Local production is more important in the developed world than in the developing world

The public now fully supports local products because it recognizes both its environmental and health benefits. However, support for local products must go beyond these goals. It is no coincidence that in economically developed parts of the world, centralized and decentralized production methods are in a much healthier balance and, paradoxically, the world’s poorest countries rely least on local trade.

In the so-called “third world”, the population vulnerable to global trade, nationwide trade operated by mafia networks, can only settle for self-sufficiency, but local market trade is almost non-existent.

Local products have the money (too)

The production and distribution of local products puts the local and regional economy on the map of the international economy, channeling local producers into international trade. This statement becomes true even if we cannot talk about the international distribution of certain local products, as they still appear as a competition for imported goods.

The problem: we forgot to produce, we forgot to sell

Interest in local products is growing across Europe, but in all countries of the developed world. The popularity is proved by the fact that the number of local producer markets has almost tripled in the last 6 years, the number of primary producers and small agricultural producers (in the order of 450 thousand people) in Hungary exceeds the number of all non-primary or small individual entrepreneurs. However, these figures do not mean that local product sales would provide a secure and stable income for small and primary producers. While those living in rural areas are unable to make a living from agriculture, it can only be seen as a supplement to earnings for primary farming activities for a period of time, and farmers need help to change this, in many ways.

While in addition to large-scale agriculture and large-scale industry, even for those involved in it, gardening and craft activities need to be “just” re-learned, commercial skills need to be acquired from the ground up.

Possible solution: community development

There is a growing number of communities in many parts of Western Europe that have set themselves up to connect producers who are able to produce good quality local produce and are often willing to pay a very high price for it. Community development is a matter of life and death in this case, as producers alone cannot compete with highly capital-intensive large farms. The “Local Community, Local Products” initiative and the innovative package of services developed by the Agricultural Guard Circle are working to create such communities in the Central European environment as well. For more information, visit the initiative page: https://helyitermekhelyikozosseg.hu/