Project KISMET
The Baltic Sea's food system crosses borders whether we plan for it or not. What's grown, farmed and eaten in one country shapes the sea, soil and climate shared by all the others. KISMET is an EU project built on that reality: seven countries working together to make that shared food system local, circular and sustainable. BERAS International represents Sweden, alongside Södertälje Municipality. Inside KISMET, our focus has been building something that outlasts the project itself.
KISMET is a three-year EU project, running from 2023 to 2025, working to make the food system around the Baltic Sea more sustainable and circular. It's funded through the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme, led by the City of Hamburg, with partners spanning Germany, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden. Local and regional authorities, business-support organisations, universities and NGOs among them. Sweden is represented by Södertälje Municipality and BERAS International, alongside long-standing partners Ekerö Municipality, Stockholm University and Uppsala University.
Seven countries, one region, one goal: a food system around the Baltic Sea that runs on local, renewable resources.
The project's goal is a long-term shift toward a food system built on local, renewable resources. Its partners have jointly developed an "Enabling Programme," a practical toolkit for making that shift, drawing on shared experience across all seven countries. BERAS's own focus within KISMET has been building the first bio-district in Sweden and the Baltic region: Ekodistrikt Sörmland, covering all of Södermanland County and the southern part of Stockholm County. The reasoning is straightforward: Sweden's target of 30% organically farmed land goes further than the EU's own 25% goal, and reaching it can't rest on farmers alone. It takes producers, municipalities, businesses and residents working toward the same thing, in a region that already has real momentum: Sörmland sits third in Sweden for organic farmland, with active producers and networks already in place to build on.
KISMET's most tangible outcome so far is that bio-district. What began as a project activity has since taken on a life of its own. You can read more about where that stands today on the Ekodistrikt Sörmland page.