A story of EXPORTATION

Is it somehow sold in Italy? Europe?

 

Do other South Americans know about mate in Europe?

 

Do other Europeans know about mate in Europe?

 

Are there any other case studies in Europe? 

 

How to get reliable statistical data? Contact the correspondent agencies in America? Surveys?

 

The situation regarding mate in Europe is as follows: general acknowledgement of its existence, with an evident lack of awareness of what it actually is and how it works. There is a lot of misinformation too: people getting their friends and relatives mates as souvenirs, not knowing or simply not explaining its use, brings to a dilagant ignorance of how it is traditionally prepared and consumed. This is due to the lack of presence of it in the media as well. A huge increase in researches being done online about mate and generally Argentinian culture was the consequence to Pope Francis’ election: pictures of him drinking mate from the hand of his followers surfaced on every network, newspaper and social media, and all of a sudden, everyone in Italy and around the world wants to know what mate is.

Even though mate is pretty popular in Italy (though largely misunderstood), probably because of the many families of Italians in South America, it is pretty popular in Germany as a soda. It is practically unknown in France, commercialized by a small group of Argentinian entrepreneurs in Spain (it is mostly known in Barcelona, due to a huge number of Argentinians there). Its existence is widely undocumented anywhere else in Europe.

The first step in studying this case should be developing a survey to collect official data about the knowledge about what mate is and publish it on different supports: the more people the survey reaches, the better, it doesn’t need to be a huge thin, just a few specific questions.

While waiting for the results of the survey I kept investigating the European market, looking for other existing initiatives, while collecting specific statistical data about its production in South America and its market value, the different varieties of mate, straws, yerbas and which other elements are still today necessary to the correct preparation of the traditional mate. An investigation on how the right process is supposed to be in preparing the set and producing the elements if it, as well as the scientific and anthropological reasons behind the way mate is usually drank by sharing the same cup and straw.

Moreover, the investigation should focus on the way this tradition can become a habit to this new market, unritualized, freed from the chains of tradition, the European environment can inglobate this new trend? How? What needs to change?

This could be studied by organizing workshops and a degustation with and for the public, the interested target of this research. Which is still to be defined.

I believe that to really obtain reliable statistical data (from surveys, workshops, personal observations and publications), I’ll first have to get deeper into the history and origins (real and mythological) of mate and yerba mate. This will give me and insight on the meaning of this ritual and moreover I’ll know which parts of it are essential to the integrity of the drink, if there are, and which ones are not and could be hypothetically deleted or changed to appeal to this new market. The most noticeable problem is the lack of public representation of mate or the overly exaggerated ethnicality of it: nearly as if it was some kind of secret drug ritual, to be practiced in hiding rooms, in the darkness of secrecy. It is a true shame, because even the people who are introducing it into the European panorama openly claim that they are produced and imported by Argentinians for Argentinians. This is a very close-minded line of action when it comes to marketing, and especially discriminating towards a large part of possible buyers.

and my own anthropological and social analysis and observations. 

Once mate will be changed into its new self, it will be seen beyond its origins, traditions and rituals, and embraced as the healthy and affordable alternative to coffee and tea.

Instead, I’d like to bring it forward on the scene of goods market. It would certainly be a healthier solution not just to coffee but also to any other energizing drink on the market. 

Moreover, I’d like to spread the real mate culture, because it is essential to the correct consumption of it in a healthy way. This, of course, without the constrains of the ethnicity if the drink as reserved to its country of origin, that seems to be a huge barrier and not an added value to the product itself.

To achieve this, I plan on designing a new mate. I would keep the basic elements from the yerba, but I would delete as many elements as possible from the cup and straw, as respectfully as possible. In order to create a new way of drinking mate, a redesign of all the elements that make mates so ethnical is absolutely necessary. 

Mate must be simplified and redesigned to be globally appealing, in order to make it become well known both because of its benefits and the statistical data collected by previous scientific studies and my own anthropological and social analysis and observations. 

Once mate will be changed into its new self, it will be seen beyond its origins, traditions and rituals, and embraced as the healthy and affordable alternative to coffee and tea.