FROM FARM TO CONSUMER: ENHANCING THE VALUE OF AGRI-FOOD PRODUCTS FROM MOUNTAIN COUNTRY FARMS THROUGH LOCAL GASTRONOMIC POINTS.

The European strategy "From Farm to Consumer", one of the key initiatives of the "Green Pact for Europe" is a new approach to the way consumers increasingly appreciate local food and direct sales. The Local Gastronomic Point (LGP) is a new approach that is developing in Romania, which meets these requirements, contributing to the creation and maintenance of jobs, to the sustainable development of rural communities and farms, being also the shortest sales chain, between producer and consumer. The Local Gastronomic Point is a concept that responds to the growing requirements in Romania, regarding the establishment of family catering units (farms), located in rural areas, that offer products and "cooking" specific to different geographical areas of Romania, following the rules and conditions of hygiene and food safety. Due to the LGP, farmers can enhance the value of their agri-food products, developing the complementary economic activity of serving local food/products, even "mountain products" and tourists/consumers can consume natural, traditional, specific and quality products from a particular region. This family-type activity is transferable to other mountain areas, to other rural localities, which may or may not have tourist potential. It can contribute to the development of rural tourism or to the creation of routes dedicated to gastronomic tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]