Circular Economy in Small and Medium Enterprises in the Agri-Food sector
4th project meeting of INTERREG EUROPE SinCE-AFC

The 4th Interregional Meeting of SinCE-AFC partners and stakeholders took place online on May 25 and 26, 2021. The event was organised by the project partner Wielkopolska Region from Romania.

SinCE-AFC project on Circular Economy in Small and Medium Enterprises in the Agri-food sector is co-financed by the INTERREG EUROPE Program.

The Development Agency of Eastern Thessaloniki’s Local Authorities, ANATOLIKI SA participated in the meeting as the leading partner of the project, along with the Regional Development Fund of Central Macedonia (project partner).

The opening greeting on the 1st day of the meeting was addressed by the Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Wielkopolska Region, Mrs. Damiana Nowak and SINCE-AFC Project Manager Mrs. Vasiliki Papadopoulou. Mr. Christos Karkanias, representing ANATOLIKI SA, made a brief presentation of the project, while referring to the goals and deliverables of the project as far as today. Ms. Alicja Nowak, representative of the Wielkopolska Region, expanded on the strategies adopted by their Region regarding circular economy and analysed the initiatives and innovations that the region could focus on, according to the socio-economic characteristics of the region. Furthermore, selected good practices on Circular Economy were presented by all project partners as listed below:

• BIOGAS LAGADA SA: Reuse of animal waste for electricity and heat generation, through utilization of biogas and use of by-product for fertilization of agricultural crops (Greece)
• Tsakiris Family: Reuse of food waste in new food products production and utilization of animal waste in the generation of electricity and heat (Greece)
• Food production through the use of starch extracted from surplus potatoes (Ireland)
• Dairy by-products development - new production lines of the dairy processing plant in Debrecen (Hungary)
• MERCATO RITROVATO: Food market cooperation with local producers and marketing of products (Italy)
• AGROFOOD BIC Consultants for the promotion of circular economy in start-ups (Italy)
• Electricity generation from Renewable Energy Sources in farm (Romania)
• Ecological straws production from wheat stalk (Bulgaria)

As part of the online (due to COVID-19 restrictions) study visit, two selected good practices from Bulgaria were presented. The first good practice concerned the power plant utilising biogas produced by agricultural and livestock waste. An oil production unit from traditional Bulgarian products was also presented. The first day of the meeting closed with a discussion between the participants.

During the 2nd day of the meeting, the project partners presented the current situation regarding the implementation process of the project deliverables. The actions of ANATOLIKI were presented by Mrs. Stamatia Petridou. More specifically, the consultation process was discussed among the project stakeholders, the good practices that have emerged to date, as well as the workshops and Circular Economy Action Plans that are currently being implemented.

Finally, the participants were divided into three online rooms where the good practices selected by each partner were discussed in order to influence the policy tools of their regions and derived from the practices of other project partners. The meeting closed with a consultation on the next steps of the SINCE-AFC project.

More information about the SINCE-AFC project can be found on the project website, https://www.interregeurope.eu/since-afc/ .