The Local Product Event Series was a great success

On 10 November 2023, the Visitors’ Centre of the Körösök Valley Nature Park in Békéscsaba hosted the final event of the Local Product event series, which also served as the annual training of the consultants of the short food chain in the framework of the REL Organizers’ Day. This year’s event was organised jointly by the Kislépték Association, the National Chamber of Agriculture and the Hungarian National Rural Network and the host, the Körösök Völgye Nature Park

The event was attended by 120 people in person and 30 people online, and once again provided an opportunity for small producers, farmers, local craftsmen and rural service providers to meet and discuss the most topical issues affecting them. As always, the conference was complemented by presentations by local producers, the Hungarian Food Mark and an exhibition of equipment manufacturers.

The event in Békéscsaba also served as the final event of the Local Product Event Series, which was held in 8 locations in 2023 and attracted more than 1000 visitors. The aim of the programme was to provide local producers with the contents of the Local Product Handbook, produced in cooperation between the National Chamber of Agriculture, the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Food Chain Safety Office and Kislépték, and to inspire them to produce local products or to carry out agro-tourism activities.

The event also aimed to showcase the improvements made in the Co-Fresh project to the public and to offer it as a good example to the food chain operators, the short food supply chain organisers. Katalin Kujáni presented some of the results of the CO-fresh Horizon2020 project, which are also available to small producers. She pointed out that one of the barriers to innovative ideas is the legal background, as there is no incubation shell for the products and services that are created in the innovation process, they have to comply with all legislation immediately, and this is often difficult to understand for new products.

In order to make the innovations understandable and to put them into the user environment, a very well organised cooperation between authorities and experts is needed. From the presentation, the participants were introduced to the process of compartmentalisation, which is already used by Pilze Nagy Ltd., a project participant, to improve the marketability of its products. The process is used in molecular gastronomy, whereby the liquid is sealed in a small envelope to renew the appearance of the product and increase its shelf life. The president of the Small Steps Association is used to presenting good examples from abroad that may at first seem astonishing at home, but which are worth considering for the sake of progress. In his recent example from Italy, he introduced the participants to a product development aimed at reducing waste in clementine processing, which has resulted in a new product with high added value and excellent marketability. This is the aim of the CO-fresh project, to provide insights into how agri-food value chains can be made more environmentally sustainable, socio-economically balanced and economically competitive.