The Soil Association's food and farming department are currently implementing a Defra funded support programme for England's organic sector . Find out how it could make a real difference to your business. Nick-named 'George' or - Growing England's Organic Regional Enterprise, the project is the culmination of over two years' planning and fundraising by the Soil Association, with input and guidance from organic businesses across England.

What is the project's aim? To improve support for organic businesses in each of England's nine regions through providing better market information and targeted business support, as well as helping to develop and support organic supply chains.

Words – and action

You may remember taking part in our feasibility study about three years ago when we looked at what marketing support the organic sector in England actually needed. It was the biggest consultation exercise ever carried out in the organic sector. It brought together views from a national, regional and enterprise-specific perspective.

Hearing about the problems first-hand from almost 300 farmers, growers, retailers, processors and Defra representatives – and the ways we can all work together to overcome them – was invaluable. This consultation process helped to identify four main 'threats' or problems facing the organic market and individual organic businesses:

• Declining returns to producers and rationalisation in the supply base
• Limited consumer awareness about food production, and the benefits of buying organic food
• Lack of new and alternative high-volume markets and/or the required processing and distribution capacity for these markets
• Lack of producer co-operation

Strategies for solutions

During the consultation process with organic businesses a range of strategies were identified which could help to combat the main 'threats' facing the organic market. These focused on:

• Developing a coordinated national, regional and local communication approach around a few 'core' messages
• Increasing security and confidence in buyer-to-supplier relationships
• Encouraging producer co-operation throughout the organic sector and across the regions
• Developing local and regional supply chains

While the market has rapidly changed over the last two years, with demand now outstripping supply for many products, the issues listed above still hold very true. In fact, the need to influence market development and the relationships between producers, processors and retailers is now even more pertinent if we want to put structures in place that will ensure the long-term prosperity of England's organic producers.

Thanks to a Defra Rural Enterprise Scheme (RES) grant, which covers all of England's regions, the project will allow the food and
farming team to focus on:

1. Improving support for organic businesses in each English region
2. Improving the availability of regional market information
3. Supporting the development of collaborative, transparent and equitable supply chains
4. Providing business support for regional clusters of organic businesses

But what exactly will all this mean on the ground for England's organic businesses?

Improving support

By working in consultation with as many businesses as possible, the project will allow us to produce a specific Organic Action Plan for each of England's regions. These plans will identify key actions and priorities in the areas of policy and strategy, technical issues, market information, supply chain and infrastructure, and new market development.

These priorities will allow us to approach and engage with regional Government and other support structures to help develop and improve the range of services and support that is available to England's organic businesses. These regional Organic Action Plans will also play a key role in directing the Soil Association's future development work and that of other organisations involved in the organic sector over the next five years.

The project will also allow us to run a number of short-term collaborative group business development programmes for regional clusters of organic businesses involving producers, processors, retailers and other players in most of England's regions. Business support will also be available for both established and newly formed regional clusters of organic businesses, with the aim of helping businesses to improve their performance and output, supporting one another in the process.

The actual programmes will depend on the needs of the businesses in their respective regions and may focus on, for example, increasing local demand or improving accessibility to build direct sales, or improving collaboration between businesses, or providing technical advice and support to help access public catering markets.

Improving market information

A key aim of the project is to support the growth of direct sales and increase the local sourcing of businesses within the English regions. As part of the programme of activities, the team will provide improved market information across England. This will be achieved by developing regionally specific online trade directories to promote organic sales outlets to local consumers and to support and encourage business-to-business trade.

In addition, to help businesses that are new to organic – or those that are planning to expand – the team will carry out research to identify what is currently produced and sold in each region, and the extent of demand from processors and retailers. More regular and specific price information will also be collated and disseminated on our website and we also intend to strengthen market intelligence within specific areas, such as projecting the expansion of production of arable crops through additional land coming into conversion.

Supply chain focus

Ben Raskin will work alongside Phil Stocker, head of food and farming, to support the building of collaborative, transparent and equitable supply networks involving producers, processors, retailers and other actors as required. This work will focus on improving trading relationships between larger scale businesses on a national and regional scale. However, we are confident that this work will also benefit supply for local sales and for the public procurement market.

In our work with national retailers the focus is on growing their supply base in line with demand through farmer controlled marketing groups and cooperatives, and on supporting the development of contracts that encourage all parties to work together fairly and sharing risk appropriately.


New opportunities

The project should also provide real opportunities for businesses to move in directions which they have previously been unable to. We already have many examples of the types of improvements that businesses want to make: from being able to source product ingredients regionally that are not currently unavailable, such as fruit for yoghurt makers, to enabling the establishment of production and processing of products that local consumers want but which are not currently being produced, such as poultry meat in regions where direct organic sales depend heavily on beef and lamb.

These activities should provide new business opportunities for food manufacturing companies and for producers who may want to become suppliers or even processors in their own right. As well as facilitating these developments we also hope to focus on achieving a better understanding of the costs of production among organic businesses through benchmarking techniques and value chain analysis.

This is an ambitious and wideranging project and we believe that it will make a real difference to England's organic businesses. But we need your help and guidance to make it happen.

Contacts

Contact the following people for more information – or to get involved:

Business support:
Sarah Dyke - Business development co-ordinator
E: sdyke@soilassociation.org
T: 0117 914 2400

Supply chain facilitation:
Phil Stocker - Head of food and farming
E: pstocker@soilassociation.org
T: 0117 914 2400

Ben Raskin - Supply chain and technical team manager
E: Braskin@soilassociation.org
T: 0117 9142400

This programme is supported under the England Rural Development Programme by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the European Agriculture Guidance and Guarantee Fund.