Strengthening regional innovation policies to build sustainable food chains
Province of Flevoland, Aeres Group Foundation, Horizon Flevoland
Strengthening the regional food supply chain
The province of Flevoland is stimulating agri- and food policy through the policy of Agriculture of Different Tastes. Within the FoodChains 4 Europe project the province focused on strengthening short food supply chains.
Business Support Programme
The first result is the successful developed business support programme which is tailored, by Horizon Flevoland, to the Flevoland region on the basis of the Recip4Succes programme in Manchester. In the Flevoland programme an experience business developer guides food entrepreneurs 12 weeks intensively working on their short food chain collaboration and bringing a new product or service into the market.
Flevofood
The second result is the professionalization of the Flevofood Association. Its has now about 100 members with an promising business-to-business trade platform. The one and half year of the action plan resulted in the sales of about 500.000 kg of regional food products through 3 market channels. Results of Flevofood are: The FlevourBox is a high-end consumer market box, the Farming-for-Neighhours scheme is targeted to people with less economic income and the Red Cross programme is directed to people living under the poverty line and getting food at the food bank.
Future Proposition
The third result is that the FoodChains 4 Europe project strengthened the need of food policy in the region and in particular short food supply chains. It is integrated for a great part in the future proposition of the province of Flevoland, in the food education of Aeres Group Foundation and in the business development activities at Horizon Flevoland.
