COOPID: press release
The COOPID project completes year-round visits to successful reference agri-food organisations
Madrid, Spain (03 October 2022). The COOPID project is proud to announce the celebration of the last two showcase visits in its program: Valio Group and the Finnish Forest Centre, in Finland (Oulu). This achievement highlights the role of the project in fostering the bioeconomy in the EU primary sector, effectively showing reference success cases in the industry to primary producers across the EU.
- More than 35 COOPID ambassadors visited Valio Group and the Finnish Forest Centre: success cases about circularity and sustainability in the Finnish forestry and dairy sector. In total, the event counted 72 international participants.
- Overall, the project has organised 11 visits: 7 online and 4 on-site. 146 COOPID ambassadors (primary producers & other stakeholders) have engaged with the project.
- The visits included organisations across the whole EU bioeconomy ecosystem: Oleícola El Tejar (Spain); Grand Est bioeconomy ecosystem (France); Caviro (Italy); Pindos (Greece); ZP Victor Asenov (Bulgaria); Biogal (Poland); Pelletierungsgenossenschaft eGen (Austria); Carbery (Ireland); Moellerup Brands (Denmark); Finnish Forest Centre (Finland); and VALIO (Finland).
- COOPID activities continue now with a new program of local workshops. The calendar is available at https://coopid.eu/coopid-events
ProAgria Oulu, the local Finnish leader in the COOPID project, organised the visits to Valio Group and the Finnish Forest Centre on the 14th and 15th of September 2022 (https://coopid.eu/archivos/2051 ). The goal of the activity has always been to disseminate knowledge and information directly from successful organisations to primary producers.
First, Valio Group counts around 4,000 dairy farmers who own the company through 13 cooperatives. The company was founded in 1905 and today, it is the biggest food company in Finland buying approximately 80% of Finnish milk.
“What I noticed most was that we could see the whole value chain, from the manure to the biogas plant. It was very inspiring imagining what we could do as well on our farms in France.” – COOPID ambassador from France.
“We got inspired in what you can do in terms of energy, heating, and power saving. We can use the machines we have on our farm in a new way”. – COOPID ambassador from Austria.
The second visit counted Stora Enso, one of the biggest company companies in the wood sector; Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), and the Metsään.fi service, The Finnish Forest Centre.
“It was interesting to see the different ways to cultivate forest: the landscape is very different in Austria, and it was a highlight to see that”. – COOPID ambassador from Austria.
“Knowledge transfer is key for the optimal transition to a sustainable bioeconomy. For this reason, we have wanted to make available to primary producers, but also to other relevant agents in the bioeconomy, this pack of 11 success stories”. – Susana Rivera, Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias de España, Project Coordinator.
To see more details, visit the project website, and the COOPID interactive platform and follow the project on social media (Twitter). For more information about the project visit events and video interviews with COOPID ambassadors on its YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjSc8keP4YBWDfs4iJy4Gxw
About the COOPID project
COOPID project is an EU-funded project, coordinated by Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias de España where 11 partners from 10 different countries take part. COOPID proposes an innovative and effective strategy to inspire primary producers and stimulate the uptake of inclusive and sustainable bio-based business models in the European primary production sector, considering regional & sectorial particularities.
