LA TRADITION – VECTEUR IMPORTANT DE PROMOTION ET GAGE DE QUALITÉ. LE CAS DES PRODUITS ROUMAINS DU TERROIR (TRADITION – IMPORTANT PROMOTION AND QUALITY GUARANTEE VECTOR. THE CASE OF TRADITIONAL ROMANIAN PRODUCTS)

Abstract

This paper illustrates some of the ways in which producers and traders of traditional Romanian products in the agri-food sector manage to promote their products on the international market using digital media. They used to be present at international trade fairs and exhibitions or in the traditional media. In recent years and especially during the Covid pandemic19, promotion has moved online, on enterprise websites, on social networks and on eCommerce platforms. Using the concepts of discourse analysis, we will show that the discourse promoting regional specialties contains references to tradition – as a guarantee of authenticity, originality, and value of the product, to health – being genuine products made with natural ingredients, in small factories or even in peasant households, with respect for quality and manufacturing stages – the most well-known Romanian products already having the status of a brand with a protected geographical indication. It is a discourse about exceptional products. Based on recipes that are about 200 years old, perfecting the manufacturing processes and raising the tradition to the rank of art, the producers manage to offer specialties that give any meal refinement, and even luxury. Foreign tourists taste these products for the first time during the holidays spent in the agrotourism pensions in Romania, and then they look for them in the Romanian stores in their countries or on the eCommerce sites.