On July 19, the Sare project was presented at the Kafe Botanika restaurant in Donostia: from the farmhouse to the kitchen, network of contacts. The initiative, promoted by the Council of Agriculture and Organic Food of the Basque Country (ENEEK) and the Gipuzkoako Biolur Association, aims to make a joint offer of local organic producers to all the hotels and consumption groups in the territory. “The Network is a project that works to bring together producers and the hospitality industry in Gipuzkoa who work ecologically,” the press release states.

Pilot project in Gipuzkoa

At the moment, the Network consists of twelve organic producers, twenty restaurants in Donostialdea and two consumer groups. The pilot project was launched in Donostia-San Sebastian in 2017 with the objective of coordinating producers and the hospitality industry nearby. “We want to set up logistic units that will bring both sectors into contact. Try the joint offer and the management and distribution systems organized collectively to facilitate the relationship,” they say on the web sareko.eus. Although initially only restaurants were involved, they have recently been put to work with consumer groups, offering the possibility of incorporating products from Sare producers into the weekly baskets.

Sareko offers producers a marketing tool that is respectful of fair prices and combines short marketing routes, and the hotel owners and consumer groups, 0 km of environmentally friendly food, produced without any kind of agrotoxic. The pilot project has been launched in Gipuzkoa, but the intention of the drivers is that it should be extended to the other territories.

Healthy cooking, also for the environment

These are restaurants committed not only to health, but also to the environment. In their kitchens they use organic, local and seasonal products. The offer of Sare is wide: vegetables, bread, dairy, eggs, lamb, calf, cider, juices, txakoli, consebes, jams, honey… The project facilitates the work of the hotel owners offering all these products together.

“The management of a single catalogue facilitates the marketing and logistics work of the producer and the hotel owner. To achieve all this, Sare has built simple and transparent working tools for all the actors involved in the process. One of the tools is the Internet platform, where producers increase their current supply and thus consumers of restaurants or consumer groups can place their orders.”