How Spain is staking its claim as a global agtech leader

Spain is a food superpower; the fourth largest agri-food player in Europe and the tenth biggest in the world. It is perhaps less well-known as an obvious choice for agritech and innovation.

But that feeling is misplaced, and it is changing, as Spain grows as a leading light in this area.

In this episode of the Food Matters Live Podcast, we meet one of the organisations fuelling that growth, Eatable Adventures.

Eatable Adventures discovers and supports innovative foodtech start-ups.

Spain has always been famous for its fishing, aquaculture, vegetables, and much more. Eatable Adventures is helping to raise the country’s profile in areas such as alternative proteins, biotech, AI, and innovative, climate-friendly solutions.

It supports start-ups, helping them grow from good ideas, to real-world solutions to the global food system’s biggest challenges.

Eatable Solutions’ main focus is on start-ups that supply industry, rather than being consumer-facing.

That’s partly down to funding opportunities, but it appears to be a smart move.

Less money needs to be spent on creating a brand, and there have been notable successes including:

Listen to the full episode to find out how Eatable Adventures helps companies like those listed, and why those businesses were chosen.

We also ask: What is driving the agtech sector in Spain?

Other countries with flourishing scenes, such as Israel, Singapore, the UAE, and the US tend to have fairly obvious push factors.

They are usually places with a tradition of hi-tech industries, such as Silicon Valley. Or places where geography has forced innovation, such as being surrounded by desert.

Is Spain blooming in this area because of government support? Or is something else driving the growth?

José Luis Cabañero, Founder and CEO, Eatable Adventures

Over 30 years experience in the development of emerging markets in the tech sector and since 2015 in the Food and Beverages segment. 

Held senior management positions at European level at Oracle, Cisco, Unisys and as Open Innovation Sr Director in BBVA.

BS Computer Science by University de Extremadura, General Management program SEP at Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Diplôme de Cuisine by Le Cordon Bleu, Diplome Universitaire DUGGAT by University Reims Champagne-Ardennes.