PRODECA reviews 2023: serving more than 1,000 agri-food companies

Prodeca closed 2023 having run 50 trade activities with 1,089 agri-food companies registered and a repeat rate of 45%: almost half the companies Prodeca served took part in more than one activity. 

So, one in four of Catalonia's regular exporters took part in one of the international trade activities Prodeca organised in 2023, including international fairs, Business Forums, business meetings, trade catalogues and the events linked to the Catalan Food project, the initiative promoting Catalan products and companies commercially in some twenty strategic markets. 

Trade activities around the world

Prodeca organised the joint participation of more than 350 companies at 16 international fairs in 2023 under the agri-food brand "Catalonia, where food is culture". In all, it registered 492 Catalan company registrations for trade fairs in 10 different markets, such as Germany, Japan, Colombia, Spain, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, China, the United Kingdom and the United States. 

Another notable type of activity for Prodeca in 2023 was organising the Business Forums, a sector business-matching platform between distributors from selected countries and Catalan agri-food companies. Last June it held the first Catalan Food Business Forum in Barcelona two days of business meetings connecting 80 Catalan companies with 120 importers and distributors from more than 30 non-EU markets. The event brought together in one place the Meat Business Forum, Fine Food Business Forum and Wine Business Forum to boost agri-food exports and help those sectors' companies grow. Over the Catalan Food Business Forum's two days more than 3,500 B2B meetings were held, giving Catalan companies the chance to explain their commercial offer and test buyers' interest.

November brought the second Olive Oil Business Forum in Lleida, a business meeting connecting some twenty Catalan olive oil producers with 11 importers and distributors from Europe and Asia, resulting in more than 200 B2B meetings. 

Continuing its commitment to exploring innovative new formats for an alternative supply circuit, last year Prodeca organised around fifteen virtual business meetings, the eBusiness With format: virtual meetings between around a hundred Catalan companies and 14 retail chains from four markets of strategic importance to the agri-food sector (South Korea, Japan, China and the United Kingdom) to present their product offer, resulting in more than a hundred virtual meetings.

Most of these international promotion activities start from Catalan companies registering in trade catalogues, which in many cases are a first contact for setting up a product supply circuit. In 2023, more than 180 Catalan companies registered in the three trade catalogues for three different markets (Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States). 

Catalan Food, the project to position Catalan produce in 17 strategic markets

In the last quarter of 2023, Prodeca launched the Catalan Food project, around ten trade activities in markets of strategic importance to Catalan companies such as Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, Nigeria, Zambia, Ghana, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Mexico, Peru and Brazil. Across the project's different formats (Catalan Food Workshop, Catalan Food Showcase, Catalan Food Street Show and point-of-sale promotions), the 180 registered companies displayed more than 600 Catalan product lines and Prodeca involved six Catalan chefs in various cooking workshops with Catalan cuisine as the sector's ambassador around the world. Almost 3,500 attendees — distributors, purchasing managers, officials, culinary opinion leaders and end consumers — discovered and bought Catalan products first hand. Of particular note was the Catalan Food Street Show Tokyo, which over two days drew more than 3,000 people to the food showcase in central Tokyo. 

Local competitiveness projects

Locally, Prodeca was present at around ten Catalan food fairs, including the joint participation of almost 40 companies at Gastronomic Forum Barcelona and Tast a la Rambla. Prodeca publicised the Gastroteca project, the leading digital catalogue of Catalan agri-food products, through 42 tastings of local products, working with 117 different companies and introducing the project to almost 1,500 people. 

Also notable was the 8th Benvinguts a Pagès, in which more than 36,000 people visited agri-food farms across Catalonia to discover where Catalan products come from. In all, the project involved more than 500 businesses (100 farms, 115 rural tourism accommodation providers, 220 restaurants, 65 complementary activities and 5 food processors). To these must be added the 125 signed up to Benvinguts a Pagès Tot l'Any, the project's stable paid offer.

Training, tools for improving business skills

Finally, of note is Prodeca's training programme, which in 2023 was consolidated with 15 free training sessions spreading the culture of internationalisation and giving agri-food companies tools to improve their skills, especially in marketing their products. In all, more than 1,500 registrations (500 of them students from the 16 Catalan hospitality and catering schools at the guided extra virgin olive oil tasting) and more than 2,000 views on Prodeca's YouTube channel.