Sustainability goals and their implementation in short supply chains in Hungary

Abstract

Utilization of local resources and positioning of local actors is a priority area of rural development. In recent years, the sale of local products and the development of related short supply chains (SSCs) have also been a popular topic in support policy and rural development research. Support for the shortening of supply chains is also justified by assuming their positive effects on the majority society from an environmental, economic and social point of view. New types of SSC channels can be a very diverse regional pattern of how local food producers are able to compete with globalized food chains. This also largely depends on the compromises that producers and consumers are able to make in order to maintain local food systems, which mostly requires the cooperation (adaptation) of the actors. In the framework of our research, we sought the answer to the extent to which the sustainability aspects that can be considered among their advantageous properties can prevail in model SSCs. Therefore, we interviewed 20 producers about which forms of sales in short supply chains are preferred and to what extent the elements of sustainable development prevail in their activities. While we also find some really innovative solutions for organizing local food systems in Hungary, it is also a typical experience that some forms of support are not favored by producers, or that bottom-up consumer initiatives die in the initial stages of cooperation. The interests of economic growth or even survival often dictate to smallholders to pursue an independent and unique development trajectory. For this reason, although several aspects of sustainability form the basis of their business, they do not meet other sustainability expectations in the absence of wider collaboration and better organization.