From Diagnosis to Action: Key Findings from the RISE-SME Workshop towards Building Alliances in the Agrifood Ecosystem

European supply chains are navigating a period of profound transformation, driven by an unprecedented climate of global instability. Factors such as the complex landscape stemming from US trade policies, the ongoing war in Ukraine, and recent threats to maritime commerce in critical chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz, have forced logistics to urgently meet operational reality in order to build true resilience. In this scenario, Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are positioned as the primary vehicle for European industry and the engine of innovation necessary to achieve operational autonomy. 

With this objective in mind, on February 17, 2026, the RISE-SME project held a strategic workshop at Bodegas Borsao in partnership with ALIA (Aragonese Cluster of Logistics Innovation) bringing together key representatives from Aragon’s SMEs, technology providers, and industrial companies representing the agrifood ecosystem. This meeting provided high-value data regarding bottlenecks and risks, which will serve to validate the supply chain models developed by the consortium.

During the first phase of the workshop, participants identified structural inefficiencies by discussing in small groups the weak points in their operations. The results were compelling: technology emerged as the most critical pain point across the board, revealing that inadequate or outdated digital systems are currently the primary source of operational friction for SMEs, limiting their capacity to react. This issue translates into an absolute digital dependency, where production and distribution operations are anchored to the stability of systems that do not always meet current needs. In this context, geopolitical disruptions were identified as the most damaging channel, as external shocks directly undermine the stability of procurement and the flow of essential materials.

A real-time survey conducted during the session uncovered a notable evolution in how companies prioritize resilience, revealing a fundamental shift towards the human factor and digital security. Social resilience has escalated to become the number one risk, driven by the scarcity of qualified talent as well as absenteeism and the difficulty of managing the sector’s seasonality. On the other hand, cyber-resilience has transitioned from a secondary concern to a high-impact risk, particularly in the digitalization of the inventory has exposed vulnerabilities to potential cyberattacks.

Another key finding from the meeting is the need to treat raw material shortage as a standalone risk on top of geopolitics. Participants agreed that this challenge requires specific and urgent actions, such as supplier diversification, the search for alternative materials, and the creation of much more flexible supply contracts to absorb market shocks. To support these transitions, the new RISE-SME matchmaking tool was presented during the session. This web service will enable direct connections between traditional SMEs and European technology providers, facilitating access to advanced solutions to close their digital maturity gaps and reduce their strategic dependencies.

The workshop at Bodegas Borsao demonstrated that current risks require SMEs to transition from passive subjects of crises into proactive actors in their own transformation. In a nutshell, the workshop not only mapped specific bottlenecks in the agrifood sector but also validated RISE-SME models as a tool tailored to daily challenges of SMEs underpinning the European economy.