Additional aid for regional products

Minister Schouten of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) wants to increase the appreciation of Dutch regional products and promote their sale. In cooperation with the provinces, the plan is to organise a special trade mission in the Netherlands to raise awareness of regional products and to stimulate short (food) chains. The problem of the legislation and regulations for regional producers will be tackled. 

The Minister wrote this to the Lower House of Parliament in a response to the initiating memorandum 'Verbinding boer(in)-citizen. Food Nearby' by member of parliament Dik-Faber. In the letter to the House of Representatives, the Minister made a number of proposals to strengthen the link between farmers, nature conservationists and consumers.

Regional and regional products

Minister Schouten endorses the ambition of narrowing the gap between the producer and the consumer in order to increase the appreciation of food. The Minister will discuss with supermarkets a broader introduction of regional products on the shelves. These are products that are only sold regionally and for which the distance between the farmer and the shop shelf is short in kilometres. The supply of regional products to supermarkets comes up against a number of obstacles, such as higher prices. The logistics costs are relatively higher for regional products than for products that are produced on a larger scale. By means of a benchmark that has yet to be set up, the minister wants to provide insight into whether more regional products will end up on the shelf.

One of the other plans is to stimulate the sale of regional products, typical products from a certain region that are sold nationally or even internationally, in contrast to regional products. Among other things by organising a trade mission in their own country. The minister observes that these mostly small-scale producers sometimes encounter problems such as legislation and regulations that are primarily intended for large-scale producers. Bottlenecks are identified and addressed without compromising food safety. In order to monitor the development of Dutch regional products, a monitor will be set up to monitor the production and sale of these products.

Stimulating short chains and multifunctional agriculture

In order to strengthen the link between farmers and consumers, the minister wants to encourage initiatives that focus on local food, a fair price for the producer and more connection between farmers and city dwellers. The minister wants to give these so-called short (food) chains a boost by officially recognising the Short Chain Task Force. There is also an eye for multifunctional agriculture, such as care farms, farm shops and agricultural child care through the establishment of the Multifunctional Agriculture Platform.

Under the motto 'young learned, old done', schools have been able to make use of incentive vouchers since last school year with funding from the 'Young Learning to Eat' programme. This allows schools to extend their food lessons with practical experiences such as (vegetable) gardening, cooking or farm education.