AGROSMARTcoop
Place for the integration, competitivity and smart economic growth of agro-alimentary cooperatives in rural SUDOE territory
Axis 2 Competitiveness of SMEs
Objective 3a1 Developing capacities for the improvement of the environment of SMEs in the Sudoe spaceImage gallery
- Agribusiness and timber
2. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas de Extremadura ES
3. Cooparativas Agro-Alimentarias de Castilla-La Mancha, Unión de Cooperativas ES
4. Federación de Cooperativas Agro-Alimentarias de Euskadi ES
5. Association des régions européennes des produits d'origine FR
6. Coop de France Aquitaine FR
7. Universidade de Trás-os-montes e Alto Douro PT
8. UniNorte - União Cooperativa Polivalente da Região Norte, Crl PT
9. La Coopération Agricole Nouvelle Aquitaine FR
Project summary
The project aims to improve the competitiveness of agro-food cooperatives so as to encourage economic development and cohesion in rural areas of south-west Europe and thus overcome their disadvantaged situation. To achieve this objective AGROSMARTcoop will create a smart space for interaction and promotion between Spanish, French, and Portuguese cooperatives that is equipped with advanced tools and services which address the specific needs of these entities. Cooperation will facilitate the implementation of new techniques of sustainable innovation and marketing and will introduce the concept of smart marketing, which makes use of the potential of cooperatives in line with innovation, science, and technology.
Participating regions
- Aquitaine
- Castilla La Mancha
- Extremadura
- Galicia
- Norte
- País Vasco
Estado de avance del proyecto
AGROSMARTCoop is a project that seeks to ensure greater competitiveness of the agri-food cooperatives of the Sudoe area and to overcome its technological gap. The project made possible to better adapt cooperatives to markets and consumers by providing information on sustainable innovation, marketing and intelligent marketing focused on new technologies. To achieve its objectives, the project started from an analysis of the capacity of adaptation of these cooperatives to the current market, revealing how to increase their business dimension.
Following this study, there were:
- Two manuals of good practices in trade and marketing;
- Two benchmarking studies (crdl: comparative studies of a product with market leading products), one on sustainable innovation and one on smart marketing;
- A study on the needs and potential of cooperatives in the market and;
- A joint strategic plan to increase the competitiveness of agrifood cooperatives in the Sudoe area.
Among the main results of AGROSMARTCoop is the creation of a virtual platform to foster cooperation between agri-food cooperatives. This platform consists of several elements:
- A Virtual Laboratory called “AgroLab” that contains a map of financing possibilities and a bank of ideas;
- A section for cooperation with a geo-location map where about 150 products are collected, 5 electronic catalogues of agrifood products and an exchange forum where, at the end of the project, 206 cooperatives were active.
- An advisory service enjoyed by some 115 cooperatives;
- Strategic smart marketing plans and;
- Trainings (more than 350 hours).
AGROSMARTCoop has managed to give more visibility to the benefits of cooperation especially through a European event organized in Brussels on quality products and origin. It has led to the birth of new consortia and also projects (LEADER, etc.) among which, AGROSMARTGLobal on internationalization and financed through the Interreg Sudoe Programme.