MEMORANDUM BY EAST SUSSEX COUNTY COUNCIL
(RWP 34)
East Sussex County Council is submitting the
following paper in response to the call for evidence relating
to the Government's discussion document "Rural England"
in February 1999.
The topic of this paper is locally sourced produce
and value added local products. This refers to both consumables
ie food and drink, but also other products, in particular those
sourced from local woodland resources.
There is already a considerable amount of activity
taking place in East Sussex encouraging and promoting the use
and production of local produce, and many different bodies and
local authorities are involved. This paper aims to highlight some
of the key initiatives and to raise some of the issues that are
key to the development of local "value-added" products
in our area.
THE IMPORTANCE
OF "LOCAL
PRODUCE"
The promotion of local produce and value added
products is important for a number of reasons:
1. It can assist the local economy, providing
local employment opportunities and increasing the profits to be
made from the "raw" product by adding value through
processing in-house.
2. It can enhance and maintain the local
environment and landscape, promoting traditional land management
techniques and introducing innovative approaches to land management
with associated environmental benefits and reducing food miles.
3. It can help maintain the social structure
of rural areas, providing employment opportunities and sustaining
traditional local employment patterns.
4. It can improve people's understanding
of the countryside and agriculture, bringing consumers closer
to those who actually produce the products.
Research carried out by the Countryside Commission
in October 1998[1]
concluded that "Buying products that arise from environmentally
responsible land management can benefit the landscape and the
local economy, and help create a sense of area identity".
The research also showed "that consumers like the concept
of countryside products, but are unlikely to work hard to track
down such products". Promotion through direct advertising
and in local directories can help, as can distribution through
farm shops, farmers' markets and box delivery schemes. Such initiatives
have proved successful in East Sussex, and further innovative
schemes have been and are being developed.
There has been a considerable amount of activity
in East Sussex during the last few years targeted at improving
the viability of locally sourced products through marketing initiatives,
product development and assistance to producers to help them develop
the skills required to add-value to their own "raw"
products, and maximise their profits. There are also increased
opportunities to find new markets for products through new farmers'
markets and developing links with local shops and more recently
with some of the major supermarkets, and considerable efforts
to educate consumers about the importance of buying locally-sourced
goods.
Initiatives are under way in a number of sectors.
The main ones in East Sussex are those of local sourced/value-added
food products and timber/wood products. Some of the initiatives
already taking place in each of these sectors are set out below,
as well as a few of the initiatives being proposed to take place
in the near future.
WOODLAND SECTOR
Recent fortunes of the woodland sector have
not been good. The viability of the bulk market for timber in
the south-east has decline over recent years. A report carried
out for the Forestry Commission recognised that there had been
a "marked decline in the market for small diameter broadleaved
roundwood in the South East of England during the 1990s"[2].
The authors aimed to identify the most appropriate type and scale
of industrial process to utilise this small roundwood resource
which is so prevalent in East Sussex and across the region, and
their findings highlighted the emerging economic and environmental
importance of small-scale value adding processes. The challenge
is to develop such schemes in a sustainable manner.
The High Weald Design furniture company is one
of the more innovative initiatives which started life in 1993
at a very small scale and which has expanded considerably since.
They use e-commerce for marketing and taking orders and have built
up a strong local customer base. Their success can in part be
put down to their innovative approaches to making effective use
of the natural timber resource of the county. They also have a
very flexible attitude towards their clients' requests (they have
designed and made products as diverse as picnic benches and bicycle
stands), and create innovative designs which integrate successfully
with their environment.
A feature of East Sussex is that of the relative
small scale of woodlands and the great number of owners of these
pockets. This creates management problems, and also means that
economies of scale are difficult to generate. Weald Woodnet was
set up by ESCC, Timber Growers Association Ltd, The Forestry Authority
and Timber Management Ltd, to help make connections between practitioners
and markets, to help draw up and implement appropriate management
plans for these woodlands and overcome some of the difficulties
outlined above. This should in turn help provide a marketable
raw material, employment and support for the rural economy, and
importantly in the context of this paper, revenue from timber
products.
A Woodland Enterprise Centre is being developed
in Flimwell in East Sussex, which it is hoped will regenerate
the local woodlands and become a centre for excellence for the
woodland sector within the South East, demonstrating best practice
and developing innovative initiatives. The centre aims to promote
the use of locally sourced timber in East Sussex and more widely
within the region, particularly small diameter roundwood, in traditional
and innovative ways. It is hoped the centre will be opened during
2000.
When trying to promote small-scale industries
in woodlands one inevitably cannot ignore issues of planning regulations.
A paper was presented to the November 1999 "Forestry Forum"
regarding this issue[3].
The paper related to studies carried out by a working party established
to put forward the views of the small woods and coppice workers
sector, and concluded that the planning controls relating to forestry
are out of date and do not reflect the vision of sustainable multi-purpose
forestry now held by the government and its agencies. In particular
it called for a revision of the Town and Country Planning Act
1990's definition of forestry in order that a broad spectrum of
woodland uses, forestry operations and small scale processing
are specifically included to encourage appropriate enterprises.
At present the section 55 definition of permitted forestry activities
leaves too much doubt about what is outside planning control,
and leaves a great deal of interpretation down to individual planning
authorities which can result in inconsistencies and uncertainty
for those attempting to engage in new activities.
East Sussex County Council has been responsible
for running a Woodfair in the county for the last three years.
It has proved very successful in bringing together local producers,
suppliers and processors, and also for informing the general public
and school children about the importance of woodland and the products
from woodland. Some businesses that come to the Woodfair have
said that this event has had a very positive effect on the viability
of their enterprises, and are very supportive of the event. The
County Council and other partners hope to repeat this success
with a new sister event to be focused on local food and drink
products in 2000.
FOOD AND
DRINK SECTOR
Partners from the private, public and voluntary
sectors across East and West Sussex and Surrey were brought together
under the title "Rural Connections" to work together
on joint ventures and to share good practice in developing local
produce initiatives. This approach highlighted the importance
of working closely together in this rapidly developing area of
local produce initiatives to ensure good practice is spread and
local efforts are effectively co-ordinated. A local produce consortium
has also been in operation in East Sussex, involving public and
voluntary sector organisations.
A number of farmers' markets have been held
in the county and are proving a considerable success. They are
bringing the buyer closer to the producer and are achieving an
increased interest in the market towns in the county. However
questions remain as to the long term financial sustainability
of such initiatives, and local partners will be examining this
issue in the coming months as well as looking at good practice
elsewhere in the country to ensure these ventures are as successful
as possible in the future. There is also a successful programme
of Anglo-French markets, part funded through the INTERREG II programme.
East Sussex is also served by a regional speciality
food group—A Taste of the South East. This membership organisation
aims to promote the produce of its members across the region and
wider, and is involved in a number of interesting schemes relating
to the marketing of local speciality products. They are also involved
in a pilot distribution initiative, trying to link together producers
to other producers who can help distribute their products through
their existing (or extended) distribution networks. They have
submitted a bid to the Agriculture Development Scheme, which the
Government announced this autumn with the intention of building
on this pilot work and strengthening AToSE.
Sussex Rural Community Council have been involved
in a number of innovative initiatives and currently co-ordinate
the East Sussex local produce consortium. They have submitted
a bid to the Agriculture Development Scheme for a "Week of
Taste" in 2000, which would help bring together a number
of the different initiatives that are underway in a "celebration
of local produce". It is hoped that the week would coincide
with the Food Fair that ESCC are planning to run (see above).
There are also a number of directories and databases
under way which aim to make it easier for local individuals and
businesses (particularly caterers and local shops) to purchase
and/or supply local goods. Sussex Rural Community Council, the
High Weald AONB Unit and other organisations are involved in such
work. In addition there are a number of sectoral based marketing
initiatives looking at local branding and marketing of local products.
For example the Sussex Downs Conservation Board is currently developing
a scheme to market local lamb, both to improve the financial viability
of local farms and to ensure the traditional grazing methods which
have shaped the landscape of the South Downs are sustained in
the future.
The High Weald AONB Unit have also been involved
in a number of local produce marketing initiatives, and work in
this part of East Sussex will be developed further as part of
the High Weald Land Management Initiative to be piloted over the
next five years. The LMI aims to develop and test a framework
and mechanisms for the delivery of effective integrated rural
support, to maintain and enhance the environmental, economic and
social fabric of the High Weald, and has secured considerable
funding from national and local agencies including the Countryside
Agency. Staff appointments for the project are currently being
finalised and it will begin in full in 2000.
THE FUTURE
The Regional Economic Strategy produced by SEEDA
for the South East of England is very supportive of the marketing
and development of local produce and related initiatives, as is
the Countryside Agency nationally. However it will ultimately
be down to the Government and Ministers to support and encourage
the RDAs and other agencies to ensure the multi-faceted positive
impacts of local produce and value-added products are fully realised.
A particular challenge for the future seems
to be securing the long term sustainability and viability of the
various local produce initiatives. Co-ordination at a strategic
level will be of paramount importance to ensure the successes
of a variety of initiatives are built on, and to ensure that the
various initiatives work together and add value to each other.
There is also a need to better quantify the tangible and wide-ranging
outputs and outcomes of the various initiatives, in order that
further project development in the future meets the goals of our
local produce promotion as outlined in the introduction to this
paper.
Nick Woolfenden,
Economic Development Officer
December 1999
1 Countryside Commission "Countryside Research
Notes: Products That Benefit The Countryside"; Countryside
Commission, October 1998. Back
2 John Clegg & Co and Firn Crichton Roberts Ltd "An Assessment
of the Potential for Securing a Viable Bulk Industrial Outlet
for Small Diameter Roundwood in South East England. Back
3 Nichol et al "Planning for Sustainable Woodland", Unpublished
November 1999. Back
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