Real Food Festival brings opportunities to Jersey
Jersey’s presence at the Real Food Festival has been a hit!
The seven businesses who attended the event have applauded Jersey Enterprise for helping them attend the Festival at Earl’s Court in London from 24th-27th April. The event, which showcases the best produce from all over the world, attracted an excellent turnout of trade and consumer visitors over the three days and the event organisers were delighted with the turnout.
Cooper & Co, GJ Growers, Holme Grown, Jersey Dairy, Jersey Oyster Company, Jersey Royals and La Mare Wine Estate used the event as a platform to help develop their export market.
Wayne Gallichan, Director of International Trade and Inward Investment explained: “Jersey Enterprise helped these businesses attend as they represent some of the best producers that Jersey has to offer. It was also a great opportunity to promote the Island to food lovers while giving us a regional identity. For example, Steve Luce of Jersey Oyster gave two live presentations to a paying audience at workshops hosted by Delicious Magazine and several well known chefs visited the Jersey Oyster stand (Raymond Blanc and Anthony Worrall Thompson).”
David Warr, from Cooper & Co, agreed: ”For us attending the event was an opportunity not only to trial and showcase our products in a new market but it also enabled us to forge new links with new and potential customers.”
Graham Le Lay from GJ Growers said that having all of the producers under the Jersey banner was very helpful as the camaraderie and support the producers showed each other helped with cross-sales.
“Having us all in the one venue and located on the same stand meant we could sell our products under the Jersey banner while also illustrating to customers exactly what Jersey is about and the range of produce that we have here in the Island,” Mr Le Lay said.
Jersey was one of only four regions which had their own area at the show. Chris Journeaux of Jersey Dairy said “It was clear that all food types had been gathered together. For us, that meant two rows of ice cream stands. Having a regional zone pulled all of us out of this grouping and greatly increased our impact and visibility. Amongst all the positive points this really stood out.”
Mr. Gallichan said that attending events such as this was part of Jersey Enterprise’s remit to expand and diversify the Island’s economy and it was an excellent example of the government working in partnership with a specific industry sector to help develop their export market.
