Digitalisation of the Food and Drink Industry in Ireland

The Food Drink Ireland Skillnet has published a new research report ‘Digitalisation of the Food and Drink Industry in Ireland’. The research was conducted by iForm and CeADAR. It sought to determine the adoption digitalisation in the Irish food and drink sector as well as the barriers to businesses to embracing digitalisation, and the subsequent impact on skills and talent.

Key findings from the research, ‘Digitalisation of the Food and Drink Industry in Ireland’, include:

• Digitalisation approaches taken by the majority of companies included the introduction of process monitoring sensors, process automation, data analytics, IoT and robotics.
• A fundamental scarcity of talent on a national level is the main challenge for talent attraction and retention. This finding will support Ireland’s ongoing efforts in international talent attraction, in designing university programmes and industry upskilling and reskilling training supports.
• The breadth of opportunity in digitalisation is very wide, where every function involved in the food and drink industry has the potential to fully transform through digital technologies.
• While there are many examples of digitalisation in the sector, many businesses are stuck in “pilot phase”.
• Skills are a critical enabler to increased digitalisation where technical, business and soft skills along with a commitment to lifelong learning are all required.