As part of this year’s International Women’s Day, we’ve teamed up with EIT Food to develop a series of exclusive interviews. We’ve talked with leading female professionals within the Spanish AgriFoodTech sector. Presented as a series of 30-minute video interviews, we’ve captured their stories and discussed how they navigate the ecosystem.

SPANISH RISING IN AGRIFOOTECH

You may be wondering why we’ve chosen to feature Spanish women for the launch of our Women in FoodTech interview series. The answer is simple! Spain is quickly becoming the hub of all things AgriFoodTech, so we wanted to talk to some of the amazing women who are innovating at the forefront of the sector.

In recent decades, women have played a decisive role in the business world. In Spain, 37% of management positions are held by women, a higher percentage than the European average. Society is moving in this direction and more and more women are taking on important positions of responsibility. However, we must not forget that even today, in the 21st century, only 1 in 3 managers in the European Union is a woman.

So what can we do to fill the gender gap in the workplace?

Over the past decade, we think women have been instrumental in advancing food and ag-tech and bringing the food system’s pressing challenges into the public consciousness. We witness that they have a unique understanding of the consumer bases and typically best respond to the most progressive causes. In a Yale study, female public opinion consistently perceives environmental issues such as global warming and biodiversity loss as more urgent and worrying than their male counterparts. This means that women make up a larger share of the very consumer base that these food-tech startups are targeting, and losing out from their leadership in the boardrooms will ultimately dampen innovation and marketing effectiveness.

Thus, we think giving visibility to all female entrepreneurs so they can become role models for all women keen to create new solutions and innovate in this space is a great starting point. We see more and more women are embarking on their entrepreneurial journey to create their own companies in Food Tech.  According to the latest stats coming from our 2020 FoodTech 500 list, 25,2% of the ranked companies are women-led or have women in the leadership team and we’re extremely proud to be able to shine the spotlight on some of them. Thus, we think we’d need an army of them to really fix our broken food system and publicize the efforts of these inspiring women so that they can mentor the next generation of female entrepreneurs.

 

WHAT’S ON THE MENU

Our chosen speakers are clear examples of female empowerment. Let’s see how they have succeeded in the world of Food Tech.

We will have the opportunity to see how these inspiring women craved out a niche for themselves in the industry. They are coming on strong and setting an example of female empowerment in FoodTech.

Introducing our first interview, we sat down with Catalina Trujillo, CMO and co-founder of SOUJI. She talked about her experience in the world of AgriFoodTech and how this journey led her to co-found her business.

 

Continuing with the second interview, we talked to Lorena Salcedo, NPD Manager of Plant-Based Meat at Heura Foods. She shared her thoughts on the future of food, and how being a woman shaped her journey in AgriFoodTech.

 

Hereinafter, we heard the experience of Iratxe Perales, Co-Founder and COO of SonicatSystems. She talked us through her experience being a woman founder in the male-dominated world of AgriFoodTech. In addition, she shared her view on the future of food and why businesses must embrace tech.

 

Last but not least, we had the honor to listen to the testimony of Lea Blanchard, Co-Founder of GastroCampo. She described her experience as a female entrepreneur wanting to change the AgriFoodTech landscape for the better.

 

Do you want to hear about more women working in Food Tech? Take a sneak peek at our latest webinar featuring top women from the 2020 FoodTech 500 –  You can catch-up on these amazing stories on this blog post or watch the recorder webinar here.

Forward Fooding is the world’s first collaborative platform for FoodTech Data Intelligence and Corporate Startup Collaboration.