RECOGNISING OUTSTANDING

INNOVATIONS OF EUROPEAN AGRI-COOPERATIVES

The European Award for Cooperative Innovation, organised by Cogeca, is a celebration of outstanding innovation and excellence in the agri-food, fishery and forestry sectors.

As one of the longest and most established awards scheme in these sectors, the award is an opportunity for cooperatives to enhance the promotion of their brands and to ensure they gains European appreciation.The United Nations 2025 International Year of Cooperatives  marks the launch of the sixth edition of the award.

The 2025 edition of the Award will focus on sustainability-driven’ innovation and thus on the creation of new products and services, market space, processes and business models driven by economic, social or environmental objectives.

THE 6TH EDITION OF THE AWARD WILL BE

GRANTED FOR THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES / FIELDS:

Economic Value Creation

Innovative practices and processes aiming at the creation of new products and services, market space, processes and business models driven by economic objectives.

Social Value Creation

Innovative practices and processes aiming at the creation of new products and services, market space, processes and business models driven by social objectives.

Environmental Value Creation

Innovative practices and processes aiming at the creation of new products and services, market space, processes and business models driven by environmental objectives.

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6TH EDITION

The Jury

The Jury will be responsible for judging and selecting the award winners. The Jury will first score entries independently and online, ensuring unbiased evaluations, followed by a final decision-making meeting. The Jury includes representatives from DG Agriculture and Rural Development (European Commission), the European Parliament, the Cogeca Presidency, Copa-Cogeca, and an external expert with experience in food, agriculture, and cooperatives.

Sponsors

Cajamar Caja Rural is the leading credit cooperative bank in Spain with 1.4 million members and 3.5 million customers. It has 962 branches and 5,486 employees.

It is a member of the European Association of Cooperative Banks, being supervised by the ECB. Based on its size and volume of assets, it is one of the top 12 significant banking entities in the Spanish financial system.

Cajamar Caja Rural is committed to the different productive sectors, pays particularly close attention to the agri-food sector and aims its financial activity at local economies, especially self-employed professionals, growers, stockbreeders and SMEs.

QUOTES

“We are honoured to receive this recognition from Cogeca. Metsäliitto Cooperative’s goal is to be a pioneer in providing digital services to forest owners. We are delighted that European institution representatives, farmers and cooperative leaders alike appreciate our achievements.”

Juha Jumppanen, Senior Vice President, Metsä Group, Finland

“We are delighted to receive Cogeca’s innovation award for the category digitalisation. It stands for European recognition of DCoop’s major efforts to digitalise information and improve the decision-making of our farmers and their partners.”

Rafael Sanchez de Puerta, Vice General Director, Dcoop, Spain

“Receiving such significant recognition offers an opportunity to not only showcase our innovation at European level but to also learn about what other
agri-cooperatives are doing in other Member States. It ultimately acknowledges our continuous work to improve services for the benefit of our farmer-members.”

Riccardo Nencini, President, AgriAmbiente Mugello, Italy

“We are honoured to receive the award for the category food innovation as it recognises our efforts to address two consumer megatrends, healthy living and food safety, at high level. Our innovative product offers a commercially relevant concept to enter global markets, add value to primary production and contribute to human nutrition and well-being.”

Veikko Kemppi, Managing Director, LSO Cooperative, Finland

“We are delighted to receive this award and with the positive response to the Glanbia MilkFlex Fund. It has been widely welcomed and has supported a wide range of on-farm investments.”

Sean Molloy, Director of Strategy and Supply development, Glanbia, Ireland

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