Sustainable food supply findings to be shared

Shropshire County Council is holding an event to share their findings, following the successful completion of a project to increase the efficiencies in food supply.

The 18-month project "Increasing Efficiency from Grower to Eater" was undertaken to investigate how to increase the efficiency of food procurement to the public sector. It also explored the potential of local producers working together to meet the needs of local people.

The outcome of this project is set to be discussed on Wednesday 7 November at the new Shrewsbury Town football stadium.

In addition to information about the success of the project, the event will include ideas and case studies about alternative food procurement and supply options from around the county.

Ruth Hudson, Shropshire County Council’s sustainability assistant, said: “The procurement of food is a complex regional, national and global supply chain which is little understood. The benefits of exploring the localisation of this supply chain are potentially great, as a wide variety of produce currently grown within the region is exported at a cost. If this cost can be internalised within the region, not only will councils benefit from improved service delivery, but businesses within the region will also benefit from a healthier local economy.

“This project explored the opportunity to generate improvements through and efficiency review of current food buying practice, build on current partnership work to engage further public sector buyers, and positively influence the regional supply chain to meet customer demands.”

The event is being run in partnership with English Farming and Food Partnerships (EFFP) and the West Midlands Centre of Excellence.

Further information

What has the council done with the findings?
The council has used these findings to make various changes in the way that it sources food in the county’s schools, such as buying food from local butchers and suppliers. It has also visited various parts of the county to share this information.

The project aspirations were to:
- carry out an efficiency review of the council's current methods of food procurement
- look at the feasibility of remodelling service delivery
- make improvements within the supply chain.

The project was carried out in three stages:

The first stage efficiency review highlights that, although healthy, local and organic food has become a higher priority, it is difficult to implement changes over a short timescale, and changes will take time to put into place. It was concluded that probably less than 10% of food procured by all the council establishments was local, despite the efforts over the last couple of years to change this.

The second stage was a feasibility study examining whether local producers could collaborate and create a wholesale style of business(es) capable of year round supply to the public sector, thereby enabling the council to meet customer demand in supplying local produce. This report concluded that the most efficient model would be to follow a local hub model, using different suppliers for different areas of the county.

The third stage was looking to make improvements to the supply chain and establish the potential of producers and suppliers in Shropshire to fit with a local hub model. To attract a wider range of suppliers, it was decided that by providing information in advance of the tender about the contract and how to tender would give businesses with less experience of supplying the public sector the knowledge needed to submit a competitive tender. Through work with the procurement team and the School meals service, it has been possible to implement changes as contracts come up for renewal. The meat contract has been the first to be looked at and is now being supplied by a number of local suppliers.

6 November 2007