The new rules of agrifood exports center a new edition of the Eixample Talks

The internationalization of Catalan agri-food companies has been the guiding thread of a new edition of the Eixample Talks, organized by PIMEC and The New Barcelona Post, with the collaboration of Prodeca. The session, titled From Catalonia to the world: the new rules of agri-food exports, brought together representatives from the public and private sectors to analyze the main challenges facing companies in an increasingly changing international scenario.

The director of Prodeca, Dèlia Perpiñà, participated in the round table, moderated by the director of The New Barcelona Post, Elena Busquets, together with Marta Vidal, chief executive officer of Vallformosa and president of the Cava DO; David Coll, president of PIMEC's Agri-food sector, and Olga Salvador, head of clients and refrigerated traffic at the Port of Barcelona. Fernando Ortega, a specialist in business strategy, delivered the opening presentation. 

During the debate, it became clear that internationalization has ceased to be a growth option to become a strategic decision, conditioned by factors such as geopolitical tensions, regulatory changes, the evolution of consumption habits, and the need to strengthen business resilience.

In this context, Dèlia Perpiñà highlighted that companies are no longer only seeking to know how to export, but to identify which markets offer the most opportunities and how to reduce risks through a knowledge-based strategy. In this regard, she explained that Prodeca's role is to provide tools for companies to make informed decisions, through commercial activities, international promotion activities, meetings with buyers and market intelligence services.

Another central axis of the debate was the need to compete on value rather than just on volume. In this sense, Perpiñà pointed out that international buyers especially value attributes such as quality, food safety, traceability, innovation capacity and supplier reliability, elements that help strengthen the positioning of Catalan food in international markets.

As for growth opportunities, she recalled that Europe continues to be the main consolidation market, while the United States maintains a strategic role for value-added products. At the same time, she noted that markets such as the Gulf, Japan, South Korea, China, Southeast Asia and India offer growth prospects in the medium and long term, as long as companies access them with a solid and progressive strategy.

The session also addressed the importance of logistics, brand building and collaboration between the different agents in the agri-food ecosystem to strengthen the sector's international competitiveness.

The event concluded with an idea shared by the participants: internationalization requires a long-term vision based on market knowledge, differentiation, innovation and adaptability. In this process, Prodeca continues to work to enable Catalan agri-food companies to face international markets with more information, more tools and a strategy aimed at generating value.

 

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