1st AREPO 2022 GA and the AGROSMARTglobal project!

AREPO’s first General Assembly of 2022, held on Thursday, April 28, was an opportunity to present to our member regions the progress and first results of the AGROSMARTglobal Interreg Sudoe project, in which AREPO is involved as an internal partner.

The AGROSMARTglobal project is a 3.5 year project of the Interreg Sudoe 2014-2020 programme that started in October 2019 and involves 10 partners from France, Spain and Portugal. The project is coordinated by the Union of agri-food cooperatives of Galicia – AGACA, in Spain.

The project covers 10 regions in Southwest Europe (Sudoe): Galicia, Castilla-La Mancha, Euskadi and La Rioja in Spain, Norte, Algarve, Centro, Lisboa and Alentejo in Portugal, and Nouvelle-Aquitaine in France.

The overall objective of the project is to contribute to alleviating the difficulties faced by rural areas in the Sudoe and to promote their economic development by finding transnational solutions to support the competitiveness of agri-food cooperatives in the area.

To achieve this objective, the project has chosen to consolidate the space for promotion, inter-cooperation and competitiveness of agri-food cooperatives in the Sudoe, launched during the AGROSMARTcoop Interreg Sudoe project, by developing new tools and services to strengthen their positioning on the international market through the implementation of digital marketing strategies.

In particular, you will find the following new tools and services:

• A technical advisory service to assess the performance of agri-food cooperatives/SMEs in digital internationalisation and provide them with personalised advice;
• Training programmes to give them keys to strengthen their positioning in international digital markets;
• Funding opportunities with an updated inventory of calls for projects of interest for agri-food cooperatives/SMEs in the Sudoe;
• A service to support the referencing of quality agri-food products from cooperatives/SMEs in the Sudoe on e-commerce platforms in order to strengthen their positioning on international digital markets (and more specifically on the Chinese and North American markets);
• A geolocation map of the agri-food cooperatives in the Sudoe involved in the initiative;
• The latest news from the project.

AREPO is part of the consortium as an internal partner and plays a major role in activities aimed at promoting and protecting products benefiting from European quality schemes on the Internet (PDOs, PGIs, TSGs, organic farming), which represent an important part of exports from Southwest Europe.

To carry out this activity, AREPO – in collaboration with UTAD, IrRADIARE and competent experts in the field of intellectual property – is working on the elaboration of a “best practice” guide for GI consortia, producer associations and agri-food cooperatives in the Sudoe and, more widely, in the EU, which would aim at :

1. Improve their knowledge on how to promote their products benefiting from European quality schemes on the Internet to take better advantage of their added value on international digital markets;
2. Provide them with operational tools to strengthen the protection of their Geographical Indications (GIs) on the Internet. There is currently no protection for GIs in terms of domain name allocation. In case of infringement, only trademarks are protected by the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

To elaborate the most relevant guide possible, AREPO developed a survey to identify the needs of GI consortia, producer associations and agri-food cooperatives in both these areas. Please participate in our survey to help us!

AREPO will also have a key role in disseminating the project results. It is in this framework that the major European event for the promotion of quality and origin products will be organised at the beginning of 2023 in Brussels. This event consists of promoting the importance of European quality schemes to the European institutions.

AREPO benefits from €26 820 co-financed at 75% by the ERDF to finance the organisation of this event within the framework of the AGROSMARTglobal project in early 2023.

This funding was provided to highlight the AGROSMARTglobal Interreg Sudoe project to strategic political representatives during the afternoon conference and to enable agri-food cooperatives in the Sudoe to promote their quality and origin products to a large audience of agricultural stakeholders during the evening tasting.

The event will be divided into two parts:

1. An afternoon conference with high-level speakers on AREPO and AGROSMARTglobal priority themes:

• Session 1 | Presentation of the AGROSMARTglobal Interreg Sudoe project and its results with a focus on the promotion and protection of products benefiting from European quality schemes on the Internet;
• Session 2 | Discussions around the European Commission’s legislative proposal on GI revision.

2. An evening of presentation and tasting of quality and origin products from AREPO member regions and agri-food cooperatives in the Sudoe.

This event will be organised for the 5^th time and it seems important to underline the almost systematic presence of the European Commissioners for Agriculture: Ms. Fischer Boel in 2009, Mr. Ciolos in 2011 and Mr. Hogan in 2015. In 2018, we received Ms. Sauze-Vandevyver, Director “Quality, Research & Innovation” of DG AGRI (EC) and Mr. Dorfmann, MEP, member of COMAGRI and rapporteur of the EC communication on “The future of food and farming”.

This event is covered by the press and represents an ideal opportunity for AREPO member regions and agri-food cooperatives in the Sudoe to promote their quality and origin products!

“The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.“