Preserving the food heritage via building gastronomy culture
The topic of preserving regional food heritage was addressed by multiple projects in the Lake Saimaa region in the past years. They focus on building awareness, gastronomy culture, sustainablity of value chain. In this article we share some of them that were presented during the 4th Interregional meeting of SMEOrigin project partners in Savonlinna, Finland, in September 2024. To learn about the regional foods in Lake Saimaa, check this article: https://www.interregeurope.eu/smeorigin/news-and-events/news/tasting-lake-saimaa-finland-4th-interregional-meeting
South Savo Food Cluster
The South Savo Food Cluster was created to support businesses across the entire food value chain network to improve their quality standards and market presence.
The cluster creates a systematic operating model that connects companies, research and education organisations, development organisations, cities and municipalities, private and public financiers, and business support services at the national and international levels. The region served by the cluster is rich with food sector SMEs focused on small scale high-quality production. Food is one of the focus areas of the regional development strategy and smart specialization strategy. Enterprises benefit from systematic and coordinated transfer of knowledge. It is easier for the SMEs to identify relevant proposal and knowledge when it is provided by a trusted partner i.e. the cluster. The cluster focuses on innovation-oriented enterprises and is fostering innovation culture in the region.
Check more about it in the SMEOrigin Good Practices.
From Saimaa to Your Plate
From Saimaa to Your Plate is a project, developed to address the unexplored opportunities of promoting food culture in the region for creating more business and tourism. The background of the project is that benefits of D. O. Saimaa & PGI labels are not used in full potential. Before the project started, food & gastronomy were still underutilized in creating more business and tourism. Local food was implemented in the big strategy of the city of Savonlinna, but not wet executed on grassrtoot level. The project developed a strong awareness campaign, a series of workshops and trainings and strong cooperation with other food projects, involving stakeholders across the whole value chain. As a result, the topic of food culture and gastronomy became more imminent to local community and businesses, bringing new opportunities for development.
One of the highest-appreciated initiatives that impressed the SMEOrigin partners as well was From Stage to Plate: Opera Delights. More than 40 new opera-themed menu items created by 28 restaurants/cafés in Savonlinna during the annual Savonlinna Opera Festival. This also brought a lot of visibility in the media and appreciation by guests of the city.
D.O.Saimaa
D.O. Saimaa is Finland’s first regional Designation of Origin label. The label signifies not only high quality and responsibility but also positive impacts on the environment, culture, and the region’s vitality. Consumers, restaurants, and retailers using D.O. Saimaa-labeled products or ingredients make an ethical and responsible choice.
D.O. Saimaa - labelled products range from fish, jams, fruits and many other various delicacies. They can be found across stores in the region and are also promoted by regional tourist offices and restaurants. Actually, restaurants are a vital part of D.O. Saimaa partnership network.
KISMET - Sustainable food environments
The project tackles the challenge that local and regional authorities often lack capacity, require new impulses, or need innovative solutions to realize more circular and sustainable food environments. Kismet provides them with concrete instruments and tools for working better with governance, demand and production sides. At the end of the project, the local food environment of each partner and their friendship city should be better equipped to eventually change consumer behaviour for good, create circular business opportunities and make food chains and production more regional so that societies can make a big step towards climate neutrality. KISMET project is a part of the Interreg Baltic programme and involves a total of 28 organizations from the Baltic Sea countries.
Next Steps: Good practice transfer
The 4th Interregional meeting ended with a Steering committee meeting and a workshop on Good Practice transfer. SMEOrigin partners will continue to work on developing a methodology for good practice transfer, fostering further collaboration and innovation in the food industry. The project's next phase will involve deeper analysis and implementation of these practices across participating regions.
A Platform for Exchange of experience between stakeholders was developed to foster collaboration between policymakers, businesses, research institutes and sectoral organization in the field of food production. Learn more about it here: Platform for exchange of experience