Leafing through a copy of Hello! the other day (English edition, now available in my local Carrefour, hallelujah!), I came across a "Fast Food" recipe (as in quick, easy meals) for "Andalucian Huevos a la Flamenca". Even though I'm a veggie and I know this recipe has meat, I was curious, so I looked closer.
After the recipe, a short paragraph talked about "fresh, colourful" Andalucian produce being available in supermarkets now, ideal for summer salads. At the end, it gave a website, wecareyouenjoy.eu, which I visited, and found a new campaign for Spanish fruit and veg aimed at German and English markets.
With a budget of 3 million euros, half funded by the EU, and the rest by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture and two association representing veg producers, one of which is the Hortyfruta (Frutas y Hortalizas de Andalucia), this campaign is aimed at raising consumer confidence in the safety of Spanish veg, especially among young people and the elderly.
When you consider that the fruit and veg industry, which produces 2.5 million tonnes annually, supplying 30% of the European market, and is worth over 4,000 million euros to our economy here in Andalucia (figure from the ConsejerÃa de Agricultura y Pesca), you will realise how just how essential it is that this sector continues to make its contribution to the Andalucian coffers. Nearly 25% of Andalucians who have jobs are employed in the agricultural sector, so it is a backbone of both employment and the financial wellbeing of the region.
Almeria and Granada are the provinces where most fruit and veg are grown, followed by Malaga and Huelva.
The campaign centres around the following veg: broccoli, cucumber, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce.
"We care you enjoy" covers all the social media channels, although not with a massive take-up, from what I could see: 152 followers on Twitter (in the three weeks since it started), 41 Likes on Facebook, and 35 views of its Youtube video, which consists of a German model, figurehead of the campaign, picking and crunching on fresh veggies and seeing them grown, packaged, tasted and sold in markets.
Hortyfruta, whose website is in four languages, has some videos (American-voiced, for some reason) on food safety, clean energy and biological control (non-chemical pest control, which uses other insects, used in 50% of Andalucian veg production, and 100% of peppers).