NEW NORDIC FOOD – Newsletter June 2010

New Nordic Food’s newsletter will be published monthly with news from the projects, from the New Nordic Food ambassadors and the steering committee, and from partners and interested parties. The newsletter also helps to form networks in the growing group of people interested in promoting Nordic food and Nordic produce.

News from New Nordic Food

New Nordic Food II continues until 2014

In May the remit and programme for New Nordic Food II, which will run from 2010-2014, was agreed. A new steering group for the programme NNFII, to be chaired by Marja Innanen, was also set up. In addition there is now a working group with Einar Risvik as chair. Magnus Gröntoft will continue as co-ordinator. The steering group and working group will hold their first meetings on 1 and 2 September, when a more long-term strategy will be discussed and agreed upon. After that we will know the priority areas, but the proposals presented by the previous steering group will almost certainly continue. These can be found in the report ‘New Nordic Food – Ideas and Initiatives’, (in Swedish):  www.norden.org/sv/publikationer/publikationer/2010-532/

Season for local food markets in the Nordic Region

Summer time is market time

NORDIC REGION: Summer time is market time and in recent years local food markets have had success in the Nordic Region. The Farmers’ Market concept is one way of organising these markets. Farmers’ Markets originated in Ireland where consumers were tired of the supermarkets’ limp vegetables and the sameness of produce. They started the Farmers’ Market to create a dialogue with the producers and have more quality produce to choose from. Read here how the Farmers’ Markets in Sweden, Denmark and Norway are progressing:

Farmers’ Market concept is growing

SWEDEN: This is only the second year that Sweden offers the 'Bondens egen Marknad’, which is the Swedish Farmers’ Market concept with sustainable and local products. 17 Swedish towns hold markets throughout the spring, summer and autumn. The growing number of visitors demonstrates that there is more demand for locally produced food and that customers are very pleased and interested in meeting the local producers face to face. The markets have their own Swedish website listing the market days: www.bondensegen.com

Farmers’ Markets in eight towns

DENMARK: In 2007 ‘The Belly Rebellion’ association started the first five Farmers' Markets in Denmark. The markets were established and driven by local, voluntary people who invited producers and agents of fresh, local and largely organic high quality food. ‘The Belly Rebellion’ regards this as the introduction of Fair Trade in Denmark, where producers are helped to make  a higher profit on their products by selling them directly to the consumers, who then get fresh food of high quality.  There are now Farmers’ Markets eight places in Denmark. http://www.oproerframaven.dk

Organic Farmers' Market a success

NORWAY: In June the first organic Farmers’ Market took place in Oslo. The market was part of the Oslo Environment Festival and 18 producers of organic food had a stall on Karl Johan where they sold produce and explained about organic farming. Customers flooded in from 10am until way past closing time, and tourists also came to look. In Norway they have had ‘Bondens Marked’, the Norwegian version of the Farmers' Market, since 2003, and there is a market during the summer in over 20 Norwegian towns.  http://www.bondensmarked.no

OTHER NEWS:

Research helps to bring life to the countryside

DENMARK: The Danish Centre for Rural Research at the University of Southern Denmark is helping to strengthen professional and voluntary enthusiasts with the work of creating development and good living conditions in rural areas. They do this with inspiration and new knowledge, which is used by the municipalities, ministries and local activity groups. A new assessment has shown that the Centre is visible and fulfils its role.  Download the assessment in Danish. 

Three Nordic chefs to world championship

NORDIC REGION: The Nordic chefs who competed in the Bocuse d’Or Europe in Geneva have all gone forward to the international Bocuse d’Or. Twenty countries participated in the European championship and twelve of them have gone on the world championship. Rasmus Kofoed from Denmark won the gold and 1st Prize. Norway’s Gunnar Hvarness won the 2nd Prize silver, while Swedish Tommy Myllymäki and Johan Salestam took fifth place. The Swedes won the special prize for the best fish dish. The international Bocuse d'Or will take place in January 2011 in Lyon, France. www.bocusedor.com/2011/

Local food is not for export

SWEDEN: The international business college in Jönköping revealed in a report that the small food producer companies in Sweden are not aiming at export. In the government's vision of Sweden as the new culinary nation, there is otherwise strong belief in the growth of the food sector. They are expecting 20 per cent more companies and a doubling of exports. Now the Swedish Board of Agriculture is analyzing the results and will look to see if small businesses and exports can be linked together in some way. The study shows that small businesses consider that their niche product is more important for local labour than for export. The full report can be downloaded from http://www.jordbruksverket.se

Hanne Frosta has won the Food Culture Prize

NORWAY: Hanne Frosta has won Ingrid Espelid Hovig’s Food Culture Prize. This year’s winner is the owner of the restaurant Hanne på Høyden in Bergen, and the jury said that the reason for choosing her that she is “innovative with roots in Norwegian traditional cooking. She is a food philosopher, happy to share her knowledge with others, and full of initiative for numerous food projects. Hanne Frosta has also developed a skill for defining food’s taste - something that was previously reserved for wine critics". Hanne Frosta was nominated for the New Nordic Food honorary diploma in 2008. Read more about the restaurant in Norwegian here: http://hannepaahoeyden.wordpress.com/

The Finnish Farm of the Year

FINLAND: It is about competiveness, growth and marketing. Finnish farmers, and this applies both to traditional farms with primary production and country farms, can once again compete for the title 'Farm of the Year 2010'. The competition is funded by the ‘Quality Chain’ and the ‘Farm of the Year 2010’ is organized by the Finnish Farmers' and Forest Owners' Union, MTK, the Finnish Food and Drink Industries’ Federation and the Tapiola Group. In August the applicants will be evaluated and in November the winner and results of the competition will be announced. Further information in Finnish on www.proagria.fi/vuodenmaatila