the territory
Carmarthenshire is located in South West Wales. It is both lowland and up-land mainly grazing farming region with some mixed farming and specialized dairy. Mainly the farms are livestock, particularly beef and dairy. There has been a growth in regional branding, a short supply chains, a growing of organic, and agroecological farms. And increasing horticultural production and small business processing. There are also significant regional food processors and caterers supplying regional food to wider welsh and English markets. During the last 20 years, there has been a growth in local and regional quality production in the red meat, dairy and horticultural sectors. This has been developed regional branding and supply including to the main supermarkets. This includes the development of regional producer’s processor groups in producing and supplying for instance liquid milk, but also cheeses.
Overall, the county has a relatively low population density (75 people/km2), and a predominance of small scale family businesses, farming and non-farming. For instance 92% of businesses employ less than 10 people. There are high levels of welsh speaking especially in farming families. Historically farming families have been very dependent upon CAP (European) funding representing 50% of farm income; this is now declining and will disappear within the next few years to be replaced by a new sustainable farming scheme. Hence, there is a period of uncertainty and transition in the survival of family farming.
Case study referee
Terry Marsden
Other participants
Hannah Pitt, Kirsty O’Neil, Poppy Nichol, Angelina Sanderson Bellamy
marsdentk[at]cardiff.ac.uk
Territorial food system
Type of region : Rural-diversified, dominant agricultural and forestry land use
Approximate size and population
178 000 inh, 75 per km² (low density).
Traditionally out migration but now reversing with new buyers of farms and land.
Type of agriculture
80% of utilised agricultural land Some farm amalgamations which are hidden in the statistics.
Grazing and pasture farming: dairy, beef and sheep. Small family farms; (mean 100 has); high levels of welsh speaking farming families Farm structures have been very stable over the past 30 years with some concentration. Now policy change and subsidies could accelerate amalgamations and mixed tenure farms.
Short circuits (and anteriority)
Main social issues
Declining farn population; migration of young away from villages
Aging farm population and problem with youth unemployment
Presence of agroecologial systems
Strong growth over last 20 years; horticulture, arable and red meat production Growth in short ‘quality’ supply chains, often supported by Welsh Government and EU regional policies- now these are going.
Specific agri-food system dynamics and initiatives (and anteriority)
Regional food systems geared to local and national markets. Sheep and red meat export markets using PDO/PGI branding.
Agrifood transition
Main stakes for the transition : Growth in niches production and markets; uncertainties now with loss of EU Single Farm Payments but high dependence on subsidies
Key obstacles to AE transition
Uncertainties in markets and policies associated with the combined effects of Brexit, Covid and export markets. Changes in land and farm occupancy as a result of this.
Leading actors in the transition
Welsh and UK governments; key agri-food entrepreneurs, retailers; Farming Unions, young farmer networks
Institutionalisation of the agrifood transition
Historical strong role for UK and EU support (both now about to change). Support for growth in shorter supply chains by Welsh government and regional branding; EU funding has been significant (Regional Development and Rural Development) now coming to an end
Key initiatives
Growth in independent regional food firms & processors
Group dynamics to carry out participatory certification in organic agriculture
Growth in foodhubs & short supply chains
Organization of direct marketing fairs and groups of farmers to participate in them
School feeding (procurement), partly led by the local authority
Trajectory
Method
The trajectory analysis relied on previous studies achieved in the area and Wales more generally over a 40 years period (since the 1980s), as well as on the information and knowledge shared through the lasting involvement of the Cardiff team in local partnerships and finally, through visits of initatives and interviews carried out during ATTER secondments (C. Lamine, D. Magda, F. Barataud, Inrae, March 2023)
Detailed timeline
Historically Carmenthenshire is a livestock grazing farming region for meat (mainly sheep and beef) and dairy production. In the modernisation period, both dairy and meat sectors lose their traditional locally-based productive and processing infrastructures because of growing dominance of retail and manufacturing corporate concentration and their links to mass UK markets and associated long-distance supply chain logics. This first 1960-80s period was characterised by strong policy incentives through production subsidies to produce standard food inputs into the mass markets with little or no regional branding or certification. In addition this incentive system of production subsidies did not extend to horticulture which as a result witnessed a decline in land area. Both beef and sheep sectors have been since the 1980s affected by a series of intensive livestock diseases (mad cow disease, foot-and-mouth disease, and bovine tuberculosis) which has affected markets.
From the 1985s on, ‘regionalised food regimes’ based upon the ‘quality’ production and marketing of red meat (lamb, beef), dairy products (mainly milk and cheeses) started to emerge. This has been based on the development of farmer-based cooperative organisations, which begin to share variable types of input purchasing, coordination of self-defined quality standards and, especially, marketing and local branding strategies, all outside of conventional systems. A much smaller but emerging horticultural sector, based on other kinds of initiatives and actors (collective farms, new entrants, CSAs etc.) began to emerge. This development was supported by EU rural and regional development funding.
In the last decade, new shorter-supply chains based explicitly upon the distinctive bio-physical characteristics of the region are multiplying. This continuing development of local and regional processing and wholesaling facilities has been supported by grant funding from the Welsh Government and its advisory agencies. New actors emerge in the sustainable food realm, and food diets and poverty increase in policy concerr. It facilitated a more sustainable and empowering set of links between producers and retailers and less dependency upon non-regional, distanced and concentrated supply chains.
