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.
