Competitiveness of Food Industry in the Era of Digital Transformation towards Agriculture 4.0

Abstract

Industry 4.0 and its technologies can potentially increase business competitiveness in the age of digital transformation through the implementation of its technologies. These digital technologies are increasingly present in the food industry, characterizing the concept of Agriculture 4.0. This digital transformation is a reality; however, it is unclear which digital technologies are most useful for each industry sector. Therefore, this paper seeks to explore the current state of implementation of digital technologies in different industrial sectors and which digital technologies should be leveraged to increase the performance of the agribusiness system. To do so, we used secondary data from a large-scale survey of 28 industrial sectors, representing 2225 companies in the Brazilian industry. Analyzing the different industrial sectors allowed us to present a framework of digital transformation to boost food industry competitiveness towards Agriculture 4.0. The results show that the food industry usually uses only one digital technology, showing the need for simultaneous and joint investments in the other technologies presented in this research. Public policies must be directed to encourage the expansion of digital technologies in the food industry.