Despite growing consumer demand for organic foods, new producers face huge costs when they market their products. Thanks to the Enterprise Europe Network, agrofood SMEs in Greece and Bulgaria will get help through an EU-funded branding scheme.

The initiative, part of a €110.7 million cross-border cooperation scheme, aims to help producers in northern Greece and southern Bulgaria promote their organic goods at home and abroad.

“This niche market offers huge opportunities for SMEs,” says Epaminondas Christofilopoulos, international cooperation expert at Praxi/Help-Forward Network in Thessaloniki, Greece. It is among more than 600 Enterprise Europe Network partner organisations in 50 countries helping SMEs expand internationally.

For the branding scheme, Praxi/Help-Forward Network has joined forces with the Association Business Information and Consulting Centre - Sandanski, a fellow Network partner in southwestern Bulgaria.

Over the next few years, they will craft a common marketing strategy for dozens of producers, and organise training in management skills, marketing and quality assurance.

“In the long term, this will boost the competitiveness of the entire region” notes Ani Simeonova, Network expert in Sandanski.

Among the SMEs expected to benefit from the branding scheme is ThinkGreen, a Greek maker of organic ouzo and olive oil that belongs to a Nework-supported Organic Products Cluster. “We all win by working together,” says managing director Nikoleta Avgita.