RSS
 

Posts Tagged ‘true taste’

True Taste – What’s Happening?

08 May

One of our Best Of Welsh & Border producers got in contact this morning and saying – not a happy bunny – sure fits the bill. This producer had been told by a source close to the Welsh Government that the True Taste is being run only for those big-boy companies that are focusing on supermarkets. As this producer rightly says True Taste is important for Wales and is one of the leading tourism tools that attracts so many visitors to Wales. However the drop in food festival funding this year does make one question just what is the wag food department thinking? Well if they are thinking, any chance that they might tell me about it?

Our producer was so angry that TT is now being directed to large businesses that can mass produce products and therefore have, in many cases no real link to tourism. This producer is hoping that Visit Wales will take over TT for smaller producers but I can’t see that happening at all.

Anyway to see what the official line is we contacted the Press Office to be told:

Further to your call I can confirm that we are currently reviewing ‘Wales The True Taste’ and further information will be made available once a decision is reached.

Now had to go back and ask for a timeline, will we know this year or next year, but it’s just another job to do isn’t it? But there again I guess it’s only me that expects to get the full story after one question!!!

However we got a prompt response to our asking for a timeline on this, which is shown below:

I cannot give you a definitive timetable I’m afraid. I am not aware either of a decision being taken and I believe the Minister has reiterated that in plenary today at the Senedd.

So it is another case of waiting until the food experts at wag, along with the Minister make their minds up. Although many Welsh producers hold great store by True Taste, I doubt very much they will have been consulted on any change to the format. So they  will just have to wait patiently until decisons are made for them. Meanwhile maybe more of our producers will head for Britain’s Great Taste. I can recall one producer telling me of a presentation their company was doing for a big supermarket and was asked what the True Taste Award was as they’d never heard of it!!!!!! Methinks TT is lacking on marketing and promtion ………………

 
5 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Cowbridge Food and Drink Festival Gives A Tradestand Update

23 May

After hearing too many of your grumbles about not getting into some food festivals, our team have been chatting to the Welsh Government and a few organisers to see if we can get any clarification. I’m  always upset when any of our Best Of Welsh & Borders producers aren’t allowed in!!! But Polly Wilson from Cowbridge Food and Drink Festival, which this year runs from 27-28th October, was quick to respond and explain how things work there. This is how Cowbridge operates:

“On behalf of the Cowbridge Food and Drink Festival Committee I would like to thank everyone for their expressions of interest in having a stall this year. It is unfortunate that we can’t fit everyone in as there are some amazing producers
out there.
For 2012 we had 120 forms for 80 stalls. We have to keep a few free for now as this leaves us the option of inviting sponsors to exhibit. Otherwise these will be filled from the exceptional waiting list. We are ever grateful to the wonderful John Family who loan us the site (free of charge) that holds the exhibition marquees. We use as much space as humanly possible but there are
still 3 businesses in this area who need to function. Therefore, without significant changes to the festival, we will always be limited to these 80 stalls.

In 2011 we changed our applications process to our current system whereby we set a deadline for interest and then meet as a sub-committee of 7 (including 2 producers) to select a good balance of exhibitors. As soon as the deadline date has passed we close the database until the following January and ask any further people expressing interest, to contact us then. We still receive many calls and emails up until October and adding each one can be time-consuming. This year the form was sent to the database of over 300, plus others requested and those passed on by past exhibitors.

From the expressions we will each have preferred existing exhibitors who we know have a great following with returning clientele. But we feel we need to have 10-15% of new or returning exhibitors to keep the festival fresh. The geographical question always comes up and generally the exhibitors from outside Wales are of exceptional quality and fill a particular niche that we want represented and have no alternative application from closer.

We feel that this process has allowed us to have a much better variety of produce and this year we have over 60 primary producers exhibiting. We know that visitors like to see tasters having paid to get in and nearly 60 this year
will be offering samples. These are bits of information that we ask on the form which are useful statistics for our funders but do not generally sway our decision. We also ask for awards won as this can be indicative quality and also can prove press-worthy later in the process. This is also useful regarding True Taste winners as we have started highlighting these with True Taste logos as it was felt in the past that we did not show enough presence of the logo. As we run the week of the awards, we don’t know the updated list until we are on site!

We have always been reluctant to have strict criteria drawn up as this will limit our ability to respond to feedback and our individual judgements. If each festival had the same criteria then festivals would become very “samey” which
is not what we want.

Prior to this process starting, we opened applications and kept accepting until we were full, only turning down exhibitors when it was felt there was too much of a certain product. This meant for example, that we might accept a pancake stall from Shrewsbury and later get a great application from Barry and not be able to accommodate them.

We ask for full details of produce they want to sell so that we can make sure we don’t have too many preserves perhaps. I am going to a food festival shortly and note from the website that of 40 stalls, 8 have listed a preserve element in their wares. It also means that if a form states brownies, cupcakes and flapjacks we might offer them a stall rather than allocate 3 separate stalls.

After two years of using this process we feel that it offers a much better and fairer platform for exhibitors but we recognise that there will always be those disappointed for no fault of their own. We are always open to feedback from exhibitors or visitors regarding this process or any other matter and if it is felt there is a better way, we will look into it.

These are difficult times for producers everywhere and we have held our exhibitor charges at £160 for a normal stall for several years now which we feel is competitive. We do not want to put the price up to get fewer applications but think that this price is a contributory factor in our popularity because it is so cost effective. Our ticket price will also stay the same this year as the simplified system of £4/day worked very well last year.

We know that Cowbridge Food and Drink Festival is in a very privileged position of being able to chose from great producers and still have a very strong reserve list but this ultimately does cause disappointment. We would welcome any feedback on how we could improve this process and invite producers to apply next year even if they have not been successful this year. Ultimately, if we are to continue in this difficult climate we need to do all we can to support as many producers as we possibly can.

Now I know that some of our ‘Best of Welsh & Border producers have not got in again at Cowbridge, plus a couple of them I think have been bumped out this year. I understand your massive disappointment at missing out on such a brilliant and financially rewarding festival, nothing hits home harder than not being able to get accepted. But let’s be realistic, it’s a fantastic festival, one of my favourites, I must confess, but as it’s such a good money earner, Cowbridge like many others will continue to be heavily oversubscribed. On the site in town, Cowbridge haven’t room to expand and add more stands and so we must all accept that fact.

I’d love to see stands in the High Street and the High Street closed off but I’m sure locals would hang me for saying that. My challenge to you guys that missed out is to read carefully Polly’s criteria and see how you can prove to her next year that your stand is one she cannot do without!!!!
Get your application in early and give much more thought about the produce you want to take, the awards you have won, have you got some different lines to your competitors? Literally sell yourself to Polly and her team, say why Cowbridge will be better with you there!!!!!

I was impressed that at least at Cowbridge do have producers on the selection committee. That’s good, but maybe even better might be to include a true professional trader that is doing festivals week in week out. They will really understand festival problems, they’ll know the good traders and they’ll spot what I’m now calling ‘Pin Money Traders’ which I think is often
covering the influx of some cup cake and jam makers. I’d also like to see my suggested professsional  trader, named to all tradestands so they can be used as a sort of ‘trader rep’ for the festival. Any tradestand problems can be directed through them and then taken further if needed. If they’ve been on the committee, then I’m sure there will be fewer issues cropping up initially and it would perhaps take some of the hassle away from people like Polly during the event. I’m not sure if this idea has been tried at food festivals -  sorry if it has and failed, but it’s a method I seen used to great effect on the equestrian circuit with the competitiors.

Another idea, which I accept some festivals will not like, is they send out to traders a tradestand map with your forms and you say which area you’d prefer to go in, or maybe say you don’t care as long as you can go! Where you are sited is a huge problem, especially at the larger festivals and often you don’t know until weeks before where you have been put, if you are told at all! Again at larger festivals different prices, would premium prices work for busy areas, or would it be easier to have slightly cheaper stands on the outskirts?

Not sure if I agree totally that food festivals could in the future be in danger of being samey. I can’t be sure of course how many people are regular food festival junkies like Ian and I are, but think that’s unlikely. Many traders haven’t got the time, staff and money to travel from one end of Wales to the other and although I accept there will be some, just not a huge amount. So for me that’s not a problem, especially as our selection of produce is so good that visitors enjoy the tasting opportunities and being able to chat to the people that our producing such fantastic food.  You really cannot get that experience in the supermarket, no matter where you shop.

So with lots of things to talk and ponder about, I’ll leave that with you……………………………..

 
4 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Welsh Food At The Smallholder Show

21 May

The only way I can start this post is to query, yet again, why this event has not got funding from wag again this year. In my research, I’ve established that this event has never been funded from the Food Festival budget, but from ‘Promoting Welsh Food’ – Budget Expenditure Line. From last year under the latest festival criteria rules, festivals have to have food as the core activity. Some years ago Steve Shearman, was asked by wag to run this event for them, but last year was then told that there would be no funding for the Smallholder. Further investigation uncovered how Smallholder had been funded. I asked how much had
been in the ‘Promoting Welsh Food’ – Budget Expenditure Line for 2008/9, 2009/10, 2010/11, who received funding from this budget over these three years and finally how this funding was allocated. I was told that my questions were so time consuming, it would cost wag over £600 to determine if they hold this information, to retrieve and extract it, so wag decided not to process my
questions.

Well that wasn’t useful, bearing in mind this is funding from a wag budget and I’m simply asking how it was spent. Can you really expect me to believe that wag are so sloppy that they don’t keep financial records of how they spend our money? Of course the RWS Show and the Winter Fair food halls are funded by wag and these two events obviously don’t have food as their core activity, but seemingly those two exceptions are allowed because wag are allowed to make their own rules
and keep the secret if they so wish.

In 2010, food hall hire for RWS was £65,403.32 and for the Winter Fair was £19,975.00. Event Build and Management Costs were £131,968.22 and £56,078.64 respectively. So these are not cheap events to put on but wag in its wisdom have decided to pull the plug again this year for Smallholder and in effect give out food producers another slap in the face. In the RWS especially you see large, large companies that are purely there for PR and can easily afford stands that are not subsidised by wag, whilst genuine micro and small producers simply cannot afford to take a stand at the RWS. But sadly wag appears not to care about this
quirk either.

Now I’ve reminded you of my background work, let me return to my visit there yesterday. Hardworking organiser Steve Shearman had no choice last year to substantially raise his stand prices and this has a huge knock on effect down the line, some traders couldn’t cope with the increase and didn’t attend, others had to take this hit and accept their overheads had rocketed. Thankfully all traders were aware that the tradestand price increase was down to an unsupportive wag, not to Steve.

I had many complaints from producers about the number of festivals they’d not been accepted for and the main culprits were: Abergavenny, Cardiff and Cowbridge. I know that these three are popular festivals and organisers know that they are in the fortunate position that they can pick and choose who they accept. But I do wish that applications gave producers full details and not say when they are rejected maybe they should have sent samples in because we don’t know you. I can tell you now that being a True Taste winner didn’t help this particular company! What I would also like some organisers to think about whilst they are in the position of playing God, that some of these companies rely on festivals and markets for their livelihood, not many of them have the back up of also being in super markets, they are simply too small to take this route. My final comment is that when producers have been loyal, supporting your event since it first started surely should count from something instead of being thrown out like last weeks rubbish.

There was a good mix of stands in the food hall, some superb produce available. It’s always a pleasure too to see so many of our Best Of Welsh & Borders producers there too. Steve had put  tentage outside with tables and chairs so visitors could buy and eat their food in comfort, but I hated seeing people using this area for their own packed lunch. Yes I know they were saving money and I no times are tough, but I’m also sure they did not give the producers a thought. In their eyes it was just somewhere to sit and eat their picnic in comfort!!!!

I got very mixed reports, which is the normal, but I’m safe in saying that many traders were well down on last year and the year before. The recession isn’t helping anyone, but all those traders would have been far happier if wag had supported this event.

Try as I might I cannot understand why wag don’t fund the Smallholder. How can wag food appear to think that it’s not important to have a Welsh food presence at the Smallholder? If they do believe that’s true then I think some of them need reminding of which department they are working for.

Well done wag another own goal.

 
No Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Thanks For Supporting welshfoodbites

20 Jan

I’ve been neglecting on of my many duties which was to keep an eye on website  rankings. So today I have and thought I’d share them with you.

Welshfoodbites:    434,573

True Taste TV:   3,932,358 

True Taste:          1,967,526

(Ranking source Alexa taken over a 3 month period)

So thanks  for your support on welshfoodbites. With welshfoodbites on the highest rankings than Wag’s I can only say I’m delighted and I didn’t need their funding to do it!

Of course it’s more work  for me, but it does prove I’m doing something right – airing your views and problems which sadly are often down to wag. 

If I were Wag I’d be more than disappointed with the rankings on both my sites, but then if I were Wag I wouldn’t have two sites and increase the confusion. I’d also have on my sites things people really want to read and to learn about. 

I’m not sure whether the Welsh Assembly Government, WAG, will get the message – but they are certainly reading it otherwsie my rankings would be at their level!!

 
10 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Fobbed Off Following Freedom Of Information Request About True Taste

18 Jan

In October I requested the following information:

1. There were 1017 entries for True Taste Awards 2011. I require a breakdown of number of entries per county.

2. Would you also provide a number of entries True Taste Awards for 2010 and a breakdown of entries per county.”

On 9th November I received this response from Wag Food:

I have not found any information that fits this description. If you send me further details of the information you want I will look again.

Since that response, I have pursued this matter, until finally, just before Christmas was told that:

the information I requested is not held by the Welsh Government.

Before more of you get hot under the collar, let me clarify. Wag appointed a company to run much of True Taste on their behalf and according to the Wag it is this company that have the information I have asked for. But despite the fact that the WG appointed this company and then pay this company, the Wag say they haven’t got the info I have asked for and patiently waited for.

Entrants to True Taste are asked to enter online and then Wag’s company holds this information on their database. I’m told by Wag that this information is only used to communicate with entrants about the awards and the ceremony.

Obviously I’m being fobbed off, but what we ought to be asking is why?

I’d love to get feedback from you on this one.

 
11 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Food, Tourism And Construction Panels Revealed

01 Nov

I have recently been informed by the Welsh Government on the three panels they have formed to advise them on business policy for the tourism, construction and food and farming industries.

The food and farming panel will include Heather Jenkins, director of agricultural strategy at Waitrose; Kevin Morgan, professor of European regional development at Cardiff University; Ieuan Edwards, managing director of Edwards of Conwy; Sue Evans, director of policy at the Wales Countryside Land and Business Association; Dai Davies, chair of Hybu Cig Cymru; Simon Wright, chef and writer; Melanie Leech, director general of the Food and Drink Federation; Mary James, director of the National Farmers Union Cymru; and Nick Fenwick, director of agricultural policy at the Farmers Union of Wales. It will be chaired by Haydn Edwards, the former principal of Coleg Menai.

The tourism panel will include Mike Morgan, proprietor of Llansantffraed Court Hotel in Abergavenny; Menna Heulyn, co-owner of the Harbour Master Hotel, Aberaeron; Paul Lewin, managing director, of Ffestiniog Railway; Sir Brooke Boothby, owner of Fonmon Castle and Fontygary Caravan Park; Philip Lay, retail director of SA Brain; Manon Williams, director client services at CMI; and Margaret Llewelyn OBE, former managing director of Dragon Shipping Line. It will be chaired by Dan Clayton Jones, chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The construction panel will feature David Harris, divisional managing director of Cowlin Construction; Ann-Marie Smale, director of Powell Dobson Architects; Chris Jofeh, director of Arup; Danny Fellows, director of DFA International; and Rhodri-Gwynn Jones of the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (Wales). It will be chaired by David Joyce, chief operating officer of Vinci PLC.

As the food panel will be of obvious interest to our Best Of Welsh & Borders producers, we sent this info to them. Well as our busy producers catch up on their mail boxes, our phones and emails have been very busy! The unanimous message they would like me to send to the Welsh Government is – where is the voice for the food producers?

Is Ieuan Edwards of Conwy, a well-established True Taste Winner, able to talk on behalf of all producers, whatever their company size? Or is it safe to rely on Simon Wright, last year’s True Taste Champion, to be aware of the needs and wants of our producers? I’m sure you have already spotted the True Taste link and certainly the government link, but where is the representation for the dairy industry? Where is the representation for the horticultural industry? How does anybody make representation to these august bodies?  

So is this more food for thought, or is it yet more food producer frustration?

 
5 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Food Festival Report By Miller

26 Jul

This report was carried out over the last two years and is titled the ‘Monitoring and Evaluation of Food Festivals Supported by the Welsh Government’.

For those of you that have both the time and inclination to try and digest the 67 pages of content, the missive is available here.

http://wales.gov.uk/docs/drah/publications/110719millerresearchevaluationoffoodfestivalsen.pdf.

Sujmed up this is a typical government report. It’s certainly fulfills their ‘ticking boxes’ criteria, with some useful snippets, but also some incredible assumptions and calculations. Our welshfoodbites general conclusion is that the report resembles a string vest, lots of holes with some very tenuous links, many loose threads that need tidying, or threads that can be used to go off in other directions if the FFMDD see fit.

When the report was complied, it does give an insight into the thinking the FFMDD in that:
Events supported by the Food Festivals Grant Funding should be branded as True Taste festivals to convey the quality message, and

That events need to achieve certain standards in order to achieve this brand.

A meeting should be convened to discuss the creation of a formal network of food festivals

That online application and monitoring forms are introduced to standardise the keeping of records, with guidance to how to compile information to fit the needs of the system

That a joint action group should be set up to identify where activities, such as investment in the marketing and promotion can be leveraged by promoting food festivals as visitor attractions within the Food Tourism Action Plan.

As we have ploughed through the 67 pages, 32 areas have been identified and warrant further investigation and consideration. Maybe over the next few weeks we’ll come back to highlight them.

A huge concern is for festivals that fail to under Wag’s True Taste banner will have to look elsewhere for funding – sadly no ideas where given as to where these pots of money might be found………….

 
5 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Welshfoodbites Versus True Taste TV – Website Rankings

17 Jun

 As of today, our rankings for welshfoodbites is @ 303,880 – source Alexa Rankings over a 3 month period, whilst Wag’s True Taste TV is way down below us @ 2,111,071.

If I were Wag Food, I’d be very concerned, especially after they took down their other food website, Wales the True Taste, WTT, on 1st April. Sorry but can’t resist the April Fools Day parody, because who with any computer web know-how, would pull down a website? Had no-one thought about working behind the original site? I’m amazed and horrified that nearly 3 months later, WTT is still not back up and running. So the difficult question for you is, any idea who is doing the re-build? Mmmmmmm, well that didn’t take long, so well done you smart people – you’re right – Wag are doing it themselves!

Now though, back to rankings. The traffic from WTT has been re-directed to Wag’s other food website, True Taste TV, which I assumed would have had twice the traffic through, especially as they have been asking for True Taste entries via the website, but why are their rankings still so poor for a site that has been running for what seems like forever. If Wag Food were a business, this would not be acceptable and could not continue, but I’m talking about the real world guys, aren’t I?    

Wag should be horrified with both their food website performances. Mind you, I’m sure deep down, they are impressed with our welshfoodbites rankings, they just don’t want to make a fuss about it!

So can I just send my thanks to you for your support, not just for welshfoodbites but for Welsh Country magazine too. We are making a huge difference, despite the many Wag barriers we have to knock down to get anywhere.

 
3 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Does Wales Know Where It’s Going, Or Even Where It’s Been?

17 Jun

The Retail Sales Index recently showed a 3.5% decrease in food sales in the month of May as compared to last year. The Retail Sales Index is a monthly inquiry into retail sales and this is  sample survey carried out by the Office for National Statistics on 5,000 businesses in Great Britain. It includes all large retailers and a representative sample of smaller businesses.

The quoted comment was “Predominantly food stores sales volumes decreased this month, with a decrease of 3.5 in May 2011 compared to May 2010. This follows last months brief respite from contraction. Within predominantly non-food stores, there was volume growth across all sectors apart from household goods stores which fell for a fourth consecutive month to 6.0 per cent. Non-store retailing again saw the largest volume growth between May 2010 and May 2011 with an increase of 19.0 per cent.”

On the other hand, the British Retail Consortium, which is generally taken as representative of the High Street Multiples including the supermarkets, say that “Food Sales slowed markedly after April’s strong growth” but is still 1.9% up on a weighted 3 month average compared to a year ago. 

So do we presume from this that smaller retailers are suffering more than the ‘big boys’?

But what does this mean to Wales? I tried in vain to fine any statistics about food sales in Wales, either year on year, month on month, multiple retailers compared to direct sales, but to no avail. But bear in mind that Wag’s Food Press Office still refuse to answer my questions so this was not an easy challenge!

Wales has had an Assembly for 10 years and food, as part of Rural Affairs, is a devolved area of government (but food has now been demoted in that it only justifies a Deputy Minister). Why, as a government don’t we have these figures published for all to scrutinise and evaluate and then allow us to adjust our businesses so that they move forward and grow?  

So much money is being put into food promotion, so would it not be a good idea to find out where we are so that we can measure what effect this money is having?

If a privately owned business sector put millions of pounds* into it as a project, would they not have an accurate financial figure from where to start, as well as a target to meet that could be accurately measured? Whilst of course, being constantly monitored and adjusted along the way?

Many of our Government ideas are good, but they appear to be spending millions of pounds on ticking boxes instead of ensuring that each process has a substantial benefit to the farmers, growers, producers and food retailers down the line. Surely this should be a basic business role.

Your comments and feedback are invaluable and can I say again that any comments left on welshfoodbites are anonymous and will stay so – the only person who will know, is me and I promise you it will remain that way.

* Millions of pounds is derived from the monies spent on Food projects from the RDP and True Taste, but again accurate spending is difficult if not impossible to find.

 
No Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Llyn Land & Seafood Festival 28th & 29th May

31 May

 It’s some years since I travelled north to Pwllheli to check out this festival, but despite a poor weather forecast I went there on Sunday.

There were a few AA signs driving into Pwllheli which was an improvement on my last visit, but of course more would have been much helpful in attracting even greater numbers of people to visit the Marina. My concern is swelling those visitor numbers and not just relying on locals who should know about the festival and where it is being held.

There were 24 food stands there on Sunday, including a bread man who wasn’t there on Saturday as he was busy doing a market and I spotted 5 True Taste winners too. The traders I spoke to were pleased with the event and had done reasonably well, so that was so good to hear. James from Ralph’s Cider had a good time too and had lots of people not just sampling, but purchasing too and appreciating what good cider and perry this company produces. 

I did wonder whether a £3.00 entrance fee would put people off. Possibly it’s just me that’s anti entrance fees, because the only real freebie was the cookery demos, so I’d love to hear your view on entrance fees. Two adults paying £6.00 to go in, or an extra £6.00 in their pocket to buy ice-creams, jams, chutney, cider etc. it is after all the traders that really need those sales and no more so than in this difficult trading time when everyone is looking for value-for-money and quality food too.   

A good attraction was a paid-for face painting for the kids, that was very popular with people patiently queuing for their child to be transformed into lions, tigers or fairies – that was great fun for them.  There was a cookery demo area too, but when I was wandering around it was used between demos with some musical entertainment, which was a good use of time and space.

It never ceases to amaze me though why traders will go to festivals and markets without business cards or any literature. PR & Marketing is an important part of any business and that does include food too. Come on guys, do the job properly!

I understand that Wag don’t want craft stands at their food events, I await official confirmation on this and so have no idea on their reasoning for this decision, unless they think that Wag are therefore subsidising the crafters. But if that’s the case what’s their view on the non-food stands that were at this festival: the county council, air ambulance, coastguard, coleg menai, and the pharmacy? Are charities excused, or are they looked at being subsidised or simply adding the the event? My view is that some quality craft stands do add to a food event and the longer the people stay there on site, browsing, chatting, eating and drinking, the better.

There was another tented area along with the food marquee that had tables, chairs and food and drink available. I think this was provided by the Sailing Club which was next door and in my view it was just a pity that it couldn’t have been worked to help the producers who had paid and travelled to attend. I’m not saying that this would be easy to arrange, but surely it’s something that is worth looking at for the future. My other huge disappointment was that though this event is titled as a land and seafood fest, there was only one fresh fish stand and one smoked fish stand. I’m not sure what happened to all the other fish producers, where were they? I certainly expected to see many more, especially as this event was situated just by the sea.

 
8 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

 
« Older Entries