Agri-Food Sector: Contemporary Trends, Possible Gaps, and Prospective Directions

Abstract

The agri-food sector is expanding, driven by growing global demand. At the same time, it faces the challenge of increasing its efficiency and adopting sustainable practices. This study aimed to map scientific production in this field, identifying trends, emerging themes, critical gaps, and future directions for research. A bibliometric analysis was conducted with 5141 papers published between 1977 and 2024, extracted from the Scopus and Web of Science databases. We applied keyword co-occurrence analysis, thematic analysis, thematic evolution, and three-field graphs using the metrics betweenness centrality, closeness centrality, and PageRank. The results revealed a significant growth in publications in the agri-food sector, especially after 2012, emphasizing the high centrality and relevance of themes such as sustainability, agri-food, and agriculture. Topics such as bioactive compounds, blockchain, and traceability were identified as areas of growing interest, and the circular economy stood out as an emerging topic. Italy, Spain, and France lead in scientific production and international collaboration. The most prominent journals were Sustainability, the Journal of Cleaner Production, and Agriculture and Human Values. Research in the sector is expanding, focusing on sustainability, the circular economy, and bioactive compounds. International collaborations and high-impact journals are pillars for advances in the sector.

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