"The BILLA regionality fair is unique in this form in the food retail sector. With the new format, we want to strengthen the personal dialogue between BILLA and its regional partner companies and also create the opportunity to present new products," explains Stefan Weinlich, BILLA Sales Director in Lower Austria and Vienna. His colleague Hamed Mohseni, also Sales Director in Lower Austria and Vienna, adds: "The BILLA Regionality Fair was created to emphasise the important partnership between BILLA and local businesses and to promote awareness of regional food. At BILLA, direct dialogue with our local partners is an important part of our work in the regions."
Regional added value
Over 10,000 food products from around 1,500 regional producers can be found on the shelves of BILLA and BILLA PLUS stores in Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland. The farms are often located in the immediate vicinity of the BILLA stores. This enables particularly close and neighbourly cooperation and promotes regional value creation. In this way, BILLA ensures a diverse and regional product range in the stores and strengthens local producers at the same time. "Today's event emphasises our deep connection with regional producers and shows how important it is to promote local economic cycles. This trade fair offers an excellent platform for discovering new products and further intensifying existing partnerships," says Eric Scharnitz, BILLA Sales Director for the Vienna, Lower Austria North & East region and northern Burgenland. Hermann Weiß, Sales Director Merchants, adds: "The BILLA Regionality Fair offers our local producers a unique platform to present their high-quality products directly and make new business contacts. It is very important to us to further strengthen cooperation with regional businesses and thus contribute to the promotion of the local economy."
High-ranking political visitors
In addition to the regional suppliers, numerous political representatives from Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland also took part in the regionality fair: "I am delighted that Wiener Neustadt is hosting this important event. Promoting cooperation with regional businesses is essential," explains Mayor Klaus Schneeberger. "The BILLA regionality fair is an excellent example of the promotion of local agriculture. It is impressive to see how many local producers find a platform here," says Ernst Woller, 1st President of the Vienna Provincial Parliament. Günter Kovacs, Federal Councillor from Burgenland, agrees with him: "In times of global challenges, supplying the population with regional products is the order of the day. At the BILLA regionality fair in Wiener Neustadt, I was particularly pleased with the presentations by our Viennese businesses. Vienna could not only supply the whole of Austria with gherkins, we are also leaders in vegetable production and are particularly proud of our Viennese wines."
Lower Austrian Member of Parliament Rainer Spenger emphasised the economic importance of the BILLA Regionality Fair: "Supporting regional businesses is essential for our economy. Cooperation with local businesses makes a significant contribution to regional value creation." Günther Sidl, Member of the European Parliament, emphasised the importance of regionality for the future: "Regional value creation and sustainability are key issues of our time. The BILLA regionality fair sends out a strong signal here and shows how important it is to promote local economic cycles."
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