In late 1990s and early 2000 food scandals, such as melamine milk to horse meat, insufficient labelling etc. had awaken consumers. Food production had become extremely industrialized, food chains centralized, and farms were closing down. There was a need for even smallest farms to survive and consumers to logistically innovatively get trusted, wholesome, natural food.
Main results / outcomes
There was a strong need to revive the connection between farmer/producer and consumer without middlemen. The aim being farmers to receive all the income from their products while using an inexpensive platform of orders through social media. This was the starting point of the movement known as REKO now spread around the world.
Practical recommendations
The main added value for the producer is governing the relations with the customer interface free of charge of a lowcost platform through innovative social media structure via voluntary consumer and/or producer admins, offering consumers the real “face of the producer”. Consumers have the benefit of meeting the farmers, exchanging views, and the opportunity to influence the production of the farm. The simplicity of the innovative concept is the reason it has successfully spread around the world and proven track record of replicability and considerable potential of scaling up inexpensively according to the resources the producer has, and the consumer base is willing to get involved.
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