On the 26th of October 2017, Maramures County Council hosted the 2nd regional stakeholders meeting under the framework of our common Interreg Europe project, FoodChains4Europe. The meeting, reunited 21 regional stakeholders directly interested in the results of our project that have already acknowledged the focus of our project within the meetings from the first semester and now received new updates related to the good practices of each partner region. The regional project manager, Mrs. Mihaela Lite pointed out several good practices that could be used by our stakeholders as successful examples as the online platform of the Flevoland Food Network and Bioromeo.
Stakeholders admitted that there is a clear need to promote these successful examples, especially those that encourage the association of local producers in order to properly promote local innovative products and that the associative spirit needs to be strengthen in order to become more competitive on the market. The representatives of the local action groups also stretched out the need to become involved and support associations to access market, urging the need to adapt the existing legislation to a more favourable one that supports these initiatives.
Another important point on the meeting’s agenda was the introduction of a new policy, recently issued that enhances the easily setting up of the so called ‘’ local gastronomical points’’. The representatives of the county Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority gave a complete introduction into this new legal provision that is meant to ease the setting up of local points of food serving and selling, together with local gastronomical products in a safe environment, avoiding too many bureaucratic procedures. The representatives of Maramures County Council acknowledged that the setting up of these local gastronomical points near tourist attractions like museums, wooden churches, etc., would also boost local tourism.
After a lively debate, the participant stakeholders concluded within the voice of a local owner of an active meat processing factory:
“There is an urgent need to identify the list of local traditional products that could be branded as representative for Maramures and unite forces to ensure a thorough market promotion. FoodChains4Europe can provide us the necessary framework to start working together and re-inforce our associative spirit.“
