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This Discussion Paper is the start of the Focus Group work. The aim of this paper is to support and stimulate discussion and it is not intended to present final conclusions of the Focus Group at this stage. Please note, this discussion paper incorporates comments and data supplied by expert members of the focus group while preparing the paper. The main comments are summarized in sections entitled ‘Discussion’. Discussion points arising from the expert comments have also been identified throughout the text, and these will be used to structure the focus group conversations.
The Focus Group has the following tasks1:
- Identify and analyze the different SFC chain models existing in Europe.
- Identify those models that substantially improve farmers’ income, and have potential for scaling up in terms of the number of producers involved and volumes traded.
- Identify the main needs or instruments required to implement these models and the factors that currently hamper the scaling up.
- Identify existing examples of how these factors can be addressed in Europe, and explore the role of knowledge transfer in addressing them.
5. Explore innovative solutions to address the hampering factors, propose directions for future research work and come up with ideas and topics for Operational Groups.
Author: EIP AGRI – European Commission