INTEROVIC presented its new “Celebrate the Everyday with Sustainable European Lamb” campaign at a dinner at the Omeraki restaurant run by chef Alberto Chicote, who is also participating in the initiative. INTEROVIC has announced some of the promotional activities it will launch over the next three years to achieve its main objective: to promote the consumption of lamb and goat products in the Spanish and Hungarian markets and to increase awareness and knowledge of these products in both markets, highlighting their sustainable nature.
Under the slogan “Celebrate the Everyday with Sustainable European Lamb,” this campaign aims to deliver a message focused on the product’s sustainability and to break down barriers and bring lamb consumption closer to everyday life through different formats, challenging the preconceived notion that lamb is only consumed on special, celebratory dates marked on the calendar.
It should be noted that Spain is Europe’s leading producer of sheep meat, reaching 229.2 thousand tons in 2022, and also holds a prominent position in goat production. These two highly versatile meats are also obtained through sustainable agricultural practices that support biodiversity, preserve traditional landscapes, improve soil fertility, and contribute to climate change mitigation. Furthermore, they support economic development in rural areas: more than 110,000 sheep farms and 75,000 goat farms are located on natural pastures unsuitable for other agricultural uses.
Specifically, the campaign highlights the sustainable strategies of the European Union sheep and goat meat sector as its main message and emphasizes the benefits of consuming sheep and goat meat, sustainable products from the European Union, as an environmentally friendly option. A sustainability approach, that of suckling lamb, lamb, and goat meat, based on the environmental, social, and economic benefits that this livestock farming and grazing provide for territories and landscapes. These benefits also reach consumers as a result of this production method.
Main Campaign Actions
The efforts, therefore, of “Celebrate Everyday Life with Sustainable and European Lamb” will be aimed at reaching a younger and broader audience through various actions carried out over the three years of the campaign.
During the evening, Alberto Chicote prepared a lamb-based menu with dishes such as lamb pête en croutte (trotters, leg of suckling lamb, sweetbread, and pistachios); homemade Paquito stuffed with pulled lamb; lamb shoulder skewer; lamb tataki; bean stew with lamb tongue; mud-soaked lamb shoulder; and a lamb meatball. Tomás Rodríguez, director of INTEROVIC, outlined the program’s most recent and key initiatives. “We began with an agreement with chef Alberto Chicote himself, who created these lamb recipes, which will rotate weekly for a month so the public can try them in the restaurant. Chicote will also promote the consumption of lamb to celebrate everyday life,” he announced. A chef committed to lamb, suckling lamb, and kid, he also wrote the prologue to El Recetario, the book featuring hundreds of recipes to replicate at home—some traditional, others avant-garde, and also Michelin-starred—which can also be downloaded for free at: https://canalcordero.com/recetas-cordero
In April, Rodríguez announced, they will have their own stand at the Salon de Gourmets. In May, the Paquito route will return, the lamb sandwich that is gaining more and more followers each year and is spreading to more bars and restaurants in more cities across the country. This format INTEROVIC has opted for and is a success year after year thanks to its growing popularity with the public. As a new feature this year, El Paquito will also be riding a food truck to attend festivals, such as Meat & Fire in Barcelona next June. The interprofessional association will also be present at the Women’s Euro Cup through an agreement with various delivery platforms, under the slogan “Match Day, Paquito Day,” so that football fans can enjoy a Paquito at home while watching the match.
In addition, to reach the general public, INTEROVIC is working on creating a line of prepared lamb dishes for distribution. Finally, they emphasized the return of roadshows, a traveling event that travels through the various royal cattle trails and livestock routes to showcase everything related to suckling lamb and goat meat from a cultural perspective through the Photo exhibition by photographer José Barea of his work Bestiarium, tastings by El Paquito, wool-spinning workshops, documentary screenings about the world of shepherding, etc.
Everything can be found on the program’s website: www.canalcordero.com