'The future is relative for everybody,' says Martha Montoya of Agtools
"The future is relative for everybody," says Martha Montoya, CEO of Agtools, because it depends on where you want the produce to end up — each place is affected by different tariffs, trade agreements, political effects, trade routes, pests, diseases and climate issues.
This "Tip of the Iceberg" podcast episode is hosted by ZAG Technical Services, part of an agtech series.
Agtools helps clients:
- Delight their customers with enhanced sourcing decisions.
- Identify and understand trends and how they affect your bottom line.
- Know what is impacting your commodities around the world.
- Make better decisions with actionable insights.
With a long list of boards, conference panels, globe-trotting job duties and an education in chemistry and biology, Montoya has learned to use analysis that studies the phases that will impact how the crops come out and volumes. And she has an alert system.
"The hardest part of this isn’t the data. It’s getting the industry to adjust their brains to understand the data to find solutions for the future. We have literally two psychologists in the company and one sociologist," Montoya said.
She wanted research on how farmers adopt technology.
Related: What's the real ROI on social media for produce retailers, suppliers?
"This industry is at such a fast pace, and attention span is so limited that we have to run with them, almost like ... imagine a psychologist running with the patient, because there’s no time to understand it," Montoya said. Agtools clients have hardly any breaks in a day and are handling screaming customers sometimes.
"Agtools is really about more than the data. It’s about how our brains are starting to adapt to this new technology. The customers come with those pain points, and we go deeper," Montoya said.
Related: 'Tip of the Iceberg' podcast: Introducing a tech series with ZAG
