TRADE-IT

A large proportion of European food companies are defined as small-medium enterprises (SMEs), producing a wide variety of regional specialities and traditional foods, yet they are not immune to commercial pressures. The TRADEIT project aims to help strengthen regional economies and protect Europe’s food heritage, as Dr Helena McMahon explains

Protecting Europe’s food heritage

The European food market is extremely diverse, with small-medium enterprises (SMEs) across the continent producing a wide variety of regional specialities and traditional foods. While these SMEs are an integral part of the local economy in many areas of Europe, they still need to adapt and evolve in line with wider commercial and technological advancements, which is a key part of the TRADEIT project’s agenda. “The TRADEIT project was developed specifically to support small-scale food producers, particularly those in the dairy, meat and bakery sectors that produce traditional or artisan food products,” explains Dr Helena McMahon, the project’s coordinator. These foods are often closely associated with a specific region; “for example, cured meats are an important part of food heritage in Italy, Spain and many parts of Poland. We also work with a lot of traditional cheese producers and bread makers in Germany and Ireland,” says Dr McMahon.

Cultural heritage

These foods in many cases are an important part of an area’s cultural heritage, yet this does not make the smaller companies that produce them immune to commercial pressures. The TRADEIT project provides support through a number of different activities, aiming to help protect Europe’s food heritage. “Firstly through the creation of an EU-wide network of stakeholders in the traditional agri-food sectors, and secondly through the promotion and support of innovation. The third is through technology transfer, and then the fourth is through enabling collaboration between food experts and researchers,” outlines Dr McMahon. The project is set up around nine hubs across Europe, each of which has a sub-network of food producers, which enables localised support for companies. “In addition to technological inputs around process optimisation, packaging, food safety and new product development. However as we know there are technological and organisational aspects of running a business and taking this into account TRADEIT provides advice on operational issues such as pricing strategies, new business models, marketing, smart technologies and digitisation.”

Many of these smaller companies tend to be family-run, typically (98% ) with less than 10 employee, using long-established production processes. As a result there can be generational issues in play in relation to the perception of the role of innovation within a company that produces traditional foods, typically produced in a specific way within a region for more than 50 years.

Jackie Kennedy of Marsh Pig UK, sharing her expertise with attendees at Gubbeen Farm, West Cork. Whilst a company may be highly resistant to changing the production process, Dr McMahon says that adopting new technologies in other areas can lead to commercial benefits. “For example, while you don’t want to tamper with the ingredients or the production methodology, maybe you can improve the packaging to extend its shelf-life. That will then enable the food producer to make savings and keep their product on the market for longer,” she explains. The TRADEIT online ‘Marketplace’ enables companies and researchers to share information on this kind of technology. “The Marketplace is an online open innovation platform that enables researchers and companies to post technology needs and offers. It enables them to network online, and to match technology experts and solutions to the operational and technological challenges they face,” outlines Dr McMahon. This can help smaller companies adapt to the changing commercial landscape and build for the future. While smaller companies may hold some advantages over their larger counterparts in terms of commercial flexibility, they may not be able to invest in technology to the same extent, says Dr McMahon; “financial limitations can prevent small companies from investing in new technology, while some businesses don’t

know where to look for it,” she points out. These technologies can help small companies in terms of adapting to emerging trends and complying with standards. “This can be a major issue for some companies. So they need to adopt new technologies and look at new practices in order to stay in line with standards in areas like labelling and packaging,” Dr McMahon points out. “Even if a product is very static in terms of its production methodologies and characteristics, a company needs to continually evolve and adapt to stay competitive and current.”

The TRADEIT project was developed specifically to support small-scale

food producers, particularly those in the dairy, meat and bakery sectors that produce traditional or artisan food products

A good relationship with the research sector is an important part of this, and the project is working with universities to support the commercialisation of new products. While researchers developing innovative new products tend to look towards bigger companies first, Dr McMahon says SMEs represent a large share of the market. “We worked with universities and organisations developing technologies as part of research projects. We aimed to support the commercialisation of those technologies and help bring them to the market through SMEs” she explains. “The project builds on a programme called Design for SMEs, it’s a collaborative approach where companies and researchers come together to explore the operational realities of the food producing company. Researchers can hear about market opportunities that companies are seeking to capitalise on.”

Product commercialisation

Researchers can then develop solutions specifically targeted at the needs of companies, which fits in with the goal of helping to protect Europe’s food heritage. This is very much a long-term objective, and while the TRADEIT project has now concluded, Dr McMahon says that several other activities are ongoing. “We have a big focus on communication of knowledge and best practice and have developed an online magazine called Taste of Science. This is basically an online magazine, and each of the articles is a representation of peer-reviewed literature, to enable SMEs to access research in a more accessible way,” she outlines. Food

companies have also learned from each other through the network, an aspect of the project’s work that Dr McMahon says was particularly interesting. “This level of peerto-peer learning, and this notion of social capital and enabling companies to come together to discuss each other’s operations, has enabled a lot of companies to solve a lot of the challenges that they face,” she says.

This encompasses everything from discussing the products and foods that they sell through to exchanging information on business models and commercial strategies, all with a view to building a stronger food sector. While the food sector is commonly thought of as being quite traditional and resistant to change, Dr McMahon believes that research and innovation has an important part to play in helping it build for the future. “There are multiple types of innovations that a company can engage in and they need to be aware of the different technologies available. So whether it’s product, process, or organisation, innovations in all of those areas can add value in different ways,” she stresses.

Full Project Title

Traditional Food: Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology Transfer (TRADEIT)

Project Objectives

The overarching objectives of the TRADEIT project: 1. Create an EU wide network of stakeholders in the Traditional Agrifood Sector. 2. Facilitate the transfer of knowledge to SMEs. 3. Address the innovation skills gap in food research community. 4. Develop a strategic research and innovation agenda for the sector.

Project Funding

This project was funded under the Food, Agriculture, Fisheries and Biotechnology Call ‘KBBE.2013.2.3-02: Network for the transfer of knowledge on traditional foods to SMEs. FP7-KBBE-2013-7 – single stage. Coordinator: Institute of Technology Tralee, Co. Kerry, Ireland. Grant No.: 613776.

Project Partners

• Institute of Technology Tralee, Ireland • Trinity College Dublin, Ireland • ITENE, Spain • University of East London, UK • Coventry University, UK • APRE, Italy • Institut für Lebensmittel- und Umweltforschung e.V. (ILU), Germany • Maitomaa, Finland • Béal Organic Cheese, Ireland • Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Portugal • Newsweaver, Ireland • European Federation of Food Science & Technology, The Netherlands • Halbert Research, Ireland • Martínez Somalo, Spain • SAVONIA, Finland • Bäckerei Stolzenberger, Germany • Pão de Gimonde, Portugal • Cluster Food+i, Spain • Food Concept, Poland

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Dr Helena McMahon Shannon ABC, South Campus, Institute of Technology Tralee, Co. Kerry T: +35 3 66 7144160 E: helena.mcmahon@staff.ittralee.ie W: www.ittralee.ie

Dr Helena McMahon

Dr Helena McMahon (BSc, MSc, PhD) has an extensive project portfolio, at a national and EU level in product innovation, commercialisation and Industry (SME) collaboration. Activities are focused in the Agri-food sector with a particular focus on the bioecomony, functional ingredients, facilitation of SME collaborative actions, technology transfer, innovation and multi-actor networks. Dr. McMahon has authored several papers, books, chapters and supervised MSc candidates in Agri-food & Innovation areas.