Foire gourmande: a food lover's festival
A delicious initiative
The Foire gourmande de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue et du Nord-Est ontarien is a most unique and unusual project whose success was anything but assured when it was first launched in 2002. However, the support, vision and ability to bring people together of two key individuals—Denise Deschamps, Initiatives Officer at FedNor, and Norman Laflamme, Advisor with the Agency’s Abitibi-Témiscamingue Business Office—thwarted predictions. Over the years, and thanks to the hard work of an entire team, the Foire has become an outstanding showcase for the agricultural products of these two regions bordering the magnificent Lake Témiscamingue.
A multi- award winning event
In late August, some 50 exhibitors, agri-food producers from Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Northeastern Ontario, came together for the Foire gourmande’s 2009 harvest to introduce a variety of quality home-grown products to some 35,000 visitors. This rendez-vous for the senses is also a golden opportunity for participants to forge strategic alliances and promote local products to consumers.
“The cooperation between the Ontario and Quebec networks of regional stakeholders had a rallying effect, bringing craftspeople and SMEs together and generating spinoffs in several areas. Besides providing an opportunity for linguistic twinning, the success of this wonderful adventure is proof positive that anything is possible when you build on solidarity, goodwill and sharing,”
said Denise Deschamps.
“The FedNor / Canada Economic Development partnership driving this initiative has served as a catalyst for a dozen other projects and agreements of significant economic value to our region,”
Denise Deschamps added.
More than a fair . . .
Over the past few years, the Foire gourmande de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue et du Nord-Est ontarien has garnered numerous interprovincial awards acknowledging its importance, both to the region’s tourism offering and as a traffic builder for Northwestern Quebec.
“Owing to its many spinoff benefits, the Foire gourmande has transcended its original purpose . . . By introducing us to new flavours and new aromas, it’s as if the Foire has also opened our horizons to new cultures and other ways of thinking. It has helped change mindsets and ways of doing things and made us more open to the world,”
said Norman Laflamme. “This is reflected in the fact that since the Foire gourmande came on the scene, wherever you go, you find a local taste treat on the menu and a profusion of public markets in summer.”
In a way, the Foire gourmande has been an innovator, demonstrating that it is altogether possible to promote regional products, support SMEs and strengthen the tourism offering all at once, and do so in a festive atmosphere.
