Supporting innovation

Innovation,
a key commitment
for the sustainability of Agrial

Looking to the future is a state of mind, a culture of resilience, constant questioning and agility.

We act daily to create value for our customers and our farmer members by catalysing the evolution of our current offer and models and by imagining their future relays.

We make sure we respect our fundamentals, namely healthy and tasty food and efficient and sustainable agriculture.

We federate and share the actors of Agrial’s innovation ecosystem, in a posture resolutely turned towards anticipation.

SOME KEY FIGURES

committed employees, including more than 100 in R&D in the Agrial Group

farmer members, 50 of whom participate in the foresight committee

collaborations with start-ups since 2014

partnerships per year, on R&D projects (research laboratories, technical centers, chamber of agriculture...)

Our innovation issues

Innovation covers our entire value chain, from the agricultural production of our farmer members upstream to our end customers, and focuses on meeting environmental and societal expectations.

Preserve and guarantee the health of the soil, crops and livestock

Our network of experts offers our farmer members training, diagnostics and agronomic solutions focused on sustainable soil fertility and plant, and animal health, by developing alternative and low carbon methods and inputs.

Design tasty products

The pleasure of taste is the first priority of the R&D of our agri-food chains. Our goal is to ensure that our customers enjoy themselves, from breakfast to dinner, at home or away.

Ensure healthy and safe food

Because consumer expectations are evolving, we are constantly imagining new recipes and exploring new avenues such as vegetable and alternative proteins, fermentation... in order to offer a healthy, safe and accessible food for everyone.

Explore the potential of fermentation

From silage to the fermented foods we produce (yoghurts, cheeses, sausages, ciders, etc.), from soil biodiversity to intestinal microbiota, ferments are everywhere. Our experts work every day to learn more about them in order to improve our offer. Fermentation is a strategic asset for Agrial, and as such we are a member of the "Grand Défi Ferments du Futur" consortium.

Reduce the environmental impact of packaging

In addition to our optimisation actions, we are looking for new materials and marketing models, such as reuse or bulk. The packaging skills of our different sectors are united in a dedicated working group. Agrial is also a member of the (RE)SET PACKAGING consortium, alongside industrialists and distributors.

Add value to co-products

Our production activities generate co-products. In addition to reducing waste at source in the various sectors, a cross-functional innovation approach is being used to explore new ways of recycling with high added value.

Robotise and digitalise the factories and farms of tomorrow

Employee safety, work ergonomics, the economical use of resources and the search for performance require us to imagine operational excellence from a breakthrough perspective, in addition to the incremental improvements that are made every day in our plants.

Imagine new business models

Online shopping, in-store sales, out-of-home dining, the digital revolution has completely changed the way we consume. We are working to offer our products with the best possible service to our members and customers.

Our organisation around innovation, research and development

Agrial’s innovation approach is deployed internally, between the Co-operative’s divisions and activities, with R&D departments and employees who are passionate and committed to each of our divisions.

Work is also carried out collectively in a transversal manner on common issues and piloted by the Innovation, Research and Development department of the Agrial Group in conjunction with the divisions.

All this work is shared at the level of the Agrial Group’s R&D Committee, which federates the research and development departments of each of our sectors.

We also rely on Open Innovation by involving external partners such as start-ups, research laboratories or technical centres with which we work.

In a diversification approach, Agrial has invested in several promising start-ups, such as Biorea.

Biorea relies on 10 years of expertise in fermentation as well as on its innovative and patented air-lift bioreactor technology and concentrates the biotech & industrial expertise of its team within a state-of-the-art industrial tool. From fermentation to atomisation.

Our innovation networks

The collaborative innovation approach in which we are involved leads us to work with many partners. We exchange information with different networks of experts to develop and test innovative solutions.

Research laboratories and technical centres

As part of our R&D work, we work with private and public partners to pool our resources and set up collaborative projects. We are involved in joint agronomic and agri-food research work with INRAE, both on animal and plant production, enabling us to develop numerous programmes together.

INRAE (hosting agreement and partnership with INRAe STLO since the early 1990s)
Agriculture: SILEBAN, Arvalis, Terres Inovia, UniLaSalle, Université de Caen
Agri-food: AgroParisTech, ESIX Normandie, ONIRIS Nantes
Organic chemistry: COBRA, l’URCOM, CBMN
Biotechnology: Toulouse Biotechnology Institute
Innovation: L’École de Design de Nantes

Schools and universities trust us

Every year, students join our IRD teams in the Group and its business lines and come to work on innovation projects.

Our start-up support network

Le Village by CA Normandie: Agrial is a founding member of the Village by CA alongside Crédit Agricole. Since June 2016, we have been supporting start-ups in their development and providing them with skills sponsorship, as close as possible to commercial, industrial or logistical issues.

Competitiveness clusters such as Valorial, Vitagora, Vegepolys Valley and Dream enable us to develop collaborative projects within a relevant and efficient research and development ecosystem.

Grandeur Nature Network: farmer members involved in innovation

In order to improve the support provided to our farmer members, Agrial initiated the ‘Grandeur Nature’ Network about ten years ago.

Bringing together a hundred or so farmer members invested in this project alongside the Co-operative, this network makes it possible to evaluate new agronomic and zootechnical solutions or practices, taking into account the problems and specificities of our territories.

The ‘Grandeur Nature’ Network is a multi-specialist network, in order to respond to the many challenges of the agricultural and agri-food world.

The objective is to make available to farmer members the innovations highlighted by performances measured under “Grandeur Nature” conditions.