RESEARCH REGARDING TRADITIONAL AGRI-FOOD PRODUCTS FROM THE BANAT MOUNTAINS

Abstract

The Romanian rural economy in general, and rural tourism - an important component of sustainable rural development - in particular, have been confronted in the last three decades with the strongest international economic and social trends of globalisation and standardisation, by taking over and generalising agricultural, food and gastronomic practices, procedures and processes laid down in European framework regulations. Due to the unprecedented increase in the speed of movement of information, people and capital, this phenomenon, generically referred to as globalisation, has had and continues to have a number of positive economic, social and cultural aspects, the effects of which cannot be disputed. Parallel to the phenomenon of globalisation, standardisation, phenomena opposite to globalisation and standardisation have also emerged in many countries, regions, areas and communities, areas of economic and social-cultural activities, tendencies of return, promotion and expansion of traditional, identity-based activities. This phenomenon has become increasingly evident in the last two or three decades in European countries such as Italy, France, Spain, Greece, Austria and, more recently, in the Eastern European countries that joined the EU after 2005 and 2007. In this paper we aim to present the possibilities of knowledge and extension of the production of some traditional products in the households of two areas in the South of Mountainous Banat - the Danube Plain and the Almăj Valley - and their economic effects on rural tourism in these areas.