Establishment of an operative SME food cluster in BSR.

Purpose and goal

The aim was to identify and establish cooperation with a number of cluster organizations around the Baltic Sea to support small food businesses in each country. The objective is that the cluster organizations and their food companies will be interested in exporting their products or otherwise interact with other players identified around the Baltic Sea. The current situation in the countries and their cluster organizations are prepared to cooperate in the segment of SMEs. A major application for continued work around the Baltic Sea has been submitted to the SI.

Results and expected effects

The project has resulted in a network of cluster actors around the Baltic Sea, where the focus was on Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. The first three countries have cluster organizations through ´Letter of Intent´ union to continue cooperation. Two organizations are identified in Poland as prospective future players and from Denmark and Finland there are ongoing collaborations. Continuous exchange of information precedes also with a German cluster organization of Lubeck. Conditions are thus offering SMEs in the food a strong support function in the Baltic region.

Approach and implementation

The project has been able to generate resources for personal meetings, which has built the foundation for both new and continuing collaborations. Personal meetings are extremely important during the construction phase, where different actors get to know each other based on confidence in long-term cooperations. The project has succeeded in its intentions around the Baltic Sea, except in the case of Poland, where contacts and visits were not managed within the project period. However, there are possible associations identified, but not visited for evaluation of deeper cooperation.