A POPULAR food event inspired by BBC's Dragon's Den is returning for its second year.

Hampshire Fare, a not-for-profit organisation supporting local food, drink and craft producers, held its first ever Pig Den last autumn.

It is set to return on July 7 2020, and will see local businesses pitch their products to the buying team for Southern Co-op’s Local Flavours range.

Tracy Nash, commercial manager at Hampshire Fare, said: “This event is a positive business agenda, supporting local businesses and providing great experience for producers to step up to pitch to a retailer with a significant presence across the region.”

More than 20 local food and drink producers pitched a wide range of products last year, from fishcakes and jams to chocolates and spirits.

Crissy Ryan of Bee Good, who pitched at the first event, said: “This represented a major opportunity for us to raise awareness of our brand. We usually have to fight tooth and nail to get in front of buyers.

"For Hampshire Fare to facilitate this for us was very helpful.”

Southern Co-op is currently continuing a number of discussions with Hampshire producers who pitched at the first Pig Den with the hope of getting them stocked on Co-operative Food shelves in the near future.

Matt Elliott, from Southern Co-op’s Local Flavours team, said: “We were blown away by the quality of the products pitched to us last time.

"There was no one winner as we came away with a number of producers we wanted to keep chatting to in order to stock their products in the future."

To apply for membership, producers should contact info@hampshirefare.co.uk or 02380 733830.