Portugal Invests in Exports, Promotes Mediterranean Diet

Summary

The Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture has launched the Terra Futura ini­tia­tive with no fixed bud­get, aim­ing to achieve five main goals over the next decade, includ­ing increas­ing agri­cul­tural exports and mit­i­gat­ing cli­mate change impacts. The ini­tia­tive includes plans to use byprod­ucts from olive oil pro­duc­tion for renew­able energy and cre­ate inno­va­tion net­work cen­ters across the coun­try, with an empha­sis on pro­mot­ing the Mediterranean diet in Portugal and strength­en­ing eco­nomic ties with China.

The Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture has launched a new ini­tia­tive to bol­ster the country’s agri­cul­tural sec­tor, which has the dis­tin­guish­ing fea­ture of hav­ing no fixed bud­get.

Maria do Céu Antunes, the country’s min­is­ter of agri­cul­ture, said the ini­tia­tive is sep­a­rate from but aligns with the goals of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy and sev­eral other sim­i­lar ini­tia­tives.

The Terra Futura ini­tia­tive out­lines five main goals that it seeks to achieve over the course of the com­ing decade:

The min­istry plans to achieve the five goals through fif­teen ini­tia­tives, which have been divided into four over­ar­ch­ing cat­e­gories. The Portuguese gov­ern­ment hopes that fol­low­ing through with the plan will help mit­i­gate the impacts of cli­mate change and increase its agri­cul­tural exports, includ­ing olive oil.

Among the ways the ini­tia­tive may be imple­mented, the min­istry cited the use of byprod­ucts from olive oil pro­duc­tion.

Similar to what is hap­pen­ing in Spain, do Céu Antunes said that waste byprod­ucts from olive oil pro­duc­tion could be trans­formed into bio­mass, a form of renew­able energy, which may be used to power olive mills or sold onto the wider energy matrix.

The ini­tia­tive also calls for the cre­ation of 24 ​“inno­va­tion net­work” cen­ters, which will be spread across the coun­try. According to the min­istry, one of these cen­ters would be solely ded­i­cated to pro­mo­tion of the Mediterranean diet in Portugal.

Separate from the ministry’s ini­tia­tive, but in the same vein, the Portugal-China cham­ber of com­merce has been meet­ing recently to dis­cuss eco­nomic ties between the two coun­tries.

On the agenda is the recently announced Casa de Portugal project, a new plat­form that will help sell and pro­mote Portuguese prod­ucts such as wine, honey and olive oil – all of which are in high demand in the world’s most pop­u­lous coun­try – to Chinese con­sumers.

If all goes accord­ing to plan, by 2030 the min­istry hopes to:

The rel­e­vance of exports in the plan was empha­sized by the min­istry. According to Do Céu Antunes, the National Statistics Institute has reported that ​“agri­cul­tural exports between January and July 2020 have grown five per­cent when com­pared to the same period of the last year.”

• Portuguese Planning, Policies and General Administration Office
• Vida Rural