Good practice:

World food heritage Bavaria

Bavaria has about one third of the protected German Specialities with high economic importance. Bavaria has a rich culinary heritage, awareness of traditional products, handcraft tradition and is known for its specialties. With this Brand the Bavarian State Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forestry promotes Bavarian agricultural products and foodstuffs, wines and spirits, which are protected by the European Union as a designation of origin (PDO) or protected geographical indication (PGI).
Due to the importance of the topic, there appear synergies with important initiatives such as the Farm to Fork Strategy or the Intellectual Property Action Plan (to modernize the intellectual property system, promote intelligent usage, etc.).
The aim is to communicate the message that Bavarian specialities are part of the European culture of culinary delights that deserves to be protected. The world food heritage brand publishes brochures, creates advertising texts, updates its homepage, works closely with protection associations, bundles images, information and data, recipes and product information. Target groups are consumers, trade market and gastronomy. By cooperating with different trade networks, they aim to create new sales channels.
At meetings of the entire network, current topics are discussed and decided upon, for example how a new information campaign for protected products could look like, what costs this might cause and what potential of such an action would have.

World food heritage: For the information and communication campaigns mentioned above (e.g. trade fair appearances at national and international level), image material, activities in the food store sector) a total volume of € 2.2 million was necessary. (50% EU, 20% Community protection, 30% StMELF)

The participation of the protection associations in the project led to a lively exchange and good networking.
Currently, new marketing campaigns are being planned and implemented to integrate regional products into everyday life.
The importance of protected regional products can also be read in a recently conducted study (source: https://www.kern.bayern.de/wirtschaft/212753/index.php ). The study examined the economic effects of protection of origin for companies.

The bundling of the right contacts is essential for the implementation of such a project. Without access to the necessary information and supporting contacts, it is impossible to guarantee a successful project. Good financial resources are elementary for the activities in the project.

Protecting regional food products with different labels is an important step towards protecting their origin and preserving tradition and culture. However, protected food products should not lose attention and are therefore particularly promoted by the Bavarian Agency for Food Products. The world food heritage and the alp Bavaria now play an important role also in networking and exchange with various organisations.