The food sector and food security are a global concern and Brazil is one of the main countries responsible for the world demand for food (Estadão). In this sense, what are the main challenges related to data management to optimize Brazil’s operational efficiency in the food/agribusiness sector, which today represents 21% of Brazil’s GDP?

This article addresses the issue with the bias of Aquarela’s experience in Advanced Analytics and Artificial Intelligence projects carried out in large operations in Brazil. The risk of a lack of information is as relevant as its excess and lack of analysis, which can impact the efficiency of the sector’s logistics chain as a whole.

Below, we have elaborated on some of these main risks.

Characterization of the food sector

The food sector is quite varied due to the large extension of the production chain, which ranges from agricultural inputs, industrialization, transport logistics to commercialization in consumer markets and finally the final consumer.

As fundamental characteristics, the food sector is directly linked to factors that can have great variability and little control, such as: 

• Climate (temperature, water volume, luminosity and others);
• Economic factors such as currency fluctuations;
• Infrastructure;
• Domestic/external market demand.

In addition to these factors, below we list some related to data management. We also show how they, if well organized, can help mitigate the effects of uncontrollable variables in the food supply chain.

01 – Incompleteness of information

The supply chain is quite large. This makes the data complex and difficult to interpret due to the different phases of each process, culture and region. In addition, it causes many important planning decisions to take place with very limited information and high risk. In other words, decisions are made without a vision of the complete scenario of the chain, largely following the manager’s intuition.

The lack of quality information is a big risk. If data is lacking today, imagine what the scenario was like 10 or 20 years ago.

In recent years, the industry and retail have shown great advances in their computerization processes with various traceability solutions. With the evolution of Industry 4.0 technologies (IOT and 5G) in the coming years, it is likely that the food market, from the agricultural and industrial sector to the commercial sector, will hold more complete information for decision making than what is currently available today.

02 – Data from multiple sources

If data is becoming more and more present with the development of informatization and communication, then the next problem is trying to analyze data from multiple and disconnected sources.

Different data is often stored on different systems, thus leading to incomplete or inaccurate analyses. Combining data manually to form datasets (what are datasets?) for analysis is quite heavy and time-consuming work and can limit insights into the reality of operations.

What is sought is the construction of Data Lakes adherent to the type of management to democratize access to data by market professionals, thus optimizing their activities with increasingly powerful analytics solutions. This not only frees up time spent accessing multiple sources, it also allows for cross-comparisons and ensures that the data is complete.

03 – Low quality data

Having incorrect data can be just as or more harmful than not having it. Nothing is more harmful to data analysis than inaccurate data, especially if the idea is to use data science and machine learning practices. Without a good input, the output will be unreliable.

One of the main causes of inaccurate data is manual errors made during data entry, especially when information is collected manually. Another problem is asymmetric data: when information from one system does not reflect changes made to another system and thus makes it out of date.

Analytics strategic planning projects seek to mitigate and/or eliminate these problems. This happens from systematic processes of data dictionarization, survey of processes, functions, and so on.

04 – Lack of data talents

Some organizations and companies, in general, are not able to achieve better levels of efficiency in operations, as they suffer from a lack of talent in the area of ​​data analysis. In other words, even if the company has consistent technologies and data, the manpower to execute the analysis and action plans still counts a lot at the end of the day.

This challenge can be mitigated in three ways:

• Develop an analytical technology stack that is always up-to-date and adherent to the business and with up-to-date training materials.
• Add analytical skills to the hiring process. In addition, invest in the constant training of the team on new data technologies related to the technological stack of the operation.
• Use analytics outsourcing to accelerate the process. In this article, for example, we list the main aspects to be considered when choosing a good supplier.

05 – Customization of values ​​and product characteristics in the food sector

Although, according to Embrapa, about 75% of the entire world food sector is based on just 12 types of plants and 5 types of animals, there are thousands of different products, marketed in multiple ways, prices and deadlines in the final consumer market.

Just as an example, in the area of ​​animal protein, the process of marketing cattle meat requires investments, infrastructure, deadlines and processes that are quite different from what would be for the production of pork or even chicken.

Since the processes are different, the data generated by the production chain also becomes different, requiring customizations in information systems and databases. As a consequence, there are changes in models of:

• Demand forecast;
• Dynamic and traditional pricing;
• Predictive and prescriptive analytics.

The recommendation is to parameterize the systems based on the most common classifications in the market and focus on the most important products from a strategic point of view (contribution margin, volume or sales price).

5 real data challenges in the food sector – Final thoughts

In this article, we have collected some relevant points about the real challenges of data in the area of ​​food, a sector in which  Brazil stands out as one of the main global players.

It is a complex area with several risk factors and great opportunities for optimization with the increasingly intensive use of data. Previously, we wrote an article related to data strategies for energy trading and which in part has the same challenges related to decision making in the food sector.

We, at Aquarela Analytics, constantly work with these challenges of making the complex  things simple and with good risk mitigation. So if you have any questions, get in touch with us!

What is Aquarela Advanced Analytics?

Aquarela Analytics is the winner of the CNI Innovation Award in Brazil and a national reference in the application of corporate Artificial Intelligence in the industry and large companies. Through the Vorteris platform and the DCM methodology, it serves important clients such as Embraer (aerospace), Scania, Mercedes-Benz, Randon Group (automotive), SolarBR Coca-Cola (food retail), Hospital das Clínicas (healthcare), NTS-Brasil (oil and gas), Auren,SPIC Brasil (energy), Telefônica Vivo (telecommunications), among others.

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