Christos Karatzas

Christos Karatzas received his diploma in Agricultural Economics from Agricultural University of Athens in 2004 and in 2011 he received his master in Sustainable Development from Harokopio University of Athens. He specializes in setting up and managing producer organizations and groups by using available financial tools that can support their operational programmes. He has also worked extensively in European projects in the agricultural sector related to climate change mitigation and resilience, socio-economic analysis and training sessions for farmers and relevant stakeholders.

He has extended experience in implementing and disseminating best practices from the Rural Development Pillar and preparing rural investment projects for agri-cooperatives. During his last project he established an extensive network of agricultural cooperatives for implementing rural development interventions and offered training workshops for agricultural advisors. He has also worked in reducing carbon footprint for agricultural products (olive oil, pulses) using LCA methodologies. He is also a specialist in environmental and agricultural policy and has served as the national expert in the fruit & vegetables and rural development working parties in COPA-COGECA (EU) organizations.