One third of the traditional products certified under European schemes come from Tulcea, and most of them are fish products made by the Ro-Pescador association, which are both a source of pride for the fishing communities and an advantage for the development of tourism in the Danube Delta.
The four traditional fishery products certified under European schemes: smoked Danube mackerel, Tulcea pike roe salad, both products with Protected Geographical Indication (PGI), traditional salad with carp roe and marinated sardines, both products with Traditional Specialty Guaranteed (TSG), are made by a company from Tulcea which is part of the Ro-Pescador Association.
“We were first involved in the fishing activity, we had fishing boats in the Black Sea. When sales were blocked, our catches had to be processed and we started to do that. Slowly, slowly, we moved towards processing. It’s a more constant activity, with a certain predictability compared to fishing, which is the same as hunting,” Dan Buhai, the director of the company from Tulcea, told AGERPRES.
The company that he runs together with his wife has had the most traditional Romanian fish products registered, at a national level, products whose recipes were collected from the Danube Delta culinary cultural heritage.
The certification of fishery products by quality schemes at national level was followed by the European one, a much more rigorous procedure that offers a different visibility and guarantees the quality and the set of traditional characteristics, in the realization of thethe last STG certified product, the marinated sardine, using both the Black Sea sardine and the same species from the Baltic Sea.
Another product of the company from Tulcea, a founding member of the Ro-Pescador association, has been awaiting European certification for several years, namely the sturgeon batog (dried or smoked fish product, editor’s note).
“It will be a premium product. We all know that caviar used to be served with this sturgeon batog, generally white-fleshed sturgeon, because there are darker-fleshed species. We use farmed sturgeon, which live in a controlled environment, which ensures the quality of the sturgeon meat is controlled. Everyone uses farmed sturgeon because stocks in the wild are dwindling and it’s a protective measure. We found the (European Commission’s) question (about the provenance of sturgeon – editor’s note) surprising, if not outright unreasonable,” Buhai added.
Traditional products can be found in all towns in Tulcea county.
The Enisala fortress, an archaeological site near the village of Sarichioi, is featured for example on the label of a cheese product, the Argamum fortress, on the outskirts of Jurilovca village, is on the label of a local wine, and the examples could continue even in the communities of the National Park of the Macinului Mountains.
Tourism, like certified traditional products, is a way of preserving the cultural heritage of an area with natural resources whose importance is perhaps only recognized by specialists.
“The area combines the traditions of several peoples and has thus created a wide range of recipes on pastries, fish products, meat and milk. This region has an enormous potential in terms of diversity of traditions, recipes and products. But the process is extraordinarily difficult to pass and involves a lot of work,” recalls the executive director of the County Agricultural Directorate (DAJ), Mirela Miller.
At national level, Tulcea county has 24 traditional products.
At the moment, Romania has 14 traditional products certified at European level, and five of them have been certified by two associations in Tulcea county, Ro-Pescador and Moesis.
