Maramures County Council organized, on Friday, 14th December 2018, a new meeting with local stakeholders interested in the development of food chains in the region.
The concretization of the "Good of Maramures" initiative was the main topic of discussion between the project team and representatives of Mara Natur LAG (Local Action Group), Maramures West LAG, Maramures Producers Association, Cluj-Napoca Technical University - Baia Mare University Center, Maramures Agricultural Directorate, Maramures Chamber of Commerce and Industry, CDIMM Maramures Foundation, as well as of ASSOC Association Baia Mare.
The event started with the presentation of the video realized during the Peer Review (Inter Pares) held in Maramureş County, in the period 5-9 November 2018. The partners of the FoodChains 4 Europe (FC4EU) project and food experts from the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Italy and the United Kingdom analyzed the food chain in Maramures County in order to make recommendation to support the local products and producers. The film presents, for almost 8 minutes, relevant aspects from the field visits at several local producers, as well as from the working meetings with local entrepreneurs of the food sector, thus creating a consistent image of the Maramures food products variety. Video: https://youtu.be/CiQKEhe1AzU
The agenda also included the presentation of the Peer Review's initial recommendations to identify support methods for local producers and their associations for better correlation and cohesion of the food chains in Maramures County. The first observations of the experts’ team highlight the necessity to identify and promote specific local products according to the needs and opinions of local consumers, to create public-private partnerships and clusters, to develop the entrepreneurial skills of small producers as well as to involve the large and experienced companies in mentoring of local small producers.
Examples of good practices at national level in promoting the local products through an integrated approach (models of associations, support methods and promotion, including on-line marketing) have been brought into attention by the Maramures team of the FC4EU project, in order to materialize the "Good of Maramures" initiative.
The discussions and the constructive proposals of the participants represent a solid basis for the future action plan and for adopting of the most appropriate solutions to identify and bring together local quality and representative products under the "Good of Maramures" brand, as well as to support the cooperation between the Maramures producers to penetrate and stand out in the regional, national and European market.
