FoodTech Strategy Must Pivot to Food Security: KM ZERO

Q: What is KM ZERO, and what is its relation to the agribusiness sector?

A: KM ZERO's mission is to create a future for food that is just, healthy, and resilient, ensuring that all people have access to good food in the future. The entity originated as a food innovation hub, functioning as the corporate venture arm of a large Spanish company, Familia Martínez. 

Seven years ago, this company recognized the necessity of moving innovation outside its daily operations. It sought a dedicated group to focus on the long-term future, anticipate business disruptions, and identify technologies to guarantee food safety, improve products, and better understand the consumer. 

KM ZERO was established as the place for the company to channel all those concerns. What subsequently occurred was that many other food companies became interested in our activities because they shared the same challenges regarding adapting to consumer needs, new regulations, and innovations. Since they lacked a dedicated innovation hub, KM ZERO evolved to become the first multicorporate program in Spain, offering solutions and services across the entire agri-food chain. Our forum was launched in 2019, when we realized the need to increase our visibility and act as a meeting point to attract investors and new enterprises, connecting them with the large food industry.

Q: What is the need for having a unified innovation hub for the agribusiness sector? 

A: By fortune or misfortune, there is currently a great deal of disruption, and every company needs to manage change. We are at a moment where challenges extend beyond a company's walls, including geopolitical risks, changes in the economy, and shifts in consumption patterns. 

Therefore, what we offer is something the industry genuinely requires because companies, using only their traditional internal capabilities in R&D, marketing, and existing business models, are unable to adapt to the speed of change. In summary, I would say it is now easier than ever for us, and simultaneously more difficult than ever for the industry to innovate.

Mexico, for instance, has many highly innovative food industry companies that are pioneers in open innovation and venture. Companies like Bimbo and Sigma have developed models that serve as global benchmarks for how a corporation can effectively integrate external technologies and solutions.

However, many much smaller companies cannot afford to establish these spaces for technology detection. I believe the challenge lies precisely in making open innovation more accessible to the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which represent the primary business fabric of Mexico.

Q: What do you think were the main goals achieved in the 2025 edition of your ftalks Mexico?

A: Our ultimate goal is for attendees to leave with greater clarity regarding global developments and to feel empowered to confront these challenges by collaborating with the people they meet at the summit. We hope they gained a better understanding of the context and the threats, but also left with a spark of hope and, crucially, the necessary contacts for solutions.

This is an always-open platform that features specific meeting points throughout the year. Our next gathering will take place in Madrid, Spain, in February 2026, followed by one in Valencia in October 2026, and another in Latin America, details of which are still to be determined. 

Q: What are the main challenges that the food industry faces in Mexico and Latin America? Why is innovation important to address them?

A: The main challenge we must address is food security. We have spent years focusing on creating new products, yet the need is not to simply fill more shelves with novelty. The urgency lies in ensuring that the estimated 20% of the Mexican population experiencing food insecurity can access better and affordable food options. Therefore, a large part of innovation should be directed toward guaranteeing food security at a large scale. 

Food sovereignty is critical for Mexico. It is illogical to maintain a system that heavily relies on imports, such as 75% of its corn supply, while simultaneously focusing on high levels of export. This reality demands a change in operational strategy. Mexico and Latin America are the world's primary food-exporting regions and the source of essential ingredients like coffee and cacao. We must recognize this inherent authority. Our goal must shift from simply being raw material suppliers to becoming the origin point for the entire food chain, leveraging the region's 40% of global biodiversity and immense natural wealth. I foresee companies increasingly pursuing vertical integration to transform raw products into higher value-added goods, moving beyond being mere commodity producers. This is a critical geopolitical moment where global industries depend heavily on Latin America; we must act confidently in the immense value we offer the world.

Beyond that, the focus must shift to invisible innovations. We need to stop asking people to change their diets, as diet is strongly linked to identity and culture. Instead, the industry must improve processes across the entire supply chain. For example, using artificial intelligence (AI) to predict demand will reduce food waste by only producing what is needed. Likewise, reducing the failure rate of new products requires genuinely understanding consumer needs.

In this current era of geopolitical crises, companies are concentrating on efficiency, competitiveness, and the effective management of resources. There is a clear paradigm shift regarding sustainability, which is now closely tied to the bottom line. We must ensure that sustainability holds in the long term; for instance, demonstrating how recovering soil health through regenerative agriculture, which uses less water, translates into a beneficial impact on profit and loss statements. We are in a period of frugal innovation, focusing on making technology accessible and reducing the green premium so these innovations become truly useful for the final user.