
Food for Thought: The Protein Transformation
The shift to alternative proteins based on plants, microorganisms, and animal cells is just beginning to pick up speed. The market will hit $290 billion by 2035.
To feed the world and drive critical advances in sustainability, the agribusiness industry must adopt new practices while continuing to cultivate its connection to the soil. BCG helps companies across the agriculture value chain prepare for the challenges ahead.
Although its roots date back to the dawn of civilization, the agribusiness industry is anything but antiquated. Modern agriculture businesses are reaching for new strategies, business models, and practices to respond to emerging trends in agribusiness that are reshaping the industry.
BCG has a long history of helping major players throughout the $3 trillion global agribusiness industry value chain in these efforts, including producers of farming equipment, fertilizer, and seed; large farms; commodities traders; food retailers; and agribusiness investors.
The centerpiece of our agriculture business management consulting work is BCG AgKnowledge, a proprietary suite of tools that provides unparalleled insight and decision support for all types of agribusinesses. AgKnowledge includes:
Because some agribusiness industry subsectors—such as agricultural chemicals and agriculture equipment—spill over into other areas, BCG’s consultants work closely with the firm’s experts in chemicals and automotive. What’s more, to help agribusiness clients modernize their ways of working, BCG combines digital transformation expertise with knowledge of strategic workforce planning, including adopting agile at scale and future-proofing the workforce.
Our agriculture business experts also work seamlessly with BCG specialty businesses, including:
BCG experts work with large agribusiness players around the world on a variety of projects. Among other things, our agribusiness consulting team helps clients reimagine strategy and business models, adopt new technologies, implement large-scale post-M&A integrations, and identify opportunities for investment. Examples of client engagements:
Corporate Strategy and Digital Transformation. BCG developed a digital strategy for a global farming-equipment manufacturer, helped a global specialty chemical company implement a precision agribusiness strategy, and created a factory-of-the-future strategy for an agricultural product maker, marketer, and trader.
Technology. Our agribusiness consulting team helped a leading global fertilizer producer build a digital tool for farmers that included custom agronomic recommendations.
Mergers and Acquisitions. We supported the post-merger integration of a major seed and agricultural chemical company with a global conglomerate.
Supply Chain. BCG facilitated the commercialization of a crop marketplace and logistics for an agricultural technology company.
In addition, BCG has experience helping agribusiness clients in the areas of market and competitive intelligence, business model development, operations, and product planning, including R&D, go-to-market models, agribusiness marketing strategy, and brand management.
The shift to alternative proteins based on plants, microorganisms, and animal cells is just beginning to pick up speed. The market will hit $290 billion by 2035.
The challenges of automating agricultural processing are significant, but so, too, are the payoffs from getting it right.