SW Rural Update - Making Local Food a Reality - Event 1

This was the title of our most recent South West Rural Update (SWRU) event, held in Exeter on Monday 16 June 2008.

With an audience of sixty participants, representing a range of organisations and businesses from Group Sustainability Manager at Hoburne Holidays and Head of Food and Drink at Corixa Communications, to Senior Specialists in Food Policy at Natural England, it was an opportunity for the University of Plymouth to highlight some new research on ‘Consumers’ Attitudes to Local Food and Their Associated Purchasing Behaviour’.

Monday 16th June 2008, Sandy Park Conference Centre, Exeter

Richard Shepherd and Dr Phil Megicks, University of Plymouth.

Consumers' attitudes and Purchasing Behaviour with Respect to Local & Regional Foods.

Although the term ‘local’ is not strictly defined, it was apparent from the research that for rural populations ‘local’ generally meant from their immediate locality. However, it seems that urban populations in general have very little understanding of what is meant by local food and its benefits and generally do not buy it.

Conclusions were:

• That the definitions of local and regional food are similar across the consumer and trade sectors.
• The actual and intended purchasing frequency is variable i.e. it is overall quite high for home use but not when eating out.
• There is a growing demand for local and regional produce which is consumer led, based on positive attitudes towards produce but these do not always translate into buying behaviour.
• Local and regional food purchases can be classified into four main consumer segments.
• Barriers to consumer buying are exacerbated by logistical and distribution implications.
• Mechanisms are needed to support/increase availability of local and regional foods.

In addition we heard from Mark Oughtred representing the wholesaler Bristol Fruit Sales about their efforts to market local fruit and vegetables from Cornwall as ‘Growfair – Pride of Cornwall’. This has been a successful venture in the two months since the launch but Mark said that this success necessitated some education on the part of the producer to improve quality and presentation of the produce. Growfair, Pride of Devon will be launched next.

Ian Crabtree from the Food Service Partnership gave some useful tips on how to encourage the food service industry to buy local food. “On the whole” he said “the food service sector has little understanding of the benefits of local food and how to source it.” It was suggested that producers of local food need to make it easy if they want to engage them in this agenda.

Andy Jeffery , a board member of FARMA (The National Farmers’ and Markets Retail Association), gave a lively down-to-earth account of the issues selling local food in his award winning farm shop near Bristol. Interestingly, most of his customers referred to the farm shop as ‘their’ shop and really owned the concept of a local shop. They appreciate local facilities in the village, not least because they can have a positive effect on property values – a figure of five thousand pounds on average was suggested!

Input from Carol Somper from ADAS considered the role of local food in a low carbon economy, whilst the afternoon workshop focused on issues and solutions for making local food a reality. Workshop Notes.

Finally, a workshop run by Roger White , Manager of Somerset Local Food Direct (SLFD) highlighted as an example of how the population in Somerset is being encouraged to buy local food SLFD act as a wholesaler working with sixty local suppliers to supply approximately three hundred customers.

Further details for each presentation/workshop can be found by clicking on the appropriate links.

The programme for the second event in October, for which thirty people have already signed up, will be available shortly. Our intention is to work with Taste of the West and others to consider how the issues raised can be tackled for the benefit of the region. The role of tourism in local food also seems to be a topic for further discussion.