How to harness the potential of short food supply chains in Vaud ?

This study aimed at analyzing the demand side of short food supply chains in the canton of Vaud to provide local farmers with recommendations about how to organize, market and promote the sale of local fruits and vegetables. While many elements in the analysis confirmed the findings of the existing literature, others brought a new understanding of consumers in Vaud. The consumer analysis led to the construction of a consumer profile being more likely to be frequent users of such food supply systems. People being most likely to frequently consume through short food supply chains are women of age 45+ years old, potentially vegeterian or vegan. It has also been shown that frequent users live closer from the place of purchase and give less importance to the price, but rather value the locality of the production, the freshness and the quality of products. They also value the social interaction which is inherent to some short food supply chains. Moreover, the information available about the product such as the traceability is greatly appreciated. Frequent consumers tend to associate local fruits and vegetables with notions such as seasonality and health benefits. They also think of the geographical and social proximity connecting local producers and consumers and the solidarity which reinforces this link. They tend to be concerned by environmental causes and attach importance to the ecology. Those findings combined with evolving trends in consumer and purchasing behaviors were used to build a comprehensive and detailed marketing strategy articulated around distribution arrangements and promotion strategies. Online presence was also strongly recommended to compete with online purchase and traditional Swiss retailers increasingly adopting digital technologies. Furthermore, ecommerce platforms were recommended to provide higher flexibility to consumers and SEO techniques briefly discussed to maximize quality traffic to producers’ websites. With the aim of broadening the customer base of local farmers, distribution arrangements have been introduced. Delivery and click & collect solutions were recommended as a way to offer higher convenience to consumers. Finally, a promotion mix was presented combining a variety of tools; advertising, public relations, personal selling and sales promotions