Potential for Technological Modernisation and Innovation Based on ICT in Agri-Food Companies of Central Region of Portugal Pedro D. Gaspar 1,4 Soares 2,3,4 and João M. L. P. Caldeira 2,3,4 1 University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal 2 Superior School of Technology, Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco, Castelo Branco, Portugal 3 Instituto de Telecomunicações, Portugal 4 InspiringSci, Castelo Branco, Portugal Email: dinis@ubi.pt; {vasco.g.soares, jcaldeira}@ipcb.pt Luís P. Andrade 1 and Cláudia Domingues 2 1 Centro de Apoio Tecnológico Agro-Alimentar, Castelo Branco, Portugal 2 InovCluster, Castelo Branco, Portugal Email: luispa@cataa.pt, claudiadomingues@inovcluster.pt Abstract—This paper assesses the potential for technological modernisation and innovation based on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in agri-food companies located in the central region of Portugal. The survey was applied to 50 agri-food companies of Cereals, Cheese, Olive oil, Dry sausages, Honey, Wine, and Horticultural sectors. Survey results can be summarised as: The large majority of companies use computers and have Internet service. Most of companies don't have a webpage and neither use Internet for advertising campaigns, selling or buying products. Half of companies use social networks for business purposes. Most companies haven't promoted collaborators training in ICT in the last year. Companies claim that possessing a webpage and attending ICT training will be the technological solutions that will improve their productivity and/or marketing products and services. For each sector, recommendations and suggestions were provided in order to promote the use of ICT for business purposes. Index Terms—ICT, agri-food, innovation, potential, analysis I. INTRODUCTION Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and how they are used have been spreading at an astonishing speed. The latest figures (December 2014) for the European Union (EU) show that Internet is used by almost 77% of its population corresponding to a growth of almost 5 times between 2000 and 2014 [1]. More than half of EU citizens access the Internet every day (63%), but a substantial minority (24%) say that they never use the Internet or do not have access. Besides accessing the Internet from a computer (92%), 61% of Internet users access the Internet through a smartphone, and 30% use a touchscreen tablet. More than half of Internet users in the EU say they use the Internet to access their e-mail (86%), Manuscript received February 26, 2015; revised May 3, 2015. read news online (63%), access online social networks (60%), buy goods or services online (57%) or do online banking (54%), while 23% sell goods or services. Portugal is placed in tail of the EU countries, as only 48% of citizens use the Internet daily, 34% never use Internet and 10% have no internet access. The overwhelming majority of Portuguese citizens (93%) access the Internet via the computer (EU 92%), followed by the smartphone for 38% (EU 61%) and by the tablet for 22% (EU 30%). The leading online activity is using the email (PT 82%, EU 86%), followed by the use of online social networks (PT 76%, EU 60%), reading news online (PT 67%, EU 63%), perform online banking services (PT 26%, EU 54%) and purchasing goods or services (PT 20%, EU 57%). If it is considered the use of Internet for work or business purposes, more than one in three EU citizens (38%) use the Internet while in Portugal this value round 25% [2]. As stated by Lehmann et al. [3], the efficiency, process control and consumer communications are all closely related to the use of ICT. Global networks, Internet, networked devices, sensors, online social networks and strategies and methodologies of communication are of prime relevance for the competitiveness and sustainable development of the food sector. This paper is organized as follows. Section II describes the framework of the study. The state-of-the-art on the evaluation and application of ICT in the food sector and/or rural areas is described. The main objectives of the project that includes the assessment provided by this study are described. Section III presents the materials and methods used to develop the analysis of the potential for technological modernisation and innovation based on ICT in agri-food companies of the central region of Portugal. The sequential steps that compose the methodology followed are described. The procedures for the questionnaire Journal of Advanced Agricultural Technologies Vol. 2, No. 2, December 2015 75 © 2015 Journal of Advanced Agricultural Technologies doi: 10.12720/joaat.2.2.75-82 , Vasco N. G. J. ,