Many key solutions are in place that meet these challenges. What is needed now is to multiply their impact at scale.
On June 23 and 24, representatives from industry, business and academia exchanged practical solutions to ongoing and emerging sustainability challenges at the event – a unique platform designed to advance innovative approaches, foster meaningful partnerships, and put a spotlight on education and leadership.
With the theme “Multiplying impact together,” the Networking Days 2025 highlighted the courage to navigate uncertainty and the solutions available now to build successful companies that bring positive impact at a massive scale.
Speaking at the event, Bühler Group CEO Stefan Scheiber described the power of collaboration and cooperation to multiply the impact of innovation. “
Every breakthrough, partnership, and bold decision has the potential to create ripples – spreading knowledge, inspiring action, and driving progress,” he said.
“But their true power lies in the multiplier effect: when these ripples connect, they create waves of change. By working together, businesses and industries don’t just add incrementally to progress – they accelerate it by compounding their influence and scaling solutions far beyond what any single effort could achieve.”
Ian Roberts, Bühler Group CTO said: “It is so clear now that we must act with focus and collaboration to bring the impact necessary to preserve the healthy state of our planet."
"I am energised by the potential and willingness shown by our 1200 guests – not to simply talk, but to build concrete actions and to share what they have already achieved to accelerate group learning and impact multiplication.”
Safe, healthy, affordable food that tastes good
A panel discussion focused on the challenge of providing safe, healthy, and affordable food to a growing global population.
Abigail Stevenson, Chief Science Officer at Mars, described the rising importance of nutritional density in packaged food products, with manufacturers adding more whole grains, nuts, and legumes to their products.
She also emphasised the value of collaboration across sectors: “Looking beyond our industry is critical for broadening perspectives and for really thinking differently. By coming together with people from different parts of the industry and the ecosystem, we find novel ways to think about how to address the challenges we all face.”
Florian Schattenmann, Chief Technology Officer at Cargill Incorporated, underscored the complexity of this task and noted that efforts to improve nutrient density required companies to achieve four simultaneous objectives.
“Products need to offer the right taste, the right nutrition profile, the right sustainability profile, and the right cost,” he said. “And of those, taste is king.”
Operating robust food systems in Africa comes with its own challenges, including limited infrastructure and difficulties securing expertise and capital: “You need successful businesses to feed the world,” said Simon Tecleab, Chief Executive Officer at Naval Group.
He described how his company had expanded from its roots in Eritrea to develop a network of processing and production sites across neighbouring countries.
The Group has set up its own logistics company to move products from farms to processing sites and is now partnering with Bühler to build a state-of-the-art food park in Angola.
Mandla Nkomo, Chief Executive Officer at Partners in Food Solutions, is another supporter of the power of innovation and entrepreneurship to resolve challenges in Africa’s food systems.
His organisation connects experts from world-class food companies with farmers and food processors in countries across Africa.
“Talent is evenly distributed, but opportunity isn’t,” he said. “Let’s create an opportunity superhighway to transform Africa’s food systems, one factory at a time.”
