VERDE joins a new Erasmus+ partnership on sustainable agricultural storage

We are delighted to announce that AgroStorage — Skills for sustainable and energy-efficient storage solutions in agriculture — has been approved for funding under the Erasmus+ programme (KA210-VET, small-scale partnerships in vocational education and training). The project starts on 1 November 2026 and will run for 18 months, until April 2028.

AgroStorage tackles a problem that sits quietly at the heart of European farming. Small farms dominate the sector — over 51% of Spanish farms and more than 70% of Greek farms are under 5 hectares, and Poland counts 1.3 million holdings — and on these farms, refrigeration, cooling, and mechanised storage can consume 40–50% of operational energy. With industrial electricity prices having risen by 50–70% across the partner countries since 2021, the cost of keeping the harvest fresh has become a real threat to farm viability. Low-energy and non-electric alternatives exist — passive storage, natural ventilation, shading, underground storage, traditional techniques — but they are scattered, undocumented, and absent from vocational training.

What the project will do

• Document and validate 21 low-energy and non-electric storage practices from Spain, Poland, Greece, and across the EU in a Best Practices Guidebook, published in four languages.

• Run three transnational workshops in real storage environments — starting at the cold chambers and drying systems of an operating agri-food company in Spain, continuing with low-tech storage farms in Poland, and concluding in Kozani, Greece.

• Develop and pilot a Training Framework of around 25 learning hours (1 ECTS, EQF levels 3–4) that turns the findings into teachable skills for VET learners and agricultural professionals — a result led by VERDE.

The partnership

The consortium deliberately combines three perspectives from three countries: Fundacja CoPoint (Poland), a foundation providing training and advisory services to farmers and adult learners in rural Podlaskie, coordinates the project; AGS MONCAL, S.L. (Spain), a GLOBALG.A.P.-certified fruit and vegetable producer, contributes its own storage operations as the project's live case study; and VERDE brings the research and educational perspective, leading the Training Framework and quality assurance across the whole project.

For VERDE, AgroStorage extends our work at the intersection of climate action, energy, and education — from renewable energy training with young people to circular economy practices in construction — into a sector where practical, affordable sustainability matters most: the small farms that feed Europe. Alongside leading the framework's development, we will host the third transnational workshop in Kozani and organise a Raising Awareness Event presenting the results to Greek farmers, learners, trainers, and policy representatives.

Work begins this November with the mapping of existing practices across the three countries. Follow our news section and social media for the project's first results. AgroStorage is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.