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22
August 07
North Highlands Produce Showcased At Ackergill
 A
bountiful selection of the best of the North Highlands food and drink
produce, brought together by HIE Caithness and Sutherland, was visited by
HRH Prince Charles recently.
Producers from throughout Caithness
and Sutherland gathered together at
Ackergill Tower
near Wick to welcome national and local buyers.
In 2005 His Royal Highness launched
the North Highland Initiative to improve the economy and sustainability of
the area by developing a new brand to sell the region's produce - Mey
Selections.
Opening The Taste of Caithness and
Sutherland event, William Roe, chair of
Highlands And Islands
Enterprise (HIE), said that for far too long the bounty of the
counties� produce had been too much of a well-kept secret.
"This is the first event that
brings together all that is good about North Highlands produce.
Agriculture remains one of the main economic drivers in the region and
Taste of Caithness and Sutherland shows that what is being produced is of
the highest quality,"
The event provided a platform for
25 local producers to exhibit a range of premium local produce ranging
from meat to organic eggs, fish to oysters, honey to chocolate, cheese to
Highland oatcakes. Visitors, including national supermarket and
foodservice operators, and local buyers.
Danny Miller, chairman of North
Highland Products, who manages the
Mey Selections
brand, welcomed the HIE initiative.
"Our company was a direct result of
the foresight of the
North Highland Initiative and it is wonderful to see 11 of Mey
Selections suppliers represented, and the farmers from North Highland
Products.
Note
The North Highland Initiative
North Highland Initiative
was established to boost the economy of the North Highlands of Scotland by
promoting its produce, tourism and the built environment. Prince
Charles launched the
Mey Selections brand in August 2005. North Highland
Products Ltd was supported by an award of �71,000 from the Scottish
Executive under its Marketing Development Scheme with some additional
support from Caithness Enterprise and the Nuclear Decommissioning Agency.
North Highland Products is also funded by a small amount of money put in
by an initial group of farmers and from an ongoing levy on producers to
assist with administration and marketing costs. For its Mey Selections
brand, North Highland Products selects and sources only the highest
quality farm and food products from within a hundred miles radius of the
Castle of Mey. The brand was set up to focus initially on the prime beef,
lamb and mutton reared in the area, although it was anticipated from the
outset that other quality foods from the region, such as fish, honey, jam,
cheese and pork would be added to the range once the business was
established.
The second phase of the
NHI was the launch of a tourism marketing strategy which focuses on the
idea of
�Pleasure in the Extreme�, rooted in the physical and environmental
extremes that exist in the North Highlands. The Built Environment is
phase three of the North Highland Initiative and was launched by Prince
Charles in July 2007.
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