KONFEKOOP has organized the AGROSMARTglobal Congress that has been held in the town of Laguardia, in the south of the Basque Country, specifically in Rioja Alavesa. The Villa Lucia wine tourism space has hosted the conferences.

On November 16 and 17, presentations, visits and activities to promote the products of the cooperatives of the Basque Country were carried out.

The conferences have dealt with areas such as: internationalization and its keys to success, the different existing differentiation strategies and innovation and digitization in progress in sustainability.

From the Basque Government, the Director of Quality and Agrifood Industries, Mr. Raúl Pérez Iratxeta, and the Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Security, Ms. Elena Pérez Barredo, accompanied the conference.
The internationalization block has had the participation of cooperative companies with an important history of foreign trade, such as: Martin Codax S. Coop, Adega Cooperativa Ponte de Lima and COVAP-Cooperativa del Valles de los Pedroches. In addition, with the help of the consulting firm MING DA consulting, an approach has been made to Chinese social networks and their use for the marketing, promotion and visibility of products in the Asian market.

In the differentiation strategy block, there have been two experiences. On the one hand, the strategy of the French cooperatives of the Agriconfiance certification, which allows the differentiation of cooperative products that meet social responsibility standards; and on the other, the Baserria Km0 strategy of the Harakai S. Coop cooperative, which has built a way to communicate what is behind its project and the link with meat producers in the Basque Country.

In the digitization, innovation and sustainability block, the work carried out in two sectors has been transferred: KAIKU BERDEA, in which the dairy production cooperative KAIKU S. COOP participates and whose objective is to improve the sustainability of this sector based on innovation; and the trajectory of innovation in sustainability of the Viña Costeira S. Coop de Galicia winery, which has participated in various innovation projects to improve knowledge in viticulture.

Likewise, on the morning of the 16th, Andreas Kubach, Master of Wine, gave a conference on the trends and commercial projects that are being created, based on the sustainability of the territories.

The attendees have also been able to enjoy a tasting of cooperative local products, directed by the gastronomic promoter Mikel Garaizabal and supported by HAZI Fundazioa. The following products were presented and tasted: extra virgin olive oil from Trujal de Moreda S. Coop, wine from Unión de Cosecheros de Labastida S. Coop and the Lapuebla Wine Cooperative de Labarca S. Coop and Idiazabal cheeses from Latxa Esnea S. Coop. Txakoli from Getaria, Euskal Sagardoa and Pan Eusko Label were also tasted.

This text has been translated from Spanish into English using an online tool.