LEADER CRAFT VILLAGE OUTSTANDING SUCCESS

In excess of one hundred and eighty thousand people attended the recent
National Ploughing Championships held in Tullamore, Co. Offaly. Many
of the visitors made their way to the LEADER Craft and Food Villages
which are now proving a main attraction at this leading annual rural event.
National Craft Village Co-ordinator Peter Pollock from Cavan Monaghan
Rural Development reported that this was the fifth year that the craft and
food villages were at the ploughing and that this year was the largest to
date with a combined total of ninety craft and food producers taking part representing nineteen different LEADER groups.
Five craft workers from the Cavan Monaghan region took part in this year’s event and all of them reported excellent sales over the three days with many of them also taking orders for subsequent sales.
Textile worker Sinead Clarke from Bailieborough was taking part in her first ever sales event and reported that the craft village provided her with an ideal opportunity not only for sales but also for very valuable market research.
RTE’s Nationwide programme visited the craft village on Wednesday and Virginia craft worker Anne Godwin was one of the craft workers featured. Anne reports that this was her fourth time at the ‘ploughing’ and she has many repeat customers from previous years craft villages visiting her stand each year.
Farmweek the leading weekly agricultural and rural development programme on RTE radio also featured an article on this year’s craft village.