11 May 2022

Eight Vocational Agricultural Profile Schools around Albania were invited to be part of AgroAktiv competition proposed and organised by The Food Safety Project (FSP). The schools were encouraged to present innovative solutions for Agri-food Sector and the challenges it faces.

The participant schools based in Korca, Shkodra, Cerrik, Golem, Pogradec and Kamza were each appointed a mentor including National Food Authority inspectors and Korca University lecturers to support them with their project ideas and presentations. The FSP partnered with Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD), National Food Authority (NFA) and Albanian Skills for the competition.

Over eight weeks the eight schools worked on their innovative projects and presented them to the evaluation committee at the beginning of May.

The schools presented a wide range of ideas from vertical gardens, rare herbs culinary, rare Albanian plant usage, Biomass production for fuels, Slaughterhouse waste etc.

The competition came to an end in Tirana on May 9th as part of Europe Week 2022 activities. Mr. Hubert Perr, Head of Cooperation of EU delegation to Albania, Ms. Vanessa Cooling FSP Team Leader and Mr. Enio Civici, Deputy Minister of MoARD presented the Competition ideas and announced the winning school; “Charles Telford Erickson” Golem for their innovative idea, Biomass production for fuel.

The students of the winning school will be granted an internship at Agro-Korani Seed Nursery in Kavaja. The FSP together with NFA will cooperate with FBOs in other cities to offer partnership opportunity for all schools who participated in the competition.

During Europe Week 2022, FSP participated in activities organised in Shkodra, Vlora and Tirana. At the FSP stand, the team welcomed visitors by playing an interactive game to test their food safety knowledge and discuss food safety topics. A survey with specific questions on food safety practices at home was also conducted. FSP will use the survey results to work with NFA on delivering targeted messages to consumers to help them keep their food safe.