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PRIMA Pillar 3: Mediterranean food value chain for regional and local development - prioritisation
of targets, objectives and activities
Food security of the Mediterranean area is not ensured. Increases in imports and trade balance deficits at
the national level are connected with increase in poverty at individual level and social instability. This is
particularly the case in rural arid and semi-arid areas, the latter being the most vulnerable regions, exposed
to multiple challenges. Besides, changes in life-styles, scarce affordability of nutrient dense food products,
urbanisation and development of food chains based on imported raw materials have led to a change in food
diets, and a massive emergence of diet- and lifestyle-related chronic diseases. Moreover, poverty is often
coupled to higher consumption of food products of lower quality, poor of essential nutrients and health
promoting bioactive ingredients, thus worsening health of Mediterranean populations. Facing the urban
demand, the traditional food sector has enormous difficulty in gaining access to commercial channels, and
to compete in terms of
business organisation, logistics and costs with the agro-industrial sector.
At the same time, the production and processing of food is still a key economic activity for Mediterranean
Countries providing jobs and supporting local rural and urban economies. In the southern rim of
Mediterranean, even if the rural population decreases in relative terms (compared to urban population) it
increases in absolute terms. In fact, agriculture and food sectors are strategic in the whole Mediterranean
area in terms of employment, livelihoods of rural population, opportunities for job creations and territorial
development.
1.
The North Africa/Middle East region is one of the worst off in terms of
per capita food availability, a
situation likely to worsen by 2030 due to growing demand for food. Imports can certainly
compensate for a lack of production, but at the cost of high dependency on the international market,
with all the concomitant risks that have been evidenced by the recent food crises. To ensure
quantitative and qualitative regional food security, ambitious agricultural and food policies need to
be designed. Technological innovation is a key issue in developing strategies that reduce the
dependency from imports, by containing wastes while exploiting resources in a sustainable way. At
the national level, the challenge is to reconcile increased production, environmental protection and
regional development while involving rural stakeholders. Sustainability and quality standards must
be defined throughout the sectors, with capacity building for stakeholders at all levels. Good
functioning of food chains relies highly on physical infrastructure but also to a good management of
the whole chain. These improvements need public investments and will help to appeal for private
investments and arrival of foreign capital. Implementing new production systems, ensuring spatial
organization of land-uses that could improve the resources management, developing environmental
services produced by agriculture will also require specific public policy instruments.
2.
Mediterranean food industries produce large quantities of products, often with unique qualities
derived from Mediterranean natural advantages and local knowledge. They provide value-added to
farmers, create rural employment and provide environmental services. However, most of these small
companies operate in an informal setting, with lack of efficiency and with recurrent food safety
problems. The
integration of small producers into formal supply channels is one of the major
challenges. In the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean, upstream suppliers are usually widely
dispersed, creating logistical difficulties in gathering raw materials (with significant post-harvest
losses) and assessing their quality. Suppliers of the downstream firms must meet rigorous standards
of quality, traceability and product homogeneity and supply regularity. Improving supply chain
management is needed to better link agricultural producers to urban markets and to reduce post-
harvest losses. Post-harvest losses remain very high in many Mediterranean countries, representing
up to 30-40% of the production in some of them and reducing them can contribute significantly to
improve food security. Research is needed to find solutions all along the chain, from production to
storage, transportation and commercialisation. A better control of the quality throughout the food
chain is a condition for food safety. Actions should be implemented by a very close partnership with
enterprises and address: hazards and risk assessment, improvements in food shelf life, storage and
transportation conditions… Social organisation of the food chains, coordination among actors, norms
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and standards and promotion of territorial products through geographical indications and
designation of origin have also to be considered.
3.
As
a matter of fact, the need for companies to shift to more sustainable business models
has widely
emerged. Adoption of eco-innovation and
sustainable business models, may then represent the
chance for SMEs to increase their competitiveness and give their contribution to the struggle of
sustainability issues. This is particularly relevant in the Mediterranean area, where Micro,
Small and
Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) constitute a significant economic and employment driver,
representing ~70% of total workforce and 99% of overall enterprises in the Region (EMDC – Euro-
Med Development Center for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, 2012). Furthermore, eco-
innovation and promotion of local heritage by a better organization of local players (producers,
industries, tourism actors), as well as the development of production chains that include food having
a high added value can provide a solution to support the development of Mediterranean territories.
Engaging with this actors is going to be a primary goal for the development of PRIMA’s Open
Innovation Strategy. Such approach needs to develop collaborations between the different
disciplines, nutrition, food sciences, agronomy and social sciences, engagement of sources of
innovation that can sparkle from a variety of sources (large companies, public research labs,
universities, SMEs and community of users) in order to study the impact of diverse business models
and management systems, their abilities to create employement and territorial development and to
enhance the emergence of young entrepreuneurs in the agrifood sector.
4.
The technological aspects of production and transformation are closely related to market and food
chain organisation and to industrial strategies. In particular, it is necessary to develop
new
processing technologies and valorisation of agricultural products and by-products for better
valorising the local typical products,
to boost rural economy, and to create new jobs. The utilisation
of the Mediterranean biodiversity, the traditional knowledge and culinary heritage could help to
develop territories and regions as typical products can benefit from domestic and international
market. A valorisation of the nutritional qualities of Mediterranean foods and the development of
new Mediterranean Diet products based on functional foods are certainly an important issue to this
respect. Besides nutritional quality, Mediterranean food new products could include many
dimensions such as quality (availability of fortified plant varieties and products), potential health
benefits, accessibility, convenience (easy to prepare). To meet the expectations of today's consumers
it is necessary to retro-innovate by applying new technologies on traditional products. Improve the
quality of traditional foods from intrinsic food properties, food production methodologies with a
view to enrich nutritional characteristics and, possibly, improve the diet and transformation
processes and at the same time preserving local resources, and important elements of the
Mediterranean cultural inheritance.
5.
While the traditional
Mediterranean diet is considered particularly healthy, the Mediterranean is
paradoxically one of the areas of the world where overweight and obesity are most prevalent—a
clear sign of dietary shifts in progress: excess consumption of carbohydrates, sugars, saturated fat
and salt, lower consumption of fruits, vegetables and fibers. The emergence of diet- and lifestyle-
related chronic diseases (heart disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes) is
massive
in the southern and eastern Mediterranean. These diseases have become the leading cause of death
both in the North and in the South. The complex relationship between diet and health in the
Mediterranean context needs to be understood, as well as we must better understand taking heed
of genetic, epigenetic and behavioural determinants of chronic disease. Furthermore, we must
better understand eating habits, their heterogeneity and their determinants. PRIMA joint research
programming will contribute significantly to the prevention of diet-related diseases by effectively
integrating research in the food, nutritional, social and health sciences, while strengthening
competitiveness of the Mediterranean food industry. Joint programming is already present in the EU
Members and Associated States on healthy food (e.g. JPI HDHL, KIC), but it has to be expanded to