The Demo.Net project, funded by the Recovery and Resilience Plan, began in April 2023 and aims to promote demonstration, sharing and debate initiatives directed at producer organizations, companies, technicians and farmers, as well as interaction between them, which will promote organizational innovation and broad training for those involved.

The project is coordinated by COTHN and involves 13 partners: CONSULAI, FNOP, INIAV and 10 SMEs (Alensado, Bfruit, Carmo & Silvério, CelFrutas, Frutas Classe, Frutalgoz, Frutoeste, FRUTUS, Hortofrutícolas Campelos and Madre Fruta). The integration of SMEs as partners in the project allows a representative overview that reflects a significant part of the country’s regions and the main horticultural sector.

Nowadays, the agri-food sector is facing huge challenges. It is necessary to produce efficiently to feed an ever-growing population, in a world that is becoming more ecological and sustainable, that is looking for new food alternatives that are both safer and nutritionally balanced, in which producers have an urgent need to minimize risks and ensure stable commercial relations, security of payments, investments, support in market crises and marketing.

In line with Specific Objective 3 of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which identifies the need to improve the role of producer organizations in the agri-food chain and boost the participation of farmers in generating value from their produce, the Demo.Net project emerges. This will give rise to an innovation and knowledge network with an impact on their competitiveness and differentiation.

In the European context, it is already common practice to value demonstration actions as exchanges between farmers and/or organizations, as well as peer-to-peer learning within the agricultural community.

At the end of this project, it is aimed that the innovative training model developed by this consortium can then be replicated for other types of organizations linked with different scales of production.
More news about the project will be published soon, stay tuned!

Contacts:
Carmo Martins, COTHN – carmo@cothn.pt
Carolina Ramos, CONSULAI – cramos@consulai.com/backup2025
Mariana Pedro, CONSULAI – mpedro@consulai.com/backup2025