Agdatahub applies for bankruptcy proceedings
Agdatahub was created in 2017 on the initiative of the agricultural sector, with the support of technical institutes, chambers of agriculture and around thirty agricultural stakeholders. The company was conceived as the French operator enabling the secure and fluid exchange of agricultural data, while respecting the authorisation of farms to use their data.
Agdatahub's ambition and its technological structure, designed to meet the needs of the agricultural sector, convinced the sector's players and the French government to provide financial support for the company's first phase of activity, aimed at developing and implementing this sovereign infrastructure for large-scale data sharing in the agricultural ecosystem.
With the support of leading partners, the technological building blocks operated by Agdatahub have been developed in accordance with the new European legal framework for the protection of industrial data, the European Data Space Strategy and the Gaia-X interoperability standards. Agdatahub's data sharing infrastructure has been recognised as innovative by many other economic sectors, which have agreed on the need to structure economic ecosystems around data. For 18 months, Agdatahub was also the coordinator of the AgriDataSpace consortium, which was responsible for pre-figuring the future agricultural data space to be deployed in 2025.
Over the last four years, Agdatahub has made technological investments in order to deploy its exchange infrastructure and help industry players (such as the animal genetics industry or carbon issues) to implement their pilot projects at French and European level. The adoption of the technological building blocks by agri-food players, which often requires structural changes to their information systems, has taken longer than expected.
For these reasons, despite the support of public technology operators, the economic model has run into difficulties and has not been sustainable without public support during the period required for the widespread use of the technology. Given the strategic importance of such an infrastructure for public and sectoral policies, the company approached the government at the beginning of 2024 to explain its economic difficulties and to obtain public funding.Active negotiations took place during the first half of 2024.They culminated in an inter-ministerial decision by the French government on 19 June confirming political and financial support for the deployment of Agdatahub, subject to the company's transition to public management and the French government's in-depth work to rapidly establish a sustainable business model for the company.
As it was not possible to find lasting solutions with the main private creditors and as the conditions for financial support from the French State could not be established within a timeframe compatible with the company's situation, the company was declared insolvent at the end of October.
It is in this context that the Board and then the General Assembly voted unanimously to place the company under the protection of the Paris Commercial Court, as part of a petition to open a judicial liquidation, which was deposited on Thursday 14 November.
In view of the challenges of simplifying procedures and improving farmers' incomes, against a backdrop of technological sovereignty for the sectors, it is hoped that a takeover solution or continuity of services will be found to enable the secure and smooth circulation of agricultural data, with farm authorisations, thereby promoting the development of digital solutions to meet these challenges.
PRESS CONTACT: Sébastien Picardat
