A TWO-WEEK campaign to promote food produced in the North-East has been hailed a success by organisers.

North-East Food Fortnight, which ended on Sunday, aimed to increase sales for small, speciality food and drink producer and was backed by The Northern Echo.

Karl Christensen, chairman of organiser Northumbria Larder, said many restaurants and cafes in the region joined the buy-local, eat-local campaign.

"For the first time, in many cases, they realised just how good the food is in this region," he said.

Sales of locally-produced meats, cheese, preserves and ice-cream saw substantial increases during the fortnight.