Preferences and attitudes toward locally produced food sourcing in wholesale distributors: Restaurant and chef perspectives

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to empirically explore antecedents of local food purchase preferences in wholesale distributors. This study investigates restaurants and chefs’ perceptions, motivations, and constraints in buying local food products from local wholesale distributors in a study conducted in Vancouver, Canada, and Christchurch, New Zealand. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with restaurants and chefs (31 in Vancouver and 28 in Christchurch). Overall there were some discrepancies found but results predominantly shows similarities between the two study sites. Findings demonstrated that purchasing of local foods from wholesale distributors was perceived as beneficial by restaurants and chefs, but they experienced challenges with purchasing. In the light of empirical findings, theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Introduction

In recent years' demand for locally grown food products has increased substantially as a possible alternative to the long supply-chain production models of the industrialized global food system (Dukeshire, Garbes, Kennedy, Boudreau, & Osborne, 2011). As such, local food has become a component of the development of sustainable culinary systems within tourism and hospitality, particularly in rural areas (Gössling & Hall, 2013). However, the growing interest in local foods has been explored largely from the consumer's perspective (Martinez et al., 2010; Zhang, Grunert, & Zhou, 2020) and the role of farmer's markets (Crawford et al., 2018; Hall, 2013) rather than other elements in the sustainable culinary system and supply chain such as restaurants and food wholesalers (Gössling & Hall, 2013; Hall & Gössling, 2016b). For example, in New Zealand, a major influence on consumers' food choice has been the growth in farmers' markets supported by local and regional authorities (Vignali, Guthrie, Guthrie, Lawson, & Cameron, 2006), while in Canada consumers' interest in local food has been fueled by the media, high-profile public personalities, farmer's markets, and social movements (Edge, 2013). Studies in consumer's perspective have shown that local products are perceived as being characterized by a wide range of benefits such as environmental sustainability and new market opportunities (Jakubowska & Radzymińska, 2019; Radzymińska & Jakubowska, 2018), economic benefits (Dunne, Chambers, Giombolini, & Schlegel, 2011; Radzymińska & Jakubowska, 2018), social benefits (Dodds et al., 2014), animal welfare (Vigors, 2018), food quality (Grebitus, Lusk, & Nayga, 2013), food safety (Baudry et al., 2017), and personal health (Memery, Angell, & Megicks, 2015). Other studies have also suggested that local food products are commonly perceived as more natural, fresher, healthier, and safer than globalized food products (Gössling & Hall, 2013; Memery, Angell, Megicks, & Lindgreen, 2015). All these aspects lead consumers to pay a price premium for local food products (Caputo, Nayga, & Scarpa, 2013; Merritt, Delong, Griffith, & Jensen, 2018), including at restaurants (Griffith et al., 2019; Kwok, Huang, & Hu, 2016).

The demand for local foods in the restaurants has also increased in recent years (Roy, Hall, & Ballantine, 2016, 2017, 2019; Kang & Rajagopal, 2014; Ozturk & Akoglu, 2020). Several studies have argued that restaurants use local foods to differentiate their menu and increase returns (Alfnes & Sharma, 2010; Sharma, Moon, & Strohbehn, 2014). However, the focus in much of the literature is on the relationship between restaurants and producers, rather than their overall system of procurement. This is a significant point as the reality for most restaurants is that because of time scarcity much of the produce they use comes via wholesale distributors (Roy, Hall, & Ballantine, 2019) and the significant role of wholesalers in local food systems and restaurant supply chains has only been given limited attention or is completely ignored (Hall & Gössling, 2016a). Hence, wholesale distributors are a critical component of the culinary system. Restaurants' recent increased use of local foods from wholesale distributors has been noted (e.g. Roy et al., 2019; Schmit & Hadcock, 2012). Research has shown that restaurants purchase locally grown foods from wholesale distributors for perceived benefits. For example, Reynolds-Allie and Fields (2012) argue that inconvenience, uncertain of where to buy, lack of knowledge as what is available locally, and cost are the main elements for restaurants purchase in Alabama, while Lawley and Howieson (2015) highlighted the importance of consistency of supply and quality of local seafood as critical factors on chefs purchasing decisions from wholesalers in Australia. Givens and Dunning (2019) further reported about regional foodservice distributors that are playing an active role in identifying produce items desired by chefs and restaurants in North Carolina. However, research on the benefits and obstacles in sourcing local food products from wholesale distributors from the perspective of restaurants and chefs is extremely limited. This exploratory paper therefore, fills this important knowledge gap by investigating restaurants and chefs' perceptions, motivations, and constraints of buying local food ingredients from local wholesale distributors in Vancouver, Canada and Christchurch, New Zealand. The results from this study contribute to the local food system discussions and have implications for restaurants and chefs and wholesale distributors’ practices. To cover this topic, the definition of local food adopted for this study was the food grown, produced, processed, or sold in the same region or province one reside (Roy, 2016). The paper will begin by discussing background of local foods and then the methodology of this study will be provided, followed by findings, discussions, and conclusions.

Section snippets

Definition of local food

Despite increased media attention and policy awareness, there is no consensus on defining “local” and what constitutes a local food system (Hall, 2013; Pearson et al., 2011). The definition of “local food” is complex, as are its implications for small-scale producers (Ballute & Berger, 2014; Trivette, 2015). Most definitions are “based on a general idea of where local food is coming from” (Dunne et al., 2011, p. 50; Hall & Gössling, 2016a), also considerable emphasis is given to the

Study site

The two locations (Christchurch, New Zealand; Vancouver, British Columbia) were selected for this study because they were providing a good basis of comparison of the factors (e.g. location, demographics, culture, geography and climate, political distinctiveness, agrifood system) that facilitate or limit the development of local food systems. Additionally, with regard to local food initiatives, the study areas also offered some contrasting elements that have previously been identified as

Interview respondents’ profile

Table 2 summarizes (Appendix B) a demographic description of the interviewees from Vancouver and Christchurch samples. The Vancouver sample consisted of 27 male and four female participants, while the Christchurch sample consisted of 27 male and one female participant. All respondents were senior members of the establishment and assumed a more significant role in decisions regarding food procurement and sources of supply. The length of time living in the region ranged from 1 to 40 years for

Discussion

The interviews with restaurants and chefs in both samples indicated that there were several local channels (e.g., farmers, farmers' market vendors, and wholesale distributors) from which they procured local farm products for their establishments. However, purchasing products directly from wholesale distributors was the most preferred supplier source for locally grown food products in both samples. This suggests that there is great opportunity for local farmers to approach these restaurants and

Conclusions

The conclusions have been broken down into three sections: Implications for local food literature and managers, limitations and future research, and concluding remarks.

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