The kick off meeting of the “Innovative and Sustainable Cluster for Olive Value Chain” project, co-funded by the European Union, was held in Izmir at the Turkish city's Commodity Exchange between July 8 and 9, 2024.

The OASIS project brings together 7 legal entities (beneficiaries) from 3 different countries (Türkiye, Spain, and Italy) that will be supporting 150 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) involved in the olive sector to identify and implement measures to improve the material-use efficiency of production processes, the prevention and reduction of food waste and losses, reduce the vulnerability of food production systems to external factors such as adverse weather events related to climate change, and stabilize the food supply chain by reducing production costs and promoting a more competitive and resilient market.

Coordinated by ICE (Izmir Commodity Exchange), the OASIS consortium aims to establish and promote “European agri-food sustainability cluster partnerships” to facilitate implementation of the EU Code of Conduct on Food and Marketing Practices by SMEs.

The 36-month OASIS project also aims to establish strong links between stakeholders by facilitating the exchange of information and expertise within the sector, creating a network to ensure continuous communication even after the project.

OASIS Project Partners are as follows: Izmir Agriculture Technology Center (ITTM), Unioncamere Puglia, Centro Tecnológico Nacional de la Conserva (CTNC), Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari (CIHEAM Bari), Camera di Commercio e Industria Italiana per la Spagna (CCIS).