Kokova Magazine

Research commissioned by Food Tourism Connect, the campaign to promote food in the Liverpool City Region has found that many people still aren't aware of the many local food producers in the region.

Similarly, purchasing local food appeared relatively unimportant for most of those surveyed, with just seven per cent saying that they felt that buying locally sourced food was very important to them.

Despite this, many respondents could identify several reasons for eating locally sourced food.

When respondents were asked to consider the reasons why shopping locally might be seen as important, 82 per cent agreed that it was a good way to support local businesses, while half felt that generating fewer food miles and the chance to eat better quality food were important factors.

A further 25 per cent said that the fact that animals were more likely to have been ethically reared was an important factor.

With price so often cited as the reason eating locally sourced produce is out of reach for many people, surprisingly the majority said that it was the lack of availability that was the greatest barrier to buying local.

Over 60 per cent said they were not really sure where they should go to buy local, while nearly two thirds said that they didn’t know where their nearest farmer’s market was.

Surprisingly, although most respondents seemed not to be making huge strides to buy local food themselves, they were impressed when a restaurant made the effort to do this, with 67 per cent saying that they would be more inclined to visit a restaurant if they knew that it sourced the ingredients locally. A further 55 per cent said that they would be happy to pay more for a meal if they knew this was the case.

This survey shows that great strides still need to be made when it comes to making people aware of the wealth of locally produced food on offer in our region. There are local producers everywhere from St.Helens to Southport, and the food being produced in our region includes everything from wedding cakes made of cheese to real ale, shrimps and asparagus.

There's still room for improvement, but the fact that respondents were impressed by restaurants that used local food, and could identify so many reasons for eating locally produced food, shows that awareness of the advantages of buying locally and how it helps to support the local economy, is on the increase.

Whilst our local residents may be behind the curve when it comes to demanding local produce, visitors increasingly look to sample local delicacies when they come to our City Region. People who are interested in buying local should visit our website, where they can download the ‘Fresh and Local’ guide and find out what’s available near them.

Pam Wilsher, Head of Visitor Economy Development at Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership

To download the Fresh and Local Guide, visit: www.visitliverpool.com/freshandlocal/download