TERRA MADRE, SALONE DE GUSTO TORINO, ITALY

Transcription

1 TERRA MADRE, SALONE DE GUSTO TORINO, ITALY OCTOBER 2014 IMPLEMENTED IN COLLABORATION WITH WITH THE SUPPORT OF WITH TECHNICAL CONTRIBUTIONS FROM

2 Terra Madre / Salone del Gusto Torino, October

3 The event Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre 2014 event saw the attendance of 220,000 visitors, as well as 400 journalists from 63 countries. The BBC dedicated 100 interviews to Ark of Taste products from around 50 countries. Visitors who discovered Italian and international market areas, could also particpate in events on topics affecting the current food system that were discussed in a diverse program consisting of conferences, workshops, educational activities, and cooking school sessions. The Salone del Gusto / Terra Madre was open from the Thursday 23 until Monday 27. The opening ceremony took place Wednesday evening. Preparation of the fair The shipment was organised jointly with Slow Food who contracted DHL. The producers shipped their goods to a warehouse in new Belgrade. Meanwhile REDD translated the laboratory testing reports and the declarations of content from Serbian into Italian. REDD Avenue Charles-Dickens Lausanne - Switzerland T F

4 REDD was informed late December that DHL had not cleared the goods when importing them to EU. That means that eventually the goods could not be sold to Scambi Sostenibili Soc. Coop. (the company acting as trading company for Slow Food), as initially planned. Participation of producers 3 producers supported by the project attended to Terra Madre: Dusan Jovanovic, from the company Kopiko in Brus, producing ajvar and jams, Ivan Stanisavljevic, Deputy director of the Cooperative Oblačinska Višnja and Dusan Miladinovic, director of the Cooperative. The three producers arrived on the Wednesday and left on the Tuesday 28 by plane. Visitors feedbacks One of the main objectives producers was to assess the visitors perception of the proposed products. Globally people appreciated all the products exhibited by Merošina and Koaponik producers. Ajvar as often made a great impression. Many of the ones who tasted it bought one two or three jars of 300 grammes at 6 Euros per jar. Kopiko sold in that way 96 jars of ajvar. Terra Madre / Salone del Gusto Torino, October

5 The jams of wild blueberry and raspberry were the products that did not really met visitors taste because too sweet. Dry sour cherries from Merošina encountered also a good success and curiosity. A chocolatier from Belgium expressed a strong interest for this product that could be used for fine chocolates. Outcome of the activity It is difficult to assess how this kind of activity really impact on the development of the value chain due to the small number of participants taking part and if knowledge will percolate down to other producers of the different GI products. Still, the participation to the fair contributes with the study tour and the Terra Madre event in Dubrovnik to three main outputs. The first and the one the project aims at is the exposure of the producers to marketing and public relation strategies of competitors or other value chain producers. In that sense Terra Madre / Salone del gusto offers a wide spectrum of communication approaches that go beyond basic marketing. Another benefit of brining products to Torino is to directly exchange with consumers (see previous section). Such a fair is a great opportunity to test a market and consumers reaction to the proposed product, even though Salone del gusto visitors are not fully representative of the consumer population. Eventually, common experiences of producers of different GI value chain create linkages and initiate a network that can only be beneficial to the GI development in Terra Madre / Salone del Gusto Torino, October

6 Serbia. In Salone del Gusto this aspects is particularly true because of the role played by Slow Food that regularly invites the participants to Terra Madre to join Slow Food communities network. Producers of Kopaonik and Brus could therefore exchange with the other producers from Serbia such as Leskovacki Ajvar and Futoski Kupus, also present in Terra Madre Balkan. Compared to other fairs, Terra Madre and Salone del Gusto are two events that are very much oriented towards the public and less towards professional. As a result, no significant deals or new markets opportunities. Overall such experiences contribute to build confidence and valorise producers. As an example, according to Milinka Jovanovic, owner of Kopiko, her son who is starting to work with her while completing his studies of food technologist, came back from Torino with a plenty of ideas and a much stronger motivation to get involved in the family business. Terra Madre / Salone del Gusto Torino, October