Partnership of convenience or opportunity for growth? : investigating the role of retailers in expanding local food schemes in the case study of EDEKA branches in northern Germany

Abstract: In the past years growing interest in alternative forms of food supply chains has incentivised researchers to investigate the role of retailers in Short Food Supply Chains (SFSC) mainly in the United States, Canada and the EU, with little attention paid to SFSC retailer interaction in the German context specifically. The aim of this thesis to contribute to the existing literature by investigating how the country’s presumed institutional conditions affect the viability of selling via retailers for a certain type of SFSC producer. The location of the study was northern Hamburg, Germany. Six semi-structured interviews, substituted with four questionnaires, were conducted with micro- to large-scale producers involved in local SFSC schemes and selling via branches of the supermarket chain Edeka, and a group of producers who did not sell via this retailer. A document analysis of statements of producers and other stakeholders on the cities intention to support local agriculture by creating additional demand provided an overview of the effects of agricultural circumstances and policies had on SFSC. The interviews were analysed by applying Stevenson and Pirogs ‘values-based supply chain’ framework and showed that only micro- or mid- to large scale producers profited from the cooperation, which in the latter case was more of a partnership of convenience. In combination with the document analysis, which found limited land and capital access, expensive certification, as well as the need for more training in marketing and demand to impact local farmers, this conclusion indicates that additional outlets are not the only tools the city has to support local, especially small scale, agriculture.