Co-Creating A Thriving Local Food Economy
I feel proud that we launched our local food networking event, Greet Your Growers, last week. We had an amazing turnout of interested, and interesting folk of growers, chefs. Food companies, and online distribution were also represented.
Our event opened with a panel exploring the issues around the local food economy from the perspective of a commercial grower (mwah), an executive chef (Matthew Kemp), a commercial flower farmer and retailer (Hannah Lea – Our Little Flower Farm), and retailer Santos Mullumbimby (Marcelo).
In summary…
WHAT THE GROWERS WANT
1. A fair price for their local grown produce
2. Committed buyers
3. Communication with Buyers
4. Local Distribution
The growers need access to committed local sales channels, that are prepared to pay the real value of the food they produce. As local growers, our produce may be more expensive than can be purchased from the distributors, as we are not working at the same scale. However, the produce we provide is fresher, and therefore lasts longer, and often it is only priced, the same or slightly more. As awareness around local food increases, there is also definitely the opportunity for chef’s and other buyers to promote the food stories of the growers to the local community for mutual benefit.
Selling to wholesale accounts requires growers to have some experience, in order to maintain supply for your customers throughout the seasons, and varying weather conditions. For new and young growers, without access to farmers markets or co-operatives, it is tricky to find the opportunities to allow them to learn, and perfect their production systems to maintain supply to their customers.
Local distribution is a significant issue for growers in the Nth Rivers. For myself, I needed to make the choice to supply a few larger buyers.
Rather than distributing to many smaller business’s, which is a logistics issue for me.
WHAT THE BUYERS WANT
1. Consistency and Quality of produce
2. Communication
3. Similar pricing to what they receive off the distributors
4. Reliability
The roadblock for the chef’s, florists and retailers in buying produce off local growers is their experience with growers consistency of supply…and their ability to communicate that in advance. As business’s they must have a guaranteed supply, or make immediate alternative arrangements. It is more convenient at this time for the majority of them to purchase produce off the wholesaler, who can deliver reliably most days, and with one invoice.
THE SOLUTION
The issues we see in our local food economy are replicated in many places around the world. One of the solutions that has been successful, is to form growers co-operatives, or Grow-operative as I like to call them In places like Holland, (they are global leaders in this), their farmers belong to co-operatives, and all of the produce is sold this way.
The farmers come together to market, sell and distribute their produce under one brand, or under one platform. This is great for growers, as they can have access to larger markets, and can protect and guarantee reliable supply chains for their buyers, whilst ensuring a fair price for the growers produce. More experienced growers can also provide mentorship and apprenticeships, to new or young farmers giving these folk a viable entry into the world of commercial growing.
Hannah has created a small scale model of this for the flower growers in our region. She holds a local flower market on fridays in her retail space in the Newrybar Merchants featuring local growers, and selling to local florists, wedding and event organisers.
It is our shared dreaming to birth a grow-operative, or food hub, in the Nth Rivers to encompass fresh produce, and flowers. In this way, we can increase food sovereignty in the area, and become part of the solution in reducing food miles, moving to sustainable agriculture, and improving the health of our food, our planet, and our communities in kind.
From my heart to yours,
sheia x
