Short food supply chain between micro/small farms and restaurants: An exploratory study in the Marche region

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the strength and weakness connected to the implementation of a local food logistics services, designed to facilitate and enable the use of local food among restaurants. Design/methodology/approach A total of 60 restaurateurs located in a small Italian city and 100 owners of micro and small-sized farms, located within a 30 km radius from the city, have been interviewed. The collected data have been analysed through descriptive analysis and Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests for differences between gender, production type and business size. Findings The results agree with existing literature: poor communication and an unstructured logistics limit the interaction among actors. However, significant for the purpose, the data show that producers are interested in expanding their market and restaurateurs are interested in a broader supply of local products, and they both open to a logistics service that improves the supply of local food. Research limitations/implications The following exploratory study is based on a sample of farmers and restaurants in a specific area so the results could not be generalised in a national/international context. Practical implications The logistics service objective is the promotion of a sustainable territory development in support of the social economy values. Originality/value The study investigates this issue focussing on a practical solution of local food distribution system among restaurants. The logistics service tends to solve the logistics criticalities maintaining the principles of the short food supply chain.