Australia: NSW Central Coast get local food value chains

Establishing local food value chains that form strategic alliances between farms and other supply chain partners is one method of ensuring farmers are fairly rewarded for their efforts. However, it is not a simple task to get them up and running.

Tocal College, a Registered Training Organisation that sits within NSW Department of Primary Industries, recently developed and delivered four Local Value Chains workshops based around two main themes – Partnerships, Collaboration and Markets and Food Standards, Channels and Measurement. Farmers, food processors, distributors, chefs and restaurateurs from the Central Coast of NSW worked together to set local food standards and establish common values and principles of collaboration and cooperation. This has led to the formation of the Central Coast Food Collective.

The workshops identified transport and distribution logistics as one of the main challenges. The Collective is already looking to utilise an innovative online digital supply chain system, Hive Exchange to overcome this hurdle.

The Collective was launched this week with a range of tasting plates prepared by local celebratory chef Pauly Mac using only local produce, largely provided by the course participants.

The workshops and the forming of the Collective is an important first step in the Central Coast region realizing its potential as a forward looking region – sustainably producing, processing, preparing and serving high quality, locally grown or processed food to meet the demands of an increasingly sophisticated local food culture and nurture a new tourism market.

For more information:
www.dpi.nsw.gov.au