The French responses describe SMEs that are not starting from scratch: 67% consider sustainability important or central to their strategy, 71% have energy efficiency measures and 71% have solutions to make use of by-products. The skills they want to develop are data analysis for competitiveness (67%), e-commerce (48%) and product traceability (43%), which places digital tools ahead of other topics. The gap in innovation is wider: 71% do not yet use new food processing technologies, 57% are not in any identified innovation project and 86% are not working on artificial intelligence or Industry 5.0 applications.

The most cited barriers are the cost of investment and lack of time (57% each), lack of qualified staff (48%) and lack of suitable technological solutions (33%), which the project reads as a need for hands-on support more than a lack of willingness. ASCA SUDOE responds with a training programme for agri-food SMEs on digital transformation, new technologies applied to food processing and the sustainability of production systems through the circular economy. The article presents only the French results and does not state how many companies answered.

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