of millennials into more senior leadership positions are changing that rapidly.
Digitalisation is the key enabler for new business model innovation across food and agriculture. A clear example of this would be those who are producing private label food & beverage products – digitisation creates the foundation to quickly and cheaply enter new markets, to decommoditise or differentiate their products based on quality and sustainability, to employ new B2B or B2B2C models while scaling their businesses across international markets quickly.
With expanded supply chain digitisation, retailers, consumer packaged goods companies (CPGs), and foodservice companies will increasingly be able to leverage real-time demand data. This will help drive real-time planning and visibility, optimised inventory replenishment and ordering.
At the same time, digital supply networks — which connect the physical and digital worlds via online trade, supply, and logistics platforms — will unlock the potential of vast datasets from physical assets and facilities in real time. For buyers, processors, distributors, and logistics participants, these platforms will help to weather supply chain disruptions via larger trading networks, real-time visibility, and integrated demand planning. A recent example of this is shown in how quickly buyers sourced alternative suppliers or products when a terrible war broke out in the Ukraine for products such as sunflower oil, as manufacturing returns to stable conditions in many parts of Ukraine, the digital sourcing networks (such as Kwayga) will play a key role in reconnect Ukrainian suppliers with new buyers in Europe. In the case of buyers, it will also cut down research time significantly and make the process of finding, verifying, connecting and communicating with new potential suppliers much more efficient.
Editor Notes:
About Kwayga
Kwayga is an online platform operating in the food and beverage industry that matches buyers and suppliers 24/7. It allows food and drinks companies to trade with anyone, anywhere, as they provide message translations and live interpretation on screen to support multilingual conversations. Kwayga is a subscription-based platform that operates in 37 countries across the UK and EU and helps suppliers and buyers build relationships with the right people. Right Buyer, Right Supplier, Right Time.
About Martin Fitzgerald
Martin is co-founder and CEO of Kwayga. Prior to his current position, Martin has had an extensive background in finance and banking with a number of positions across AIB and KBC in Ireland. This includes 7 years as an Agri Advisor, supporting the needs of farming customers. Martin has studied agricultural science extensively throughout his college career including a diploma from Waterford Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree from University College Dublin.