The european project F2F (Farm to Fork) Health Matters is an internationalization accelerator for innovative agri-food SMEs, driven by an alliance of five european clusters: Wagralim (Belgium), Clusaga (Spain), BioEconomy Cluster (Slovakia), InovCluster (Portugal) and Valorial (France).
It is funded by the European Program for the Competitiveness of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (COSME) within the framework of the European Strategic Cluster Partnerships - Going International (ESCP-4i).
Objectives of the project
The objective of F2F Health Matters is to promote the development of collaborative internationalization services with a clear geographic focus to offer practical support for a group of SMEs from participating regions specialized in the biotechnology and food sectors to develop an international roadmap.
A strategy has been defined based on providing a complete package of services to promote international collaboration and commercial development to the group of participating SMEs.
Resources available to participating SMEs
The project has preselected five target markets for the food sector: Canada, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and Japan. Based on the information analyzed for each market, three of these markets will be selected, and the international strategy will be directed to them.
The resources that SMEs participating in F2F Health Matters will have access to are:
- Support in business and market intelligence. A report for each destination country will be available with information on the market and key players.
- Coaching and training programs. Mentors and coaches who are members of the cluster network will provide personalized training to SMEs in fields such as regulation, access or market positioning.
- Trade missions, B2B events, matchmaking and networking in the target markets. The F2F Health Matters project will organize B2B agendas for selected SMEs, in missions integrated into existing food innovation fairs and events.
- Internationalization vouchers. A voucher system will be implemented to support the participation of SMEs in international missions.