Swansea Food Mapping Project
In Autumn 2022 the Open Food Network (OFN) worked on a project led by Afallen with partners from Urban Foundry and Katie Powis.
The project received funding from through the Welsh Government Rural Communities – Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, which is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government, and supported by Swansea Rural Development Partnership at Swansea Council. Funding was awarded from Swansea Council Economic Recovery Fund to capture the urban wards.
Over a three month period we developed a feasibility study on mapping local produce and shortening supply chains in Swansea.
In Autumn 2022 the Open Food Network (OFN) worked on a project led by Afallen with partners from Urban Foundry and Katie Powis.
The project received funding from through the Welsh Government Rural Communities – Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, which is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government, and supported by Swansea Rural Development Partnership at Swansea Council. Funding was awarded from Swansea Council Economic Recovery Fund to capture the urban wards.
Over a three month period we developed a feasibility study on mapping local produce and shortening supply chains in Swansea.
What did we work on?
- Mapped local produce in Swansea (rural and urban areas) to identify opportunities for new start-ups and existing businesses.
- Identified supply chains in use locally and regionally; and any gaps in the chain where there is a significant demand for something that is unavailable or a remainder of supply (food waste) that could be utilised.
- Explored the needs of food producers, food businesses including hospitality and tourism sector, and consumers in order to strengthen supply at a local level to place Swansea on the map as a food destination.
- Identified new supply routes, and gaps for development for business growth for our rural and urban food producers.
- Increased and improved better access to and knowledge about locally produced foods.
- Identified opportunities for networking and opportunities with B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumer), resulting in connected food communities
- Explored the potential for other avenues to market e.g. fresh produce vending machines.
- Identified options for securing sustainable food systems
- Provided recommendations for shortening supply chains
- Produced a feasibility study with tangible results that will inform future work on the theme of local food and shortening of supply chains, with the view to unlocking further investment.
Next Steps
These are some of the outcomes we are looking forward to:
- An increase in the amount of local food production in the Swansea area including;
- Primary production such as agroecolgical horticulture
- Secondary production
- Community Supported Agriculture
- Small scale veg and fruit production at household and community level
- More food hubs and a wider uptake of produce from food hubs from individual shoppers, hospitality buyers and public procurement
- An increase in the level of community interaction around food – using food as a means to bring together people from different backgrounds
Find out more
- You can read the full report on the project, entitled ‘Feasibility study: mapping local produce & shortening supply chains; A report for the Swansea Food Partnership‘ here.
- You can browse the finished map on Open Street Map
- If you would like to explore similar work in your area, please contact:
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- David Clubb at Afallen
- Nick Weir, OFN’s community facilitator
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