Have a look in your cupboards, on the shelves of the shops you use, on
the menus of the restaurants you eat out at. Sometimes it seems that
the only Kosovan food people in Kosovo eat is what they grow
themselves. People I've met here are understandably proud of their own
kos, home-made ajvar, home-distilled raki (as I am of my own honey...)
but once those things have been eaten up, or for those belonging to the
increasing Kosovan urban demographic without land to produce them in
the first place, we go and buy supplementary food at a supermarket
bulging with Slovenian milk, Turkish biscuits, Macedonian vegetables,
Serbian water, Montenegrin wine...
Kosovo has all these things in abundance. Kosovan wine is now even
starting to hit British supermarket shelves
(http://www.offlicencenews.co.uk/articles/69872/Kosovo-wines-head-for-UK-multiple.aspx?categoryid=9059).
But when I go to a restaurant or bar in Pristina and ask for Kosovan
wine, I am looked at in bemusement and some scorn. When I try
returning the San Pellegrino water that was set out for the conferences
I've attended on Kosovo's development, I am treated pityingly as if I
am betraying some badge of international sophistication, rather than
trying to put my money where my mouth is. But you cannot toast
Kosovo's development in imported liquids.
There is an environmental as well as an economic cost to all those
biscuits, all those bottles trundling across Europe in dirty lorries.
And thinking about it rather spoils the taste of my imported meal.
So I have a policy now. When I go to the market, I ask where the
vegetables have come from. I buy whatever is from Kosovo. I have some
business cards in my wallet which say 'I only drink Kosovan water! Dea,
Bonita, Kllokot, Don Aqua, Rugova... are fine for me, and for the
Kosovan economy. So please don't import San Pellegrino on my account.'
When I ask for a drink in a bar or restaurant, I specify 'Kosovan' and
if the waiter can't provide it then I ask him to take one of the cards
to the manager. I've not been thrown out yet.
If you want to join me, email me and I will send you some of the
business cards; and you can become a member of my Facebook group 'Could
I have a glass of Kosovan mineral water please.'
In the meantime, gëzuar, and ju bëftë mirë. Enjoy your meal, and may it do you - and Kosovo - good.
The author can be reached at elizabethgowing at hotmail dot com.
Le tef tef
said:
 |
... Dear Elizabeth, I highly appreciate your efforts to undertake these steps of "changing" the approach individually towards local foods and personally support your concept of consuming more of local food instead of imported "alien" food. Unfortunately, from my point of view, this issue is as a result of CEFTA agreement endorsed by our Government-without any kind of preliminary market analyze in Kosovo, knowing the fact that the major export of Kosovo is metal scrap from imported cars. This agreement has created such a dis-balance and it is disfavoring local agriculture to commit their self in producing local food-since various international agricultural companies-enterprises are well assisted "subsidized" by their country on growing agricultural products and they are assisted by our free trade market agreement-but at the same time-we are facing rejection of our products while exporting to Bosnia and Hezegovina and Montenegro-and GOV does not undertake any kind of measures. This is an urgent matter that GOV should undertake measures to review or find an alternative solution. Best regards. |
