DEFA Minister Clare Barber has said shoppers should demand more local produce to help boost DEFA’s efforts to increase the range available in stores.
Mrs Barber was quizzed on what is being done to encourage the food to be stocked by her constituency colleague and Manx Labour Party leader Joney Faragher.
The minister said that “if consumers demand more local produce, then this will help encourage outlets, including supermarkets to stock and use a wider variety of local produce”.
She outlined that in the last 12 Months, DEFA has made available increased support to food producers to achieve Safe And Local Supplier Approval (SALSA) accreditation, which is a minimum requirement to stock their goods in the stores.
“This was offered to all our island’s food producers, with nine producers taking advantage of this support, totalling approximately £122,540, to date,” the minister added.
“The funding currently remains in place for further businesses to come forward, and my department will fund 100% of the SALSA costs for eligible businesses.”
All Supermarkets
While Tesco has been the primary focus of people wanting to see local produce on shelves, the small amounts sold by the Co-op and M&S have also recently come into focus.
Mrs Barber said: “We are also working closely with DfE to understand what can be done to encourage all island supermarkets to stock and prioritise local produce.
“A significant amount of officer time and effort from both DEFA and DfE officers has been spent on developing positive relationships with local retailers and we are pleased with the response we have received from them to date.
“This included working with local producers and a large supermarket to find successful solutions to local surplus produce which resulted in the supermarket removing several of their best-selling product lines to encourage the sales of local produce for several different products.”
Meet the Producers
As part of its work, DEFA recently held a meet the producers evening where businesses met with off-island buyers from two of the island’s major retailers along with the local managers and employees of retailers, wholesalers and caterers.
Mrs Barber added that funding remains available for local producers and her department intends to relaunching its buy local campaign to make it easier for consumers to “seek out and purchase local produce, which we hope will encourage consumers to support local produce even more than at present”.
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