ALSEMAC has taken another step forward in its international rollout after being presented in Abidjan during the ATLANTE strategic project event, which brought together the projects approved with Côte d’Ivoire under the first call of the Interreg MAC 2021-2027 programme. Held at the Azalaï Hotel in Marcory, the meeting gathered institutional representatives, European and African partners and key actors linked to the programme’s different priorities, with cooperation and networking at the centre of the day’s agenda.

The event was designed to raise the profile of MAC projects in African partner countries, strengthen links between institutions and encourage new synergies across territories that face similar challenges. Within that framework, ALSEMAC was featured under the MAC Green priority, with a presentation focused on food safety, circular economy and the valorisation of agricultural by-products.

During the ALSEMAC session, project coordinator, Ángel Gutiérrez, from the University of La Laguna, presented the main lines of work alongside Ivorian partners Brahima Camara, professor and researcher at Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, and N’Goran Aby, scientific researcher at the National Agronomic Research Centre of Côte d’Ivoire. The presentation helped share the project’s approach in a country that, like the other African partners involved in ALSEMAC, is part of a wider alliance aimed at studying food, improving local production and promoting more soil-friendly and environmentally aware practices.

ALSEMAC is designed to promote the responsible consumption of safe, healthy and sustainable foods in a circular-economy framework, while helping reduce the carbon footprint of food systems. In Côte d’Ivoire, the project is also working on contaminant monitoring in food and on agronomic solutions based on the use of organic waste, such as biochar, compost and vermicompost. The Abidjan event also created room to connect this work with other programme initiatives in a setting that brought together European Union delegations, embassies, ministries and Ivorian institutions.

The day opened with an institutional session featuring representatives from the Government of the Canary Islands, the Embassy of Portugal, the EU Delegation in Côte d’Ivoire, the Embassy of Spain and the Ivorian Presidency, followed by a general presentation of the Interreg MAC 2021-2027 programme and the ATLANTE strategic project. Other projects under the MAC Smart, MAC Green and MAC Mobility priorities were also presented throughout the morning, before the event closed with lunch and a networking session.