‘AlimTech’ Project: Agri-Food Transformation with a Budget of €12.5 Million

Agerpix joins the ‘AlimTech’ project, led by the digital transformation company TSK, which represents a major initiative for the agri-food industry focused on research, development, and implementation of technological solutions to ensure traceability, safety, quality, and sustainability in the sector.

This project, framed within a consortium made up of 15 companies ranging from SMEs to large corporations, is supported by 12 technology centers and universities across various Spanish regions, with a total budget of €12.5 million.

At the heart of ‘AlimTech’ are 22 collaborative projects distributed across key areas such as sustainability, digitalization, and food safety and traceability. These projects aim to enhance the competitiveness and productivity of the agri-food industry of the future, addressing common stages in any agri-food process—from the reception of raw materials to the storage of finished products.

Within ‘AlimTech’, Agerpix will lead the PREFRUITA project — “Research for determining fruit quality and traceability in pre-sorting tasks through Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision.”

Currently, fruit pre-sorting processes are mainly manual and limited, relying on sample inspections that often determine the fruit’s destination. According to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), around 1,300 tons of food are lost or wasted each year — about one-third of global production. Fruits and vegetables are especially vulnerable, with approximately 23% of losses caused by technical and management limitations at various stages, from cultivation to marketing.

The main goal of PREFRUITA is to develop a tool that enables automatic pre-sorting of fruit in the reception area of these companies. This will be achieved by determining the expected quality of the product, facilitating proper storage and ensuring the preservation of the fruit before classification, processing, and distribution stages — all through the use of AI and Computer Vision technologies.

In summary, Agerpix’s project offers a promising alternative. By automating the pre-sorting process, it aims to reduce post-harvest losses, improve efficiency, and increase the availability of high-quality fruits for distribution. This approach not only aligns with ‘AlimTech’s’ goals in sustainability and digitalization but also contributes significantly to the transformation of the agri-food industry in Spain and worldwide.