MEDITERRANEAN FLORICULTURE - AN INTERACTIVE SYSTEM FOR IMPROVING MARKET POSITIONING
FINANCING AGENCY: Interreg Italy-France Maritime Programme 2014-2020 (European Regional Development Fund - ERDF).
DURATION: 1st January 2017 - 31st December 2018
IRF ROLE: Project Partner and Coordinator for the action of “Product and process innovation and pilot project implementation”
DESCRIPTION
Scope and objectives
The floriculture sector has a significant impact on the entire Italian-French cooperation area. Despite significant advantages for local businesses, such as a favourable climate, a long tradition of floriculture, production flexibility and a good entrepreneurial capacity, various limitations can lead to a lack of competitiveness, including small company sizes, uneven orography, high production costs, and a restricted aggregation of businesses. This project aims to support the entrepreneurship of the territory by promoting the development and organization of services aimed at product and process innovation, as well as actions to develop economic analyses of production activities and to outline new market strategies.
Methodological approach
The project is articulated through the following actions:
The structuring of an inter-regional supply chain involving project partners, representatives of French and Italian associations, local public bodies and other stakeholders. The ultimate goal is to define a common strategy aimed at strengthening the competitiveness of businesses.
Implementation of pilot actions aimed at: (1) assessing the sustainability of new production greenhouse prototypes for the Mediterranean environment; (2) outlining innovative and sustainable cultivation systems for the Mediterranean environment; and (3) selecting, propagating and enhancing crops suitable for the Mediterranean climate in order to encourage supply chain product innovation.
Development of common commercial and marketing actions aimed at strengthening the presence and penetration of Mediterranean floriculture offerings on markets, particularly in certain targeted central and northern European countries.
Creation of tools to support companies in their business choices, in particular, the application of a computerized system for the collection and consultation of technical and economic documentation.
Results and impacts
The project envisages the creation of a specialized cross-border network as a stable point of reference for local businesses, through which partners can integrate competences and complement each other in the interests of developing production activities.
In particular, the project aims to create the following products for business use:
Guidelines for good administrative and management practices in the cross-border services system Innovative greenhouse prototypes
Heating and cooling models for sustainable and quality crop production (e.g. use of heating mats and pipes with hot water supplied to benches, air conditioning with heat pump and geothermal probes, soil heating).
Sustainable disinfection methods based on solarisation and the use of natural and micro-organism-based formulations that minimize environmental impacts and guarantee the defence of crops from telluric pathogens.
Soilless cultivation and nutrient solution recycling and disinfection by filtration.
LED lighting systems for the qualitative and quantitative improvement of flower and nursery production.
Management models with biodegradable pots, sustainable agronomic and phytosanitary management strategies, productive performance analysis of genotypes and plant varieties suitable for the Mediterranean climate.
On-line flower species sales systems, with the creation of dedicated e-commerce software.
Multilingual catalogue of the main Mediterranean flower species.
PARTNERS
Liguria Region, Italy
Regional Institute for Floriculture (IRF), Italy
Regional Agricultural Experimentation and Support Centre (CeRSAA), Italy
Council for Agricultural Research and Agricultural Economy Analysis (CREA), Floriculture and Ornamental Species Research Unit, Italy
University of Sassari, Department of Agriculture, Italy
Hyères Hortipole, France
SICA - Hyères Flower Market, France
Union of the Regional Centre for Horticultural Application and Demonstration (SCRADH), France
LINK
www.interreg-maritime.eu/web/flore3.0
STAFF INVOLVED
Margherita Beruto (IRF Coordinator and Manager, beruto@regflor.it)
Federico Di Battista (Field Test Technician, dibattista@regflor.it)
Serena Viglione (In Vitro Test Technician, viglione@regflor.it)
Elena Delfini (Technical-administrative Staff, delfini@regflor.it)