At home or in the office, with friends, family and colleagues, no day goes by without us or someone around us experimenting or discussing about the countless possible combinations of ingredients, flavours, and cooking methods we have developed here in Europe. Food awakes all our senses and can form powerful memories: we all remember our favourite meals as a child and the things we didn’t like!
In the EU, we have a huge variety of food and drink products produced under high safety standards and from quality ingredients. More and more, consumers across Europe are experimenting with different products from different regions across from across the continent. This is thanks largely to an increased public interest in what we eat and drink but also thanks to the EU’s frictionless single market and the work conducted over the years by the EU institutions and the EU agri-food and drink sector to ensure a connected European agri-food system.
Raising the profile of European products both inside and outside the EU’s borders is particularly important for the hundreds of thousands of SMEs operating in the EU agri-food sector. There are many successful examples of programmes, co-funded by the European Commission and implemented by the industry, that give visibility to EU food and drink products and their high production standards, while at the same time strengthening the competitiveness of European producers.
These programmes, like the EU’s Promotion Policy, also serve to inspire other countries with a “culinary diplomacy” raising awareness of the competitive advantage of sustainable practices, tradition, innovation, flavour – the key ingredients of Europe’s delicious food and drink products.
I am still fascinated that today we are no more surprised to find Belgian cheeses in restaurants in China or to read of the continued success of French wine abroad. This celebration of EU agri-food and drink products is the result of concerted efforts. That’s what we can achieve by working together: growing market opportunities, making great food and drink, and satisfying consumers across the world who are eager to tuck into Europe’s fine flavours.
See our full position paper on the EU Promotion Policy here.
