The accounting reality indicates that Spanish companies do not invest enough in innovation. Or maybe we don’t correctly account for investments in R&D&i and that’s why we don’t look good in the photo.
The reality of Spanish productivity is that it is below the European average. And the reality that research shows is that productivity and wealth generation are related to innovation.
It can be thought that the agricultural sector is a sector with little innovation. Nothing could be further from the truth, what happens is that consumers who live far from the countryside, do not find out anything.
The agricultural sector works with sensors in the field and satellite images to know the temperature and humidity of the soil and make decisions about irrigation, pruning and other field tasks. It uses applications with artificial intelligence that allow it to calculate the expected production of its plots and we could continue.
Another area of innovation is seeds and the development of new varieties that are increasingly resistant and require less irrigation, which allow us to have local products for more months of the year and also facilitate their transportation because Spain is an export power.
Have you noticed that when you buy a mesh bag of oranges, potatoes, onions,… they all have a similar color and size? Well, that way they don’t come out of the tree or the plant. Nature is capricious and diverse and unless you eat from your garden, the products you buy go through a packaging warehouse.
In this warehouse, the products are washed, a very exhaustive quality control is carried out and they are classified to meet the size (caliber) and aesthetic quality requirements of each client. There is also a lot of innovation here. For years,
Many packaging warehouses are now considering innovating by introducing packaging planning. There are companies that have spent 20 years importing this industrial process into their company without success. The earliest success stories that we have known in Spain are from 15 years ago and have to do with the planning of packaging in the field, which is even more complex. In 2023 we were asked to solve the problem of planning the packaging of fresh fruits and vegetables in warehouses. Our customers started planning packaging in 2024 and 2025 and have improved their productivity, coordination capacity between plants and are very happy.
Innovating does not always mean investing huge amounts of money in the latest technology. Reduced investments accompanied by good change management can be the source of many productivity improvement opportunities.
Our first innovation for this sector was the development of a planning and control process for the packaging of fresh fruits and vegetables that works.
The next innovation has been the planning screen. We have improved it to show the plan in a graphical environment that is very easy to understand and in which our clients can transfer their decisions with just a few clicks to all the manufacturing lines.
Ease of use is key to reacting in an environment where a large part of orders are received, made and shipped on the same day and we are very proud of the usability of our solution.
