Rural affairs minister celebrates the best of local food at the Gwledd Conwy feast

Elin Jones was in Conwy last Saturday (24 October) to show her support for the 'Gwledd Conwy' Feast.

The festival, which began as a fairly small affair, has grown significantly over recent years. Now it's widely regarded as one of North Wales’ most prominent food and drink events.

During her visit to the festival the Minister had the opportunity to meet an array of local food producers and chefs. The minister also spoke to them about the growing importance and popularity of local food.

Speaking about the event, the Elin said;

"The Gwledd Conwy Feast has become one of the highlights of the Welsh food and drink calendar as both a culinary and cultural event and I am looking forward to seeing and sampling the wide variety of high quality local food that is on offer.

"Events such as these are an excellent way of promoting the benefits of buying local food, as set out in our Local Sourcing Action Plan. Not only is there a wide range of high quality local produce to choose from, buying locally also means we have the luxury of being able to speak to the producer directly about where our food comes from and seek reassurance on production methods and animal welfare.

"Buying locally also reduces the miles food travels which helps us to reduce our carbon emissions, and leads to money being reinvested back into our communities, something which is more important than ever in the current economic climate."

The Gwledd Conwy Feast was the winner of Visit Wales’ Best Community Event in Wales Award in 2007. This year’s event has been supported by £43,000 of Welsh Assembly Government Supply Chain Efficiencies funding.