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As the Travel Foundation’s Taste of Fethiye project reaches a landmark moment, Abra Dunsby looks at the evolution of the initiative.
Drive away from the sun-soaked bays of Fethiye, on the Mediterranean coast of south-west Turkey, and if you head inland, you’ll notice that it’s not just the tourists that love the climate.
The region’s sunny conditions allow farmers to grow an abundance of fresh produce, but until a few years ago, very little of this local fare was finding its way on to tourists’ plates, with most hotels sourcing their fresh fruit and vegetables from wholesalers in Antalya or further afield.
That all changed in 2010, when the Travel Foundation launched Taste of Fethiye, an initiative that aimed to integrate small-scale producers into the mainstream tourism supply chain.
After six years of development, the venture was handed over to Fetav, a local NGO, in October last year.
Speaking about the project, Salli Felton, chief executive of the Travel Foundation, says: “I felt extremely proud handing the ownership of the Taste of Fethiye project over to Fetav, hearing their vision of how they want to grow the initiative by offering a wider range of products, and where they want to take it next. It’s evident that it adds real value to the people of Fethiye and will continue to grow and prosper.”
When Taste of Fethiye first began in 2010, the Travel Foundation’s aims were to promote the local produce available in the region, enable farmers to benefit from tourism, and highlight the advantages of buying local food to hotels.
The project built on the Travel Foundation’s work linking agricultural producers with tourism, such as its Gambia is Good demonstration farm and training centre, which was set up in 2006 to upskill farmers in production techniques.
“The Taste of Fethiye project aimed to prove that making local farmers integral to tourism could happen on a far larger scale and in a commercially viable way,” says Felton.
The scheme had the support and financial backing of Tui, Thomas Cook and Cooperative Travel, helping to get it off the ground quickly and giving the Travel Foundation leverage with the region’s hotels.
“We ran a study which showed that hoteliers and wholesalers were interested in purchasing from local farmers, but were cautious as there was no means of verifying the origins of fresh produce available,” Felton explains.
“On the supply side, farming communities were interested in selling to the tourism industry, but there was a lack of understanding of the quantity and quality of produce that hotels would need, and of sustainable production techniques.”
To kick-start the project and help farmers to improve their produce, the Travel Foundation ran a series of workshops for 40 local farming families in 2011, offering advice on how to market the fruit and vegetables to hotels and tourism businesses, while also giving guidance on how to increase yields.
Turning to local wholesalers, the Travel Foundation set up production agreements with farmers and purchasing agreements with hotels.
A Taste of Fethiye label was also created, allowing hotels to verify the local origins of the produce and promote it to their guests.
Tour operator resort teams and hotel staff then got involved by putting on “Local Food Nights” for guests to try Taste of Fethiye food.
Jo Hendrickx, former sustainable destinations manager at Thomas Cook, praised the events for helping raise awareness among customers and staff.
“Our staff really enjoyed being part of the Taste of Fethiye evenings in the hotels. It’s important that customers have the opportunity to understand that by choosing hotels stocking local produce they’re having a positive influence on that local economy.”
In 2015, 1,000 Tui customers went on an agricultural excursion to visit a Taste of Fethiye farm to learn about the origins of their food, while providing extra revenue for the farmer.
There were inevitable bumps in the road for the project, and Felton admits that liaising with hoteliers proved tricky. “We had to continually engage with hotels, particularly when there was high staff turnover and those championing the project moved on,” she points out. “We also spent a lot of time getting the pricing right so that it was competitive for hoteliers.”
Despite the challenges, the project can count myriad successes. For farmers, the educational programme saw the vast majority changing their practices to lower levels of pesticides and fertiliser used and to reduce waste. “The changes have seen farmers’ yields increasing by an average of 30%, while their revenue increased by around 24% between 2012 and 2014,” affirms Felton.
“Plus as a result of the project, 24 hotels have purchased Taste of Fethiye produce, and in 2015, 16 hotels sourced between 70% and 85% of their entire fresh fruit and vegetable requirements via the programme,” she adds.
Sedat Cavdar, manager of Montana Pine Resort, which has been involved with the project from the beginning, says he is “very happy with the results,” adding that his guests are keenly
interested in the project.
Buying local also reduces food miles and CO2 emissions, so has helped some hotels to meet their sustainability requirements. Hotel guests have looked on the project favourably, too, says Felton, with 62% of them stating they felt more positive towards their hotel knowing that it purchased locally grown products.
Fethiye wholesaler Senay Coskun is also enthusiastic about the project: “Taste of Fethiye has helped us to reach more hotels, ones that are more responsible and care about nature. For us, [the project] has been a great marketing tool and in terms of business, a success.”
Since the project is self-funding, it will continue to be rolled out long term by Fetav, which will take over the marketing and coordination.
All of the 16 hotels that purchased Taste of Fethiye produce will continue to do so and almost all of the original farmers are still involved.
With the Travel Foundation bowing out of the project, Felton asserts how happy she is with its progress. “It is a credit to my team, to our supporters and especially our partners locally that this initiative has grown into the successes we see today.”
Now the charity is looking ahead to future projects, while gleaning valuable insight from the experience. “We’ve introduced a wholesaler with fair-trade principles for our project in Mexico, a Maya cooperative selling honey-based products to hotels, and we would love to see other businesses seeking to incorporate more local products into their supply chains.”
