During the months of September and October the Universitat Jaume I-Company Foundation (FUE-UJI) and the SOGRES research group of the Universitat Jaume I (UJI) have received two delegations from Argentina in Castellón, with the aim of promoting the activities of the project ECOMAyA in Spain. The Universitat Jaume I participates as a partner in the ECOMAyA project, through the SOGRES group, as experts in the area of circular economy, together with the FUE-UJI also as a partner in the project and coordinated by Red PROTER (Argentina).
The first work agenda, organized in September, included the participation of Maria del Carmen Garcia, coordinator of the European cooperation project with Argentina ECOMAyA. A total of 11 work meetings have made up this first agenda focused on the exchange of good practices in the field of beekeeping, training, the circular economy and entrepreneurship, as well as the dissemination of the results of the ECOMAyA project.
Among the scheduled meetings, the project coordinator has had the opportunity to work with beekeepers and cooperatives in the area such as Josefina Gonell, manager of Pajuelo Consultores Apícolas; Maria Isabel Murcia, commercial director of the Spanish Beekeeping Cooperative Society (ANAE); Ana Granell, director of the Granalbe wax, honey and pollen factory in Segorbe; the InterCoop cooperative; the project Ayora's Global Bee Project (Valencia) and the visit to artisan beekeepers in Ayora and Culla. In addition, the ECOMAyA coordinator has also met with Fermin Mallen, vice chancellor
Associate of International Relations at the Jaume I University of Castelló, Aurora Ruiz, technician of the Office of International Relations and Joan Antoni Martin, dean of the Faculty of Legal and Economic Sciences of the UJI.
As part of the exchange of good training practices, ECOMAyA has met with those responsible for the Agroecological Production training cycle at the IES Gilabert Institute of Centelles de Nules (Castelló). In addition, this first agenda has also been the opportunity to organize the Meeting-Debate on Women's Entrepreneurship in the agri-food sector with the participation of the association Networking Directives of Castellón (NDCS). This meeting has marked the beginning of a collaboration between entrepreneurs from Castelló and Buenos Aires through the ECOMAyA project and in the form of a mentoring and accompaniment activity.
After this first meeting and in order to define the operation of the twinning between entrepreneurs from Spain and Argentina and the topics of greatest interest to both, the following work agenda for the month of October also hosted a work session with NDCS. The association of Castellón entrepreneurs has been represented on both occasions by its president, Monica Boix; Susana Perez, director of the jewelry brand Le Cadó; Maria Bellmunt, director of the Globalis Foundation; Pilar Esquer, director of the Habits Nutritional Consultancy; Emma Bordills, manager of Masía Les Casotes; Ana Belen Garcia, director of Dualium Management; Sara Gual, partner and CEO of the fruit and vegetable company Bagú SL; and Monica Carregui, director of Novum Consultoría and president of the association of women entrepreneurs Reinventhadas. This last association of entrepreneurs, as well as the Bagú company, have also been some of the meetings scheduled for the second work agenda of the project in the month of October, for which they traveled to Castellón Cristina Coria and Juan Ganovelli, as representatives of the PROTER Network, project coordinator.
This second agenda, of a more institutional nature, has been received at the UJI by Eva Camacho, vice-rector of International Relations and in the town of Castelló for Amparo Marco, mayor of the municipality. Furthermore, ECOMAyA has met with Patricia Puerta, Councilor for Employment, Entrepreneurship and Welfare of the Castelló City Council, with whom they visited the Municipal Training Center. They have also been received at the Castelló Provincial Council by Pau Ferrando, deputy for Economic Promotion, Ana Belén Arzo, head of Economic Promotion and International Relations and Teresa Tena responsible for Europe Direct in Castelló.
Among the 13 work meetings scheduled in October, the meeting with the Port Authority of Castelló, the visit to the ceramic company GRESPANIA by the hand of your subsidiary director Claudia Hernandez, to the mall Estepark and subsequent meeting with your director Maria Angeles Palmi, as well as the meeting with Marisa Flor, director of the entrepreneurship chair at the UJI INCREA.
The ECOMAyA project, financed by the European Union within the framework of the EuropeAid call for territorial cooperation, has a duration of 3 years. Over the next year, it will carry out different activities for the creation of a honey extraction plant in Argentina, in addition to training entrepreneurs in matters of administration, communication and circular economy and mentoring them in the form of twinning between Castelló-Argentina entrepreneurs.
