On February 6, New Covent Garden Market will host the largest meeting in modern times of food producers local to London.
The event, A Celebration of Local Food will bring together local producers, wholesalers and distributors from in and around London for a trade fair and conference, allowing chefs and professional buyers from the private and public sectors to try out the best that London and surrounding regions has to offer.
The open day is part of a three-year project between Covent Garden Market Authority and the South East to get more local food on the capital’s plates via wholesalers and catering distributors based at the Market. The day will see a renewed drive for the Market to buy more produce from its surrounding regions.
It starts for enthusiastic early birds at 7am with a tour of the Market for producers to see at first hand how it functions. After breakfast, producers from the South East and East Anglia will showcase local seasonal ingredients for wholesalers, distributors and chefs to sample and discuss.
The conference, Share to Supply, run by English Farming and Food Partnerships (EFFP) looks at the opportunities for supplying local food to London and the South East. Speakers include Jenny Jones, Chair of London Food Board. The conference showcases a number of examples of producers who are already successfully working together to supply the public and food service sectors, as well as providing practical advice on initiating such ventures.
The event is supported by Food from Britain, the London Development Agency (LDA), South East of England Development Agency (SEEDA), and the Horticultural Development Council (HDC).
The CGMA and the SEFGP project will have a dedicated person facilitating the use of NCGM as a conduit for product from the South East region, to forge closer links between producers and wholesalers, to quantify the demand for South East products, to establish links with local schools, and to explore the potential for a speciality South East product outlet at the Market.
The project also fits within the scope of the London Food Strategy, and as such is supported by the London Development Agency. In particular it has the potential to develop NCGM as a consolidation point for South East produce for onward delivery into London’s food service sector, leading to fewer ‘white van’ miles. It will enable producers to focus on their core strengths and capitalise on the existing sales and distribution network at NCGM.
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