LAGs learn from producer organisations' best practices

Local Action Group (LAG) representatives from 9 Member States attended the EU CAP Network’s 4th meeting of the Forum on Best Practices in the Agri-Food Supply Chain in Brussels on 9 October. The forum provided networking opportunities between EU food system peers, including food producers, agri-cooperatives, such as COVAP, and producer organisations like Assomela. Retailers such as Ahold Delhaize, consumer organisations including Euroconsumer, researchers and policymakers from different levels of local, national and EU organisations all took part in exchanges.

LAGs and other forum delegates learnt about the new EU agrifood chain Observatory and explored the strategic business relationships, cooperation and business benefits of producers being partners in the value chain. Key conclusions from the forum align with LEADER’s potential for encouraging community-led local cooperation throughout food value chains. We contacted two LAGs represented at the forum to ask for their feedback.

Croatian Forum feedback

The Local Development Strategy (LDS) of Croatia’s Bura LAG features funding opportunities for various food and drink innovations for community-based projects. Ana Mamić, a project manager from the LAG, found the Forum insightful, noting how: “Our mission is to foster sustainability and innovative approaches in our area’s food systems. The Forum gave us an opportunity to learn how to transform our local agri-food system to become efficient, sustainable and competitive.

“We wanted to learn and share knowledge through the event’s networking possibilities. This could help us apply new ideas locally in our LAG area. We gained useful knowledge about best practices to build the technical and managerial skills necessary to address challenges in the supply chain, from production to distribution and apply them in our local context.

“Practical advice about enabling factors for sustainable practices and collaborative models were the most useful elements of this forum for us. Such topics contribute to our 2023-2027 LDS goals for promoting local development, improving the efficiency of the supply chain and enhancing sustainability. We were able to learn about technical adaptions, policy insights, collaboration and cooperative models, which we can help implement through our LAG.”

Anna’s LAG Bura colleague Josip Šare, also gained useful new knowledge by attending the forum. “As LAG employees, our job is related to rural development and includes being in constant touch with farmers and their needs," he said. “By participating in the forum we are able to select and implement some of the examples of good practices in our interventions and small-scale projects. Also, in the near future, we want to establish a LAG area label for our producers, which will increase their visibility in the market as well as increase consumer awareness by encouraging eating healthy, organic and, most importantly, locally produced food.

“I was very interested in the forum’s focus on food producers working together within cooperation organisations. Cooperatives in countries like Croatia can still suffer from significant stigma connected with the old system before we joined the EU. So, it was interesting to see the benefits of being in one and hear how farmers in other parts of the EU connect within these organisations.

“In addition, during the summer season, our LAG area is in heavy demand for agricultural products due to tourism, and we have noticed that tourists are now more aware when it comes to food and want to buy directly from the producer. With our LDS interventions, we want to be able to support farmers in these shorter supply chains to help boost the local economy and decrease food’s carbon footprint.”

Local LEADER food

Spanish LAGs have also invested much of their CAP support into food-related community development projects. These include LAGs on the Atlantic coast in Asturias, where Juan A. Lázaro is part of the region’s LEADER team. He attended October’s food forum to discover more about the experiences from other parts of Europe in promoting quality local food brands.

“We are particularly interested in short marketing chains for food and the integration of small producers into cooperative or community structures to improve sales conditions," he said. “Creating added value for primary producers is another LEADER priority in our region.

“In Asturias, 11 LAGs manage funds that can be used by agri-food companies. As these are mostly small- or medium-sized companies located in rural areas, the problems associated with the agri-food supply chain are greater and very specific. Learning about other experiences and being able to present some of our own achievements was one of our objectives when participating in this forum.

“Knowing how problems like ours are solved in other parts of Europe and being able to interact directly with the people who have developed them is a unique opportunity for us. Knowing where the EU's global and sectoral policies are heading, especially the information presented at the forum related to the future CAP post-2027, also strengthens our strategic vision of the future. It helped us understand how we can evolve LEADER and adapt it to help improve climate-smart local food systems.”

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