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ACRE

Data-driven decision making across the agriculture and food value chains

ACRE is McKinsey’s agricultural advanced-analytics center, with a team of agronomists, data scientists, industry experts, and software engineers experienced in applying analytics to challenges across the food system.

How we help clients

Agricultural Input Manufacturers & Distributors
Identify where and how to expand by reaching grower markets with new products and services.

Commodity Processors & Traders
Evaluate risk-management and procurement processes to minimize both risk and cost.

Governments & Nongovernmental Organizations
Make smarter decisions in value-chain selection by using cutting-edge digital tools in the agriculture, livestock, and fishery markets.

Investors
Stay ahead of the curve by identifying growth hot spots in the agriculture and food markets.

Farm Operators
Improve farm operations by deploying best-in-class digital technology and agricultural analytics.

Fishery Operators
Improve the profitability and sustainability of fishery operations by using advanced geospatial analytics.

Food & Ingredient Manufacturers
Reduce unit cost and volatility of commodity categories with advanced analytics decision-support tools.

Our Approach

Advanced analytics

Our advanced analytics capability combines real-time access to multiple critical data sets, modern data science tools, and cloud infrastructure specifically designed for rapid predictive modeling.

Industry expertise

Our team of agronomists, data scientists, industry experts, and software engineers have broad and deep expertise that allows them to bring a fresh perspective to solving challenges across the agricultural value chain.

Our capabilities

Predictive analytics

We use modern machine-learning and artificial-intelligence methods to forecast movements in commodity yield, quality, and price.

Geospatial analytics

We combine multiple layers of agronomic, weather, and satellite data to identify opportunities at the micromarket level.

Cloud infrastructure

We collect millions of datapoints with an automated ingestion and processing engine to enable faster insight generation.

Digital deployment

We build custom applications that integrate with existing systems to enable sustainable, real-time decision making.

Our Data

Economic and trade

Real-time, global commodity prices, production costs, and other indicators; import and export flows—today and in the future.

Climate and weather

More than 117 high-resolution variables, including real-time weather and 2030 and 2050 climate scenarios.

Satellite

Global satellite-imagery coverage from multiple sources.

Agronomic

Global agronomic data, including yield, soil, and topography data.

Examples of our work

Our work spans 6 continents

We continue to expand our global reach, helping clients across the agriculture and food value chains.

$125 million in additional revenue identified

Supported an agricultural-input supplier looking to increase penetration into smallholder markets in India.

More than 95 percent accuracy in a crop-yield forecast

Helped a North American food company trying to make better ingredient-purchasing decisions.

40,000 highly suitable hectares identified

Used geospatial analytics to determine crop fit for a large-scale plantation owner in the Middle East.

Featured Insights

Ethanol and corn markets: Impact from the E15 gasoline waiver

– Following an announcement by the White House several weeks earlier, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a waiver on April 29 to allow the sale of E15 gasoline this summer.

How the Iowa derecho has affected 2020 crops
– An estimated 3.1 million to 3.8 million acres of corn and soybeans have been damaged.

Needle in a haystack: Patents that inspire agricultural innovation
– An enhanced patent-review strategy could boost innovation capabilities for agricultural-input companies.

Unlocking the online retail opportunity with European farmers
– What can digital retailers in the agriculture sector do to encourage what could be a €10 billion market?

Amid volatile commodity prices, beware of cognitive bias
– Advanced analytics can help overcome cognitive biases that can lead managers to make irrational risk-management decisions.

Precision fisheries: Navigating a sea of troubles with advanced analytics
– Advanced analytics may help struggling fisheries thrive while simultaneously protecting endangered ocean resources.

An incredible year for Impossible Foods
– CFO David Lee believes the company’s continued success will depend heavily on its ability to create many more “craveable” products and to maintain its corporate culture.

Alternative proteins: The race for market share is on
– Consumer interest in non-meat-based protein options is increasing globally. Food industry players that want to capture the opportunity must understand the evolving market dynamics and where to place their bets.

A winning growth formula for dairy
– Modest growth forecasts, shifting consumer tastes, and increased competition will force executives to seek new opportunities.
See more insights

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