CORENET ROADSHOW IN RENNES: CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF RMT ALIMENTATION LOCALE AND ACCELERATING SUPPORT FOR SHORT FOOD SUPPLY CHAINS

Over two days, the consortium exchanged insights with French and European practitioners, showcased Golden Cases from across Europe, and visited local initiatives that are turning processing challenges into new market opportunities for small producers.

Day 1 — Dialogues and peer learning with Europe’s SFSC community

The opening day combined high-level exchanges with hands-on breakout sessions focused on what it takes to make short food supply chains (SFSCs) more resilient, inclusive and scalable. Plenary roundtables explored the evolution of SFSCs and how they withstand uncertainty, followed by two workshop waves that tackled topics such as collaborative logistics, strengthening SFSCs in agricultural education, co-producing data, digital tools, and farmer–artisan partnerships.

Within the breakout programme, COREnet contributed to the session “Sharing inspiring examples of advice and support across Europe.” Two COREnet partners, Lisa Blix Germundsson and Jan Willem van der Schans, presented distinct Golden Cases that illustrate how targeted advice and tailored support services can boost the performance and impact of SFSC initiatives. The session invited participants to compare contexts, extract transferable elements, and reflect on how advisory ecosystems can help initiatives move from promising pilots to sustained impact.

Day 2 — COREnet roundtable and field visits

On the second day, COREnet reserved a dedicated slot, “SFSC at European level: discussion with the COREnet project,” sharing how the EU-wide network is connecting advisors, researchers and practitioners to spread effective support practices across regions. This roundtable discussion was directed by four COREnet partners, Fedele Colantuono, Christian Jochum, Judith Molnar and Rafal Serafin, together with Patricia Mora McGinity, the coordinator of our twin project EU4ADVICE.

The second day then moved into the field to see how local actors are tackling a strategic bottleneck for smallholder agriculture: processing. A visit to Trans Farm Earth, a collective organic and local canning facility serving producers and artisans, showed how shared infrastructure can unlock new products and reach new outlets while keeping value local.

Participants also heard from Yves Simon, a dairy farmer who developed an artisanal processing workshop on his farm under the brand “Le petit Gamelot.” His experience opened a wider conversation on markets and marketing, from selling points and product ranges to cooperative approaches across several producers, and on the specific challenges of processing (investment, skills, standards) when the goal is to create added value on the farm.

Why this Roadshow mattered

Bringing the Roadshow to Rennes during RMT’s 10-year milestone highlighted the strong continuity between French and European agendas for local food systems. The format, mixing panels, thematic workshops and site visits, created space to:

• Compare advisory and support practices from multiple European contexts and assess transferability;
• Advance logistics and data collaboration that make SFSCs more efficient and transparent;
• Connect education, research and practice, with young researchers contributing to future priorities;
• See processing innovations up close and discuss how they can help small farms capture value and reach stable markets.

Insights from Rennes will feed into COREnet’s ongoing Golden Cases work and the European SFSC Roadshow series, helping advisory communities replicate what works and avoid common pitfalls. Keep an eye on COREnet channels for the next stops and for upcoming materials that translate these lessons into practical tools for advisors.

A special thanks to the INRAE team for organizing the whole event and for giving COREnet the possibility to showcase its results within this important stage.

Click on the image below and scroll the photo-gallery of these two days!

Photo credits: Leonardo Improta

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