About supplying the public sector

This section provides an introduction to the public sector and how you can develop a collaborative venture to supply the sector.

Public procurement defined

Public procurement is the term used to describe the purchasing of goods or services by national, regional and local public bodies, including central government, local authorities, health services and schools.

Why choose public sector?

Changes in subsidy support the farming industry under the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, means farmers need to become more market focused if their businesses are to remain profitable and sustainable.

In the UK public procurement of food represents a huge market opportunity, worth roughly £2 billion per year, which clearly represents a timely and significant market opening for UK farmers and growers.

Recently, there has been a growing interest in and demand for local and regional produce to provide fresh, healthy, good quality produce into public institutions. In response the Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative's (PSFPI) was established to deliver this. Its aims are to:

  • To raise production and process standards
  • Increase tenders from small and local producers
  • Increase consumption of healthy and nutritious food
  • Reduce adverse environmental impacts of production
  • Supply and increase capacity of small and local suppliers to meet demand

What are the barriers?

The PSFPI has encouraged the development of a number of local initiatives which are successfully supplying local products into local institutions. However, the public procurement sector remains unexplored by many farmers. The Main reasons cited for this lack of uptake are as follows:

  • Farm businesses are often considered too small and fragmented to take advantage of the opportunity. In the past large, often global processors, manufacturers and the large contract caterers and wholesale distributors, have dominated public sector supply.
  • Many farmers are unaware of the growing opportunity for local producers to supply public institutions or are not equipped with knowledge necessary to successfully supply the needs of the market.

Why collaborate to supply the public sector?

Working in partnership with others in the food chain can increase the number of opportunities to supply the public sector, by increasing your ability to supply the quality, consistency and security of supply required.

Partnership working is also increasingly important as public sector organsations are striving to rationalise their supplier base to achieve greater efficiencies. Therefore some suppliers will prefer to deal with a consortium of suppliers rather than many single producers:

"There is another good reason for collaborating/joining a farmer controlled business: larger foodservice companies are rationalising their supplier base for reasons of efficiency, logistics and food safety control and find it easier to deal with larger consortia than with large numbers of individual small suppliers. By working collaboratively producers can consolidate supplies which may help meet volume and distribution requirements of foodservice customers". (Understanding foodservice opportunities for farmers and small food producers: BiTC/IGD Local Sourcing Guide)

What is Share to Supply?

Share to Supply is a simple approach bringing farmers together to supply the public sector market by raising awareness of the opportunities in the public sector and providing information and advice on how to take advantage of the opportunity by working more closely with one another and with others in the supply chain (e.g. food processors, manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors).

EFFP provides farmers with clear examples of how collaboration can offer a mechanism for successfully supplying the public procurement sector from local food hubs (consolidating local supply and distribution) to collaborative marketing initiatives using Share to Supply case study examples.

Most importantly EFFP can offer the assistance and support necessary to those who are interested in taking the next steps to strengthening and growing their business through collaboration through the Share to Supply project.

For more information on Share to Supply contact us.