JGDE. You are the president of the Valorial competitiveness cluster. Can you explain to us who its members are and what are its activities?
Pierre Weill. Valorial is a cluster of 320 food, industrial and academic actors working on a common mission: promoting innovation in the service of regional economic development. We bring together these research and industry players who are not very close to each other. Then Valorial creates meeting places (congresses, thematic workshops, symposiums, etc …), from which emerge collaborative projects leading to new tools, new technologies, new communications concepts, new organisations, new products with «Valorial inside».
JGDE. You intervene at all stages of a project, from the day before the promotion. What is the range of innovation services you offer?
PW. The first committee in the innovation chain, the Scientific Orientation and Industrial Prospective Committee (COSPI) is composed of scientists from all walks of life, from biochemistry to sociology. It identifies future values creation themes by analysing the needs and challenges that our industry will face. The next step is to create knowledge (so-called «pre-competitive» innovation) and, above all, to create competitive projects combining the best labs in the field with the industry’s desire to stand out before accompanying these private-public consortia to the finalisation of a project. Then the projects are brought to the «labellisation» by a committee of independent experts. Once approved, innovation projects are submitted to the Financing Committee and financed. Valorial finally accompanies the projects during their realisation and passes the relay for their diffusion or their internationalisation to other institutions.
JGDE. You even organise «Food Morning» sessions to explain the contribution of social networks to agri-food innovation. Can you introduce the concept and its implementation?
PW. Agri-food is a very important traditional sector of the French economy. Agriculture and its agro-alimentary extension links the territory and perpetuate centuries of traditions and ties to the terroir while remaining the country’s first industry. In this area of the «old economy», innovation is not an obvious value on a daily basis. Yet it must also value and maintain these traditions patiently built and maintained in the networks of SMEs that make up the bulk of the sector. Innovation must therefore be promoted and explained in order to be integrated. It is the role of the Food’Morning Valorial, which brings together local SMEs, researchers and players in the new economy, who meet with local authorities, in the four corners of our territories, closest to the agri-food network. Actors of the agri and agro activity to imagine the new technologies in the service of the production of our meals.
JGDE. You have created close partnerships with actors located in Normandy and the Pays de la Loire. Does this western dimension allow you to impose more?
PW. From Rennes la Bretonne, Valorial is less than an hour from Normandy and the Pays de la Loire. A glance at the map places us in the heart of these three regions, which carry the bulk of French agri-food and agri-food production (€ 40 billion, 100,000 direct jobs) and a preponderant share of national livestock and fisheries activities. The academic structure is very dense in terms of training and research. Seen from New York or Tokyo, and perhaps also from Paris, Valorial is therefore at the center of these three regions. This is where the new agri-food economy will be built, at the crossroads of traditions and new technologies. The fabric, both academic and industrial, gives it an unmatched weight at the international level. Many industrialists, world leaders in their field, have clearly understood this and are setting up their world R&D center (Roullier, Diana, Neovia, Avril, Lactalis, etc.).
JGDE. In the same spirit, you have close links with other regional actors of reference, such as Act Food Bretagne or the Breton association of agri-food companies. What synergies can you create?
PW. The fabric of SMEs and ETI, dominant in the agri-food business, needs innovation. Innovation support services need simplicity and synergy, for example from a single portal that welcomes innovative projects and directs them to Act-Food technical centers and / or Valorial’s collaborative innovation, its methods of labeling and financing. The recent establishment of Valorial in a unique location, the Maison de l’Innovation (House of Innovation), Food and Trades (MIAM) with the Culinary Center, the Breton Association of Agro-Food Companies (ABEA) and Act-Food, illustrates this desire for synergy and its pragmatic implementation.
JGDE. Valorial has adopted a genuine international strategy that goes beyond the European framework. Can you tell us the
objectives and the results?
PW. Valorial has its own international vocation alongside services dedicated to export assistance. In conjunction with the other French agri-food clusters and regional authorities, we forge strong links with other agro-food clusters located on other continents. International projects are built around agri-food innovation with Japanese, American, European or Korean clusters, for example. From these links, doors open for the valorisation of our innovations.
JGDE. You wanted to bring together companies and non-food organisations in a «partner» club. Why?
PW. The Club Partenaires brings together finance and advisory companies for agri-food companies. Their skills are essential to the economic success of our innovations. It is an originality of Valorial and a «win – win» relationship that is perennial and also contributes to the financing of the cluster by bringing in private resources.
JGDE. Bretagne is often presented as the leading agri-food basin in Europe. How do you see its evolution and its future?
PW. Bretagne has succeeded in building a very strong agri-food economy. It has seen the emergence of leading companies, particularly in the livestock sectors. Today, in an increasingly competitive world, its strengths are those of France’s first agri and agro region. Its traditions and academic skills have made it a region full of human talent and a workforce of excellence. Its strengths must shine in an increasingly complicated and competitive environment. Our gastronomy, our terroirs, our «French Paradox» must serve as springboards to invent tomorrow’s agri-food business: the one that will combine the quality of the products and the accessibility to the greatest number.
Unable to compete in the global market with countries producing low-cost staple foods. It is also impossible to limit oneself to productions of luxury and niche. Between the two, innovative Bretagne will feed the world of healthy and tasty concepts and products, accessible to all. To reinforce and invent this vocation, it is the role of Valorial whose growth reflects the will of its actors to (nurture) the world of tomorrow. Bretagne has many assets for this. Valorial is proud and conscious of being one of these most beautiful assets.
