AgroLabs: AgroFood Innovation Clusters

For Balkan Med region the agro-food sector has an important social and economic role -especially in rural communities - and is emerging as a central element for the region’s development. Despite the diversity of production systems and the different degrees of obstacles, Balkan Med territories are facing common challenges that limit the development of the agro-food sector and weaken especially the small producers. Most constraints are common in rural Balkan Med areas, such as lack of innovation and productivity, quality and food safety, difficulties in promoting typical products, access to funding and the structure of the value chain at a regional level.
AgroLabs project, funded by the INTERREG VB Balkan-Mediterranean Programme,aimed to foster the production and distribution of innovative agro-food products of the Balkan Med area by organising local value chains, supporting SMEs and producers in their development projects and creating new markets for their products.
The outputs benefit producers, SMEs and all parties in the agro-food value chain, local/regional authorities and the participating regions. The innovative “bottom-up” approach of AgroLabs allowed to meet the needs and the aspirations of the involved stakeholders and to ensure the appropriation of the AgroLabs clusters by building a joint strategy through cross-border exchange of experience. This led to the creation of the Balkan Med network of agro-food clusters.