Current figures in the agri-food sector show that only 28% of women in the sector have high responsibilities on farms and livestock in the European Union, largely due to the obstacles they are forced to overcome.
For this reason, the European body EIT Food – agri-food division of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), with more than seventy entities, including key industries, leading companies in the sector, research centers and universities – has decided to support agri-food projects of ten women entrepreneurs through the Empowering Women in Agrifood (EWA) initiative, an incubation program launched simultaneously in seven other countries to support businesses or projects launched less than two years ago by women.
For six months, the selected ones will obtain continuous support to advance in their projects, with specific online training and personalized business mentoring. They will also enter an exclusive network with access to mentors and entrepreneurs in the sector. The program also offers the opportunity to win prizes of up to 10,000 euros.
Ten projects of women entrepreneurs
Gastrofield (Sofía Furlotti, Barcelona), is a community that connects small and medium farmers, processors and artisans with restaurants and shops. Its aim is to radically change the food supply system to be more modern and decentralized. Thus, it connects stakeholders directly and reduces negative effects on the climate through efficient use of resources.
To Santa Viña (Andrea Arias, Galicia), a winery that seeks to recover and produce Galician Tostado wine with a low ecological impact and high social impact. It pursues sustainable production, quality employment and the training of women in rural areas.
Insectorium (Virginia da Cunha, Villanueva de la Torre, Castilla-La Mancha) is a breeding ground for a small insect of the coleoptera family, the Tenebrio molitor, from which practically everything is used: the larva, alive or dehydrated, serves For animal feed, the worm is marketed as manure, and the exoskeleton is rich in chitin, a substance of interest to the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
Maybein (Saray Maestro de la Fuente, Valladolid) is a restaurant application that gives a second chance to canceled or missing reservations, notifying interested customers with a push notification. It allows you to see the closest free tables, book the restaurant and set alerts for when someone of interest has seats.
Goxo-rrubi (Begoña Julián, San Sebastián) produces and distributes food in a sustainable way. Its star product is strawberries and it has a plot where it practices organic farming with direct sales. It also takes its products to markets, other customers and some restaurants.
Green Foods Co (Verónica Robredo, Madrid), is a web platform that offers a weekly subscription to a shopping basket with all the necessary foods to follow a 100% vegetable diet for five days at home, in addition to various recipes.
Aitana Spirulina (Inés Carballo, Alicante) is dedicated to the artisan and sustainable production of spirulina, a cyanobacterium that is used as a food supplement. It works as an electronic commerce to acquire both spirulina and artisan products of the highest quality.
The vegan source (Claudia Quesada, Granada) is an e-commerce focused on cured and artisan vegan cheese. They also do education and awareness work for a more sustainable diet.
Biofoodn (Dulcinea Ortiz, Toledo), an e-commerce of local organic food and deliveries with minimal environmental impact through efficient EcoRutas in hybrid van.
Nomadic chickens (Laura Franco, Catalonia) produces and markets organic eggs from chickens with access to daily fresh grass thanks to strategic grazing planning. It uses mobile poultry houses that allow the regeneration of the soil using the natural fertilizer produced by the hens.