Giacomo Fanin
Our aim is more sustainable food production
In a new chapter for his family business, Giacomo Fanin is backing innovation to improve farming productivity and develop alternative ingredients
“My father started this, really, from zero – so I know the value of passion and of taking the long-term view,” says Giacomo Fanin, speaking from the Milan offices of Cereal Docks, the now-vast family firm of which he is the Business Director. “My aim is to draw on that entrepreneurial heritage, but for today’s market.” Now one of the largest privately owned agribusinesses in Europe, the food production group evolved from a modest business founded by his father, Mauro, in 1983 with a single grain silo.
Fanin’s boldest contribution to the family company to date has been the creation of a venture capital arm, Grey Silo Ventures, in 2022. Through it, the group has been exploring and investing in start-ups across Europe, pursuing an open innovation strategy, with the aim of developing innovative approaches to food security and supply. These include more sustainable ways of sourcing – or finding alternatives to – common ingredients on a mass scale.
Even with agricultural commodities produced at an industrial scale, Fanin likes to talk about “ingredients”, rather than just products. He takes a keen interest in the potential of groundbreaking new ingredients such as lab-grown meat, which can be grown in a cell culture outside an animal's body and, as such, is slaughter-free.
“To produce cell-based meat, you basically have to build a pharmaceutical factory; it’s easier for a pharma company to do that than for existing meat companies to do so,” he says, recognising current limitations. “There are still huge technology and product constraints. You can taste cell-based meat in Singapore, which allows its sale. I think at some point it will arrive in Europe; maybe this kind of technology will be scalable and affordable in five or 10 years. Whereas alternative fats, from fermentation plant-based ingredients, are really interesting, now – honestly, more so to me than cell-based cultivation.” Grey Silo Ventures has invested in vegetarian protein derived from fungal mycelium, for example, which is a sustainable ingredient for meatless sausages.
To have impact, you have to reach a certain level of scale
The fund also invests in the new wave of agritech, which, for example, allows farmers and suppliers to communicate in real time. “It’s critical for food companies to find practical solutions that don’t cost too much,” says Fanin. “To have impact, you have to reach a certain level of scale, in order to be affordable and available to most.”
Ingredients for a new era
Fanin is currently exploring alternatives to sometimes problematic crops such as cacao, soy and palm oil, which have been associated with unsustainable farming practices and whose yields can be at risk from extreme weather and volatile geopolitics. As part of an “open innovation strategy”, he and his team explore what the innovators behind small start-ups might offer to the market. “We have invested in a company in Italy – actually our only Italy-based investment so far – called Foreverland,” he says. “It produces cacao-free ‘chocolate’ based on the fermentation of carob, rather than just the seeds, which is what is usually harvested. I can assure you it tastes just like chocolate.”
Fanin is all too aware that climate change is having an effect on food security. “Extreme weather events are impacting several supply chains – and cacao is one of the most affected,” he says. “Yet Italy is one of the world’s largest producers of carob.” Grey Silo Ventures has also been in discussions with a UK firm that makes chocolate from fava beans, while other potential avenues include vegetarian protein sources for sausages and burgers, and a dairy-free alternative to mozzarella.
New software for sustainable farming
Farming itself is undergoing a period of transformation, and Fanin is making sure his company stays one step in front. “Since 2012 [Cereal Docks] has been calculating products’ CO2 emissions per ton, but until two years ago that was mainly via manual paperwork.” That changed in 2022 when Grey Silo Ventures invested in a farm management app called xFarm. “This helped us to collect all those carbon footprint data points that companies such as Nestlé are asking for, and give farmers free-to-access tools.” Via the app, farmers can also receive information about crop prices in real time, and collect data about the life cycle of crops.
Today Xfarm is one of Europe’s most widely used farm management systems, and Fanin is determined not to lose sight of the people behind the data points. “Cereal Docks has a supply chain of 17,000 farmers,” he says. “So that’s a lot of families.” Looking to the future, farmers and policymakers alike are becoming more interested in regenerative farming, whereby a landscape or ecosystem is actively enriched by farming – or might even become carbon negative. “We are launching a national regenerative agriculture programme, starting with around 10 farms, where we’ll work on a custom-designed regenerative agriculture programme for each,” says Fanin.
We need to focus on new technology, new ingredients and supporting farmer
As he steers Cereal Docks and Grey Silo Ventures through this turbulent yet opportune time for agribusiness, Fanin keeps one eye on the horizon. His openness to fresh ideas, tempered by patience and shrewdness as the technologies evolve, should bring innovations to farmers and consumers across the world. “Our aim is to invest in the evolution of more sustainable food production,” he says. “If, 10 years from now, we want a situation where there is product availability at affordable prices, we need to focus on new technology, new ingredients and supporting farmers.”
Ultimately, Fanin’s strategy is underpinned by his belief that myriad aspects of food production will need to adapt, or to be boldly reimagined, to ensure food security for the future. “Beyond the existing traditional flow, our focus needs to be to secure the supply chain through a mix of new technologies and different types of sourcing,” he says. “Innovation today will be our legacy for the future. That’s what really drives me.”
