EuroMARC, (European Mountain Agrofood products, Retailing and Consumers), is a European project facilitated by Euromontana, a European multi-sectoral association involved with the co-operative development of mountain territories.
EuroMARC intends to provide a representative overview of the different meanings of mountain food products along the food chain, from end-users/consumers, to retailers, producers, farmers, and ‘mountain’ policy makers.
The key objective of the project is the identification of opportunities for adding value to mountain food products as a prerequisite for the survival and the management of rural and cultural mountain diversity.
The work carried out under EuroMARC has been divided among a number of European-wide organisations, including in Scotland, the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) and the Centre for Mountain Studies (CMS).
The work conducted at the Centre for Mountain Studies from September 2007 to August 2008, under EuroMARC (Work package 5), involved reviewing policies relevant to the development of mountain areas at the European Union and national level for six key countries: Scotland; France; Romania; Slovenia; Norway and Austria.
The main objective of this work was the clarification of the policy framework with regard to all stages of the mountain agrifoods process, from production to distribution.
As well as a review of the general policy framework for mountain areas, the secondary stages of this work involved a focused review of policies relating to the promotion and labelling of local and quality food, particularly from mountain areas and to consider them in the context of WTO policies.
A key objective of the EuroMARC work conducted at the Centre for Mountain Studies was the identification of synergies and discrepancies between the reviewed policy areas in order to make recommendations regarding the alignment of policies to foster the production, processing, marketing, promotion and distribution of mountain quality food products in Europe. The final report from CMS was submitted to Euromontana in 2008. CMS Staff also attended and presented at the final Euro-MARC conference in Maribor, Slovenia in December 2008. Further information on the Euro-MARC project can be found here.