Dutch Short Chain Collective accelerates
On the initiative of Local2Local and Amped, the short chain organisations Vereniging Flevofood, Oregional, Boeren van Amstel and ProeVkantoor joined forces in January 2023 and established the Dutch Short Chain Collective. Our cooperation had already intensified since 2020, when we linked local supply with flash delivery company Gorillas, set up emergency aid for vulnerable groups and established the short food chain for caterers.
Over the past year, we have worked hard to meet the challenges and actually seize the opportunities. Currently, our short chains work together in the provinces of Utrecht, Flevoland, South Holland, North Holland, Limburg, Gelderland, Overijssel and in the Rivierenland region. Here, we work with the central Local2Local ordering platform and serve customers by combining existing logistics in the regions.
Why do we work together within the Dutch Short Chain Collective?
Our aim is to make the real value of food felt in the farmer’s wallet, demonstrate the effect of healthy food in the consumer’s belly and get the landscape and added value of healthy soil and belly between the ears of policymakers.
We also call this the BBBBB-movement, or the B-hack: Bodem (soil), Boer (farmer), Burger (citizen), Buik (stomach), Beheer (governance).
- The real value of a healthy Soil, in relation to climate adaptation and health;
- We must reward the Farmer for his exceptional services;
- We involve the Citizen in this process by making them learn, pay and participate so that the Farmer can solve many of our climate, health, poverty and livability challenges;
- We want to completely close the chain from Soil to Stomach and incorporate all values into a new economic design and governance, on a regional scale.
Farmer and Citizen make it together. The short chain is a starting point for the regeneration of soil and society. We focus primarily on the following activities;
- Forming a block towards policy and lobby
- Learn from each other, share resources and invest more effectively
- Realise a proposition for a bigger market and financiers
- Streamline logistical costs based on best practices and multiple first-mile hubs
- Lower marketing costs through standardisation and collaboration
- Intensive knowledge development through collaboration with universities
- Lower IT-costs through platform consolidation
- More evidence for added values of short food supply chains
- National coverage within 6 months and more collaboration with existing short chain organisations
- Joint investments more likely via subsidies
Wat zijn de grootste obstakels waar de korte ketens mee te maken hebben?
Een eerlijke prijs voor boeren levert te weinig marge op voor duurzame bedrijfsvoering voor de uitvoerende korte keten en de eindklant. Toch blijven de korte ketens en marktpartijen tegen de stroom in roeien, omdat ze merken dat korte voedselketens de basis zijn voor het veranderende speelveld richting robuuste, regeneratieve en veerkrachtige regio’s.
What are the biggest obstacles facing short food supply chains?
A fair price for farmers still provides not enough margin for sustainable operations, for both the executive short chain and the end customer. Yet short food supply chains and market players continue to row against the tide as they find that short food supply chains are the foundation for the realisation of robust, regenerative and resilient regions.
Short food supply chains face the following obstacles:
- High logistical costs
- High marketing costs
- Intensive knowledge development
- High IT-costs
- Limited proof for added values of locality
- Strong head wind from market mechanisms and policy
- Powerful anti-lobby and complete mismatch with incentive schemes
Area-based collaboration in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area as a pilot
Our movement and roll-out in the AMA represent an ultimate showcase of how a short chain (collective) can initiate an area-based collaboration towards a robust, regional and regenerative food system.
The lessons learned in the AMA are being picked up in other regions. Together with Province of Flevoland, an exchange and partnership has been set up with the regions of Limburg and Rivierenland.
Video ‘Limburg and AMA work together on a regionally connected food system’
Steward Ownership with Dutch Short Chain Collective
Participating short chains of the Dutch Short Chain Collective and business relations have been brought into a collaborative process. In the coming period, through a so-called steward ownership process, the collective will work on the shared ownership of the trading platform, expand trading with new collaborations, strengthen its innovative power and accelerate the business development.
EU4Advice: multi-year support for short chain innovation with Living Lab AMA
The EU4Advice project builds a learning network of short chain experts and policy makers. Within EU4Advice, Amped, WUR, Amsterdam Institute and Province of Flevoland are responsible for:
- the Dutch Living Lab for short chain in the AMA;
- the development of a co-creation platform knowledge development and exchange of instruments;
- the development of new governance models for short chains;
- the roll-out of a robust, regional and regenerative food system in the AMA as the experimentation environment.
EU4Advice works together with COREnet, the FoodCLIC-project en Data Value Center Agri & Food Short Chain.
Launch Living Lab AMA
On October 9th 2023 (13:00 – 17:30) we will launch our Living Lab AMA in the Natural Pavilion and Food Forum at the Floriade in Almere.
Participants can register here and read more in the first EU4Advice newsletter.
Samenwerking KKCN met Data Value Center Agri & Food Korte Keten
Op 12 oktober organiseert Voedsel Verbindt (penvoerder van Data Value Center Agri & Food Korte Keten) het netwerkevent ‘Leren van Eigen Data’. Ondernemers in de voedselketen produceren niet alleen voedsel maar ook data, vaak zonder dat zij dit zelf weten. We kunnen veel leren van die data, maar hoe? Dit netwerkevent helpt je op weg om data te begrijpen en van te leren. Want data is de sleutel een duurzame bedrijfsvoering. Korte Keten Collectief Nederland draagt hier actief aan bij.
Collaboration between Dutch Short Chain Collective and Data Value Center Agri & Food Short Chain
On October 12th, Voedsel Verbindt (coordinator of Data Value Center Agri & Food Short Chain) is organising the network event ‘Learning from Own Data’. Entrepreneurs in the food chain not only produce food but also data, often without being fully aware. We can learn a lot from that data, but how? This networking event will help you on your way to understand and learn from data. Because data is the key a sustainable business. Dutch Short Chain Collective is actively contributing to this.
Host of the event is the Commissioner of the King for the Province of Flevoland Leen Verbeek. The programme will last from 15:15 to 18:00 hr. You can register here.
Partners of Dutch Short Chain Collective
Local2Local, Coöperatie Oregional, Boeren van Amstel, ProeVkantoor en Vereniging Flevofood werken interregionaal samen met het doel de afzet van regionale producten te vergroten en nieuwe verdienmodellen te realiseren, met behoud van de korte ketenprincipes. Deze hechte samenwerking maakt het mogelijk de leveringszekerheid en de diversiteit van producten en klantgroepen te vergroten. Hierdoor ontstaan belangrijke schaalvoordelen die de ontwikkeling van robuuste korte voedselketens versterken en nieuwe afzetmogelijkheden tot stand brengen.
Local2Local, Coöperatie Oregional, Boeren van Amstel, ProeVkantoor and Vereniging Flevofood are working together interregionally with the aim of increasing sales of regional products and realising new revenue models, while maintaining short chain principles. This close cooperation enables increased security of supply and diversity of products and customer groups. This creates important economies of scale that strengthen the development of short food chains and create new sales opportunities.
New partnerships
In 2023 the short chain partners Beter Bij Ons and Streekproductenplein in regio Limburg joined the Dutch Short Chain Collective.
For this, a knowledge exchange program was organised between the AMA and Limburg georganiseerd (with support by LIOF), for clustering in the Limburg short chain and connecting local food with health care institutions.
Join
Would you like to learn more and join the Dutch Short Chain Collective? Then register here, we will contact you as soon as possible.
