Producers Raise Their Game at Flavour of Shetland Event
As Shetland’s sports people celebrate winning more medals than ever before during the NatWest Island Games, local food, drink and craft producers are also jubilant following a highly successful and very profitable five-day Flavour of Shetland event on Lerwick’s Victoria Pier.
Visitors, locals, cruise liner passengers, tourists and everyone associated with the Island Games have flocked to the event to experience a true taste of all things Shetland. Every day around 5,000 people per day have enjoyed the live music programme, as they satisfy their appetites with Shetland lamb and beef burgers, Shetland seafood specialities and local confectionery.
Meanwhile, an outdoor market of craft stalls have given participants the chance to take home a little piece of Shetland. One stall holder, Gillian Fox of Shetland Fudge, summed up how successful the event had been for her business.
“Around 1,000 customers called along our stand each day and by the end of the week we had sold a staggering 6,500 bags of fudge and achieved approximately £11,000 pounds in sales. The quantity of ingredients we used to produce that volume of confectionery was amazing, and included an astounding 75 kilos of butter.
“We also launched a new product, Shetland Flag rock, and the entire 25 kilos of stock had completely sold out by day three.
“Since the weekend, we have received a number of orders from the other participating islands, which is fantastic. The presence of the cruise liners during the event was also beneficial and we received a lot of interest, particularly from American visitors. We also made a number of good contacts from Denmark and Faroe which we hope will create new business opportunities for the future.
“The Flavour of Shetland event has been extremely valuable to our business. Never before have we been in one position and met such a wide cross section of customers from a variety of nations. It was a terrific way of achieving exposure for Shetland Fudge and an excellent opportunity to talk to other people about similar businesses in other islands with a view to expanding internationally in the future.”
Speaking at the close of the event, organiser Neil Grant of Shetland Development Trust said: “Like the Games, the success of the Flavour of Shetland event has exceeded our wildest dreams. Shetland has created a first-class showcase of the very highest quality produce and, as a result, the business conducted during the week has been tremendous.
“Participating companies and musicians have demonstrated what the islands now have to offer in terms of tourism, culture, food, drink, arts and crafts. We now need to take confidence from the success of this event and strengthen the Shetland name in the international marketplace.
“While we may be a small group of islands we certainly have a huge story to tell and a serious amount of passion, drive and enterprising spirit to put Shetland firmly on the map.”
Over 5,000 people have passed through the gates during the daytime and, in the evening, the entertainments marquee has seen over 1,000 people enjoying the music and watching the sport on the big screen.