Canton Fribourg's agrifood strategy focuses on ICT

On Tuesday January 12, 2021, the State Council approved the economic development strategy for the agri-food sector, with the aim of making the canton of Fribourg the leader in this field. Numerous representatives from the sector took part in drawing up this strategy in a participatory process, including workshops. This strategy creates a solid basis for implementing the vision set out in the government's program for the current legislature. The initial situation is particularly positive, with the investments made in the AgriCo Campus in St-Aubin, as well as the centralization of Agroscope's activities in Posieux, with a strong link to Grangeneuve. The strategy will make it possible to coordinate the various initiatives in place to create synergies and pool resources. The implementation of this strategy, delegated to the Food & Nutrition Cluster, will be carried out on the basis of a service mandate, with a view to building on existing structures.

With the approval of the agri-food strategy, the Conseil d'Etat has taken a major step forward in implementing the vision of the government program for the 2017-2021 legislature, namely to develop a strategy that will enable the canton of Fribourg to become a leader in the agriculture and agri-food sectors. This strategy is based on Fribourg's already rich ecosystem in this sector, which far exceeds the Swiss average in terms of both employment and added value.

Representatives from each branch of the industry worked together to develop this strategy in a participatory process, so that it accurately reflects the sector's expectations and potential. What's more, the COVID crisis demonstrated the robustness and resilience of this sector of the Fribourg economy.

Alignment of planets

The launch of this strategy comes at just the right time. It coincides with the strengthening of Agroscope in the canton and the development of the AgriCo and Grangeneuve-Posieux campuses, the canton's membership of the executive committee of the Swiss Food and Nutrition Valley, and the award to Fribourg of an NTN-Innobooster (national thematic network) dedicated to agrifood and financed by Innosuisse. To complete this veritable alignment of planets, we should also mention the announcement of considerable infrastructure investments by major players in the sector in our canton, and the preparations for a new edition of the Agri&Co Challenge.

The launch of the agri-food strategy is therefore part of a powerful dynamic and aims to capitalize on the investments made in order to multiply their impact. It is also in line with the canton's new economic promotion and sustainable development strategies, with the aim of promoting the principles of the circular economy and short supply chains.

In concrete terms, the strategy's three proposed flagship programs are :

• The Agri and Industry 4.0 Flagship Program, which aims to promote the deployment of digitization and automation (robotics, mechanics, Big Data) in agriculture and the agrifood industry in order to increase productivity, added value and reduce the impact on natural resources.
• The aim of the Biomass Valorization Flagship Program is, on the one hand, to improve biomass valorization through the use of biomaterials (packaging, for example) and, on the other, to develop aspects linked to nutrition and health (high value-added molecules obtained by extraction, fermentation or other biotechnological processes). Like the other flagship programs, this program is in line with the principle of the circular economy, with the creation of new value chains. The "Biomass Valorization" program also focuses on innovative food processing technologies such as precision fermentation and new proteins.
• The FOOD Living Lab flagship program focuses on consumer behavior, particularly in terms of nutrition. In particular, it enables us to imagine and test the innovative products and technologies of the future, from farm to fork. This program will encourage the emergence of agri-food start-ups and the marketing of innovative products by SMEs.

Role of the Food & Nutrition Cluster

Implementing the strategy requires a professional structure and governance, which is provided by the Food & Nutrition Cluster. It has the advantage of being an existing structure with proven expertise in setting up and monitoring projects. The structure will be developed progressively and on a tailor-made basis, according to the potential of the projects and the resources already available and/or to be deployed.

In the short term, the Food & Nutrition Cluster will be strengthened with the recruitment of an additional 1.4 FTE in the coming weeks. Also this year, the content of each flagship program will be detailed within dedicated working groups, with projects identified and launched as part of abottom-up process. The organization, governance and implementation of the strategy will be put on a permanent footing from 2022 onwards.

In today's highly dynamic context, the proposed strategy provides a framework for development with strong, clear guidelines. The resources made available for coordination will enable the launch of ambitious flagship programs with the aim of consolidating Fribourg's position and increasing its attractiveness in the highly promising agri-food sector.

Source: Direction de l'économie et de l'emploi de l'Etat de Fribourg