Pacman II international conference

PACMAN II INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

19th October 2012

Valencia, Spain

This was the second of three International Conferences that take place in the framework of the PACMAn project (the first has been held in Portugal one year ago and the third will be held in Italy in 2013). These events are organized within the first component of the project - Communication – in order to promote the PACMAn’s objectives and activities, and ensure their capitalization.

The II International Conference involved players representing various regions of the Mediterranean Europe with the objective to give continuity and enhance actions and policies concerning innovation, networking and internationalization of the agro-food sector. It focused on the agro-food supply value chains of these territorial areas with the main goal to involve companies, organizations and institutions in the ongoing process aimed at making them more dynamic.

In the Valencian case, companies dedicated to the manufacture of olive oil, dessert grape and cereals, which are the segments on which IMPIVA chose to work, could exchange about their experiences and points of view with representatives of other MED regions.

Indeed, the Conference allowed the direct dialogue among the value chain players and the project technicians within the group of European territories.

All the present companies put the emphasis on the promotion of cultural and structural values that could contribute to the sector’s competitiveness and to the regional economy. They also underlined the necessity to consider the value chain as a whole, which implicates other convergent sectors of different products and services and concerns aspects such as the regional gastronomic culture and also factors as packaging, communication or infrastructures.

This Conference was the opportunity to present and promote some best practices.

Thus, the Councillor of Agriculture and Quality of the Rural Land of the Province of Modena, Gian Domenico Tomei, explained the solutions found by the players of the Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese value chain to face the difficult situation after the earthquake of spring 2012. About the implementation of public policies, two representatives of the PACMAn project, Cyril Bertrand (CRITT – France) and Gianandrea Esposito (ERVET – Italy) presented two initiatives about sustainable development; one of them is currently developed in the framework of the PACMAn project.

This Conference also allowed the identification of instruments to support the internationalization of the agro-food sector. Mercedes Acitores, Spanish representative of MED Regional Contact Point gave an overview about the MED Program and opportunities of collaboration with other projects about agro-food sector.

Let’s hope that this PACMAn II International Conference would have constituted one more step in the identification of challenges and opportunities for the agro-food cluster by strengthening their integration in the Europe Mediterranean region.