"Freedom to Flourish isn't happening, we're not getting that chance."
That's how local producers have reacted to the news that this year's Food and Drink Festival has been cancelled.
The Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture says it's focus will now be on the Royal and Southern Agricultural Shows and 'new initiatives'.
Amy Griffiths has been speaking to two producers on the Island:
My name's Stuart Meade and I work at Red Muy, the home of Fire Island, the Isle of Man's Only Chilly Farm. Ultimately, we weren't surprised because we'd sent a message in the last couple of weeks, inquiring about stand allocations for this year's event, which normally released around about this time of year. And we received a reply saying that the event was under review, and this was the first that we'd heard of it. But obviously, that set alarm bells ringing in terms of what might happen this year. We hoped with it only being three months out from the event itself that there will be some resolution to it, perhaps some tweaks to the event or something like that. But to see it cancelled completely was a bit of a surprise. And you mentioned it being just three months until the festival. Is that enough notice for yourself and your fellow producers when it comes to cancelling an event like this because of the amount of planning that has to go into it? Yeah, there's two elements really that cause us an issue. One is the planning. Clearly, there are certain items, certainly for our business, which we can't procure on Ireland, glassware being a classic example. And we produce hot sources and chile hallneys and things like that. So we require glassware for it. There's no provision of that on Ireland. So we have to get it from the UK. And you do experience, particularly at the moment with supply chain issues, et cetera, in the UK, you can't experience significant delays to getting those items actually on Ireland here. And that's even before you get into potential disruption, logistical problems with the boat, et cetera. So yes, I mean, planning will be starting for us around now and for others earlier. And there's also really the financial implications. This is a key event in a lot of producers, calendars. A lot of people will be expecting the income, et cetera, from this event and would have planned for it. So again, to have it cancelled sort of fairly late in is it has a huge impact on what income businesses, small businesses, small food businesses are now going to generate over the year. And the question we'd have on it really was when was this decision actually taken? Because running an event of this size takes a significant amount of effort and planning on the behalf of the government. And I would envisage that process would have started many, many months ago. And I would assume that given its cancellation, that process never started. So as a result of that, one of the key questions for us would be when was that decision taken? And in terms of the review process that was undertaken, which producers and stakeholders were involved in it and fed into it? And you mentioned that this is a key event on the calendar for local producers. And can you just put into context just how much of an impact the festival has on your income as a business? Well, I mean, for us personally, it is one of the biggest days in our calendar, not just financially, but there's the other intangible benefits of it as well. You're meeting your direct customers. You're talking to the minds of public, who are our key customers, and you're speaking to them directly, not via a retailer or a supplier. So you're getting great intel on your products, what you're doing, what's good, what's bad, what could be improved, what you could change. So there's a huge amount of intangibles associated with this as well, but speaking directly to your end consumer can only deliver. And that's one of the most important aspects of any food and drink festival happening anywhere in the world is that opportunity to engage directly with your end customer. And I suppose there's also the opportunity to broaden your customer base as well, because we do get people coming to the island specifically for this event as well. So do you see a bit of that too? Yes, there's certainly that element as well. I mean, we've garnered contacts from the UK as a direct result of the Food and Drink Festival. So we've had businesses approach us regarding distribution in the UK of our products. That came directly out of the Food and Drink Festival. Somebody visiting the stand there. So absolutely that occurs as well. We do understand that it is supposedly moving to an alternative model and changing to this meet the buyer concept. So what are your thoughts on that? I don't think that addresses any of the advantages that the Food and Drink Festival gives. As I mentioned earlier, this is an opportunity to meet your direct end consumer, not meet suppliers. As businesses, we're perfectly capable of gaining contacts with retailers and suppliers. We're on a very small island. There's a very limited number of retailers on the island. We're perfectly capable of meeting and engaging with them or them approaching us. What we can't do on a regular basis is meet that end consumer. And this process really doesn't address that. And it'd be curious as to what stakeholders and producers were involved in the review process that came to the conclusion that this was an appropriate alternative. Well, I was going to ask because were you consulted at any point about this or any of your fellow local businesses consulted about the cancellation of this event? No. I can only speak for ourselves, obviously. And we weren't consulted. As I say, we weren't aware that a review was being undertaken until we inquired directly about when we will be able to obtain a stand at the festival and we received that reply. So yes, there was no consultation with us. And again, I'd be very interested to know which producers and stakeholders were involved in the process. Because surely, if we're going to make a decision to reinvent the wheel, if we're going to decide that a food and drink festival, which we've been told generates huge amounts for the economy in the past and has huge benefits for local businesses and local consumers, why have we suddenly decided 12 months on from the last one that actually that no longer works anymore? And we're going to have a wholesale change. I appreciate that last year's event had its problems. And they were predominantly weather related, there were other issues in terms of the festival of motor vehicles closed off the prom with congestion, which made access difficult, you know, the weather created all kinds of problems on the site itself, which was an issue. And also, there was no media involvement in last year's food and drink festival, which was key, you know, there was no presence from any media at the festival. So there wasn't that message going out there to people that this event is happening and, you know, come down and see what it's all about. So there were lots of little things that caused problems with last year, but nothing that couldn't be easily addressed. And are you able just to paint a picture for me of what it's like on the island at the moment to be a producer, to be a food producer? What is the current climate? It's a difficult climate at the moment. Obviously, we personally, we have faith in what we're doing, we have faith in the product. And sort of going back to the benefits of a food and drink festival, sorry, a little bit of a tangent is we would not have launched the chili farm without the food and drink festival is based on the feedback of us doing a trial run at the food and drink festival that basically caused the whole Fire Island chili farm and hot sauce business to be created as born entirely out of the food and drink festival. And there are other businesses that will tell you the same, I'm sure, and that that kick started, you know, everything that they were doing going forward. The climate is difficult at the moment. Cost of living crisis is very, very real. People are having to watch the pockets. Local producers, we have additional difficulties in terms of being competitive. We have to import an export on that little bit of water, that little bit of Irish season, incredibly expensive bit of water to negotiate for us. So often, our prices can't be, can't compete with the scalability of a huge business in the UK. And we can't scale up to provide a business such as Tesco, who require huge volumes. And this is in no way, I want some clear criticism of Tesco, but they require huge volumes and a commitment on your part. And it's difficult for small or medium producers to get there. And what food and drink festival does is it provides an opportunity to bridge that cap for your small and medium producers to maybe get to a stage where they can expand and where they can grow. And this alternative model or strategy that's being explored seems very, very sort of keyed into the export market, not the local market, not about that engagement between local producers and local customers. And I think that emphasis is quite disappointing that that's been lost. So in terms of government, really, what message do you think this move sends from government to local producers on the island? I think it just demonstrates that a real disconnect between the messaging that's coming out about how important the food industry is to the island in terms of tourism, in terms of the economy, how important it is. This seems a huge disconnect between that and cancelling the only main expo event for local producers to market their wares. And I'd just like to understand how this decision has been reached, who was engaged within that process, why it was published so late on in the day, how long it's been going on for and how long could they actually know that this was going to be the end result, and why it wasn't communicated sooner, why people weren't engaged with it, and why they feel that this alternative strategy is an appropriate replacement. Hi, I'm Nina from Chocolates of Man. I was a little shocked. I had sent an email out earlier on the week, basically asking for an update, why we haven't heard, and nothing came back, and then a email came out late last night. Little shocked, a lot of us are shocked because obviously we all talk to each other, the food producers here on the island, and where we're going to get our sales that we'd get at the Food and Drink Festival. Because how much do you rely on the Food and Drink Festival as a business, how much are you able to actually make at that festival? I go through over 100 kilos of chocolate, and I sell over 500 bags of chocolate, to give you an idea, and it's just a small little business, and I make it all two or three days beforehand, so it's all fresh handmade flavour chocolates. It's a lot of chocolate to go through in two days. It's like Christmas has come early for me, basically. I get these hits at Christmas and Easter and the Food and Drink Festival, and without that, I wouldn't get known. It gets us out in the open market. People then know who you are, and then they come and say, "Oh, right, we'll have an order from you because we know who you are who've tasted your chocolate." So the Food and Drink Festival is such a big thing. It really is, and I'm going to be lost without it this year. They are supposedly moving to an alternative model, and that would be a meat-the-buyer concept. What do you think of that kind of concept as an alternative? I'd be honest with you, the way the Food and Drink Festival is set up as it presently is, it does work. Yes, last year, it wasn't as good because we had clashes, we had bad weather, there was lack of support from media. Generally, across the board, there was a lack of a lot of things. This meat-the-buyer, I'm not sure if it's going to work. We'll see what happens, but for us, as food producers, we talk to the end consumers. They give us ideas, they help us develop new products, or improve on what we already have on the shelves. We're going to miss that, and that's going to be a big hole to fill. If the meat-the-buyer doesn't fills it, fantastic. If it doesn't, it's going to be a loss. What message do you think that this move sends from government to local producers and how it values them? It doesn't value them very well. With the freedom to flourish, which they've been going on for years about, isn't happening. We're not getting that chance. For us, as local producers, to get out there and show our wares, we're being stamped upon, a door's been shut, and that's how it feels. Where's the help that they say they're going to give us? There isn't any. That's how I feel at the moment, and I presume I'm hoping a lot of my other food producers feel the same. What could they be doing to change that and to make food producers here on the island feel more supported? Be more open, be a bit more transparent, which is what they offer. Don't keep us in the dark. Likely have done with this. It's been, they've known probably for weeks that they were going to cancel it. Why wait till now? Why not tell us at the beginning of the year? There's a lot of reasons, and just the way the government is working at the moment is just no support whatsoever. The hospitality and catering, if you look across the island, doors are shutting, and I'm at the position where I can keep going, but I'm not lucky. There's a lot of other food producers that rely on the exact income they're making. I have other incomes, so I can shut the door for a day or two. It doesn't hurt for me, but yes, I really would like it to do a lot more chocolate, but if we don't get that chance, you know, what can we do? Thank you for making it to the end of the Manxeradian newscast. You are obviously someone with exquisite taste. May I politely suggest you might want to subscribe to this and a wide range of Manxeradia podcasts at your favourite podcast provider, so our best bits will magically appear on your smartphone. Thank you. (light music)
