CONFAGRI hosted the 3rd edition of the InterregSudoe AgroSmartGlobal Project Transnational Forum, an event that took place between October 19 and 21, at CONFAGRI headquarters, in Lisbon, with the partners of the consortium and Portuguese, Spanish and French Agri-food Cooperatives involved in the project.

During these 3 days, the participants visited Cooperfrutas, in Alcobaça, and learn about its business project, but also the opportunities and challenges associated with the trade and internationalization of products with protected origin, such as “Maçã de Alcobaça” ( PGI) and “ Pêra Rocha do Oeste” ( PDO) . There was also the opportunity to taste Portuguese cooperative wines and olive oil and the meat from autochthones breeds.

There were also discussions about current issues for the agri-food sector, namely the issue of the circular economy and energy efficiency, unavoidable and decisive issues to ensure the sector’s sustainability and its adaptation to climate change.

The E-Commerce and the digital internationalization of agri-food products were also themes raised during the Forum.

 October 19-20-21 Program

On the first day of the Forum (October 19) there was the reception of participants from the European partners, followed by the Coordination Meeting of the project.

The second day (October 20) began, with a visit to the COOPERFRUTAS, in Alcobaça, with the participation of European partners and representatives of national, Spanish and French agri-food cooperatives involved in the project, where the cooperative project was presented and discussed: the importance of exports; the commitment to the circular economy and energy efficiency; and the opportunities and challenges in the commercialization and internationalization of the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) “Pêra Rocha do Oeste” and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) “Maçã de Alcobaça”.

In the afternoon, there was a tasting session of wine and olive oil from Portuguese Cooperatives at the headquarters of CONFAGRI, conducted by FENADEGAS and CASA DO AZEITE.

The last day of the Forum (21 October) was filled with a seminar in which subjects related to e-commerce and the digital internationalization of agri-food products were discussed. The “Access to Market” Platform, was presented by a Paulo Luciano from the DG Trade of the European Commission; The AGROSMARTglobal project, presented by Demetrius from AGACA; the TASTE PORTUGAL project, an initiative to aggregate food products on the Alibaba platform, presented by AICEP.

After the coffee break, FENADEGAS made a presentation on the theme of the Internationalization of Portuguese Wines, followed by a presentation by PECNORDESTE on “Carnes da Montanha” and the experience of using e-commerce in the commercialization of meat from Portuguese autochthonous breeds.

The last project of the day to be presented was the Iberian “FROM FARM TO FORK” Project, regarding pork e-commerce to the Chinese market, by António Tavares from FPAS.

The work session ended with the tasting of meat from Portuguese autochthonous breeds “Carnes da Montanha”.