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Chris wants to grow food, but ten years ago, when he and a couple of friends first set out in that direction, they saw that they would struggle to sell their food in the Greater Manchester area where they reside. Instead of simply going further to sell, or moving, they chose to completely redesign the supply chain. Fast forward to now, the Manchester Veg Growers is a coop created by the Kindling Trust that in 2016 has delivered over £150000 worth of food grown within the Greater Manchester area to clients in Manchester.

Notes

** the background noises are due to the location of the office Chris was in. Kindling is a busy operation. **

We’re lucky to have funders who trust us enough to come to us.

Manchester Veg People – venture incubated in Kindling Trust that turned over £150k in 2016

Looking at the food supply chain as a whole.

Kindling is trying to form a new supply chain from the farmer to the consumer.

Connecting growers and buyers to avoid the middle men.

The meeting of growers and buyers meet in December. Growers agree between themselves who grows what. The pricing presented to buyers is transparent and based on the true cost of production, and not on market value. There is no price negotiation within the coop, no price pushing either way – either by growers to extract more money, or by the buyers, by citing other sources on the market. It’s a closed, and transparent cooperative.

The main buyer in this particular coop is the Manchester University. They benefit from stable pricing throughout the year, publicity from participating in the project, awards for the quality of food sold in the restaurant.

The growers are encouraged to participate with one third of their total produce in the coop in order to limit their dependency on the scheme. They sell the other two thirds on the open market.

The vision is for Kindling Trust to own a farm themselves and slot into the cooperative themselves.

Looking to created a belt of farms supplying to Manchester.

Graeme Willis – CPRE

Would you be interested in a webinar with Chris on how to start such a coop in your town?

This is a fledgling project, that is taking a considerable amount of time, and a little bit of money. If you found this informative, entertaining, helpful, and think that it could help someone else, please share using the buttons below. Many thanks!