Farmers turn to video to encourage Walloons to eat local beef

Farmers turn to video to encourage Walloons to eat local beef
© Belga

Walloon farmers turned up on Wednesday at a farm in Natoye (Hamois) to act in video clips to be shown soon on television and social media in order to encourage the consumption of local beef.

Contacted by the Apaq-W, a Walloon agency, aimed at promoting high-quality agriculture, the farmers allowed themselves to be filmed while performing their usual tasks.

“We can be seen bottle-feeding calves, giving them food, taking out manure and so on,” Gauthier Baudouin, one of the participating farmers, explained. “The aim is to explain to the consumer, through these sequences in which we also speak, that they need to consume local.”

The video clips are among various initiatives by Apaq-W to promote Walloon beef. “They are to be aired on the RTL, RTBF and social media networks this week and the next,” said Apaq-W Communication Officer Vanessa Poncelet. “They follow up on other clips already recorded in 2018.”

After the filming, the farmers met Walloon Agriculture Minister Willy Borsus, who painted a rather alarming picture of the state of the sector.

“Between January and June 2019, beef imports increased by 14%, compared to the corresponding period of 2018, and exports went down by 22%,” he said, adding that the number of cattle in the country decreased by 25% between 2000 and 2017.”

The Brussels Times


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