We start the 'Quality food network' project of the Mediterranean Pyrenees Euroregion

Last March 10 the Biotechnological and Biomedical Cluster of the Balearic Islands (Balearic Islands), theRegional Institute of Agro-Food Quality (Occitanie) and Prodeca and the Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fishing and Food (DARP) gave the output from the 'Quality Food Network' project. The initiative was one of the 32 projects awarded by the Covid-19 fund of thePyrenees-Mediterranean Euroregion to deal with the effects of the pandemic. 

The 'Quality Food Network' aims to transfer of knowledge and technology, strengthening the innovative ecosystem of the agri-food sector on a Euroregional scale. To achieve this goal, several coordinated actions between the three entities have been planned in the 16 months that the initiative will last. 

In the first phase of the project, from Prodeca we will organize a regional participatory forum this spring to highlight the labels of differentiated quality (DOP and IGP). The meeting, aimed at producers with products distinguished by these seals, will revolve around how to improve the commercial potential of Catalan quality seals. 

Likewise, the project plans to carry out a new meeting in the framework of the Catalan Food Forum 2022, organized by Prodeca, to promote the emergence of new collaborations, as well as an initiative to recognize Euroregional collaboration with a greater innovative component and participate in the REGAL Fair, in the Occitania region, to give visibility and continuity to the network. 

Fund to deal with the effects of the pandemic

At the beginning of the year, the Pyrenees-Mediterranean Euroregion announced the awarded cooperation projects from its Covid-19 fund to alleviate the effects of the pandemic. Endowed with €700,000, the fund was intended for projects and actions in the five sectoral areas in which the entity works: innovation, environment and climate change, higher education and research, tourism and culture. 79 candidate projects were submitted, in which at least one partner from each territory had to participate, of which 32 ultimately benefited. 

One of the award-winning initiatives was the 'Quality Food Network' led by the Biotechnological and Biomedical Cluster of the Islands (Balearic Islands), which works with the regulatory councils to open its scope of application to the agri-food sector together with the Institut Régional de la Qualité Agroalimentaire (Occitanie), which brings together all the agricultural and agri-food agents in the Occitanie region around the development and support of official quality and origin procedures, and Prodeca-DARP.