SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, June 13. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Government of the Canary Islands, through its affiliated company, Rural Environment Management (GMR), and Ashotel have resumed the ‘Program of meetings with local products’, an action that aims to promote meetings between agricultural producers and hotel professionals to promote these local products and their gastronomic projection in tourist establishments.
The Ministry once again recovers this program with the design of an annual calendar of six meetings (from June to November) between producers and professionals from the hotel sector linked to the purchasing, kitchen and food and beverage departments, in which different wineries will be visited , dairies and production centers of some of the most characteristic products in terms of meat, vegetables, fruits or eggs to learn first-hand about the production process.
The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Regional Executive, Alicia Vanoostende, and the president of Ashotel, Jorge Marichal, reported all of this on Monday, who highlighted the importance of promoting the interaction of two fundamental axes such as the primary and tourism, with the aim of enhancing the quality of local products and local gastronomy as an added value to the offer of the holiday destination.
Alicia Vanoostende highlighted the importance of this program “as a motor to establish a direct dialogue between the people who are at the forefront of agricultural production in the Canary Islands with hotel and restaurant managers, creating synergies between both sectors.” “It is a symbiosis between the quality of the local product as part of the tourist experience, while new fundamental commercial relationships are strengthened for the recovery after the consequences derived from the pandemic”, she pointed out Vanoostende.
Likewise, he stressed that the aim is “to diversify the economy and for the primary sector to have more weight, so actions such as these are part of the strategy of revaluing the local product, such as the Agrocanarias awards, the Agrocanarias Fair or the meetings with the centers tourism initiatives, among other proposals”.
“GMR Canarias makes it easy to establish that commercial link between the primary and tourist sectors, and it makes it possible through the online catalog that makes it easier for hoteliers to place orders. On the other hand, the Canarian Market sales channel allows that from any point from Europe you can order a cheese, a mojo sauce or a jam from the islands”, he stated.
For his part, Jorge Marichal explained that customers ask for more experiences every day and local products are the greatest differentiation that can be found with respect to other destinations. “Hoteliers are betting more and more on our products, and this is achieved thanks to the professionalization of the sector,” he added.
Along these lines, he pointed out that Ashotel continues to support these meetings between producers and hoteliers so that they can provide the necessary added value to Canarian products; “If we create added value in the primary sector, we will have more farmers and more landscape, and our islands will be much more attractive,” he said.
The ‘Local Product Encounters Program’ aims to promote the incorporation of the local product into the image of the Canary Islands as one more asset, complementary to the rest of the attributes and attractions it possesses. Through the offer of products in the hotels, the islands are presented as a destination that takes care of its biodiversity and its landscape, which is healthy due to its freshness and which is a differential value due to its uniqueness, avoiding emissions derived from the import. All this, contributing to create wealth in other areas of the islands, strengthening their social fabric and guaranteeing an optimal level of food sovereignty.
