Many of the Spanish gourmet producers and clients we have feel surprised because this website was born in Barcelona. We, however, see it as very normal. Because our city is the capital of tourism in Spain and it was the best place to verify that internationalization is the solution for our gastronomy.

• Our society with no apparent direction
• Very difficult national market due to lack of demand
• The solution: 24/7 communication and looking beyond the Pyrenees.

Our society with no apparent direction

Just a little walk to my city and you can see that the atmosphere is bleak. Many closed shops and restaurants that will no longer reopen, not to mention hotels, places full of life back in 2019, today they seem like ghost buildings, without a soul. Very sad and discouraging at the level of society really. We have lived too much from tourism, in excess I could even say. The only thing missing was to turn off the tap of people who came every year at a record pace, to see how weak we had become, and highly dependent on "the outside."

I am not going to point out the alleged culprits of this mess. Because we are all, yes I repeat, all of us. Because the politicians who govern us were voted in by their fellow citizens, so we are all guilty.

The Barcelona society is in regression, giving more and more prominence to other poles with more hunger to lead. Madrid, above all, but also Valencia, Seville or Malaga. Where the desire to evolve, makes them dangerously close to the leadership of the great Barcelona.

There is a lack of projects loaded with union, between talent and effort, which we possess in abundance, by the way. Because it seems that we cannot think of anything better than creating gastronomic projects, once again designed for tourists (when they return), and we do not think of strengthening ties with the gastronomic areas that characterize us: Priorat, Penedes, Terra Alta, Empordà, etc. It seems easier to create an international restaurant rather than a national one, it's amazing, and I really don't understand it.

And of course, without the development of local gastronomy, national producers complain that their sales are not growing at the national level, and that the international market is the solution.

Very difficult national market due to lack of demand

Yes, sincerely it is the solution, but not because there is no other, it is because the market overseas He does not know much about our gourmet product (well almost as much as the Spanish ones themselves), and that opportunity is what we must take advantage of.

I am very sorry that I hardly see different brands of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) to give a clear example of the null support for Spanish gourmet brands, in stores, let's say good ones, or even in supermarket chains with more extra products (where there is a trend towards the monobrand of that supermarket chain, eliminating the competence). Gentlemen, we are in the golden age of brands and the Spanish gourmet market, we tend to see them disappear (cannibalized by white marks or because they have little chance of being visible).

The solution: 24/7 communication and looking beyond the Pyrenees

But then what can Spanish gourmet brands do to survive? Very simple, look ahead with the recipe of communication and internationalization. It's simple, our main client (the tourist who enjoys Spain when he can come) resides in Europe for almost 85%, and thanks to the internet, and online commerce, they are closer than ever. But to reach them, it is necessary to create professional communication plans and have an international orientation of the company (web in different languages).

En MadeinSpain.store We had it VERY CLEAR, from the beginning, and we developed the web with that intention, to reach the fresh public eager for knowledge, who want to get excited about quality gastronomy, extra quality. Our online gourmet shop every day it has more international followers, and what is more important, more customers who lose their fear of buying gastronomy online, and then buy back. Because those products are not anywhere else near their homes.

Although it is also happening in Spain, despite the fact that the competition here is tighter and tries to sell in a more direct way, transactions without a soul that does not intend to praise the Spanish gourmet product and the product above all else, as we do. And it is very good that this desire to eat better and enjoy our products arises, I think we are still a long way from being able to be true connoisseurs and ambassadors of our own food, as the French and Italians are of theirs.

We will not lose heart and we will continue to push, because, now that we begin to get out of this tunnel that began in 2020, we cannot go back and live off tourism again, from which you buy without asking and dispatch without selling. Let's make greater efforts and continue with the roadmap of conquering the world again. Only in this way will we be a more competitive and stronger country.

AUTHOR: Israel Romero, CEO of Made in Spain Gourmet.