This was explained during the inauguration by the president of the CEST, Roberto Ucelay, after thanking the Guia de Isora Town Hall and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Government of the Canary Islands for their collaboration and commitment to Gastrosur 2021, at such a strategic time for the south of Tenerife.
The program included a zero kilometer market for agricultural products, in which more than 30 producers from the region participated. Several catering and hotel establishments –Gran Meliá Palacio de Isora, Roca Negra and Mesón Tapas Bistro, Asador La Camella and La Tosca restaurant– contributed a sample of their gastronomic offerings.
Ucelay highlighted that this edition of Gastrosur “is a very important appointment because it allows us to regain a certain normality”. In this framework, he expressed “a message of encouragement, solidarity and support” to the people, catering companies and producers punished by the restrictions of the covid-19.
Raquel Arroyo, member of the CEST board of directors, recalled that Gastrosur 2021 is aimed at those responsible for purchasing agri-food products, as well as chefs and executive chefs, with a framework that encourages “direct contact and meeting professionals in the sector primary”. It is about “a commitment to local produce and proximity gastronomy to offer visitors a first-rate gastronomic offer”, he assured.
The Deputy Minister of the Primary Sector of the Government of the Canary Islands, Álvaro de la Bárcena, assured that there is still room to double, and even triple, the use of local products in the tourism market. For her part, the mayor of Guía de Isora, Josefa Mesa, highlighted the commitment that the town makes in favor of tourist and agricultural development and, above all, for organic farming, a modality in which «every time we invest more to increase the quality of the product.