The Source

Background

For the past 40 years, small scale horticulture has been under-resourced as farms under 5 hectares haven’t been eligible for much funding. The Welsh Government’s newly proposed Sustainable Farming Scheme includes dedicated horticulture support and a lower threshold of 3 hectares, but many small-scale vegetable farms still won’t be eligible. At the same time, Primary School children in Wales need to be eating more veg. These two factors were the key incentives to undertake this action research.

How would this work? 

If the Welsh Government committed to every primary school meal containing 2 portions of veg in the next school year then they would have to supply 5331 tonnes of veg into schools. If this was agroecologically produced Welsh veg then this would generate a guaranteed market for agroecological producers in Wales of around £15m. 

How would it help employment and food producers?

This would involve doubling the area growing field veg in Wales and would support nearly 100 businesses employing nearly 1000 people. It would also have the knock-on effect of developing a regionalised and resilient network of food producers able to supply veg into the heart of their communities.

The courgette pilot report 

The pilot project saw courgettes from Blas Gwent, a Wales-based agroecological grower being delivered to schools in Cardiff via Wales-based wholesaler, Castell Howell with the support of the Sustainable Food Partnership, Food Cardiff.

This research pilot showed that Welsh agroecological veg supply into schools is possible. However, agroecological veg costs more than other and imported veg and if we are to invest in a sustainable supply chains, there is a cost. In this case, kindly paid for by the wholesaler, Castell Howell, it was 90p a kg or £900 a tonne. This was the cost of investing in agroecological supply chain (the difference between £2.50, the UK average organic wholesale price of courgette compared to the cheapest available wholesale price £1.60 = Plus 56%). This 56% increase in the price of the product was the price of investing in the local agroecological supply chain and needs to be covered if we want Welsh Production to be supported by public procurement.

Is it possible? 

School meals provide an opportunity for agroecological veg producers and could stimulate investment in vegetable supply chains in Wales, a sustainable supply chain investment scheme is needed which specifically targets the gap between cheapest available veg and sustainably produced Welsh veg. This could also be applied across other sectors, such as beef and lamb, which also could benefit more from public procurement markets if the cost differential were bridged.

Future plans

There is the opportunity to build on the pilot study, so we can see how a bigger sustainable supply chain investment scheme could work, and if the Welsh Government will meet its commitment to increase the amount of locally produced food. 

Katie Palmer, Programme Manager at Food Sense Wales who commissioned this pilot commented “We’re now hoping to pilot a second phase working with additional Food Partnerships in different areas across Wales; with more producers; more variety of produce; more schools and children and more engagement. The commitment to get Welsh veg onto children’s plates would stay the same but we could work with more producers – looking at different varieties of veg; arranging farm visits, creating a longer pilot study working with more schools, co-working with catering staff and involving children in recipe design. 

“It was so heartening to see the children engage with their food; connecting with where their food comes from, enjoying and discovering locally produced veg. We’re now really looking forward to progressing this study and scaling up this important work.”