Short Food Supply Chains Research Articles

Barriers and facilitators of purchasing from short food supply chains: evidence from consumer focus groups in Germany, Spain, Greece and Hungary

This study aimed to identify the barriers and facilitators of consumers purchasing from short food supply chains (SFSC). Eight focus groups were conducted with consumers in the rural and urban areas of Germany, Spain, Hungary and Greece. Participants generally felt that increasing the convenience of purchasing SFSC products (in terms of a proximal location and being able to purchase a wide range of produce in one place) was a prerequisite for them to buy such products. Food quality in terms of taste, freshness and organic status were also taken into account in purchase decisions, and there appears to be a greater focus on health rather than the environmental implications of organic production, although the environmental aspects are also appreciated. Some participants also like the idea of supporting their local community through purchasing from local producers and/or retailers. It was believed that small-scale production and SFSC result in better quality food, but participants had less confidence in the hygiene and food safety standards of SFSC compared to longer chains. Participants thought that consumers would purchase local food if they could more easily access a variety of local food in one place, such as through supermarkets, cooperatives, farm shops and markets, or an online platform that aggregates producers.

Exploring regulatory obstacles to the development of short food supply chains: empirical evidence from selected european countries

This paper explores the challenges in meeting the regulatory requirements of short food supply chains in 9 European countries based upon findings from the European H2020 3-year project "SMARTCHAIN". The assessments of the barriers that small food producers face in meeting different regulatory requirements are presented. Drawing on the results of 10 multi-actor workshops that involved 124 participants, the most problematic policy frameworks for short food supply chains and key obstacles in different regulatory requirements are summarized. This research shows that current EU and national regulation is an obstacle to the development of short food supply chains, meaning that additional efforts are needed to tailor the regulations to small food producers involved in short supply chains. Furthermore, it is necessary to consider the introduction of more effective support measures for short food supply chains.

An online innovation platform to promote collaboration and sustainability in short food supply chains

A sustainable Short Food Supply Chain (SFSC) requires collaboration among all actors, which nowadays is facilitated by information and communication technologies (ICT). However, not all SFSC stakeholders network with others in this way, and it is not clear what will draw them to ICT interaction. A simple, user-friendly website, the SMARTCHAIN Innovation Platform, evolving since March 2019, may facilitate interaction and cooperation among SFSC stakeholders. This article presents the Platform's development and evaluates its efficacy and impact by analysing data from Google Analytics (GA) and other sources. Primary Platform features promote communication and information sharing: these are the 1) Innovation Hubs in 9 European countries, 2) Inventories including 150 SFSC innovations and 50 SFSC initiatives, 3) Resources databases of Publications and Weblinks, and 4) Training section. GA showed that visitors to the Platform increased slowly in the 16 months since its start, and the number of page views increased with the amount of time on the Platform. The most visited page of the Platform was the information-providing Innovation Inventory. Most Platform users were in partner countries of the SMARTCHAIN project, but not all Innovation Hubs had high numbers of users. Most users arrived at the Platform by direct link, but LinkedIn was the most important originating social network. Taken together, these data suggest growth potential for an easy-to-use website that provides useful and up-to-date information but little inclination for SFSC stakeholders to use an online Platform for communication.

Who Prefers Regional Products? A Systematic Literature Review of Consumer Characteristics and Attitudes in Short Food Supply Chains

The present work is a selection of empirical studies focusing on the characteristics and attitudes of Short Food Supply Chain (SFSC) consumers. Using a systematic literature review approach (PRISMA), we identified five different aspects of the SFSC within the publications: producer participation, swot, state intervention, attitude and “other”. Based on the findings of studies from the academic literature, the results are quite mixed. Though the number of SFSC-related empirical studies has risen in recent years, there is a lack of SFSC-related data, even in the European Union (EU), where a sustainable agriculture and food system must play a crucial role in the implementation of the Green Deal. Overall, it is hard to name those features that, without any doubt, affect the willingness of consumers to purchase from an SFSC. The studies mostly remarked on age and education; however, even these findings cannot be generalized. Therefore, some consumers of non-global food supply chains could be characterized very well, but these observations could differ in diverse cases because of local factors.

Consumer Perceptions about the Value of Short Food Supply Chains during COVID-19: Atlantic Canada Perspective

The recent global COVID-19 pandemic has revealed weaknesses in the global food system, with short food supply chains (SFSCs) and long food supply chains (LFSC) being impacted differently. This raises the question as to whether the pandemic has contributed to a greater interest in and demand for locally produced foods. To answer this question, a study was undertaken to explore how consumers perceive SFSCs in delivering social, economic, and environmental benefits and whether these perceptions have been enhanced during the pandemic. A survey was carried out among consumers in Atlantic Canada who purchase food from SFSCs. Based on 80 valid responses, the findings revealed that consumers perceive SFSCs to deliver more social benefits post-pandemic than they thought SFSCs did before the pandemic. Supporting the local economy, food safety, freshness, and product quality are key motivators of shopping from SFSCs. Consumer perceptions about the sustainability of SFSCs did not vary much based on sociodemographic factors. Also, the COVID-19 pandemic did not significantly alter consumer spending and frequency of shopping from SFSCs. This may affect the SFSCs’ ability to expand operations beyond current levels and suggest the complementarity between SFSCs and LFSCs for more sustainable consumption patterns. The study provides valuable insights into the attractiveness of the local food businesses and the effect of unexpected events such as COVID-19 on consumer behaviors.

Barriers and facilitators of purchasing from short food supply chains: evidence from consumer focus groups in Germany, Spain, Greece and Hungary

Barriers and facilitators of purchasing from short food supply chains: evidence from consumer focus groups in Germany, Spain, Greece and Hungary

RESILINK: increasing resilience of smallholders with multi-platforms linking localized resource sharing

Agriculture is an important sector for income generation, employment and food security in North Africa. Increasing the resilience of smallholders to face unexpected crises is a multidimensional challenge that requires a multifaceted policy. However, common to most crisis situations, the restrictions on movements has many impacts on the availability of distant resources such as agricultural supplies, equipment, services, labours and access to markets to name a few. RESILINK [1] is a Research & Innovation Action (RIA) project funded by the PRIMA organization in the context of the 2021 Section 2 call on Increasing the resilience of small-scale farms to global challenges and COVID-like crisis by using adapted technologies, smart agri-food supply chain and crisis management tools. RESILINK will increase smallholder’s resilience by providing continuity of access to both resources and markets in crisis situations. It will empower the local agri-food value chain model by optimizing usage of local resources, promoting and generalizing local resource sharing approach and facilitating territorial markets. This local agri-food value chain model will also be integrated with the local e-commerce, supply & distribution channels. The concept of localized and short agri-food value chain will also impact on the agro ecological system by minimizing the food losses and contributing to the climate & environment changes with shorter food supply chains and logistics. As a result, new and local innovative services can be identified and created, enhancing further the smallholders' agri-food chain. To implement the generalizing local resource sharing approach, RESILINK will develop a distributed digital resource management platform for real-time exchange of information on territorial resources and supplies & demands; connecting smallholders to new supply, sharing opportunities and distribution channels. While the ideas of connecting smallholders to market and sharing resources are not new, the approach taken by RESILINK is to provide a unique platform-of-platforms capable of integrating existing or future platforms into comprehensive dashboards/portfolios. To achieve its objectives, RESILINK will: develop a resilient RESILINK network ensuring high availability of services where number of distributed, light-weight and collaborating platforms that will be run on the network of Edge-IoT gateways; implement the platform-of-platforms approach for large-scale adoption and sustainability: (a) RESILINK wrapper components will enable resources from existing digital platforms to be discovered & integrated and, (b) RESILINK open API will allow development of new digital sharing platforms that can fully inter-operate with the RESILINK digital resource management platform to benefit from the RESILINK community; use cutting-edge modern Artificial Intelligence where RESILINK’s digital platform will leverage contextual intelligence to efficiently discover resources, identify trends, forecast and propose pertinent correlated resources; seamlessly integrate IoT technologies to automatize a number of information exchanges related to resource sharing. RESILINK will further develop Edge-IoT components and demonstrate IoT integration benefits for resource sharing; run an extensive piloting & evaluation program with smallholders for large-scale testing to ensure RESILINK’s concepts acceptance and validate RESILINK components in a step-by-step and incremental manner

Tüketicilerin PGI tescilli Gümüşhane ev tipi dut ürünleri tüketim tercihleri: Gümüşhane örneği

Gümüşhane’de ikamet eden tüketicilerin geleneksel yöntemlerle işlenmiş menşe işaretli Gümüşhane ev tipi dut ürünlerinin homojenleştirilmiş hedef tüketici kitleleri tarafından tercih edilme nedenlerini ve bu tüketicilerin satın alma modellerine dayalı müşteri odaklı pazarlama taktik ve stratejilerini belirlemek amacıyla, bu çalışma planlanmıştır. Çalışmada kullanılan veriler, Gümüşhane ilinde bu ürünleri tüketen 300 hane halkı ile yapılan anket çalışmasından elde edilmiştir. Elde edilen veriler, tüketim tercihleri ana faktörlerini belirlemek için Principal Component Analiz (PCA) ve tüketim sıklıklarına göre homojen tüketici grupları oluşturmak için de K-means Cluster analiz kullanılmıştır. Araştırma sonuçları; ev tipi dut ürünlerini yoğun bir şekilde tüketen kullanıcılar, satın alma kararı üzerinde yerli fındık-ceviz-dut, yüksek oranlı süt ve bal, fakat düşük düzeyli un ve su bileşiminden oluşan ürün içeriği ile geleneksel işleme teknikleri altında duyusal kalitenin yaratmış olduğu memnuniyet ile bölgesel kalkınmaya katkı sağlamaya istekli olduklarını göstermiştir. Ayrıca, orta düzeyli kullanıcılar, duyusal kalitenin temel belirleyicisi olan ürün içeriğinin geleneksek işleme tekniklerine dayalı temel fayda ve kısa arz zinciri güveni ile hedonik kalite tercihlerini kapsayan bileşik ürün imajına büyük bir önem atfetmektedir. Diğer taraftan düşük seviyedeki kullanıcılar, sosyal çevrenin etkisi ve besleyicilik güdüsü altında ürünle ilgili görsel deneyime dayalı olarak duyusal ve hedonik kalite algısına önem atfederek, gerçek ürün imajı altında kısa gıda arz zinciri güvencesi ile bölgesel kalkınmaya katkı sağlamak istedikleri analiz edilmiştir.

Sustainable Agricultural Development In Indonesia (Article Review)

ABSTRACTThe definition of sustainable agriculture is the successful management of resources for agricultural enterprises to meet changing human needs while maintaining or improving environmental quality and conserving natural resources. The true meaning of sustainable agriculture is one that is economically sustainable which is achieved by: less energy use, minimal ecological footprint, less packaged goods, widespread local purchasing with shorter food supply chains, less processed foodstuffs, community gardens and gardens more houses, and so on Sustainable agriculture relies heavily on returning nutrients to the soil by minimizing the use of non-renewable natural resources such as natural gas (which is used as a feedstock for fertilizers) and minerals (such as phosphates). The most important factors in the utilization of natural resources in a land are soil, sunlight, air, and water.Sustainable agriculture is the implementation of the concept of sustainable development in the agricultural sector. The concept of sustainable agriculture is based on three pillars: economic, social, and ecological.Keywords: Development, Agricultural, Sustainable

Business opportunities in short food supply chains: the economic sustainability of three Hungarian para-gastro restaurants

Business opportunities in short food supply chains: the economic sustainability of three Hungarian para-gastro restaurants

Food shopping preferences in the context of logistic chains of food supplies on the example of consumers from the Podkarpackie voivodeship

The article focuses on consumers' dilemmas regarding the choice of food products. Growing consumer awareness is reflected in everyday choices and has both economic and public health significance. Public awareness is generating a tendency to pay attention to health aspects by choosing fresher, better quality and less processed products. Consumers are increasingly interested in short food supply chains and shortening the time it takes to move food “from the field to the table”. Purchasing behavior is conditioned, inter alia, by the individual hierarchy of values professed by the consumer, in which short food supply chains are identified with better quality, lower price and reduced trade margins. Preferences for local and regional products are also observed. The market provides such opportunities, as legal changes introduced in Poland in 2016–2017 enabled farmers to legally sell food products directlyin an unprocessed as well as processed state. Such sales are carried out in short supply chains. A similar phenomenon is also observed among farmers in many EU countries. Short food supply chains play an important role in the process of creating market advantage of agricultural producers, as food products are quickly delivered to the final recipient. Local markets become very important in this case and direct selling, which lost its importance at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, is gaining popularity again. Logistical food supply chains are considered in various scientific fields. They combine organizational and technical, economic, social as well as cultural, and health dilemmas. The aim of this study was to identify preferences of food supply chains in the context of consumer behavior of the inhabitants of south-eastern Poland. The survey was conducted using the CAWI (Computer-Assisted Web Interview) method. The survey shows that respondents associate food quality with the length of the supply chain, in the declarative sphere, they prefer short food supply chains, but do not use them. A sizeable proportion of respondents said they were willing to pay slightly more for safe and wholesome food. Research has confirmed that the modern consumer increasingly recognizes the importance of the healthiness of products, and links this to shortening the food supply chain.

Classifying New Hybrid Cooperation Models for Short Food-Supply Chains—Providing a Concept for Assessing Sustainability Transformation in the Urban-Rural Nexus

In response to the negative effects caused by structures of the dominant agricultural system and new market opportunities, increasing food supply structures have re-emerged in the urban-rural context of industrialized countries in recent years. These food supply structures often accompany new forms of hybrid cooperation models, including actors and institutions that have not shared resources previously. They form new alliances for sustainable transformation in the agri-food sector. Simultaneously, discourse has arisen in science and practice about the sustainability potential of such hybrid cooperation, referring to a lack of critical systematization and the necessity for creating an assessment concept. From the latter, one could draw conclusions about the transformative potential of such cooperation models and their potential to serve as blueprints for other regions. In this conceptual paper, a classification approach derived from social enterprise literature is elaborated, extended, and evaluated, to design a classification of new hybrid cooperation models that allow comparisons between regions and are sensitive to their dynamics. We show in an application how the classification approach, considering the dimensions “actors”, “resources”, and “actions”, serves to discover patterns in the development of short food-supply chain practices, identifying individual transition paths and, thus, making statements about their sustainability and challenges.

Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Systems and Determinants of Resilience in Indigenous Communities of Jharkhand State, India: A Serial Cross-Sectional Study.

The COVID-19 pandemic has globally jeopardized food security, with heightened threats for the most vulnerable including smallholder farmers as well as rural, indigenous populations. A serial cross-sectional study was conducted to document effect of COVID-19 pandemic on food environment, agricultural practices, diets and food security, along with potential determinants of food systems resilience, among vulnerable smallholder farmer households in indigenous communities of Santhal, Munda, and Sauria Paharia of Jharkhand state, India. Telephonic household surveys were conducted in two phases i.e., lockdown and unlock phase to assess the impact of the pandemic on their food systems and agricultural practices. Market surveys were conducted during the unlock phase, to understand the impact on local informal markets. Secondary data on state and district level food production and Government food security programs were also reviewed. For data analysis purpose, a conceptual framework was developed which delineated possible pathways of impact of COVID-19 pandemic on food environment, food security and food consumption patterns along with factors that may offer resilience. Our findings revealed adverse effects on food production and access among all three communities, due to restrictions in movement of farm labor and supplies, along with disruptions in food supply chains and other food-related logistics and services associated with the pandemic and mitigation measures. The pandemic significantly impacted the livelihoods and incomes among all three indigenous communities during both lockdown and unlock phases, which were attributed to a reduction in sale of agricultural produce, distress selling at lower prices and reduced opportunity for daily wage laboring. A significant proportion of respondents also experienced changes in dietary intake patterns. Key determinants of resilience were identified; these included accessibility to agricultural inputs like indigenous seeds, labor available at household level due to back migration and access to diverse food environments, specifically the wild food environment. There is a need for programs and interventions to conserve and revitalize the bio-cultural resources available within these vulnerable indigenous communities and build resilient food systems that depend on shorter food supply chains and utilize indigenous knowledge systems and associated resources, thereby supporting healthy, equitable and sustainable food systems for all.

Short Food Supply Chains in Europe: Scientific Research Directions

In the food sector, new configurations of supply chains, as opposed to global conventional ones, are drawing the attention of researchers and institutions all over the world. These are presented as a panacea for the recovery of rural economies and, in general, of food system sustainability. In this context the short food supply chains (SFSCs) become relevant, as happens in Europe, where strategies and regulations designed on their implementation were adopted. Recognising that scientific research always plays an important role in guiding institutions’ choices in many fields, it seems important to focus on how SFSCs are considered in the European academic panorama. Therefore, this contribution presents a study performed on a sample of 108 papers published in journals during the last decade. The findings concerning the investigated issues and the approaches to analysing SFSC development and effects are reported from both the producer and consumer perspective. The review strongly emphasizes the factors affecting participation in SFSCs. Moreover, it highlights that the positive perception of SFSC sustainability is not based on scientific evidence. The analysis outlines current research directions and identifies challenges that are still open in order to offer researchers food for thought with a view to developing further future insights.

Legal status of farmers involved in short food supply chains, a comparative study

The legal status of farmers involved in food marketing is not determined by the EU legislator, however, EU policy encourages farmers’ participation in short food supply chains. The article aims to determine whether a farmer selling his products, both processed and unprocessed is subject to a favourable legal regime intended for the agricultural sector, or whether this activity qualifies him as a commercial entrepreneur. The legislation of three EU Member States and the law of the USA were subject to a comparative legal analysis, based on the dogmatic method. The study found that under the EU Member States’ law, farmers involved in short food supply chains are granted a privileged agricultural status, which certainly strengthens their market position in competition with food businesses and big retailers and is an incentive to undertake and conduct the activity of agri-food marketing. In turn, under American law, agricultural activity and direct marketing are economic activities that cause farmers to operate within a business as an entrepreneur. The main tool to support the participation of US farmers in short food supply chains is financial programmes offering incentives to direct marketing. It was concluded that the systemic legal solutions, as in the presented legislation of the EU countries, in contrast to aid programmes, provides farmers with favourable conditions in the long term, without additional bureaucracy and the need to fill out documents and applications, thus giving them a sense of confidence and stability in engaging in food direct marketing.

The Importance of Food Attributes and Motivational Factors for Purchasing Local Food Products: Segmentation of Young Local Food Consumers in Hungary

Future trends in sustainable food consumption include the emergence of short food supply chains and growing interest in local food products. Among the drivers are the more urgent sustainability expectations, the emphasis on environmental and social responsibility, and the changing consumer needs, of which the desire for healthy and quality products, curiosity, uniqueness, and experience are the most prominent drivers. Today’s customers are becoming more aware and open to culinary discoveries and exotic delights. In this study, we investigated the importance of product attributes related to local products, and the motivational factors that determine purchase intentions. The significance of our work lies in the fact that we have studied young consumers’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors. A quantitative consumer survey was conducted using a hybrid data collection method on a sample of 1756 respondents aged between 18 and 45 years. The questionnaire focused on product features, intrinsic and extrinsic motivational elements, and demographic characteristics. The results of our study provide strong evidence that the features associated with local products include but are not limited to the following: freshness, high quality, nutritional value, reliability, safety, evoking domestic flavours, naturalness, being healthy, environmentally friendly, etc. The motivational elements were grouped into four factors: hedonism, curiosity, nutritional value, and tradition. The main reasons for young respondents purchasing local food were taste and curiosity. Based on the results of the cluster analysis, we formed three groups having different features and different motivations for purchasing local products. Moreover, we had the opportunity to understand the attitudes and perceptions of young people towards buying local products. A key result of our study is that the “value-creators” segment considers local products to be healthy and nutritious.

Legal Instruments to Support Short Food Supply Chains and Local Food Systems in France

The aim of the study is to identify legal instruments, implemented in France, supporting short food supply chains and, more generally, local food systems. The research has identified these tools from a variety of domains and levels, including national laws, government policies, and local government initiatives, and analysed them in relation to various forms of short supply chains present in French territory, which are the key components of local food systems, such as direct marketing, producers’ stores, basket systems, urban agriculture, and deliveries to public catering. Overall, the French instruments are multiple, diverse, mostly innovative, take into account social, environmental, and solidarity values, and can be good examples to follow. Most of them are established at the local level, being thus an expression of new models of local food governance, corresponding to the values of a participative economy and food democracy.

Issues and Challenges in Short Food Supply Chains: A Systematic Literature Review

Consumers increasingly prefer more direct and more transparent food distribution channels, such as short food supply chains (SFSCs). Nonetheless, SFSCs face a variety of issues and challenges in their creation and functioning, resulting in limited performance and sustainability, as well as in difficulties of upscaling. This study aims at improving our understanding of SFSCs’ issues/challenges through a systematic review of the most recent literature. We perform a full-text content analysis of 44 studies, looking for answers to the research questions: At which parts of the SFSCs do the issues/challenges occur? How can we characterize the issues/challenges in SFSCs? While doing so, we offer a holistic perspective on SFSCs. We make use of the SCOR model to define SFSC processes as well as to describe the nature of these issues/challenges. The findings of this study shed light on the nature and strategic-tactical-operational level of the issues/challenges in SFSCs and point out the limitations in the existing literature such as the SFSC processes that are neglected. The holistic approach we suggest and the insight on SFSCs’ issues/challenges we provide can help researchers offer effective solutions and strategies to support the overall development of SFSCs.

Mainstreaming Urban Agriculture: Opportunities and Barriers to Upscaling City Farming

Urban Agriculture (UA), i.e., the production of crops or rearing of livestock in cities, is growing in popularity. Upscaled UA is increasingly gaining support from policy makers, funders, local authorities and other key actors across the globe. Radical forms of the concept, in the form of edible rooftops, urban farms and high-tech growing projects, are becoming more commonplace in our cityscapes; enabling production on a level not witnessed previously. With the mainstreaming of large-scale UA comes the potential to further the social, environmental and economic value of the practice, through job creation, biodiversity enhancement, the creation of short food supply chains and other benefits. Yet, despite this growth, there are barriers to upscaling city farming. Evidence suggests that a core issue surrounds urban soil contamination and hesitation with regards to crops in the city. This paper uses a qualitative approach to explore the UK’s largest urban farm and a spectrum of other UA sites to illustrate such barriers. We reveal how public hesitation, financial barriers and soil quality prevent development. We reflect on the breadth of the issue and call for a more pragmatic approach to these barriers. In doing so, we propose a path forward for enabling UA at scale.

Short Food Supply Chains and Small Farms—Evidence from Slovakia

Short food supply chains (SFSCs) is a concept that is relatively new in the conditions of the Slovak Republic, but is developing significantly, mainly with the support of EU policies (CAP, RDP). This paper is focused on the evaluation of the performance of the micro and small agricultural enterprises in short supply chains in the Slovak Republic. We focus on the evaluation of selected economic indicators of small agricultural enterprises and micro-enterprises depending on their participation and non-participation, respectively, in SFSC. Next, we demonstrate the linear relationship between the researched primary and secondary data of enterprises operating inside and outside of the SFSC. Analysing the selected data, we state the ability of farmers operating in the SFSC to produce added-value products and improve their social situation. Additionally, the advantages and disadvantages of associating farmers with SFSCs are demonstrated.