As part of the EIT’s Crisis Response Initiative, this activity directly contributes to the European Union’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
SMART-ET is an European project funded by EIT Food, with the objective to create IT applications available online for the medium-term forecast of the availability of PDO milk and cheese and the demand for dairy products in economic and health emergencies.
Grana Padano and Parmigiano Reggiano production areas have been heavily affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic. In these areas, the emergency has changed the market, disrupting both the supply and demand for food products.
In fact, during this period there was a rapid reduction in the consumption of dairy products, following the closure of the restaurants, which resulted in an increase in the surplus of milk and processed products.
Based on historical data and data collected during COVID-19 pandemic from farms and dairies, SMART-ET intends to develop digital systems to predict changes in dairy production and market feed costs helping to:
- reorganize dairy production and supply quickly and efficiently during pandemic events or similar market crises;
- satisfy local demand by increasing interaction and sharing of information between consumers and producers.
The implementation of digital systems developed by SMART-ET:
- will improve the use of local food resources;
- improve farms’ business resilience;
- help dairy farms make quick decisions;
- improve the circular economy;
- encourage the development and application of digital tools, similar, in the other Italian or European agri-food chains.
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