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Let’s try to think of industrial robots or blockchain technologies, Artificial Intelligence or the Internet Of Things.
The effects on trade, in particular, are to be observed with interest.
For example, the use of industrial robots in companies, one of the biggest steps in the field of technological innovation.
Italy in this field is among the top ten industrial countries by degree of penetration, that is, by the number of robots per thousand employed that are more than 6. According to Eurostat data, 8.7% of Italian companies with over 10 employees use robots and if for companies under 50 employees the share is 7.4%, in larger companies with over 250 employees the percentage reaches 26.2%.
Now if we think about technological innovation and how it is used in the agri-food sector we can see blockchain, AI and IoT are in the beginning phase with respect to sensors and drones, Big Data and Cloud computing.
In the agri-food sector, therefore, technological innovation is responsible for reducing the costs associated with demonstrating adherence to industry standards and the ability to make fast and efficient cross-border deliveries.
In this sense, the digital tool to increase food safety and the precision of traceability along the supply chain, the most used is the Blockchain (in use by Nestlè, Carrefour, Unilever).
With this tool, new specific order codes allow you to reliably identify a wide range of information, such as the origin of the goods, the processing places and storage conditions (such as temperature), or expiration dates.
In Italy, Polimi’s Smart AgriFood Observatory and Nomisma’s Agrifood Monitor have carried out investigations on the applications of 4.0 solutions in already a thousand Italian farms. There is still a long way to go, but in the field of supporting the internationalization of Italian companies with the aim of promoting the use of Blockchains, the ICE also plans various training and consultancy actions to increase knowledge and l attention to these new digital technologies, also favoring the development of specific skills within companies.
