The World Agri-Tech South America Summit brought together over 700 delegates from agri-food businesses, farms, banks, government and academic institutions, technology giants, start-ups, and investors to exchange insights, share the latest industry intelligence, and identify future partners. What a time it was!

Innovators and leaders from across South America and beyond came together, representing all parts of the agricultural value chain, with a shared aim of building long lasting agri-food resilience.

From the exhibition and main stage, to the dedicated start-up area and all-new breakout sessions, spilling out to business HQs, evening dinners, and our dedicated women’s networking breakfast, São Paulo was alive with agri-food tech innovation.

Enjoy our lightning summary of the summit action, complete with video highlights, photo gallery and takeaways from the stage.

The summit platform is still active for 1-1 video networking and sessions on demand until July 19.

Highlight Video: Relive the Two Days

What Delegates Said

  • “The World Agri-Tech South America Summit was an amazing event that provided important discussion forums for exchanging ideas, information, and perspectives on how to deal with the major changes facing farmers.” – Director of Digital, New Business Models and Commercial Excellence, BASF
  • “The people chosen to speak were certainly some of the highest caliber on their subjects.” – President, FMC
  • “World Agri-Tech in São Paulo was exceptional. We engaged with venture capitalists, met potential clients, and gained media exposure—all under one roof. This summit has truly been invaluable in advancing our company’s growth and global reach in the agriculture sector” – CEO, UNIBAIO
  • “A ‘must attend’ Summit for all of Latin America, not only South America. To learn about the Brazilian market and to network with all the ecosystem, be it corporations, startups, investors or farmers, this is the place to be.” – Managing Director, DANTA FUND
  • “World Agri-Tech South America not only exceeded my expectations but also reaffirmed why we agtech entrepreneurs must be present at such meetings. Being there allowed us to start business relationships with seven new potential and multinational clients, open dialogues with investors from Brazil, Latin America, and Europe, and explore collaborations with strategic partners” – CEO, METABIX BIOTECH
  • “World Agri-Tech gave us a fantastic opportunity to strengthen existing relationships, forge new connections, and gain valuable insights into the South American agri-tech landscape” – CEO, SOLENA

Program Highlights

Biologicals Adoption

“You have to be able to clearly demonstrate the mechanism by which your product is working; do that research and enough trials across all different soil microbiomes, do robust trials in different conditions and have those data sets so it can be clearly communicated to the farmers, to inspire confidence in why the product is fundamentally working. There’s a lot of factors driving growth of roots or plant vigor, but exactly what is it in your product which is delivering that. ” Ashish Batra, VP Biologicals & Sustainability R&D, CORTEVA AGRISCIENCE

Regenerative Agriculture

“The whole supply chain will benefit from the implementation of regenerative agriculture, so the whole supply chain should help to incentivize these practices.” Fernanda Vendramel, Head of Regenerative Agriculture Brazil, BUNGE

AgriFintech

“There are two big challenges in the credit market for agriculture, the first is origination of available credit lines, and the second is qualification of those credit lines; finding the right people and the right counterparties within the agricultural supply chain and evaluating them in a way that that that positions your credit offering and the lines of credit best to their future propensity to pay.” Arthur Ware, Chief Revenue Officer, TRAIVE

Navigating Challenges in Agriculture and AgTech Funding

“Not only do we need more capital, but we also need more types of capital, we cannot fool ourselves that venture capital is going to solve all the gaps. We also need more grants. We need to fund the investments that will take time to flourish and to test and to pilot. We need governments and philanthropy and corporations to be able to do this. We also need patient capital because we are not going to have returns for five or seven years. ”

Natalie Vergara Giron, Head of Platform, MERCY CORPS VENTURES

Charting Sustainable Growth

“There are 8 billion people in the world – how many of them are middle class? 2 billion perhaps? That means 6 billion living in scarcity. We have scarcity, but we also have the potential to have abundance – we are facing a dichotomy. We must supply the demand of this population where we have scarcity, and improve the production everywhere, to generate abundance.”

Aurélio Pavinato, CEO, SLC AGRÍCOLA

Start-Up Showcase

Innovators presented their solutions to solve the biggest pain points in South America’s agri-food system.

Presenters included MetaBIX Biotech, Surefarming, Unibaio and Vexxel, who won the public vote for its biodegradable fungi-based biocapsules that preserve active ingredients for targeted chemical applications.

See the 16 start-ups that took part >>

Women’s Networking Breakfast – Hosted by SP Ventures

A popular aspect of the World Agri-Tech Series, female senior leaders gathered for an early morning of networking, to recognize and celebrate the success of women leaders in agriculture while nurturing and inspiring the next generation of talent.

It was an honor to have Silvia Massruhá, President of Embrapa, give a welcome address, and Ariadne Caballero, Partner at SP Ventures lead the breakfast.

Breakout Sessions

New this year, six themed breakout sessions ran alongside the main agenda, hosted by E-Agro, Bayer, Corteva Agriscience, The Future of Agri-Food Tech is STLMade, and Serasa Experian.

Themes included decarbonization, biologicals adoption, reducing risk in the supply chain, and agri-fintech adoption.

Media Coverage

AgTech Navigator: ‘The next two years will be incredible’. Latam investors find reasons to be cheerful

READ THE ARTICLE

Food Forum: Produtos Biológicos: A Revolução na Agricultura

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Agrofy News: Há vida após a bolha: por que investidores estão otimistas sobre o futuro da inovação no agro?

READ THE ARTICLE

La Nacion: Agricultura digital: los avances tecnológicos y la innovación apuntan a la sustentabilidad

READ THE ARTICLE

AgFeed: Prêmio para soja com baixo teor de carbono? Bayer e Louis Dreyfus têm visões diferentes

READ THE ARTICLE

Rural Ventures: An Interview with Mirella Lisboa, Head of LatAm and Open Innovation Manager, AGROSTART BY BASF

WATCH THE VIDEO

Summit Ecosystem

Our ecosystem is growing! Here are just some of the leading agribusinesses, farmers, technology innovators and investors who met up in São Paulo and online at the summit. Who could you meet next year?

See You Next Time!

World Agri-Tech summits take place across the world, in London, Dubai, Mexico City, Singapore, San Francisco and São Paulo. See where you could join us next.

 

After such a fantastic edition, we’re already excited to see how we can grow the summit in 2025! Save the date now, and keep in touch with Tom if you’re interested in taking an active role as a summit partner, speaker or start-up showcase.