Calling UK AgriTech businesses keen to build connections in Colombia

If you’d like to find out more about this opportunity, click here to sign up for our Information Webinar on 2 February.

If you already know you want to participate, click here to express your interest.

New opportunities in Colombia

After five decades of internal armed conflict, the peace deal of 2016 has opened up new opportunities for increased prosperity in Colombia. Currently Colombia is the 4th largest economy in Latin America and its GDP grows above the national average. Colombia has huge biodiversity. There are 40 million agricultural hectares, only 8 million are currently being used for crops. It has rich water resources and is capable of producing a wide range of crops throughout the year. Only traditional crops such as coffee and rice have solid production chains established, however yields and profits are far below ideal. Associativeness, transformation, scalability, technification and supply chain issues remain some of the biggest constraints to effective agriculture development. 

Building upon recent success

KTN has worked with British Prosperity Fund Colombia for several years. In 2018, KTN supported a joint initiative between the Colombian Prosperity Fund Programme and Innovate UK. An investment of £3 million via the Agri-Tech Catalyst was made. This funding supported 7 innovation projects that addressed challenges facing the agriculture sector and these projects have already achieved significant impact.

In 2020, KTN supported the delivery of an Agri mission to Colombia where 16 UK businesses built strong collaborations and commercial partnerships with Colombian organisations. 

What is Connect Agro Summit UKCOL about? 

Building upon the success of the 2020 Agri mission to Colombia, KTN is working with British Prosperity Fund Colombia and Colombian partner Agrilink to deliver Connect Agro Summit UKCOL on 17-25 March 2021. 

Summit: 17 and 18 March

Business roundtable and one-to-one meetings: 17-25 March

AgriTalks: 23-25 March

• The Connect Agro Summit will be centered around sharing knowledge. It will focus on the UK Agri innovation landscape and recent success cases of UK companies working in Colombia. 
• UK businesses will find out about the Colombian landscape, the core challenges, the opportunities that exist and the solutions currently required from Colombian agricultural stakeholders.
• UK businesses will be carefully matched with Colombian businesses and organisations for between 5 and 10 one to one meetings during the week. A translator will be provided.  
• UK businesses will have the opportunity to do a 30 minute presentation, with questions and answers, to a Colombian audience.  

What we’re looking for

KTN is looking for 15 UK businesses to participate in this summit. According to Colombian needs in the Agri sector, the expertise we are looking for includes (but isn’t limited to): 

1. Logistics Platforms (information, artificial intelligence, crowdsourcing, logistic services)
2. Credits (Microfinances, financial funding in Colombia)
   
3. Insurance (production losses- floods, winds, droughts, pests, productivity, prices, employees)
   
4. Irrigation of Tropical Crops (fruit trees, open-air vegetables, greenhouse)
   
5. Production in Cities (vertical urban farming)
   
6. Waste Utilization (compost, biogas, biomass)
   
7. Agricultural Management Software (fertilization, diseases, accounting)
   
8. Analysis of Images of Tropical Crops (cell phones, drones, satellites)
   
9. Artificial Intelligence (Algorithmic companies for tropical crop studies)
   
10. IoT Sensors with Algorithms to obtain information on tropical crops
    
11. Technologies in packaging foods
    
12. Post-harvest Machinery (washing, peeling, packaging)

How to register your interest

Please express your interest by registering here.

If you want to find out more before you send your EoI, attend our information webinar on 2nd February, 3-4pm: click here to register.

The deadline to submit interest is 9th February 2021 at 5pm. Successful applicants will be notified within one week.