baltfood - Simply A Sucess Story

2007
Bilatertal discussions between foodRegio, the Association of the North German Food Industry, Öresund Food and Skane Food Innovation start. The driver for such discussion was the willingess for a stronger cooperation of the food networks / cluster organisations in the Southern Baltic Sea Region (BSR).

 

2008

The messages spreads: The University of Turku and the Lithuanian Food Cluster join the discussions. "Innovation and competitiveness in the food sector" is the thematic link. The partners decide to strengthen their cooperation by jointly applying for EU funding.

 

2009

A 2.5 million Euro project is launched, part-finaced by the European Union (ERDF) through the Baltic Sea Region Programme 2007-2013.  Altogether 13 project partners have joined their forces in an effort to support innovation and competitiveness in the food industry sector. A comprehensive baltfood food trend study and the baltfood Trend Wiki are jointly launched.

 

2010

Education and qualification for the food processing industry is in the focus. The baltfood Academy, a virtual learning environment with an e-learning platform is launched.

 

2011

The baltfood R&D network including more than 30 institutes in the BSR is created. The stakeholders hold their first meeting in Lübeck, Germany. It is the first time that food scientists from the BSR meet.

 

2012

The first phase of the common project is successfully finalised. baltfood is considered as a prototype cluster in the BSR. The partners decide to stabilize the cooperation by transforming baltfood into a membership organisation. The baltfood Cluster Secretariat is created and hosted by the LÜBECK Business Development Corporation.

 

We now distinguish between baltfood Cluster Members and baltfood Project Partners.

 

2013

baltfood Cluster Members hold their annual meeting in Lübeck, Germany to prepare for a new project application focusing on "innovation at interfaces". Additional food networks in the BSR are identified and invited to join baltfood.

 

2014

baltfood Cluster Members as well as new potential members gather in Lübeck, Germany to discuss a new project application within the transnational Interreg V framework. The 25 participants represent food cluster organizations from Denmark, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden.

 

2015 - 2017

baltfood will launch the "BSR Food Innovation Lab" in the attempt to drive sustainable food production in the Baltic Sea Region.