Agri-food quality labels: innovating and communicating to sell more and better

In June, PRODECA launched the first phase of the project with a virtual working session for the representatives of Catalonia's PDOs and PGIs under a telling title: 'Agri-food quality labels: innovating and communicating to sell more and better'.

Carmel Mòdol, director general of food, quality and agri-food industries at the Catalan government's Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda, opened a session structured in two thematic blocks, in the first of which various experts addressed the innovation challenges and opportunities for origin and quality labels, in short, highly technical talks aimed at giving attendees practical knowledge tools.

By way of summary, Maurizio Crupi, a researcher at the universities of Alicante and Maastricht, spoke on 'Strategy: how to innovate without losing tradition', analysing the reasons that lead a European PGI to amend its product specifications , based on an analysis of almost 60 European PDOs and PGIs: those that tend to relax them are betting on innovation, while PGIs that opt for stricter rules do so to strengthen the link with tradition.

Àlex Brossa, director of the Packaging Cluster, shared the study on packaging trends in the agri-food field, identifying three broad areas of application: sustainable packaging, experiential packaging and packaging arising from the new COVID context. Presenting concrete examples, Brossa broke down each of these macro-trends through concepts such as plastic reduction, new materials, servitisation and food safety (sustainability); smart and interactive packaging and transparency (experiential); single doses, delivery and ready to eat (packaging in a COVID world).

To close this block, Marta Vallès, founder of Vottun, a Catalan start-up specialising in blockchain technology, explored the benefits and applications for the agri-food sector of a tool set to change the sector's dynamics, increasing the efficiency of the value and supply chain. Dispelling the belief that blockchain is only for large production processes, Vallès gave the example of Ous Montsoliu, a Catalan company that uses the technology to guarantee the traceability of its organic eggs.

In the second part, brand and communication specialist and founder of the branding studio Verdelimón, Alex Torrens, led a teaching workshop with the PDO and PGI managers and representatives attending the event. Torrens focused the participatory session on brand building and added value for producers and processors: his presentation on identity, strategy and brand platform was followed by a debate on how consumers perceive the brand of Catalan PDOs and PGIs.

Ramon Sentmartí, managing director of Prodeca, closed the event by gathering attendees' observations from the participatory workshop and calling on the whole Catalan agri-food sector to keep working towards the best possible positioning for our products.