José Manuel Bolieiro highlights importance of creating Azores Agrifood Observatory - Communication

Presidência do Governo Regional

The President of the Regional Government, José Manuel Bolieiro, accompanied by the Regional Secretary for Agriculture and Food, António Ventura, participated today in the preliminary presentation of the Azores Agrifood Observatory, an innovative platform designed to collect and analyse data on the regional agrifood sector.

The Agrifood Observatory will focus on monitoring trends and policies to support agriculture and food production, covering sectors such as livestock farming, fruit growing, horticulture, floriculture, viticulture, honey production and organic products. It will also play a key role in monitoring price formation, productivity estimates and foreign trade figures.

For José Manuel Bolieiro, this initiative represents a breakthrough in transparency and knowledge in the sector.

"The Azores Agrifood Observatory will lead to greater transparency and foster greater literacy," he said, emphasising that the data collected will be fundamental to understanding the value chain of agrifood production.

The head of the Azorean Government also emphasised the importance of this tool for the sector's strategy.

"The availability of data makes it possible to identify opportunities and ensures that the public is informed and aware of what we are doing in this sector," he said.

The Institute for Food and Agricultural Markets (IAMA) is developing the observatory in collaboration with the IAMA-IPRA team. It is part of a series of projects funded by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), with a base investment of 200 thousand Euros.

The initiative was presented at a session attended by the President of the Board of Directors of IAMA, Carolina Câmara, and the President of the Azores Agricultural Federation (FAA), Jorge Rita.

José Manuel Bolieiro pointed out that the agrifood sector is fundamental to the regional economy. This new platform will help to understand the Azores' reality based on specific data.

"The Azores are a production economy. The agrifood sector is important for the Region and this data will allow us to understand our reality accurately," he concluded.