PROXTERRA

• Grant agreement ID: EFA010/01

• Total project budget: 1,77 M€

• Start Date: 01/01/2024

  End Date: 31/12/2026

The agri-food sector is a strategic area in the cross-border territory of Pyrénées-Orientales-Ariège, Lleida-Barcelona-Girona and Andorra.

However, the economic sustainability of the business fabric is not guaranteed: in this rural and mountainous area, technology transfer is rare and most companies are micro, small or medium-sized and do not have the necessary resources to develop their own R&D&I activities, which limits their competitiveness.

In addition, the sector has a significant environmental impact: it is resource-intensive and generates a lot of waste and polluting emissions, especially as the border effect favours domestic value chains and an extended distribution network.

To address these challenges, PROXTERRA proposes to strengthen sustainable cross-border and proximity growth and the competitiveness of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises through the creation and strengthening of local short circuits, taking advantage of cross-border complementarity.

Over a period of 3 years, the consortium, made up of French and Spanish academic, private and public entities, will carry out a series of activities covering supply (production and packaging), demand (consumption) and logistics (distribution).

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises will be supported through a training programme to adopt sustainable and innovative solutions in the production and processing of agri-food products, inter-enterprise collaboration and support for the marketing process, especially across borders.

In terms of logistics, PROXTERRA aims to promote a local, polycentric and cross-border distribution network supported by a digital co-distribution platform. Finally, the consortium will promote local consumption through awareness-raising actions among the public, catering and tourism professionals, as well as collective catering actors.