Kindling has benefited from MMU Business School students over the last few months, exploring the potential for supplying more organic food to Manchester.
Over £60 million is spent in Greater Manchester each year on organic food and other products. The group of six final year students looked at opportunities for local growers and producers to sell more of their produce, via restaurants, higher education establishments and directly to customers via box schemes.
Although the group found a minority of people presently buy or would be interested in buying organic produce, 65% placed an importance on animal welfare/free-range goods and 56% of consumers considered purchasing locally sourced foods.
It was clear from the research, much needs to be done to inform customers that organic standards ensure high animal welfare standards and organic food is not dependant on animal feed, fertilisers and pesticides that are transported huge distances from abroad to conventional farmers.
Alongside the sobering reality of the challenges that face sustainable food businesses they identified a number of opportunities for Kindling and local growers to explore over the coming months. Their recommendations including establishing new (or expanding existing) box schemes and focusing on restaurants who place environmental and animal welfare at the core of their business ethos.
We'd like to thank: Weiping Xu, Robert Tomlinson, Zoe Elliot, Sam Goodey, Adam Smith and Daniel Czerwinski as well as their supervisor: Liz Walley.