For the seventh consecutive edition, the Compal Frutology Center Academy will again select 12 fruit entrepreneurs and award three installation grants, totaling 60 thousand euros. Applications are open until February 17 and those who aspire to be the fruit growers of the future can submit them at www.centrofrutologiacompal.pt.
“Fruit entrepreneurs from the north to the south of the country who produce or intend to produce fruits such as blackberry, cherry, raspberry, apple, blueberry, pomegranate, pear rock, among others, can apply. This year there is something new: projects with kiwi and currant can also apply”, informs Compal.
The 12 selected will participate in more than 80 hours of training, with visits to model farms from north to south of the country and sessions with theoretical modules as diverse as fruit culture, associations, technology, sustainability, agricultural management and marketing.
The objective of the complementarity of theoretical and practical training is to allow trainees a contact with reality, with new business models and highly specialized technicians, and can also integrate a networking system, which grows from year to year and enables new collaborations and partnerships between participants and important players in the national agricultural sector.
In the last six years, the Compal Frutology Center Academy has trained 72 fruit entrepreneurs, for a total of over 400 hours of training in 16 regions, and has allocated 360,000 euros in installation grants. The objective is to continue training the fruit growers of the future, valuing the national fruit.
The Compal Frutology Center was created in 2012 and its main purpose is to value and promote the national fruit, seeking to stimulate innovation in the fruit sector and operate along the Fruit Value Chain. Through a joint effort, the 27 members make it possible to implement the initiatives, in a group of entities and organizations in the Fruit sector, academic institutions, producer organizations and agricultural technology companies.