AgriTech opportunities for Polish businesses post-Brexit

The event gathered a number of individuals, organisations and companies to help better understand the potential, but also current needs and challenges in both countries. The impressive line up of speakers covered a number various topics – the first panel made up of representatives of C4DI, which is one of 25 incubators in the Barclays Eagle Lab network across the country, Barclays Bank and Hambleton District Council presented the British perspective and opportunities, i.e. the insight into the UK agriculture sector for 2021, the role that Barclays can play in helping Polish businesses grow their technology companies and how the local economies of North Yorkshire (including Hull and Northallerton) can become an asset for Polish tech.

Being able to feed the growing population in a sustainable and environmental way is extremely important – that’s where we see some brilliant opportunity within the agri-tech hubs that we’ve got in the UK – John Pinches, Barclays Bank

Rich farming and food processing history, expertise, experience from stakeholders, access to market – connections into farms and businesses which is a huge support in business development or excellent research facilities are just some of the examples of how the UK partners can be a helpful hand. The second panel, on the other hand, was comprised of representatives of the British Embassy in Warsaw, Investor Relations Office of Lublin City Hall and the University of Life Sciences in Lublin, who shed light on how UK-based technology businesses can benefit from the potential of Polish tech talent. The speakers also presented how their institutions support the international business that is willing to establish in Poland and Lublin specifically, explained the rationale behind the transfer of knowledge from universities to companies, and enumerated dozens of reasons why British business should consider Poland as a place to be and grow.

There is a lot of innovation outside the capital cities”, Michał Sobczyk, Digital Attache, British Embassy in Warsaw

The fact that Poland is a hub of talented professionals, also those working in agri-tech, was proved by panel 3 joined by business owners of Polish start-ups Plantalux and Insignes Labs and a representative of Food Forward food tech accelerator. The three speakers shared their expertise and experiences in food innovation, presented the landscape of Polish start-ups offering agriculture-oriented solutions, models of business collaboration, and how the current Covid-19 situation has affected food safety or consumer preferences and behaviours.

“Food security and food safety have become a buzzword of today”, Ola Lazar, Food Forward

The conference, attended by over 50 participants from the UK and Poland, was the first of a series of online business events that are planned as part of the Lublin – C4DI connection.