Barriers for small-scale farmers in public food procurement

The main objectives of the COCOREADO project are to connect consumers and producers and enhance the position of the farmer in the food system. Part of the project pursues these objectives through the lens of the public procurement of food, with a goal of developing recommendations and showcasing good practices for establishing and maintaining farmer-inclusive, sustainable food procurement approaches. To this end, it is important to identify and highlight the challenges that farmers face when engaging with public customers. Most often, the discussions on how to improve public procurement do not include the farmers but instead focus only on other actors involved, such as wholesalers, procurement officers, policy-makers etc. This research is an attempt to get information as directly as possible from farmers about the barriers they have experienced.