RDP project database

This mountain area project used a cooperative approach to help improve the livelihoods of rural businesses involved in supplying local traditional food through rural tourism outlets.

'Bewusstmontafon' is a group of farmers and rural tourism bodies from Austria’s Montafon Region. It raises awareness among rural tourists about the region’s local product range. Activities promote traditional foods and have a special focus on a local cheese variety called 'Sura Kees'. The cheese was seen to have potential to act as an emblem of quality local food which could be used as a centre piece to launch a strategic marketing drive for a wider range of regional food specialities.

Aim: to develop a new regional branding initiative for local food products. The initiative acknowledged that a focus on the quality of local traditional food can be used to attract attention to help boost sales in locally-made products and so contribute to the long-term strengthening of the region’s rural economy. 'Bewusstmontafon' also wished to expand its membership to give it a larger critical mass to carry out more and higher impact actions.

RDP funds were used to offset the costs of a marketing strategy for the new branding initiative. The strategy was carefully researched and developed in close consultation with food producers, retailers, restaurants and tourist representatives. A coordinated programme of public relations actions was recommended in the strategy and these were elaborated with help from the RDP funds. They included a range of media events and promotional fairs as well as in-house advertising in tourist facilities.

RDP support through the project helped generate increased demand for the region’s traditional cheese and other products. Such outcomes have helped to increase the competitiveness and profitability of the businesses involved - which in turn help to sustain the viability of this rural community from a mountainous part of the EU. The 'Sura Kees' brand name is now well established due to the RDP and Bewusstmontafon's confidence has been built to spur it on to initiate new rural development projects.

Mountain areas suffer from natural handicaps like isolation from markets and production limitations caused by the terrain. Rural development support is available to help EU mountain areas build their capacity to sustain themselves by focusing on their natural assets and cooperative approaches such as this project example demonstrate what can be achieved in practice.

Vorarlberg

Vorarlberg

Austria

85 000

26 520

28 730

29 750

https://www.bewusstmontafon.at/

Beatrice Amann

info@bewusstmontafon.at

+436644233442

English, German