In November 2023, I was invited to speak at Asia–Europe Foundation’s annual ENVForum conference. This year, the theme of the conference was ‘SMEs at the Heart of Circular Transition’. I presented observations from my PhD research during the session on agri-food SMEs. Summarising my own contributions as well as those of my fellow panelists Dr Arab Hoballah and Mr Ibrahim Palaz, I also spoke about the importance of including SMEs in the circularity transition during the concluding plenary session.

The conference brought together policymakers, government officials, entrepreneurs, and academics from Asia and Europe, creating a unique platform for exchanging ideas and finding solutions to bottlenecks. It was a pleasure to be able to share insights from my own research and deliberate with participants about their relevance to their work.