Comment: From farm to plate – it’s time to work together

British farmers and public-sector caterers have more in common than is often recognised.

Farmers are producing high-quality British food amid huge seasonal variation, rising costs and growing pressure to demonstrate their environmental credentials.

Caterers, meanwhile, are catering for thousands of people a day within tight budgets, specific sector standards, procurement frameworks and fluctuating demand.

See also: Can supplying the public sector work for farmers?

Recent inflation and international supply-chain disruption have also shown how exposed both operations can be.

The two sides need to come closer together – not simply so farmers supply more, or public caterers commit to buying British, but so each understands the other’s world well enough to find practical ways of working together.

Farmers should use every opportunity to show caterers what they produce, when they produce it, and how it can fit within existing menus and procurement requirements in terms of quality, traceability, animal welfare and seasonality.

Caterers, in turn, need to explain the realities of public-sector catering – the budgets, procurement rules, contracts, volumes, specifications, storage, logistics and the peaks and troughs of demand across the year.

Seasonal availability

Public-sector menus should also better reflect what Britain produces and when. That means building menus around seasonal availability, planning with farmers and producers rather than simply buying from them.

Value, in this context, is more than the cheapest price. It includes quality, yield, nutrition, consistency, reliability, reduced waste, traceability and environmental impact, with the economic value retained within British farming and food production.

This is where farmers and caterers need an open, honest conversation – and where the biggest opportunity may not be a national contract at all, but the farmer down the road.

To achieve this, public caterers should visit local producers, invite them into kitchens and talk through volumes, specifications, pricing and logistics, and so build the kind of relationship that a national framework never will.

For farmers, there is real value in speaking with a stronger, more united voice. Campaigns such as Love British Food and its annual British Food Fortnight provide a genuine opportunity to bring farmers, producers, caterers and the public together.

But “the fortnight” should not be limited to two weeks in September. It should be a catalyst: a chance to start conversations, build relationships, adjust menus, create procurement opportunities and educate customers in ways that continue long after the campaign itself has finished.

Local hub

One practical way to give that legacy shape is a local cooperative or procurement hub: a regional structure through which farmers and producers can pool supply, coordinate volumes and specifications, and offer caterers a single, reliable point of contact.

That kind of aggregation can make buying local genuinely workable at scale, rather than a well-meaning ambition that falls apart against the realities of contracts and logistics.

It would give public caterers a single interface for forecasting, specifications, assurance, traceability, invoicing and distribution – bridging the gap between excellent local producers and the practical requirements of institutional catering.

Government has a role to play too. Public sector buying standards should be properly enforced to make sustainable, climate-friendly British produce mandatory.

British farmers, British producers, procurement teams and public-sector caterers, working together, add up to a stronger British food system – one in which patients, care-home residents, students, prisoners and armed forces personnel all become part of the British food story.

Success should not be measured by the percentage of British produce purchased alone, however.

It should be judged by whether farmers have sustainable markets, caterers have dependable and affordable supply, kitchens can use the ingredients effectively, and customers receive good food with a provenance they understand.