The number of the day
The National Gardening Association (ZVG) is honouring Germany’s favourite fruit: the ZVG is distributing some 8,500 apples grown in Germany to visitors at the Green Week.
Baltic Sea Culinary Route makes its debut at IGW
Representatives of all nine countries bordering the Baltic are participating in the joint display featuring the Baltic Sea Culinary Route at the International Green Week in Berlin. The nine countries are joining forces for the first time to present some of their culinary highlights. Visitors to the fair will be able to experience the diversity of tastes and flavours from different cultures. Pacific oysters on strawberries are one of the outstanding products from Denmark, while Germany is promoting peppered herring snacks. Poland is offering pork paté while the surprise from Lithuania is salted cream butter. The partner country Latvia is contributing Baltic sprats, while Estonia has sauna-smoked ham. From Finland there are cloudberries on rye bread, while Sweden is presenting pork sausages and cucumbers, and Norway has potato schnapps and elk meat. This Baltic tour demonstrates just how different the cuisine of these countries is, but one thing links them all: the Baltic.
Contact: Bernd Schwintowski, t: 0177-3066060, m: info@schwintowski.com
Partner country Latvia: ‘Amazing Bull’ and beer ice cream
‘The Meadow’ in the Latvia hall symbolises arable farming and livestock breeding, with cereal and dairy products, meat and poultry. Many of the unusual new items are bound to be of interest to visitors: The company SIA ‘Rozīne’ is presenting refreshing beer ice cream, made using locally produced Valmiermuižas beer. For adult visitors ‘A/S Jaunpils pienotava’ is offering a liqueur-like beverage that is made using Latvian milk and Baltic region. There is plenty in Hall 8.2 to interest anyone who appreciates good meat. SIA ‘SC Grand’ is bringing smoked products to Berlin, made in accordance with recipes that have been popular for decades. The company is maintaining old-established Latvian traditions. For example, meat is smoked on alder wood. The game products from SIA ‘BalticWild’ are prepared according to the finest traditional methods and are distinguished by their unmistakable flavour.
Hall 8.2, contact: Bernd Schwintowski, t: 01773066060, m: info@schwintowski.com
Hungary has more products and a larger restaurant
“The crowds on the opening Friday this year were larger than ever before”, said a satisfied Vécsy György who, together with his company Vécsy és Társa, has been regularly organising the Hungarian display at the International Green Week for a number of years. Seating capacity at the St. Stephan restaurant, which serves specialities such as pot goulash to the accompaniment of rousing music, has been increased by 40 and it now accommodates 360 diners, many of whom are regulars. Around them are nine exhibitors featuring 21 different products, five more than in 2014. Of course these also include sausages such as the famous salami, as well as paprika, confectionary and pastries such as the tasty langosch.
Hall 10.2, contact: Vécsy György, t: +36 30 9589570, m: vecsy@enternet.hu
Czech Republic: Everything from sea buckthorn jelly to world famous Budvar
“Our products have a great potential with visitors from all over the world”, says Minister of Agriculture Marian Jurečka on the Czech Republic stand. Indiana s.r.o., for example, is exhibiting its dried meat products, known as Beef Jerky, and apart from beef these are also made with pork and poultry meat. “They are even exporting to the United States”, Jurečka reports. The stand also has its own beer garden, where traditional Budvar is served, a beer that is known and enjoyed in 120 countries. Even the EU Agricultural Commissioner Phil Hogan, speaking at the Green Week, praised it as a “very good beer”. The largest manufacturer of fromage frais in the Czech Republic, which also supplies other cheese products, is also represented here. “Our scalded cheese in plaits is a typical national product. We still make it by hand”, explains Marketing Manager Zdeněk Vybíral from the family-run company Poblabksé Mlékárny. Another family-run business is that of Pavel Cvrček, which specialises in sea buckthorn juices, jellies and confectionery. The jams are made using the whole fruit.
Hall 18, Stand 103, contact: Zdeněk Vybíral, t:+420 606861095, m: zvybiral@polabske.cz
Chinese culture
The official Chinese stand at the Green Week invites visitors to find out about its incense, tea, dancing, displays of calligraphy, and numerous products. “We are seeking to create a better awareness not only of our products but also of our cultures”, says Executive Vice Secretary-General Yue Chunli from the China Good Agri-Products Development and Service Association (CGAPA). The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture has set itself the target of acquainting visitors to the Green Week with the 13 provinces lining the Silk Road. Calligraphy and the way in which it is reproduced, for example, originated in Yunnan province. Each day at 10.30 a.m. and again at 3 p.m. dancers from the Xinjiang autonomous region are performing to the sound of traditional music. The lychees, tins of tea, Chinese dates, goji berries and many other products all come from these 13 provinces. All of the products are already available in Asian supermarkets in Germany. “We can also assist the food trade to make contact with Chinese dealers and producers”, says Yue Chunli.
Hall 6.2, Stand 107, contact: Yue Chunli, telephone: +86 (10) 64 82 05 11, email: dsi_yue@126.com
Portugal: Art from the kitchen
The Portuguese display at the Green Week has a touch of the avantgarde. The Portuguese Association for Tourism and the Food Industry, Associação Portuguesa de Turismo de Culinária e Economia (APTECE), is committed to preparing traditional Portuguese dishes while incorporating international influences, and making them more widely known. Top chefs from Lisbon have been invited to the Green Week, where they are delighting visitors with dishes that are prepared live on the stand, and look like abstract paintings. The chefs place their spicy steaks in the centre of the picture, use the colour provided by caramelised onions to add a different accent, and complete the composition either with a spoonful of coriander chimichurri or lukewarm quinoa. Bom proveito!
Hall 8.2, contact: t: +351 910 956 384, m: teresa@portugal-aptece.com
Russia: 20 years at the Green Week
This year is Russia’s 20th at the International Green Week, where it has its own hall occupying 6,000 square metres. Some 170 companies and organisations from ten regions, including Kirov, Krasnodar, Moscow, Orenburg, Rostov and Tambov, as well as the Republics of Adiygeja and Mordovia, are displaying their products. The Republic of Tatarstan is featuring special confectionary such as tschak-tschak, kosch-tepe, pechlewe and bursaki and is also displaying its khaljal sausages. The Jamal-Nenzen autonomous region is represented with fish and venison. Once again a carver can be seen on the stand, creating tiny works of art from the mammoth bones extracted from the frozen soil of Siberia. Music and dance groups from the different regions will be performing in order to keep everyone in the right mood.
Hall 2.2, contact: VDNKH, t: +7 (495) 7473420, m: press@vdnh.ru
Peace Bread from Latvia handed over to Poland
Today at the Green Week the Latvian State Secretary for Agriculture, Dace Lucaua, presented the European Peace Bread to the Polish Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Zofia Krzyzanowska. The rye used to make this bread was grown on the former Death Strip on Bernauer Strasse in Berlin. Last autumn the rye from Berlin was mixed with rye harvested from historically significant sites in eleven other EU countries in Central and Eastern Europe to make a large Peace Bread. Poland will host the next Peace Bread Forum on ‘Agriculture and Peace’.
Contact: Dr. Gibfried Schenk, FriedensBrot e.V., t: +49 (0) 171 5565746, m: info@friedensbrot.eu
Native American artist serves firewater from Canada
In accordance with past tradition the Canada stand, organised by Fritz and Marie-Luise Gareis, is featuring firewater, made with whiskey and maple syrup and served by a genuine Native American. Ed E. Bryant from the Tsimshian tribe in British Columbia, currently residing in Austria, is an internationally known artist, who has also acquired fame as a singer, masked dancer and carver of totem poles. One of his bird heads can be admired o the stand. In addition to the traditional products such as whiskey and vodka, bison jerky and cowboy hats, the range of beers has been augmented by five new brands. Making their first appearance at the Green Week are the mildly aromatic James Ready lager, Boundary, which is brewed using four different kinds of hops and seven varieties of malt, and the strong India pale ale Hop City Hopbot IPA.
Hall 7.2c, Stand 114, contact: Marie Luise Gareis, tel.: +49/9401/911902, email: info@gareis.de
