Diversity in food supply chains
Bernadette Oehen &
Adanella Rossi
Diversifood Final Congress
«Cultivating diversity and
food quality»
Rennes, 11th December 2018
“Lessons learnt from strategies
to embed diversity in the food
supply chain”

Activities in DIVERSIFOOD to understand
strategies to embed food diversity
• Analysis of
– valorisation strategies of local and diverse food
products based on newly bred lines from PPB or
conservation varieties,
– Factors of success,
– Communication strategies using labelling strategies,
– “Label experiment”
– Consumer attitudes,
– A potential correlation between food diversity and
regional crop diversity.
2

3
WP1:
Methods/Methodologies
WP2 WP 3
WP6
WP4
Crops, networks/cases
Dissemination tools/platforms
Networks, policy
WP 5 embedded in DIVERSIFOOD
WP5: Embedding diversity in the
food supply chain

Synthesis and
recommendations
Case studies about
the valorisation of
- agrobiodiversity
- participatory
breeding
Relation between
local crops
production and
food offered to
consumers
Consumer attitudes
and communication
strategies and tools
for food diversity
4
Adanella Rossi, UNIPI
Philipp Holzherr, PSR
Claudia Meier, FiBL
Pierre Riviere, RSP
Marjo Keskitalo, LUKE
Lauri Jauhiainen, LUKE
Posters about the work done in WP 5

5
The analysis of a
variety of initiatives
developed around
biodiverse
products…..

6
The virtuous circle of
the sustainable management of
plant genetic resources

7
Diversity in emergence and
development
Initiated by a collaboration of
– Researcher and farmers,
– Seed Savers/Seed
Communities and farmers,
– Local supply chain actors and
farmers,
– NGO,
– Network of farmers.
Supported by Policy for
– Rural development,
– Agrobiodiversity,
– Research on agrobiodiversity
conservation.
Supported by a consumer/market
interest.

8
Diversity in marketing strategies
– Territorially embedded
niche markets
– Producer-consumer
networks/food
communities
– Farmers’ markets
– Supermarkets
– With a label/ a logo
– Participatory
guarantee system
– Third party
certification

9
Diversity in the approach to
biodiverse foods
– Health,
– Taste,
– Local food traditions,
– Cultural capital and
identity,
– Local food production
system,
– Commitment to the
management or
conservation of
genetic resources,
– Farmers’ varieties.

Importance of internal coherence:
knowledge, visions, practices
uncover factors
and mechanisms
underlying this
process
10
• Alignment around common
awareness and visions
• Coherence of action
è A challenging process

Importance of relationship and
interaction
Exchanges within a
network dimension
11
• Understanding of quality of varieties
and derived products
• Re-definition of practices of farming
and processing
• Definition of suitable tools and
arrangements along the chain
• Management of marketing and
communication
• Support for farmers and other supply
chain actors
Collective learning

Collective learning
Interaction among different types of knowledge,
expertise, awareness
12
• Types of knowledge
– Experiential, scientific,
technical, institutional,
legal, economic, political
• Knowledge carriers
– Farmers
– Other chain actors
– Scientists
– Consultants/extension services
– ONGs, other networks
and creation of new
shared knowledge

Importance of other interactions
Exchanges with other
networks, pathways
locally and in broader
contexts
13
• to share knowledge, catch new
opportunities and develop
collective awareness, identity
and agency around
agrobiodiversity issues
• to strengthen the initiatives
• to create synergies
• to prevent or facing difficulties

Facing critical points / taking opportunities
14
Seed,
varieties
management Farmers
Breeding
Farming
Other chain
actors
Marketing Consumption Researchers
Processing
Public actors
Consumers
Public
policies
Research
Facilitators

Embedding diversity in food supply chains
• Understanding, creating, catching, and managing
values
– collective action è participatory approaches
• The added value is beyond agrobiodiversity
– diversity of actors è interaction, participation, collaboration
– diversity of knowledge resources è exchanges, collective
learning, transdisciplinarity
– diversity of dimensions involved è systemic approach
– diversity of situations è place-based solutions
15
Lessons learnt about valorisation of
diverse food products

Lessons learnt from the collaboration
in DIVERSIFOOD
• Enthusiastic collaboration
• It needs time and thoughtfulness to
– Clarify, understand and agree on approaches
– Face difficulties of applying a theoretical approach in
a real life situation
– Involve case study partners in the process
– Establish an exchange among the different tasks and
work packages.
16

Many thanks to all
partners, who have
participated!

Diversity in food supply chains
Diversifood Final Congress
«Cultivating diversity and
food quality»
Rennes, 11th December 2018
“Lessons learnt from strategies
to embed diversity in the food
supply chain”

Ancient cereals in modern times: is
there a future for underutelised
cereals?
Boki Luske
Edwin Nuijten
Rennes, 11 December 2018

Cultivation of cereals in NL
Wheat
Barley
Oats
Rye
Triticale
CBS, 2017
• Acreage of cereals is declining, due to low prices for
cereals on world market
• Negative economic balance cereals à cash crops &
tight crop rotations

‘Nature inclusive farming’
• Decline of many wild
farmland species (birds,
butterflies, bees)
– Wider crop rotations needed
– More low input cereals and
flowering crops
• Growing demand for high
quality products
– Healthy, tasty from the
region
– ‘Foodies’
21
Red list species Scandix pecten-veneris and
Ranunculus arvensis grow next to the trial
field

22
Goal of trial in NL
More diversity on the field and on the plate
• Test landraces, populations of einkorn, emmer and rivet
wheat from European seed banks in Dutch
circumstances
– 3 years (2015-2018) «Hard data»
• Local value chain development
• Selection with stakeholders
– Farmers, millers, bakers, consumers, ecologists
– Demonstration, education
• Interviews with key stakeholders
– What are the conditions for the development of sustainable
value chains with ancient cereals? «Soft data»

Stakeholder meetings
“Happy walking
in the grain”
Social media
Wiebaktmee
Baking (con)tests
Farm visits
23

Eenkoorn Triticum monococcum
• First domesticated wheat
species
• Several archeological
sites in Turkey (8700BC)
• Flat spikes with small
hulled grains
24

Emmer wheat Triticum dicoccoides
• Wild emmer wheat is common
ancestor of other wheat species
• Flat spikes with large hulled grains
25

Rivet wheat Triticum turgidum
subsp. turgidum
• ‘Brother’ of durum tarwe
(Triticum turgidum)
• Naked grains
26

27
Einkorn
Triticum
monococcum
2n
Wild einkorn
Triticum
boeoticum
2n
Wild emmer wheat
T. dicoccoides
T. turgidum var.
dicoccoides
4n
Wild grass
Triticum saersii?
2n
Emmer wheat
Triticum
turgidum subsp.
dicoccum
4n
Durum wheat
Triticum
turgidum conv.
durum
4n
Goatgrass
Aegilops
tausschii
2n
Wheat
Triticum
aestivum
6n
Rivet wheat
Triticum
turgidum subsp.
turgidum
4n
Spelt
Triticum spelta
6n

28
Results field trial
Recreational nature area, loamy soil, low input farming
• First year: single plots
• Heavy rain in june: lodging tolerance/plant height
• Second year: replicated block design
• Cold, dry spring: weed suppression
• Third year: replicated block design
• Hot and dry summer: disease and drought tolerance
• 4 best accessions per species selected

2015-2016 2016-2017 2017-2018
Nr
of
acc
ess
ion
s
Av. yield ±
st. dev. (t/
ha)
Log. tol. Nr
of
acc
essi
ons
Av. yield ± st.
dev. (t/ha)
Log. tol. Nr of
acce
ssion
s
Av. yield ±
st. dev. (t/
ha)
Log. tol.
Einkorn 7 1.4 ± 0.58 8.1 ± 1.57 7 0.8 ± 0.16 7.6 ± 0.17 4 1.9 ± 0.16 8.4 ± 0.60
Dutch
einkorn
1 2.4 7 1 0.7 ± 0.18 7.5 ± 0.41 1 2.0 ± 0.35 8.8 ± 0.50
Emmer 13 0.6 ± 0.26 6.4 ± 3.10 9 0.9 ± 0.29 7.7 ± 0.45 7 1.2 ± 0.22 7.7 ± 0.66
Zweikorn
GT-196
1 1.0 9 1 1.2 ± 0.50 8.1 ± 0.25 1 1.3 ± 0.10 8.1 ± 0.63
Rivet 16 0.8 ± 0.42 4.6 ± 2.94 9 1.6 ± 0.34 7.6 ± 0.42 4 1.8 ± 0.31 7.3 ± 0.66
Rampton
rivet
1 7 1 2.3 ± 0.66 7.5 ± 0.71 1 2.1 ± 0.40 7.8 ± 0.50
29
Results field trial

Local value chain development
• Difficult, but possible
– Building social capital
• Personal relations between farmer, mill, baker are essential
• Time investment on storytelling, networking
• Confidence in partners
• Knowledge gap bakers
• Different nutritional properties of ancient cereals
Protein content, sedimentation, minerals
• Other baking processes are needed, with longer resting
periods
• Not included in regular training and education of bakers
Recently more interest among bakers
30

Local value chain development
• Push and pull factors
• Farmers are often a push factor
• Intrinsic motivation
• There is a growing demand but…
• Bakers and famers need to find eachother (former role of
mill)
• Value chain management
• Plan ahead (1,5 year!): find a baker before sowing, this
also creates commitment
• Diversify value chain: beer, pasta, flakes
• Logistics, storage, marketing: often done also by farmer
31

Local value chain development
• Storytelling by baker to consumer: gaps need to
be filled
• Nutritional aspects
32

Conclusions
• Ancient cereals have low yields, but grow on poor soils
– Alternative crop for arable fields in nature area’s
– Lower costs for land
– Rich soils: lodging risk
• Stakeholders also look at aesthetics
– Dark emmer accessions
• Close knowledge gaps
– Nutritional benefits to increase demand (analyses in progress)
• Supply chain manager / broker
– Reliable person who understands passion of stakeholders
– Broker between farmer and baker, accelerate upscaling, new
products and optimize logistics
– Inform consumers, bakers, nature organisations about nutritional
and ecological benefits
33

Is there a future for ancient cereals? It all starts with
coming across them…
34

Diversity in food supply chains
Diversifood Final Congress
«Cultivating diversity and
food quality»
Rennes, 11th December 2018
“Lessons learnt from strategies
to embed diversity in the food
supply chain”

Embedding food diversity in supply chains
Experience of eight European case
studies
Anna Sellars
Susanne Padel
Organic Research Centre, UK

Very brief overview
• 8 case studies from 6 different countries
• Case studies of cereal and vegetable supply chains
• Two main approaches
– Revival of traditional foods and products
– Use of traditional/diverse varieties in new and innovative
ways
• Types of supply chains and sales outlets
– More national/international
– More local/decentralised

Source: Own data.
Characterisation of the case study initiatives according to main aims and
motivations.

Agreed market vision and strategy among
actors
• Agreement on where/how the initiative intends to
market – National vs. local? Mainstream vs.
decentralised?
• Lack of agreement à lack of clarity and coordination
among actors à fragmentation of network
• Does not need to be either national or local
– Doing both offers:
• Balance of risk between enterprises
• Subsidising less profitable products or routes to market that are
important for ethos of initiative
• Creating greater, long-term public awareness of the product

Need for clarity in stakeholders’ common
understanding of the distinctiveness and
values embedded in the product
• New/innovative crop, or is it a heritage/traditional?
• Informs business development and marketing
decisions
• Strong and clear story = easy for consumers to see
value added compared to other products
What narratives do
stakeholders want
use to describe the
product?
What narratives do
consumers identify
with?
Nutritious,
heritage, local,
artisan, healthy
etc.

Challenging the assumption that demand is
often a limiting factor
• Common assumption that an effective market and
demand needs to be established to sustain an
underutilised crop
• Evidence that supply factors are limiting success
– e.g. instability of supply and yield, seasonality, lack of access to
seeds and production on a small-scale
– Larger initiatives e.g. PSR in Switzerland – not just small-scale
initaitives

Scaling up, scaling out, scaling deep – best
ways to scale?
• Scale up - Collaborate with larger actors in the
marketplace and increasing sales power
– e.g. PSR and work with Coop, Hungarian einkorn with beer
campaign and selling internationally
• Scale out – Increasing production output and reach
more people
– Careful not to compromise values of local culture e.g. concern in
purple carrot initiative in Spain
– Entering diversified markets e.g. purple carrots for food colouring
• Scaling deep – Changing consumer relationships and
values with food more long-term
– approaches rich in education and communication about stories
of products, changing consumer relationships with food

Choosing the right communication to suit:
a) the consumers and b) the initiative
• Face-to-face, explaining the product characteristics,
story and quality, and tasting
– Quality of local communication à potential for more meaningful
and direct impact
• Virtual, through websites with details about nutrition,
qualities and story of products
– Reaches a geographically wider audience, and people who may
not go to local/community events e.g. young, city people
• Need for a clear and common understanding –
what are the messages that need to be
communicated, and how?

44
Key
elements
for
success
Agreed
common vision
and values
Clear and
distinct values
of the product
Demand often
isn’t a limiting
factor – supply
is
Scaling up vs.
scaling out vs.
scaling deep
Consumer- and
initiative-
appropriate
communication

Thank you for your attention!
And thanks to all partners who
contributed to the case studies in
Subtask 5.1.1.!
45

Diversity in food supply chains
Diversifood Final Congress
«Cultivating diversity and
food quality»
Rennes, 11th December 2018
“Lessons learnt from strategies
to embed diversity in the food
supply chain”

Building valorisation
strategies for biodiverse
food products
Adanella Rossi

Building valorisation strategies for
biodiverse food products
Objective
Define an approach to
develop valorisation
strategies aimed at
strengthening and
promoting the entire
food systems based on
diverse genetic resources
Methods
• A multi-actor and
systemic approach
• A network perspective
• A focus on the social
processes underlying
the development of
shared knowledge and
consistent practices

Building valorisation strategies for
biodiverse food products
Main result
• Centrality of interaction
for an effective and
coherent action around
agrobiodiversity values
• No one-size-fits-all
è context-specific
strategies

Building valorisation strategies for
biodiverse food products
In summary, a
valorisation strategies for
biodiverse products is
part of a broader
collective action around
agrobiodiversity values
adanella.rossi@unipi.it
Take Home Message

Diversity in food supply chains
Diversifood Final Congress
«Cultivating diversity and
food quality»
Rennes, 11th December 2018
“Lessons learnt from strategies
to embed diversity in the food
supply chain”

Relationship between local crop
species diversity and food sales
of local supermarkets
Marjo Keskitalo and Lauri Jauhiainen

Relationship between local crop
species diversity and food sales of
local supermarkets
Objective
• Description of the
relation between local
crop species diversity
and food sales in local
supermarkets?
Methods
• The impact of different
variables was analyzed
with variance
component model

Relationship between local crop
species diversity and food sales of
supermarkets
Main result
• Local crop diversity on
the fields may have an
impact on food sales of
the local supermarkets.
• The relation between
crop diversity and sales
was quite small but
obvious.
Municipalities in
Finland with
different crop
species diversity
indices (spots with
different colour),
and the studied
areas (black circles)

Relationship between local crop
species diversity and food sales of
supermarkets
• To sum up, new
connections between
crop diversity and food
sales may have been
detected in this study.
• marjo.keskitalo@luke.fi
Take Home Message
The data provided
by S Group in
Finland , is warmly
acknowledged

Diversity in food supply chains
Diversifood Final Congress
«Cultivating diversity and
food quality»
Rennes, 11th December 2018
“Lessons learnt from strategies
to embed diversity in the food
supply chain”

Communication and Label Concept
for Underutilized Crops: Checklist
Philipp Holzherr, ProSpecieRara
Bernadette Oehen, FiBL

Communication and Label Concept
for Underutilized Crops: Checklist
Objective
• Develop a flagship
approach to
communicate the value
of biodiverse products
to consumers
Methods
• Analysis of existing
approaches using
online survey,
stakeholder interviews
and workshops

Main result
• Many individual
approaches identified
• Decision support matrix
instead of a flagship
approach
• Nine categories of
topics to analyse
Communication and Label Concept
for Underutilized Crops: Checklist

• The decision support matrix shall help organisations
find their individual valorisation strategy
• A label could result – but other ways of building
trust and credibility exist
• From the plethora of communication tools only
pursue the ones you have enough resources for
philipp.holzherr@prospecierara.ch
Take Home Message
Communication and Label Concept
for Underutilized Crops: Checklist

Diversity in food supply chains
Diversifood Final Congress
«Cultivating diversity and
food quality»
Rennes, 11th December 2018
“Lessons learnt from strategies
to embed diversity in the food
supply chain”

Peasant seeds at the test of
identification signs
Frédéric Latour , Pierre Rivière , Patrick de Kochko
Réseau Semence Paysannes, France
Market value versus value of use
Your Logo

Peasant seeds at the test of
identification signs
Objective
Does a brand on
products stemming from
peasants seeds help to
renew cultivated
biodiversity ?
Methods
The development of a
label for vegetables
produced from farmers
seeds was experimentally
tested over 2 years

Main result
During the test, the
irruption of an
unexpected actor
stopped the
development of the
identification sign.
• Picture
Peasant seeds at the test of
identification signs

Brand/lable on farmers’ seeds are an IPR
They adapt virtuous products to the capitalistic market
mechanisms.
Moreover, they divert consumers attention from the
growing food market with seeds stemming from
biotechnological seeds.
The concept of commons offers an alternative to
brands/logos and labels. The concept of commons
would help farmers to renew cultivated biodiversity.
Take Home Message
Peasant seeds at the test of
identification signs

Diversity in food supply chains
Diversifood Final Congress
«Cultivating diversity and
food quality»
Rennes, 11th December 2018
“Lessons learnt from strategies
to embed diversity in the food
supply chain”

Consumer
preferences for
farmers’ varieties
Claudia Meier (claudia.meier@fibl.org)
Bernadette Oehen (bernadette.oehen@fibl.org)

Consumer preferences for
farmers’ varieties
Objective
Assess market potential
of farmers’ varieties
and provide
recommendations for
market strategy
Methods
Representative online
survey in four
European countries
(CH,ESP,IT,FR) with
500 respondents per
country

Consumer preferences for
farmers’ varieties
Main results
Consumers like farmers’
varieties and are
willing to pay a price
premium
Marketing should focus
on taste, regional
provenance, diversity
and independence for
farmers
Picture

Consumer preferences for
farmers’ varieties
Farmers’ varieties
respond to consumer
needs for regional,
authentic, non-
industrial and tasty
food products
claudia.meier@fibl.org
bernadette.oehen@fibl.org

Thank you for your
attention