08 June 2023

Improving the sustainability of short food supply chains across Europe

Background

Over the last seven years, I’ve had the pleasure to work on various EU-funded research and innovation projects investigating the competitiveness, resilience and sustainability of agri-food supply chains and the identification of market strategies to improve how they function, writes Barbara Tocco, Senior Research Associate and Centre Manager.

For instance our Horizon-2020 project ‘Strength2Food’, coordinated from Newcastle University Business School and bringing together a large multi-actor consortium of 30 partners, looked at quality food markets and, specifically, at short food supply chains (SFSCs) as a tool to reconnect producers and consumers and ensure a more sustainable and just food system. As part of the project, we examined the social, economic and environmental impacts of SFSCs and developed good practices and recommendations for both practitioners and policy makers (see our Strategic Guide on SFSCs).

By the term SFSCs we mean ‘alternative’ and ‘local’ types of food networks (e.g. farmers’ markets, food hubs, box schemes etc.) which are typically characterised by a close geographical, social and organisational proximity between producers and consumers – and which often operate via direct producer-consumer relations, or a very limited number of intermediary actors.

SFSCs are often praised in both academic and policy discourse for their potential to deliver substantial economic, social, and environmental benefits, and contribute to sustainable development. They can play a two-fold objective. They can be a means for small-scale producers to improve their market returns and their position within the value chain (what we refer to as their ‘bargaining power’), while they can aid consumers in improving their trust in the quality and safety of food, providing transparency and information on where the food comes from, including methods and standards of production.

While there is increasing EU policy support to foster sustainable food systems ‘for people, planet and profit’, the empirical evidence suggests that a lot of SFSCs fail to realise the intended benefits and often present a set of common problems. For instance, in terms of scale and operational efficiency, capitalising opportunities for public procurement, environmental inefficiencies in last-mile logistics and coordination (see latest NICRE research to address this latter).

A further issue, often limiting their successful operation concerns the nature of the support available – in other words, across Europe, traditional agricultural advisory and extension services are not typically geared up to help SFSCs.

EU4Advice - creating a network of SFSC advisors to foster better capacity building and knowledge exchange

Towards the end of last year, a new five-year Horizon-Europe project ‘EU4Advice’ was launched to build a better network for SFSCs across Europe and bringing together a large consortium of 20 partners from 13 countries – see our project page. The NICRE team at Newcastle University, with myself and Prof Matthew Gorton, represent the UK partner and bring experience and expertise from our sister project ‘Strength2food’.

One of the initial tasks of EU4Advice is to map business advisors and experts, who address food supply chain and SFSC issues, across Europe and connecting them in a pan-European network. The aim of the network is to improve the integration, governance and functioning of advisory services and capacity building for SFSCs, with the aim of fostering the upscaling of consumer-producer chains across Europe. Ultimately, the network will give rise to a strong ecosystem for the effective transfer of knowledge among stakeholders in the 27 EU member states and associated partners in Europe, via peer-to-peer learning and integration into existing Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS).

In each country, we are identifying SFSC business advisors and experts, who are already delivering business support formally or informally, and operating from different types of organisations (public, private and third sector).

Next steps - recruiting experts and advisors

While we’ve been busy ‘mapping’ advisors over the last few months, we still have some places available for experts to join the UK network. Their views, experiences and competencies on SFSCs will help set the foundations for a strong and effective SFSC ecosystem and coordinated support across Europe. Once part of the European network, they will be asked to complete a brief questionnaire on SFSCs and take part in networking activities, including thematic workshops, knowledge sharing and collaboration opportunities. All views and contributions will feed into policy recommendations at the EU level, and future opportunities for those within the network will emerge, with Europe-wide recognition.

If you’re interested to get involved, or would like further info on the project, please contact me at  barbara.tocco@newcastle.ac.uk 

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