On 20 April, the jury of the Walloon Government certified three projects by Wagralim, the Walloon agri-food competitiveness cluster. Two of the three projects concern R&D, with the third being a training programme. The total budget represents €10 million from both the public and private sector. They should lead to the creation of 260 direct jobs and 8 indirect jobs.
Wallep, the first R&D project, aims to commercialise a new range of products made with Walloon spelt. It should help to create added value in Wallonia, thus favouring the setting up of a new sector. However, to do this, it will be necessary to start by selecting the most suitable varieties of spelt and optimise existing industrial processes.
Pasta della Mamma is the coordinating company and its partners are Wal.Agri, Les Moulins de Statte, Meurens Natural, Puratos, Distillerie Radermacher, the Institut Meurice, Celabor, and the Walloon Agricultural Research Centre.
Porcbiota, the second certified R&D project, concerns the development of an alternative to the antibiotics (AB) administered when weaning piglets. As a result of a drastic change in diet, piglets are exposed to many bacterial infections, something which encourages breeders to give them AB. The problem comes when certain bacteria become resistant. The alternative to AB would be a truly innovative product able to reinforce the immunity system of young piglets and ensure their well-being and the farm's profitability.
The coordinating company, Vésale Pharma, has as its partners Artechno, Dumoulin, Aveve Biochem, the Walloon Agricultural Research Centre, the University of Liege and the Gembloux Agro-BioTech faculty of ULg.
Finally, the aim of the certified training project, Transfoviande, is to formalise and set up a modular and integrated offering covering the process of transforming meat into sausages and mincemeat. The project will also create a mobile training workshop in order to meet the needs of companies throughout the Walloon area which are faced with transport problems encountered by existing or future workers. This training offering will be structural and will provide a sustainable, quick, supple and flexible response to employers faced with a workforce shortage in the meat professions.
The coordinating company of Transfoviande is the meat professions skills centre Epicuris. The latter will be supported by five partners: Veviba, GHL Groupe, Chimay Tradition, Q-Group, and Alimento.
N.B.: Transfoviande is the continuation of WalMeat2U!; the training project based on a mobile meat cutting workshop. Since its launch in 2016, 152 job seekers and workers have been trained.