Javier Ribera Grupo Pascual CEO praises Spanish food industry: "Cows not only give milk, but they are data generators" - The Spanish food industry is the fourth in Europe in turnover. Today, those activities that generate a higher volume of income are the meat industry, the manufacture of beverages and products of animal origin. The sector continues to face unfinished business: improving productivity, innovation and internationalization are some of the remaining challenges.

The pandemic has changed the consumer, consolidated trends and brought out some habits that seem to have come to stay, such as a greater weight of mixed shopping (that which combines the online and face-to-face format), the greater relevance of proximity commerce, the concern for sustainability and nutritional labeling or the purchase of products intended to satisfy self-indulgence.

In the last block of the XVII Smart Business Meeting, organized on July 14 to analyze the present and future of the Spanish food and beverage industry, Manuel del Campo, CEO of Axel Springer Spain, spoke with Javier Ribera, general business director of Grupo Pascual.

"Pascual is not just a dairy company: milk is only half of the company although it is the main business. We sell water, vegetable drinks or juice biofrutas", began reviewing the manager. "The consumer is the ultimate goal of everything we do."

The bloc began by pointing to the current debate around milk: farmers claim that production prices have risen sharply and that, in many cases, they are selling at a loss. Manuel del Campo recalled that " the final price is up to 20 cents below other places in Europe".

Javier Ribera Grupo Pascual CEO praises Spanish food industry

"We are in a perfect storm moment. Throughout the dairy value chain, we find problems that are best explained if we start at the end", Ribera apostille. "Price has been used strategically to make strong competition between traders."

"Our role is to pull the consumer so that he does not consume the product only for price and innovate to give different solutions".

To the pressure on margins is added the rise in the price of inputs and raw materials, such as electricity, cartons or plastics: "If you have pressure on margins and costs, the situation is tense for the entire value chain".

Javier Ribera also highlighted the importance of taking care of the farmers and working side by side with them to "take care of the animal and make an optimal management that results in the best product quality".

The solution is to "raise the price of milk and raise consumer awareness; if not, there is not enough value to distribute", he stressed.

Javier Ribera Grupo Pascual CEO praises Spanish food industry

Pascual also focuses on environmental, social and economic sustainability through "good products for people, with a component of flavor and self-indulgence and positive personal impact".

The general director of Business of Grupo Pascual detects that the 3 trends in vogue are the nutritionally healthier products, with clear labeling and origin, and business models that pursue the care of the environment and climate change: "Also the indulgence, products that people like".

"We make milk with the most sustainable packaging on the market, we were the first company in Spain to obtain the animal welfare certification and we worked hard on the formulation". Regarding vegetable drinks, he points out that they were the first "to grow soy in Spain".

On the horizon, one of the purposes they are already working on is to reduce their carbon footprint. And, to innovate, to highlight the work of Pascual Innoventures, the accelerator through which they have released Milkcubator, the first incubator in the world specializing in the development of innovation projects for the dairy sector, where R & D is on-farm: "cows do not give milk only, but data".

Javier Ribera Grupo Pascual CEO praises Spanish food industry

Ribera highlights the work of Innoventures in several aspects: explore, invest and accelerate to find startups that take the reins of innovation and take advantage of emerging technologies.

Among his most cutting-edge projects, Magic Water shines, to clean white water (with remains of milk) and process them in a treatment plant, obtaining drinking water and compostable product. What the initiative does is also develop bacteria that convert this waste into biocompostable plastic.

At Milkcubator they are investigating projects capable of creating dairy products through cellular fermentation.

"I am happy that there are alternatives for the consumer, but I do not know if on the whole they will be so extreme."

Javier Ribera Grupo Pascual CEO praises Spanish food industry

When the current debate about meat consumption is put on the table, something also talked about Marc Coloma, CEO of Heura Foods, the general director of Business of the Pascual Group advocates a coexistence between a livestock focused on sustainability and new alternatives of plant-based protein or meat grown in the laboratory, from techniques such as cellular fermentation: "I think that the 2 trends will always coexist, although I do not know at what level".

"Currently, you can already make a 30% reduction in emissions just by working with natural food." In addition, Pascual also invests in innovative technology that allows to create synthetic meat using stem cells.

Ending with the implementation of innovation, Ribera also revealed that in Grupo Pascual they are exploring the possibility of creating "leche a la carte" and studying "to what extent personalization is possible".

Javier Ribera Grupo Pascual CEO praises Spanish food industry

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Deloitte redoubles its commitment to cybersecurity with the purchase of 2 companies

Deloitte redoubles its commitment to cybersecurity after announcing the purchase, through 2 subsidiaries, of 2 US cybersecurity companies: TransientX and Sentek Consulting.

Deloitte's subsidiary in charge of risk and finance advisory, Deloitte & Touche LLP, has taken control of TransientX, a zero trust access company based in New Jersey (USA), whose zero trust employees and technology become part of Deloitte.

The zero trust concept is based on not placing any trust in elements that are not within your network, establishing security protocols before any user.

In parallel, Deloitte has also announced the purchase by Deloitte Consulting of the systems engineering and cybersecurity company Sentek Consulting, whose main client is the US Navy.

"As cyber threats continue to proliferate and become more complex, we are investing in helping our customers prevent, detect and remedy these risks," says Deloitte's cyber risk and strategy division leader Mark Nace.

Thus, the consultancy born in London continues its commitment to expand its offer in the field of cybersecurity, a service that on its website in Spain makes available to companies warning that "it is war".