Allariz showcased good practice among rural entrepreneurs with the presentation of the first Innovative Rural Entrepreneurship Awards 2024. On Friday, five projects became the first to receive the award, recognised for their innovation and their positive impact on their surroundings: four from Galicia and one from Asturias. It was an initiative of the first Foro de Emprendemento Rural (Rural Entrepreneurship Forum), which brought together hundreds of professionals and hopes to become an established event.
The Hotel OCA Allariz hosted the congress for a second day, which opened with the awards ceremony. More than 50 projects from all over Spain entered. The competition rules required them to be companies less than five years old, located in municipalities with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants, and promoting the settlement of the population in a sustainable way with the participation of young people and women.
The initiative that best met these requirements, and took first prize, was Agrolinera. It is an Asturias-based “dairytech” devoted to making use of livestock farm waste. Its founders, Pilar Menéndez and Juan Gutiérrez, travelled to Allariz. Menéndez explained that it is a small company born from the experience of growing up in a livestock-farming village and seeing the problems faced by traditional farms. “I too had to leave Spain because that was the norm, but we have come back with a purpose and we have the luxury of applying everything we have learnt here in our own region,” she said. Through technology, they offer livestock-farming communities a way to turn waste into inputs for other processes. They were awarded 10,000 euros.
The remaining awards went to Galicia. Two special mentions worth 2,000 euros were presented. One of them, sponsored by Abanca, recognised positive impact on the local area and went to Anceu Coliving. This project, located in the town of Ponte Caldelas (Pontevedra), offers shared accommodation. Its aim is for like-minded tenants to live, work and socialise together. “We are proud to say that some people came and stayed to live here, or planned on a month and stayed a year; they have become part of our community,” said Rosa, one of the founders.
The other mention, sponsored by Coren, recognised innovation rooted in the local area. It went to Chorima Cosmética Atlántica. It is a brand from A Estrada that makes use of natural, locally sourced active ingredients with properties that are beneficial for the skin. They respect the environment, offering conscious cosmetics. Its creator, Miguel de la Calle, admitted that he had not expected to achieve such success in two years. “These forums are nice and eye-catching, but they are only the tip of the iceberg; day-to-day work is the real prize for entrepreneurs,” he argued.
An award for Puxedo
An organisation from Ourense made its way among the prestigious winners. The Asociación de Veciños de Puxedo (Puxedo Residents’ Association) received the Fundación Roberto Rivas mention for a project to retain population in rural areas. The residents of Lobios joined forces to transform a mountain hamlet that lived off subsistence farming into a 21st-century settlement. “Neither the market nor the State reached us, so the residents changed the course of what was certain death,” Pablo Rodríguez of the association noted yesterday. They restored the monumental heritage, revived traditions and, with public collaboration and private initiatives, opened businesses. “There can be opportunities in rural areas if we work together, above all the residents, as we are the ones who know the territory,” he argued.
Young talent also stood out at the forum. The Fundación Roberto Rivas, organiser of the event, presented a runner-up prize to an outstanding local initiative, which went to Skomb by Tex. It is a project by two students from CPR Nebrija in A Coruña that creates vegan leather from kombucha tea waste. “We don’t just want to look after the environment but also to help create new opportunities for people who need them,” one of its creators explained yesterday. They want to change the course of the textile industry. The prize included a training grant worth 2,000 euros.
Women sustain a large share of businesses in Galicia’s villages
The Foro de Emprendemento Rural closed its first edition after two days of panel discussions, networking among professionals and visits to exemplary projects in the area. Fundación Roberto Rivas trustee Loreto Fernández, also a lecturer at the University of Santiago de Compostela, spoke at the awards ceremony to conclude: “The results in rural Galicia are encouraging; the situation is not good, but we believe it has improved enormously.” She argued that the University must be closely linked to rural entrepreneurship, since projects emerge from research groups and from the knowledge young people acquire in the classroom. “We must be proud of our university system, which is of the very highest standard,” she stated.
Studies, she explained, show that entrepreneurship rates are lower in rural areas than in urban ones, but Galicia has some curious peculiarities. One essential one is the role of women: “We observe higher rates of entrepreneurship than among men, and part of that success is that they show greater social capital.” In addition, their initiatives are more oriented towards sustainability with social and environmental impact. “It is essential to have advice and support networks to develop these projects,” she argued. Galicia still faces outstanding challenges too. The main one is the commitment to digitalisation. According to Loreto, social-economy legal forms should also be encouraged, such as cooperatives, which are especially well suited to entrepreneurs’ circumstances. “One of our great advantages is that these projects exist, but sometimes they remain hidden because we sell ourselves badly. It is important to showcase success stories,” she concluded hopefully.
Source: https://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/somosagro/sostenibilidad/2024/12/13/premian-allariz-firma-aprovecha-residuos-ganaderia/00031734110908885870891.htm