Llanrwst and Dyffryn Conwy - a stronghold for food and drink

The idea is to create part of Llanrwst on the Eisteddfod caravan park. With over 750 caravans as part of the Eisteddfod's official field, shop provision and food/ hot drinks are required. The standard of provision here is often frustrating for the caravanners, and has declined year on year since the Meifod Eisteddfod in 2015.

A group of Llanrwst producers and businesses involved in farm businesses have come together through the support of Agrisgôp to look at the opportunities posed by the Eisteddfod.

They are looking for support to trial a new model of service delivery and plan to collaborate with a retailer and catering partner who will offer the area's products within a specific catchment area of the Eisteddfod to see if caravanners' needs can be served in a mobile service with products within a certain radius of the area they are visiting. 

A brief has already been prepared setting out categories of the relevant products needed (e.g. bakery, dairy, meat etc) and which businesses can provide this in Llanrwst looking at the wider Conwy area if not available in Llanrwst. The intention is to offer products of origin as close as possible to the Eisteddfod field.

Discussions have already taken place on the principle of this scheme with the Eisteddfod organisers and sponsorship needs to be secured before a formal agreement is ratified. The group will accept responsibility for this space in the caravan park and appoint a retailer and caterer from the area on a brief basis that will prioritise product sales from the Llanrwst catchment area and more widely if not available. The group will not operate the shop or café, but instead run an on-site campaign to promote the area's produce and the food and drink businesses of the town of Llanrwst and the outskirts.

Several market towns have suffered economic collapse in recent years, and Llanrwst has not been excluded. Another element of the idea will be to create graphics for this area of the caravan park that will visually show what's in town and the people who work in the sector with a marketing campaign creating Llanrwst as an an ideal food and drink heartland in the Conwy Valley. 

Other activities being considered include signature dish of local restaurants on the café's menu, special evenings and a chance for visitors to meet food and drink producers in the area. It is hoped that this is a first step in developing further opportunities in the future in line with the CCBC's economic strategy.

There are essentially three elements to this project:

1. Collaborate with catering partners and taking a leading role to ensure that food on the caravan park offers hot food and promotes local produce.
2. Work with a retailer to ensure there is a shop that offers and promotes local foods on the caravan park.
3. That space is developed to offer activities to promote local shops and restaurants. A variety of activities will be offered in the space such as "farmers market, cooking exhibitions etc.