Maisadour et Vivadour sont deux groupes agro-alimentaires coopératifs, basés respectivement dans les Landes et le Gers. Leurs principales activités sont la collecte et la commercialisation de céréales et d'autres productions végétales, l'agrofourniture, l'alimentation animale, les productions animales, les semences, les produits du terroir et les jardineries.
Ovalie is the innovation subsidiary of the Maïsadour and Vivadour. Cooperative Groups. It is tasked with supporting and promoting fresh ideas that increase the agricultural and industrial competitiveness of the two Groups.
The aim of our agricultural cooperatives is to ensure the economic development and revenue of their members. To do so, we have put innovation at the heart of our strategy.
Ovalie Innovation was founded in January 2012. It is headed by Thierry Véronèse, the Scientific Director, under the direct authority of the senior management of Maïsadour and Vivadour.
The team of 9 performs a valuable support function. Their role is to instil a culture of innovation, act as internal advisors (methodology, public and private finance), provide access to strategic information (monitoring) and lastly to help implement innovation projects that result from this dynamic.
Ovalie Innovation also positions itself as an external interface structure, acting as a representative in relations with identified strategic innovation networks: competitive clusters, research centres and technical institutes, national and regional agencies, national and European innovation networks.
Ovalie Innovation's basic principles set out the guidelines with regards to the activities of the two shareholder groups.
SBA: Agro-ecology
Agro-ecology is a recent term used to refer to the approach of implementing practices that optimise the use of inputs (water, fertilisers, phytosanitary products, etc.) in order to balance maximum productivity (whether animal or plant produce) with a low impact on the environment and health. To this end, 4 innovation drivers can be considered. Read more
In animal or plant productions, new varieties are always being created so as to generate ones that are more resistant to the external, climatic or biological conditions that hamper the development of plants or animals.
A plant's suitability in a given production context depends a lot on the practices used. Crop rotation and soil resource management, for example, are key elements in achieving this aim.
New products that support the health of plants and animals are entering the market: biocontrols, biofertilisers, natural defence stimulators, prebiotics or probiotics, etc. All these new inputs have a single aim and that is to support biological resistance methods as much as possible. This is in order to keep the use of chemical active ingredients to an absolute minimum.
Agriculture has been highly influenced by the technological advances of the last two decades: IT, communications systems, automation and robotics, satellites, drones, etc. These are used in so-called precision agriculture. The concept is based on the use of an input "at the right dose, at the right place and at the right time". This means that for plant or animal productions, you must observe, analyse, model, recommend, automate... The Farm of the Future is almost here!
SBA: energy
Energy is both an issue and a significant opportunity for farmers and the cooperatives' industrial tools: optimising consumption and producing renewable energy (developing "energyculture" by producing energy on the farm) with two priorities:
Collecting plant matter to supply energy markets or producing energy on the farm from livestock manure (methanisation)
Developing solar energy panels on the farm
SBA: Biorefinery & new outlets
Both the food and non-food industries alike have an ever-increasing demand for raw materials derived from plants. That's why we are now seeing the emergence of new added-value markets in cosmetics, nutrition, biomaterials and more. Ovalie Innovation's ambition is to forge alliances with these industries to ensure cooperation in R&D and then in win-win commercial exchanges. Whether it's in new productions, agricultural residues or industrial by-products, there is a wealth of recoverable potential.
SBA: Promoting productions
Official Quality Labels are an approach that can be considered to be sustainable innovation. Extending and expanding this approach, finding the most suitable product for each customer and discovering new distribution channels: these are some of the challenges of this key strategic area.
Scientific Director
Thierry Véronèse leads the entire team and reports to the Executive Committee and the Steering Committee. With a PhD in industrial biotechnology engineering from INSA Toulouse, Thierry began his career in R&D in the food processing sector and subsequently in the water treatment industry. Having spent 10 years in innovation engineering for the Agence Régionale de l'innovation de Midi-Pyrénées (Midi-Pyrénées Regional Agency for Innovation) and then for the Agri-Sud-Ouest Innovation competitive cluster, he joined Ovalie Innovation in January 2012."Innovation is a passionate and enthusiastic action to which a rigorous process is applied. It always stems from the will of people to develop their practices and behaviour and to bring their ambitions to life.
Ovalie Innovation seeks to be the breeding ground in which creative ideas and desires come together, compete and grow. Every year, our company assesses around thirty cases arising from the requirements of farmers or companies within the Vivadour and Maïsadour Groups. These cases give rise to investment, experiment and R&D projects which all have the same goal: to create value for our cooperatives' members. We produce dozens of reports based on our strategic analyses and research carried out with our partners (public laboratories, innovative companies, etc.) thereby providing the decision-makers in our parent companies with key data with which to find new areas of development. The Ovalie Innovation team makes every effort to provide these answers and new ways forward as well as to maintain a proactive and enthusiastic approach to innovation".
"In life there are no solutions, there are only active forces; they must be created and the solutions will follow".
Saint-Exupéry
R&D Monitoring Manager
Maryline was first recruited to set up Ovalie Innovation's current web site as well as to investigate and recommend collaborative work solutions fostering productivity and innovation within the Maïsadour and Vivadour Groups. These solutions have been implemented (MS Office 365's collaborative tools / Yammer professional social network). Since 2016, Maryline has been in charge of providing monitoring services to the company's Director and Project Managers and is working on extending these services to the manager and R&D staff of the 2 Groups. The holder of a Master's degree in Information management/library services from Rutgers University (USA), she worked for several years as a librarian in the United States, at the New York Public Library in particular.
Project Manager
Patrice works mostly in the field of plant production. His career began at Syngenta Seeds where he spent 10 years as a technician in a molecular marker-assisted varietal selection laboratory, then in a molecular marker development laboratory. He then took up his studies once again to obtain an agronomic engineering degree from VETAGRO SUP Clermont. He joined Ovalie Innovation in 2013 following a graduate internship that he completed for the company on the theme of water management in maize production itineraries.
Project Manager
Anne-Marie is a graduate of ENSAT and joined what was then the recently founded Ovalie Innovation in 2012 as part of her engineering apprenticeship. Now fully integrated into the company, she works specifically on all aspects concerning the recovery of by-products generated by the two cooperatives and their members. Farmers and agricultural organisations are in fact the largest owners of highly sought-after biomass. This desire for biomass naturally leads to various innovative projects which provide revenue for our cooperatives and their members. Anne-Marie manages a rich portfolio of individual and collaborative projects.
Project Manager
Stéphane specialises in the areas of new technologies, drones, biocides and plant production. He holds a degree in Business, possesses significant experience in agronomy and began his career at the Vivadour Group as a special products Manager. For over 15 years, he was in charge of developing new crops, the business relationship with manufacturers, health monitoring and niche markets with high added value. He was involved in various R&D projects at Vivadour such as INFO-AGRI, GEOTRACEAGRI and FARMSTAR, and worked with research laboratories and innovative companies, before joining Ovalie in January 2015.
Chargé de projets
Vénézuélien en France depuis 2013. Juan a pour mission principale de concrétiser le développement d’une méthode de sexage in ovo des embryons de canard. Il intègre Ovalie Innovation à plusieurs reprises pour travailler sur cette thématique : en 2015 en tant que technicien de laboratoire dans le cadre d’un stage de deuxième année à l’IUT Paul Sabatier d’Auch et en 2017 en tant qu’élève-ingénieur par alternance lors de sa dernière année d’études d’agronomie à AgroSup Dijon.
Chargée de Projets
Docteure en Science du vivant, Mylène a intégré Ovalie Innovation en 2018 dans le cadre du projet PRECIPALM (gavage de précision). Spécialisée dans le domaine des productions animales, elle travaille plus particulièrement sur des thématiques d’agro-écologie en lien avec les volailles et les palmipèdes gras (bien-être animal, durabilité des productions, nouvelles technologies d’élevage, etc.). Elle est actuellement basée sur le site de Maïsadour, à Haut-Mauco, dans les Landes.
Responsable Développement
Ingénieur industriel généraliste Arts et Métiers, Clément a commencé sa carrière en 2008 comme responsable de production dans l’industrie métallurgique et mécanique. Il s'est ensuite expatrié en Tunisie pour piloter un projet de création d’usine de production pour un groupe industriel français. De retour en France en 2014, Clément a cofondé une startup spécialisée dans la production et la transformation d’insectes à destination de la nutrition animale. Accès sur le développement industriel et stratégique de la société, il a développé une forte compétence dans la production d’insectes, la transformation et la valorisation des produits qui en sont issus. Membre actif puis élu au Comité Exécutif de l’IPIFF, association Européenne des producteurs d’insectes, il a contribué au travaux de l’association qui ont permis à la filière de faire des avancées importantes. Entrepreneur dans l’âme, il est également gérant de la société ACSA Industrie, spécialisée dans le process industriel et la fabrication de machines spéciales, et depuis 2015, partage ses expériences auprès d’ingénieurs en formation au Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers en donnant des cours de Gestion de projets et de Création et Management d’Entreprise. En 2019, Clément a intégré l’équipe d’Ovalie Innovation avec pour mission de valoriser les travaux de Recherche et Développement portés par les chargés de projets.
Chargée de Projets
Diplômée de l’ISA Lille en 2018, Hannah rejoint Ovalie Innovation en 2019. Spécialisée en productions animales, elle intervient dans le cadre d’un projet sur la caractérisation du foie gras de canard. Elle est actuellement basée sur le site de Maïsadour, à Haut-Mauco, dans les Landes.
- An Executive Committee -
Régis Fournier (Director of Innovation at Maïsadour),
Franck Clavier (Managing Director of Vivadour), Thierry Véronèse.
- A Steering Committee -
Comité de Direction + Michel Prugue (Président Maïsadour),
Jean-Marc Gassiot (Président Vivadour).
- A Multi-Disciplinary Technical Innovation Committee (C2TI) -
The Ovalie lnnovation team and one operational representative per business segment for each cooperative (18 people in all).
Innovation is a rigorous approach, a specific expertise, a continuous process; in short, it's a profession in its own right, and one which our teams are wholly dedicated to.
