Vossabia won the national Business Development Award in Agriculture! 🏆🎉 Thank you! 💚

So, what happened? Here's a little travelogue from Berlin, where Vossabia was invited by Innovation Norway together with the two other finalists for the national BU award that is awarded in connection with the food and agricultural fair Internationale Grüne Woche in Berlin in January every year 🙌 The two brilliant companies that were in the final together with Vossabia were Hørte farm , which runs organic vegetable production by Tyrifjorden, and the farm hotel and restaurant Til Elise Fra Marius in Utskarpen in Nordland 🤩💛

What is the BU Prize? 🏆

- Innovation Norway awards the Business Development Award in Agriculture every year on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food.
- The Business Development Award in Agriculture is a business and industry development award for founders of successful businesses or industries based on agricultural and rural resources 🌿🐝
- One winner will be chosen in each county, with a prize of 50,000 kroner.
- The county winners compete for the national prize of 250,000 kroner.
- Three candidates will be nominated for the national award and will be invited to the award ceremony in connection with the International Green Week in Berlin in January.

Candidates are assessed according to the following criteria:
- Sustainability 💚
· Financial result/payroll
· Social such as employment and ripple effects in the local community
· Environmentally, such as utilizing local resources, promoting local culture and reducing emissions
- Innovation/new creation

Minister of Agriculture and Food Pollestad was to present the award on behalf of Innovation Norway at the Nordic embassy complex on Thursday morning. I was completely calm and just felt proud and happy to have made it to the final in the company of such incredibly talented companies as Hørte gård and Til Elise 😌 BUT, when the Divisional Director for Community and Business Development at Innovation Norway, Tina Stiegler, presented the Business Development Award and turned up the atmosphere, yes, that's when the nerves and excitement came!! 😁 Minister Pollestad was given an envelope, and said that this was so secret that even he didn't get to know the winner in advance. Then he read the jury's reasoning:

"About this year's winner of the national business development award in agriculture, the jury says:
This year's winner of the national business development award is a worthy winner and a good representative of the exciting creativity and innovation that occurs within and in connection with agriculture. The winner has achieved impressive results by seeing opportunities, determination, skills and interaction with others. The winner of the national business development award in agriculture for 2024 is Vossabia AS.

😱😃🎉🥂

Oh my God, Emil and I cried out, tears came and I was completely weak in the knees 🥹! Luckily, my wonderful kids Emil and Ylva were there, as well as my super nice sister Heidi, and I was so proud when I stood in front of those who have been with me for all these 21 years, and was awarded the award. Big moment for all of us 💕🐝! 

Then there were pictures and interviews and very nice and kind greetings from many nice people. So grateful, and so humble, and so moved! And such incredibly wonderful people we have met! 🤗

Innovation Norway's super nice and very pleasant advisors who were on the trip made this especially memorable. They organized the trip, dinners and receptions and made us three finalist companies feel so proud with beautiful speeches and lots of attention. They made Vossabia, Hørte gård and Til Elise Fra Marius feel extra proud and touched 👏 And for me it was such a perfect time to reflect on, and dwell on, everything that has happened these 21 years and all the work that has been put in. Because it is overwhelming and nice to think that standing up for what you believe in, not giving up or taking shortcuts, working for holistic health, communicating the interaction with health and nature, and using local resources on the farm and developing products that actually work, yes it does give results! 🙏

The incredibly competent and very handsome advisors at Innovation Norway made the trip extra nice: special advisor Kjell Bruvoll, communications advisor Herman Ringstad and not least advisor Ann Elisabeth Tveit, who has been following us closely since last fall.

And it was a privilege to meet and get to know Hørte gård and Til Elise Fra Marius! What a people and businesses, and what an impressive product and result 😍! I know for sure that these two businesses and farms are worth visiting! And I recommend everyone else to do so too! Check them out!
👉 Heard Farm
👉 To Elise From Marius

We also had a day at the world's largest consumer fair, Grühne Woche, and the Norwegian area there is so impressive 🙌 This year, the focus is on the Fjords and the North, and the best local food producers are there, serving and selling delicious creations of the best we have to offer in the country. There are probably about 400,000 visitors who stop by the fair that week, so there are many people in action from farms, the Ministry of Agriculture, the county governor's agricultural department, food networks, the business delegation and everyone is working to promote Norwegian food and tourism together! Exciting days to be Norwegian in Berlin! 😉 

We wandered around and looked and tasted our way through many countries 😋 In the Lithuanian area, we hung out a little extra long, because there we could recognize ourselves in several of the products. There were fantastic honey combinations 🐝, including Honey with Sea Buckthorn! I love and adore sea buckthorn for its taste, but most of all for the absolutely insane health benefits of this super berry 💪🧡 I would rather eat or drink it every day, and of course I apply sea buckthorn at least once a day. I should have brought Sea Buckthorn and Nettle and Sunscreen with Sea Buckthorn to the fair and showed these talented Lithuanians!

👉 What do you have to do to get FREE SHIPPING?
Write BU-PRIS in the order note/discount code field in the shopping cart. See the image 👇

There was also a Lithuanian cosmetics manufacturer who gave us some Vossabia vibes 🤩 A handsome guy was the man behind it, he made all the recipes the way I do, and everything is handmade and they use the amazing beeswax and good plant oils 🪴💚 So it was great to meet a colleague who thinks the same way I do, and we had to buy and test some products from EVIJA naturali cosmetics.

🌿 Juniper was popular in cosmetics there too, and we understand that: because damn what properties juniper has for skin and hair 😉 Recommended if it's from Voss or Lithuania!

Our Berlin trip ended with a day as tourists and we took the important walking and history tour Third Reich and the Cold War. But, that was just about enough! It was Emil's quick mind and clever invention that made it possible! We had messed up and had 25 minutes to walk while the tour started in 12 minutes 🏃‍♂️! Emil had the brilliant idea to rent scooters 🛴, and Aunt Heidi who barely knows how to download an app had to stay behind with Emil, while Ylva, I and Emil sped off all over Unter den Linden before we arrived on time to the guide with the pink umbrella! Hahaha, I wish I had that view on camera 😂 

Cold trip about the Cold War, but we knew how to cope and got warm at the interactive balloon and sensory museum! We got to play through many rooms and both adults and children were satisfied 😊

Berlin has a lot to offer, and some of the coolest things were the VR glasses and the History of Berlin in the television tower that showed Berlin's rise from the 13th century to the present day! Wow! We are inspired to go again when it gets warmer and greener! Now it was actually Ice Cream weather! ❄️

Thank you for us Berlin, thank you Innovation Norway, but most of all thank you to all the wonderful customers who are the backbone of what we do! 💖 Without them wanting to use and buy the products we are passionate about developing by using the resources of the farm and nature with a holistic health mindset behind everything, there would have been no Vossabia in the long run, and certainly no BU prize! Lots of love from the bottom of my heart to you ❤️🥹

Warm regards,
Queen bee 🐝 in Vossabia