A production center for medronho plants, a company dedicated to sea canoeing, kayak e Stand up paddle, even during the winter, a patisserie that produces cakes and traditional menus, but also vegetarian, gluten-free or sugar-free, and also a restaurant that is also a distillery and a blacksmith's museum.
These were, in short, the four projects awarded today with the “Entrepreneur Spirit” awards, created by the Municipality of Odemira and delivered by the Minister of Economy and the president of the municipality, at FACECO, in São Teotónio.
The young entrepreneur José Fontes, born in Porto but residing in Odemira, with the idea «Centre for Production and Research of Medronho», won the prize for the Best Entrepreneurial and Creative Idea, in the amount of 2000 euros.
His idea focuses on the creation of an orchard and nursery of arbutus trees for the purposes of production, research and provision of services.
The 1st prize for New Business Initiatives, worth 1500 euros, was awarded to the Ferrador Destilaria, by Ana Camacho, another young entrepreneur.
The Ferrador Distillery is part of the remodeling of a family space in the village of S. Luís, in the interior of Odemira, which belonged to the last farrier in the municipality, grandfather of the promoter and who was present at the awards ceremony.
It includes a new tavern space, which highlights local products and traditional cuisine, a blacksmith museum and a medronho brandy distillery.
The 2nd place in the New Business Initiatives, which received a prize of 1000 euros, was Sílvia Calapez, for her “BomqueBom” project, a pastry shop in Odemira (near the Court), which has its own homemade production of healthy meals, menus and vegetarian and gluten-free products, as well as sugar-free products.
The businesswoman pointed out that she mainly uses "municipal products, especially organic ones".
Finally, the 3rd place was Gonçalo Tomás, awarded 500 euros, with his company Paddle South Portugal, located in Vila Nova de Milfontes. It is a tourist entertainment company that offers training and teaching in sea canoeing, kayak e Stand up paddle.
As the entrepreneur explained at the ceremony, one of the main characteristics of Paddle South Portugal is the fact that, in summer, it works for holidaymakers, as usual, but does not close in winter, and at that time it receives clients mainly from Northern Europe, who they look for the mouth of Mira and the sea in the municipality to practice or train, namely canoeing.
At the end of the awards ceremony, minister Manuel Caldeira Cabral highlighted the fact that they were “four very interesting projects and very different from each other”.
The government official highlighted, in particular, the project by Gonçalo Tomás. "When tourism is linked to sport, tourism is no longer seasonal and starts to have customers throughout the year," he said.
The Economy Minister also highlighted the fact that these awards created by the Chamber of Odemira have brought "new people to the county" or given "an opportunity for people in the county to start again or settle here."
“These are smaller projects, which do not bet on quantity, but on value and on endogenous products”, he stressed.
Stressing that «the work that this Chamber has done with companies and entrepreneurs deserves to be recognized», Minister Caldeira Cabral announced that soon there will be a Business Space in Odemira, designed to make life easier for entrepreneurs.
For his part, José Alberto Guerreiro, mayor of Odemira, stressed that the “Odemira Empreende” program, which includes the prizes awarded today, is financed “exclusively from the municipal budget”. The program, he clarified, "does not replace any of the existing support", for example in the context of European funds, it is just "a complement to small initiatives".
The mayor added that there is even a "10% increase for initiatives that appear in the innermost part of the county." "The focus is to ensure that we don't miss a single initiative in this inner band."
Photos: Elisabete Rodrigues | Sul Informação
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