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In 2009 the South East Food Group Partnership (which manages the South East Seafood project) embarked on a project to improve supply chains into London.
 Having worked in the sector for many years, in particular with the wholesale markets and buyers based in the capital, it was felt that a lot of the business development efforts should be pulled together to meet the demand for local food as well as opening up new markets for farmers, fishermen, growers and producers in the areas around the capital.
If SEFGP was to develop a hub business or organisation pulling the supply chains together and further develop demand, we felt it was essential to find out exactly what demand there is and where.
With the support from SEEDA, EEDA and the LDA, a feasibility study was undertaken to quantify this demand and pinpoint at particular market segments. The report, produced by Bidwells Agribusiness in Cambridge, was published at the end of 2009 and highlights many opportunities for a wide range of product categories.
Trade Demand
The survey looked at both trade buyers and total consumer demand. As part of the project an extensive business survey was undertaken of food buyers from the retail and food service sectors.
55% of respondents said they would like to buy more local / regional seafood (this was 69% for those working in the contract catering business and even 90% of chefs in hospitals) but the proportion of local seafood bought compared to British or Foreign is currently only 30%.
74% of buyers like to know where the food comes from that they buy and freshness and environmentally friendly credentials are strongly associated with local food. (70% and 55% resp.).
The report identifies that the main barriers are availability, consistency and quality of supply as well as cost.
What is clear is that buyers have a great deal of difficulty finding regional products. Sourcing is a problem both in terms of identifying the fishermen and/or finding a supply chain that makes the product available to them. The report identified that although buying a plethora of regional products from 'one point of contact' was valuable to buyers, they are increasingly looking to form relationships with the supplier so that they could understand more about the products’ provenance.
Consumer demand
In addition, the feasibility study undertook an estimate of the total consumption of fish/seafood compared to the landings in the South East and East. Over a year, it is estimated that 82,000 tons of seafood is consumed in the capital, about 10kg per person. We also know from further research that 60% of the population would like to buy locally caught species if they can, which translates into a potential market for locally caught seafood of 50,000 tons. When you relate this to the landing figures of 17,910 tons, of which a large part is currently being exported, we conclude that there are many opportunities to supply the capital with the catch landed in South East of England.
The report provides a thorough analysis of who wants to buy what and how. To take the idea of a London Food Hub further, it was recommended:
1. That we look into a ‘virtual emarketplace’ linked to a physical presence. This could bring a lot of existing as well as new suppliers and buyers together, putting them on a higher platform and providing a direct link to the producer/fisherman as well as a one stop ordering point. At the same time the system should rationalise distribution and use a backhauling system and aim to consolidate all product category deliveries to the end users in a single drop possibly by electric vehicle.
2. To meet the general demand for locally produced food by consumers which is largely undersupplied at the moment, it was also recommended to develop existing street markets in the capital into local and regional food beacons, offering fresh produce to the end consumer at all socio–economic levels.
The South East Food Group Partnership is now finalising the methodology for the development of a business plan to take the recommendation for a virtual hub forward with support from SEEDA, EEDA, the GLA and SEAFISH.
Plans for the development of the street markets have been discussed with the GLA and will progress in the spring.
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