The website Novadagarša.lv (Taste of the Region) has currently collected contact information for 200 large and small producers, but are planning on regularly updating the list. The catalogue also contains information about quality labels and organic certifications. The website is currently available only in Latvian.
The center's Board Chair Mārtiņš Cimermanis said that they realized that there is a large consumer demand.
“A lot of people want to buy local, from their farmers, and they say they want to know where the products are from,” said Cimermanis.
“Specifically working with smaller producers we were convinced that there is a great interest from both individual consumers, as well as restaurants, hotel chefs and municipal procurement specialists. With that, one of our main goals was to create a meeting place, where we include producers and consequently try to work on this quality scheme,” said Cimermanis. There are plans to implement and international certification next year declaring product origin.
“This means that we'll probably have people visiting and checking the production facilities,” said Cimermanis.
There are cases where people are led to believe that a product is from a small producer, but it turns out that it's not quite from Latvia, explained Cimermanis.
