BASCIL is an transnational cooperation project involving 15 partners from 8 countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Finland). From Latvia the project partners are Latvian Country Tourism association "Lauku ceļotājs" and on-governmental organization of agricultural and horticultural produce producers in Latvia "Zemnieku Saeima" (Farmers’ Parliament).

Small producers in rural areas have recently experienced the economic setbacks due to the pandemic. Food producers are currently facing higher production costs due to rising energy prices and inflation. All this has had a strong impact on the resilience of the local food sector in the Baltic Sea region.

The aim of the BASCIL project is to develop culinary tourism services in rural areas of the Baltic Sea region and to improve the resilience of local food producers through the diversification of their business activities in the field of the tourism sector.

According to the statistics of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the culinary tourism sector is growing rapidly in the world. In the Baltic Sea region, the local population is also more interested in local ingredients, food and culinary tourism. To keep up with the rising trend, there is demand in tourism market for much more attractive culinary tourism offers and services. In Europe, the Baltic Sea region is still little known as culinary tourism destination. The active involvement of food producers in the tourism sector is a great opportunity to make their offers more visible and attractive to visitors.

It is important to gather and analyse the existing knowledge and best practices from the region. Then it is possible to create a sustainability and comprehensive solution for mitigating various risks of local food producers and networks in the Baltic Sea region. Through solving similar problems and joint analysis of various opportunities, strengths and shortcomings, a synergy is created, which enables the creation of a common (but flexible) solution for these target groups.
The outputs of the project are publicly available and applicable to a wider group of food producers interested in business diversification.
The pilot regions and networks are included in the project from each country. From Latvia Baiba Circene from Sabile Cider (info@sabilessidrs.lv, +37129470405) is involved as a pilot region.
Project implementation period is 01.01.2023 – 31.12.2025.

The total budget of the project (8 countries, 15 partners) is EUR 3,348,779.95, of which the support of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is EUR 2,389,394.52 and Norwegian funding EUR 181,018.40.

Contact information:
Asnaye Ziemele, lauku@celotajs.lv, 67617600.