Thousands flocked to Taste Tamworth’s 10-day food, wine and produce extravaganza earlier this month to revel in the district’s mouth-watering wares.

Tamworth Regional Council economic and destination development manager Craig Dunstan said it was “really exciting” to see the premier event grow.

“The fact that it is building on its own success is really wonderful for us,” Mr Dunstan said.

“We’ll keep on growing it, keep on pushing it.

“We are actually looking at how to build our regional produce and experiences all year round – that’s something we are looking into seriously – we’re very keen to do it.”

One way would be to leverage off the already popular Farm Gate Trail, Destination Tamworth development officer Erin Carroll said.

Launched in 2013, the initiative engages 20 farms and producers within a two-hour self-drive radius of Tamworth (or 100-mile “food radius”) to demonstrate local goods.

“The Farm Gate Trail is a concept that Destination Tamworth will be expanding on throughout the year to showcase our year-round regional produce offering,” Mrs Carroll said.

“We have such high-quality regional produce right here on our doorstep and the Farm Gate Trail provides a great authentic country taste experience, which enables us to educate our residents and visitors about the great regional produce.”

It was the second year the council had run the festival.

Mr Dunstan said he was keen to collaborate with the community and multiple stakeholders on the event’s future.

“We are looking for suggestions from operators to find out if we are heading the right way,” Mr Dunstan said.

“We also trying to work out where people are coming from.

“If people come from further away and stay overnight then we start to hit the goals ... suddenly there’s more spend in the community; that’s why we do these events.”