On the 2^nd and 3^rd of February, APRE – as partner and Italian Hub of the TRADEIT Project  - arranged the first two sessions of a series of an intensive round of training activities foreseen amongst the project’s activities. The two workshops targeted SMEs involved in the production of traditional food. The first course was dedicated to Food safety and quality management for the small-scale traditional food sector, while the second one to Food labelling and marketing for geographical indications and traditional specialties.

The workshops were designed based on the needs of Italian small producers of traditional food, and notably taking into account the barriers faced by the sector in key areas such as food safety and quality; product development; innovation and smart technologies; and food labelling, marketing and packaging.

The module on the Food safety and quality management for the small-scale traditional food sector was held by three researchers from ENEA – UTAGRI UNIT (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development – Unit Agreefood) and specifically Ombretta Presenti, Valentina Tolaini and Antonella Del Fiore; the one on the Food labelling and marketing for geographical indications and traditional specialties was held by Gabriella Lo Feudo a researcher of Agricultural Research Council (CRA).

Around 60 participants from different sector SMEs, Chamber of Commerce and association always linked to traditional food took part to the events. The feedback from the companies was positive, both on the content and support provided and in particular on the networking possibilities opportunities that presented.

Satellite Activities
Besides this two training-days, the Italian Hub organized also two satellite activities. In the first day, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the coordinators of the TRADEIT project and of the Synergia project – respectively Ms Helena McMahon and Mr Nicola Colonna – on the basis a series of common areas of intervention identified.

The SINERGIA project, co-financed by MED programme, is a transnational programme of European territorial cooperation, aiming at fostering technology transfer in the energy sector for agro-food SMEs operating in the Mediterranean area (see SINERGIA brochure).

During the second day of training, the TRADEIT team visited two traditional food producing SMEs members of the Italian TRADEIT sub-network to La Dolce Roma (a bakery) and Riti Formaggio a (cheese factory) in the rural outskirts of Rome.