Agtech Action | Week of 01.13.24 - 01.19.24
Agtech Action is a weekly newsletter highlighting and commenting on current events in the world of agtech
Agtech stood out at CES, sustainable fragrances and the Red Sea attacks affect food and ag trade. Foreign buyers pay premium for US farmland, Palo Alto’s first tech giant was a horse farm and Deere and Starlink partner up.
The push for innovation will not stop, but we need to be honest with ourselves. Sometimes, the marketplace, and its players, are dis-incentivized to innovate. It is important to recognize these marketplaces before you enter them. I’ll outline some characteristics of a dis-incentivized marketplace in this week’s newsletter.
Food and the World:
A Snapshot of USDA's Surprising January Report in 10 Charts
Price Outlook 2024 — A New Reality
USDA introduces Weaned Calf Risk Protection for cow-calf producers
Kroger-Albertsons merger delayed
Canada aims to track plastic use in food and agriculture
Red Sea attacks reverberate in food and ag trade
ADM to Expand Traceable Soybean Pilot Project
Retailers say organic off to strong start
Stabenow open to reference price proposals, a farm bill obstacle
Interest rates rise faster than farmland values, says economist
Agtech in the News:
Naspers Boosts South Africa Investments Ahead of Amazon Arrival
Opeyemi Awoyemi of Fast Forward discusses AI, VC and Startup Growth in Africa on Bloomberg
Prima Wawona liquidates assets after unsuccessful attempt to sell at auction
2023 Top Investors of the Year in Africa
John Deere to Use SpaceX Starlink for Digital Farming
Kubota’s 2030 Vision and New Agri Concept Revealed at CES
CropLife Europe Announces Major Investments
Propagate & Rodale Institute Launch Strategic Partnership
Louis Dreyfus Company and TNC Partner
Bee Vectoring Technologies News: Partnering with MBFi
CES 24: 4 Stand-Out Smart Farming Solutions
Indian High Court allows PepsiCo to patent potato variety, overturns previous decision
10 Ag Tech Startups Chosen for 2024 AgLaunch365 Accelerator Program
Cotton in Space: Unlocking the Secrets to Crop Resilience
There’s an app for that: How AI is ploughing a farming revolution
Fun:
The Farmers Leaning On Each Other’s Tools
Encourage the Next Generation to Chase Big Dreams
Career Journey: Cooking Up a Job as a Space Food Scientist
New Ways To Address Healthcare Issues Are Needed For Rural Americans
Helpful Resources:
2023 Annual European PE Breakdown
2023 Annual European Venture Report
Interesting Reads:
Jumia Announces Leadership Changes to Support its Journey Towards Profitability
How much U.S. farmland do foreign entities own?
The Case for Doubling Down on Agricultural R&D
For blind cooks, federal Braille program brings recipes within reach
Do You Know How Tomatoes Taste?
Are the Threats of “Agroterrorism” Overblown?
Threat of irrelevance looms over emerging VCs
Foreign buyers pay a premium for U.S. farmland, says analyst
A Demographic Time Bomb Is About to Hit the Beef Industry (that is questionable and they have been marketed incorrectly about beef)
Palo Alto’s First Tech Giant Was a Horse Farm
Ready to discard your Christmas tree? You could eat it instead.
Uneaten and Trashed: How New York Wasted 5,000 Migrant Meals in One Day
In Search of Sustainable Fragrance
Black Holes and the Intelligence Explosion
Back To Basics: Angel Investing Primer on Choice of Entity
2024 Emerging Space Brief: Humanoid Robotics
Pig livers could serve as potential bridge to liver transplants
South Africa's MTN to sell mobile money stake to Mastercard
Visa Pledges to Invest $1 billion in Africa to Accelerate Digital Transformation
One Man’s Fight to Preserve Pakistan’s Perfect Cooking Pot
US cage-free egg pledges coming due, chaos not expected
“Ag Gag” injunctions overturned. Now what?
One step forward, two steps back on overuse of antibiotics in meat production
Finance:
PAG agrees deal to acquire Food Union Europe
Indigo Ag Announces Former Tyson CEO Dean Banks As New CEO, Closes On Nearly $270M
Perfect Day Raises $90M In Pre-Series E Funding, Makes Leadership Changes
Serra Ventures, Grondex International Launch Serra-Grondex Ag & Food Tech Fund II
ABC Impact hits $550M first close on second impact fund
CRPTF commits to farmland fund
Fortunes diverge in aquaculture in H1 2024
Enifer Bags A $13M Funding for Its New Mycoprotein Factory
Des Moines Land Expo delivers cold comfort to farmland investors
Intelligent Growth Solutions News: £22.5M Series C
farm-ng Successfully Completes A $10M Series A
Mediterranean Food Lab raises $17M Series A to scale up AI-powered solid state fermentation tech
Scottish Border Pension makes Nuveen timberland commitment
GeoSalmo reels in €13.4M investment
Theme of the Agtech Week: Dis-incentivized (to innovate)
We all know the expression, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!’ The same goes for innovation. If I do not have an incentive to innovate, or seek out innovation, I will not. Those are what I can dis-incentivized players and marketplaces. How do we identify those types of marketplaces?
A few characteristics of a dis-incentivized marketplace are:
A few, controlling (% market share) players
Favorable market dynamics (price, cost, etc.)
Large barriers to entry (e.g. regulatory or legislative protection, large capex, development timelines)
Players are either in the middle or closer to the consumer side of the value chain
Does this describe many food and agriculture value chains? It does! What this means is that these players are dis-incentivized to innovate themselves, namely invest in R&D pipeline, but rather focus on the P&L and maintaining shareholder value. For innovators, this can be a strong indicator of opportunity for you. Why? These players are all susceptible to:
Market forces (e.g. spike in raw material costs)
Regulatory or legislative action (e.g. change in administration, bans on products, or new standards, regs)
Barriers lowering (e.g. patents, trademarks expiring, generics, access to flexible capital, dev timelines shorten)
Consumer or end user wants to go direct to the source for its good and services.
These 4 points offer many different paths and opportunities for agtech innovators to step in and create new value.
It’s important to recognize these types of dis-incentivized marketplaces because they are ripe for innovators to enter when the time is right (see market forces, etc.). The demand for innovation will never go away. You just have to recognize a marketplace that is not producing innovation and go produce it for them.
We have some exciting announcements coming from the Yield Lab Institute so stay tuned!
Happy innovating! Thanks for reading.
BD
Brandon Day is the Chief Operating Officer of The Yield Lab Institute, the global agtech think-tank, ecosystem builder, non-profit arm of The Yield Lab global network of venture capital funds. The views, opinions and commentary expressed are solely those of Brandon Day.