Europe has weathered crises in the past years which need no introduction. Inflation and soaring costs have presented a serious challenge to European competitiveness. With many SMEs trying to survive on a day-to-day basis, the need for investment is all too easy to overlook, particularly if there are cash flow issues. However, it is investment which not only keeps businesses competitive in the long-term, but also compliant to ever higher standards and expectations for sustainability. So how to bridge this gap? European Life-funded projects such as the REEValue are designed to assist businesses in accessing funds and receiving advisory support. Focusing on agrifood manufacturers and logistics companies, REEValue has recently organised its first public workshops to help Maltese businesses directly.

The REEValue is led by the Energy & Water Agency (EWA) with the Malta Business Bureau (MBB) leading the business outreach in Malta. The workshops organised on 19-20 September saw experts from across Europe travel to Malta to directly share knowledge with Maltese businesses and engage directly in conversations with them to understand their issues. As part of the project, these experts are available with all expenses paid for until 2026. The workshops further left MBB and EWA with a deeper understanding of the potential which Maltese companies have to achieve value chain collaborations.

What is the difference between a supply chain and a value chain? Ing. Ivan Ferretti from the University of Brescia explained that while a supply chain covers the logistics, a value chain goes beyond to encompass the full life cycle of a product or process, including material sourcing, production, consumption and disposal. It can be defined as the sum of activities which generate value for the final client. By taking a value chain perspective, businesses can collaborate to unlock cost saving and efficiency opportunities which might not be possible when working in a silo. An example of how this could be achieved became clear during the two-day workshop, which was supported by Irish logistics consultant Conor Molloy from AEMS.

At present, agrifoods manufacturing companies and companies operating logistics fleets in Malta travel short distances, given Malta's size, with high traffic and many stops. At the same time, it was estimated during the workshop that about half of these businesses run with half of their vehicles empty, indicating a highly inefficient allocation of resources when one looks at it on a national scale. A potential value chain collaboration agreement, therefore, could be for companies to not only better plan their logistics routes, but also collaborate by pooling resources, thus preventing wasted empty space in the vehicles making deliveries.

Further workshops are being organised by the Cork Chamber in Ireland and the Portuguese Industrial Association in Lisbon, both of which are partners in the project. The project is also supported by Sammontana as a best practice case study. Companies wishing to avail themselves of the Help Desk service offered as part of this project are encouraged to get in touch with MBB.

The MBB is the EU advisory organisation of The Malta Chamber and the MHRA, and a partner of the Enterprise Europe Network and may be contacted at [email protected]