Editorial: Did too many cooks starve food entity?

Patricia Small of Food Hawke's Bay.

It'd be nice to think the demise of Food Hawke's Bay can be viewed in a positive light.

Last week the membership organisation announced it would close due to lack of funds. It cited low membership numbers, the mushrooming of alternative support services for foodies - and "stiff" competition for support funding.

The entity's core functions (crucial to our local industry) included promoting the region as a culinary hotspot, promoting our fare, imparting expertise in areas of sales and marketing, and running showcase events.

Of course, one could argue there's some serious cross-over here, considering a good deal of these functions could easily come under the existing sphere of Hawke's Bay Tourism, Business Hawke's Bay and the recently launched Great Things Grow Here. After all, our food and tourism go hand-in-glove.

Thankfully, the functions traditionally carried out by Food Hawke's Bay, like the hospitality awards, seminars, food and dining guides and other flagship events, have been swiftly snared by other agencies.

Yet when the mantle's so effortlessly picked up by partner agencies, one has to question whether there were already too many cooks preparing the broth. Hints of said duplication were aired earlier this year during the group's public split with the Hawke's Bay Farmers' Market.

While it's sad to see the work of such a dedicated silo function farmed out to many, perhaps the organisation's closure is simply indicative of a local industry coming of age. Maybe we're witnessing an operational maturity, whereby the local industry has discovered the confidence to stand and prosper on its own feet.