THE VOICE OF CADIZ / PHOTOS: FRANCIS JIMÉNEZ
04/11/2024
Updated at 9:49 p.m.
The Minister of Employment, Business and Self-Employment, Rocío Blanco, This Monday in Cádiz he presided over the presentation of the III Andalucía ES Awards, with which the Andalusian Government recognizes the work and publicly distinguishes those projects of excellence carried out by Andalusian social economy entities. On this occasion, the cooperatives Covirán, Naturales del Sierro, DCOOP and Bold Woman, and Carmen Guzmán Alfonso, professor at the University and vice dean of Research, Transfer and Entrepreneurship at the Faculty of Economics and Business Sciences of Seville, have been awarded.
In this edition, in addition to the winners in the five categories distributed by these Awards, the finalists whose candidacies have been notable have also been recognized with special mentions. In this case, Agrícola de Bailén Virgen de Zocueca, El Perol, Alikindoi, Éxxita Be Circular and El Cantalar.
Rocío Blanco, who began her speech by conveying the solidarity of Andalusia to all those affected by DANA, highlighted that all the winners in the III edition of the ES Awards contribute to the Social Economy being recognized as a robust economic model, which leads innovation projects, which promote entrepreneurship, equality and sustainability.
The counselor has stressed that Andalusia leads the number of Social Economy entities in Spain and explained that his department, to accompany these companies, approved a year ago the Strategic Plan for the Promotion and Modernization of the Social Economy in Andalusia (PIMESA), “a clear, determined and ambitious roadmap to enhance the sector ”.
Furthermore, he has stated that the Andalusian Government’s commitment to the Social Economy is also reflected in the Ministry’s Budget for 2025, in which investment will increase by more than 13% to promote this way of doing business. For example, the line for promoting employment in cooperatives and labor societies will increase, managing for the first time in 9 years to exceed the 4 million euros; as well as 3.87 million euros will be allocated to promote entrepreneurship and promote innovation and business competitiveness and the associations of these entities.
AWARDED
The Andalucía ES Awards have five modalities, each of them endowed with 4,800 euros, and the delivery of this Third edition took place at the Cádiz Conference Center, in an event that It has been chaired by the Minister of Employment, Business and Self-Employment, Rocío Blanco, together with the mayor of the city, Bruno García, and the Government delegate in Cádiz, Mercedes Colombo,
In the ‘Best innovative and/or business effort project’ category, which recognizes cooperatives for their actions aimed at digital transformation, Covirán has been recognized for its commitment to digital transformation, introducing the latest version of point management software sales, the adoption of digital billing systems and the improvement of communications through the installation of fiber optics.
It highlights that Covirán It constitutes the first supermarket network in Spain that is committed to specialized service and accessibility as differential values that convey a competitive advantage, acting as an identifying mark and business driver.
Secondly, the ‘Best newly created project’ modality, which distinguishes newly established cooperatives whose project stands out for its creativity, originality and uniqueness, has fallen to the Naturales del Sierro cooperative for the launch of an agricultural and forestry operation in Morón de la Frontera (Seville) capable of combining business and benefits for the ecosystem through an optimized integration model of livestock and forest plantations that minimizes soil alteration work, with crop diversification, eliminating synthetic fertilizers and reducing fossil fuels, through so-called regenerative grazing, holistic management or Rational Grazing Voisin (PRV).
This project combines the creation of stable employment and business investment from the perspective of a new technique of agricultural and forestry exploitation, the regenerative one, with high economic profitability and ecological sustainability.
Dcoop, which has built the first goat milk dairy plant in Spain, has been awarded as ‘Best circular economy project’, with the aim of applying innovation for the development of new goat dairy products of high microbiological and nutritional quality, through integrated actions throughout the food chain: incorporation of environmental sustainability measures, efficiency of water and energy resources and revaluation of by-products.
The creation of a digital channel, through Facebook and LinkedIn, has allowed the dissemination of informative content and scientific-technical publications between end consumers and professionals in the sector.
Likewise, for the ‘Best dissemination project of the social economy’, Carmen Guzmán Alfonso has been recognized in this III edition of the Andalucía ES Awards, who promotes a project whose purpose is to create a methodology to analyze the degree of progress of the transformation digital in Andalusian agri-food cooperatives and analyze the factors that explain this degree of progress.
This research is one of the first studies that globally evaluates the implementation of digital technologies in agri-food cooperatives in general, and, in particular, in Andalusia.
Finally, in the ‘Best project made by and for women’ category, the jury has decided to award Bold Womban, cooperative that was born as a women’s fashion brand specialized in breastfeeding that offers pregnant and breastfeeding women intimate and swimwear fashion updated to the fashion trends of the moment.
