Israel Romero / Sunday, May 9, 2021 / Categories: Blog MadeinSpain.store — from Barcelona to the world MadeinSpain.store Many of the Spanish gourmet producers and customers we work with are surprised that this website was born in Barcelona. We, however, see it as completely natural. Our city is Spain’s tourism capital and it was the best place to confirm that internationalization is the solution for our gastronomy. Our society with no apparent direction Very difficult domestic market due to lack of demand The solution: 24/7 communication and looking beyond the Pyrenees. Our society with no apparent direction Just a short walk around my city and you can see that the atmosphere is bleak. Many shops closed and restaurants that will never reopen, not to mention the hotels — places full of life back in 2019 now look like ghost buildings, soulless. Very sad and disheartening at a societal level, honestly. We have lived too much off tourism, excessively I might even say. It only took the faucet of visitors coming each year at record pace to be shut off for us to see how weak and highly dependent on “what comes from outside” we had become. I am not going to point fingers at the supposed culprits of this mess. Because we are all to blame — yes, I repeat, all of us. The politicians who govern us were voted in by their fellow citizens, so we all share the responsibility. Barcelona’s society is in decline, ceding more and more prominence to other centers hungrier for leadership. Madrid, above all, but also Valencia, Seville or Málaga. Their drive to evolve is bringing them dangerously close to taking the lead from greater Barcelona. We lack projects that unite talent and effort — which we have in abundance, by the way. It seems we can’t think of anything better than creating gastronomic projects again designed for tourists (when they return), instead of strengthening ties with the gastronomic regions that define us: Priorat, Penedés, Terra Alta, Empordà, etc. It seems easier to create international-style restaurants than national ones — it’s astonishing, and I truly don’t understand it. And of course, without developing local gastronomy, domestic producers complain that their sales don’t grow nationally, and that the international market is the solution. Very difficult domestic market due to lack of demand Yes, honestly it is the solution, but not because there is no other — it’s because the overseas market knows little about our gourmet products (almost as little as Spaniards themselves), and that opportunity is what we must seize. It pains me to see so few different brands of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (AOVE), to give a clear example of the near-zero support for Spanish gourmet brands in the better shops or even in premium supermarket chains (where there is a tendency toward single-brand shelves, excluding the competition). Friends, we are in the golden age of brands and in the Spanish gourmet market we tend to see them disappear (cannibalized by private labels or simply because they have little chance of being visible). The solution: 24/7 communication and looking beyond the Pyrenees So, what can Spanish gourmet brands do to survive? Very simple: look ahead with the recipe of communication and internationalization. It’s straightforward — our main customer (the tourist who enjoys Spain when they can come) lives in Europe nearly 85% of the time, and thanks to the internet and online commerce, they are closer than ever. But to reach them, you need to create professional communication plans and give the company an international orientation (websites in different languages). At MadeinSpain.store we were VERY CLEAR about this from the start, and we developed the site with that intention: to reach the fresh, curious audience that wants to be moved by high-quality gastronomy, extra quality. Our online gourmet store gains more international followers every day, and more importantly, more customers who lose the fear of buying gourmet food online and then reorder. Because those products aren’t available near their homes. This is happening in Spain as well, although competition is tougher here and tries to sell more directly — soulless transactions that don’t aim to exalt the Spanish gourmet product and the product itself, as we do. It’s great that a will to eat better and enjoy our products is emerging; I believe we are still far from being true connoisseurs and ambassadors of our own foods the way the French and Italians are of theirs. We will not give up and will keep pushing, because now that we are starting to come out of the tunnel that began in 2020, we cannot go back to living off tourism — from customers who buy without asking and where we ship without truly selling. Let’s make greater efforts and continue with the roadmap to conquer the world again. Only then will we be a more competitive and stronger country. Properties and Benefits of Sheep's Cheese Spanish Cheeses: Premium Quality and Much More Print 5 Rate this article: No rating Please login or register to post comments.