The?Connemara Smokehouse has become Ireland’s first food économusée and only the second Irish artisanal business to be admitted to the international scheme.
Mayor of County Galway Tom Welby officially welcomed the company to the prestigious network of artisan businesses at a launch in the Aillebrack, Ballyconneely, premises on April 30.
The économusée model was started in Canada more than 20 years ago, and has since been expanded worldwide. The idea is to connect the consumer with the artisan producer, providing a learning and interpretive experience for visitors.
Owned and operated by Graham and Saoirse Roberts, the économusée at the Connemara Smokehouse develops the educational aspect of the business, that has been handed down through the Roberts family since 1979.
Visitors are lead through the traditional process of hand-filleting, dry-salting, seasoning and smoking a variety of locally-sourced fish.
Graham said the day itself was very enjoyable, with the good weather proving an added bonus. He said it was a real boost to be recognised after years of hard slog’ and that it would benefit tourism across Connemara.
As a business, it gives us another opportunity to develop the educational side of things. It also showcases Connemara globally, which in turn should benefit other businesses locally.’
Graham says the company was approached by Teagasc, which runs the économusée programme in Ireland, around two years ago and that there was a lengthy preparatory period to become part of the network.
One of the biggest changes on the premises was the development of interpretive panels around the centre to allow visitors find out more about the producers, the ingredients and the traditional methods used. These panels are a common theme in all économusées, and complement the tours already offered by the company.
Last year Graham also visited Quebec to learn more about the model, visiting eight économusées, including a paper-maker, cheese producer, herablist and porcelain-maker. He said: The businesses were very different to our own in terms of what they produced, but they were all heavily based on one person or a couple. It was very interesting we got lots of ideas on things we could do a little differently. Ultimately, we hope to develop the educational side [of the business] and increase employment.’
The idea of an économusée is to attract visitors to rural regions, while creating direct employment in the local area. Speaking at the opening, Teagasc Regional Advisory Manager Brendan Heneghan said: The économusée concept originated 20 years ago in Quebec, Canada, where there are now over 50 économusées contributing to employment and the maintenance of local skills and knowledge in traditional rural businesses ranging from artisan food to boat building.’
Ireland’s involvement with the économusée’ concept arose from an invitation to Teagasc, the Agriculture and Food Development Authority, to become a partner in an EU Northern Periphery Programme (NPP) funded-project to bring the successful business model to selected rural areas in Europe.
Involving eight partners in eight countries, the project, called Craft International, has already established a network of 17 économusées through the NPP area with a target of 39 économusées by the end of 2013. The Connemara Smokehouse is only the second économusée in the Republic of Ireland, with the first located at the Celtic Roots Studio in Ballinahown, Athlone, Co. Westmeath. The medium term aim is to have at least four Irish économusées.
2013 Connemara Journal