2025 has been one of the most unsettling years for the Catalan agri-food sector. The outbreaks of contagious nodular dermatosis, African swine fever and avian flu These outbreaks have put farms on alert – some of which have had to cull hundreds of animals – but also the industry, due to the economic effects of these new outbreaks. However, export figures remained unaffected by the three health alerts: they closed 2025 with a new record for sales abroad, at €16,903.9 million. This new high was reached after the volume of exports increased by 7.95% compared to the previous year – and by 7.48% in value – in a year also heavily marked by trade tensions stemming from the trade war initiated by US President Donald Trump, which was declared on Friday. makes the impact even more uncertainThe Catalan sector most exposed, precisely, is the wine sector, since the US is its main market.

Donald Trump's new tariffs in the European Union have prompted companies to start looking to other markets. The push for diversification, in fact, is one of the key elements of the Spanish and Catalan governments' shock plan to address the new US tariff policy, although it is a market they do not want to abandon. as evidenced by the meetings between Pedro Sánchez's government and the Trump administration.

Twenty years ago, apple varieties were neither red nor crisp because they weren't adapted to the heat of the Lleida plain, and the meat exported from Catalonia to Asia could only stay fresh for about 60 days. Research has been proposing solutions to both agri-food problems, in these cases through genetic editing and technological sophistication, respectively. Currently, the underlying concern is the climate crisis, which not only requires us to rethink and adapt crops and livestock farms, but also pushes business leaders, administrations, and scientists to seek new food sources and strengthen surveillance of zoonotic (animal-derived) diseases that can impact human health. The Institute of Agri-Food Research and Technology (IRTA) wants to take action to get ahead of the curve and has announced that it will build a high-security laboratory for experimentation with viruses and pathogens.

As concerns about sustainability increase, the way we will eat in the future remains a question that requires deep and urgent reflection. What role will local products play in this new food model? What changes will we need to make to ensure a more efficient, sustainable and competitive system? These questions were the focus of the technical day. The challenges of agri-food distribution networks for sustainable logistics, an event of which the ARA newspaper is one of the collaborating media and which has served to highlight the need to rethink the marketing model of local products.