The Food Startup Incubator Weihenstephan Triesdorf (FSIWS), together with the EU project FRiDGE from the Competence Center for Nutrition (KErn) and the Food Cluster at KErn organised an online seminar on the topic of Regional marketing and support opportunities for farmers. The event was hosted as part of the initiative "Food production on your own farm". The programme included several informative talks with the possibility of a direct exchange for the farmers.
At the beginning of 2021, the Food Startup Incubator Weihenstephan (FSIWS), together with the Food Cluster and the eco-model region Kulturraum Ampertal, launched the initiative "Food Production on Your Own Farm" to promote sustainable, regional and high-quality food products produced directly on the farmer's farm. In addition to food technology questions and the possibility to produce on the pilot facilities of the HSWT, this initiative also offers support in the field of marketing and promotion.
During the international cooperation in the FRiDGE project, the discussions led to the awareness that there are many good funding programmes in Bavaria, but that communication and awareness can be improved even further. This could be achieved through cooperation and this workshop.
These topics were addressed during the last workshop: "Regional marketing and support opportunities for farmers", in which a total of four different guest speakers were invited with the following main topics:
- Marketing opportunities for regional products in the supermarket sector with Vera Correia, Head of Regionality/Locality at Rewe Group
- Networking: Regional food on the plate (presentation of the trilogy "Wirt sucht Bauer", "Regionale Verpflegung" and "Regionales Bayern") with Daniela Veigl, KErn
- Food Colleagues: The product development support programme for start-ups and direct marketers of the food cluster with Katharina Distler, KErn
- VuV programme: the support programme of the State Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forestry with Johannes Schmid, State Management Academy for Food, Agriculture and Forestry
More than 40 farmers took part in the workshop and used the unique opportunity to directly ask questions to Vera Correia, Head of Regionality and Locality at Rewe Group. A very exciting exchange resulted from the lecture by Johannes Schmid, from the State Management Academy for Food, Agriculture and Forestry, who presented the support measures of the State Ministry for the processing and marketing of regional agricultural products. The product development support programme "Food Collegen" was also very well received, as was the presentation of the network platforms "Wirt sucht Bauer", "Regionale Verpflegung" and „Regionales Bayern“, presented by Katharina Distler and Daniela Veigl of Kern.
Future workshops, as well as further information on the "Food Production on the Farm" initiative, can be found at https://moodle.fsiws.com.
