Julie Smith and David Barling Case City University London Study XY Case Study: UK wheat to bread supply (Task chain (Task 3.5) 3.5) Authors – Partner The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement n° 311778 2014 To be quoted as: Smith J and Barling D (2014) Glamur project UK wheat to bread supply chain case study. City University London www.glamur.eu 2 Case Study: UK wheat to bread supply chain (Task 3.5) Julie Smith and David Barling – City University London www.glamur.eu 3 Summary 1. Background • The UK wheat to bread case study is part of research being undertaken for GLAMUR WP3 to document global and local aspects of the supply chain. The study maps and analyses the industrial (more global) wheat to bread supply chain and two sub-chains with more local characteristics. It includes: i.) analysis of stakeholder knowledge of the supply chains and perceptions of their local and global performance; ii.) using a set of indicators, analysis of biodiversity; technological innovation; nutrition; and information and communication as key factors (attributes) identified for how these chains are interacting, adapting and innovating in the UK; and iii.) collecting data suitable for a comparative analysis with data collected on the Italian wheat to bread chain; • This is one of the UK’s most important food chains and follows the production of wheat and its transformation into flour and bread for retail and consumption. The chain is dominated by intensive wheat cultivation and a concentrated and highly industrialised manufacturing and distribution system that accounts for 80% by volume of production, with three large manufacturers competing for almost 75% of the bread market by value. At the industrial level, bread can be split into 2 key categories: i.) wrapped sliced bread baked by plant bakeries and ii.) ISB (in-store bakery) where bread is baked in- store either from scratch or from part-baked dough. The vast majority of UK bread is sold by supermarkets, rather than specialist bakers and the chain produces nearly 11 million loaves each day that are sold to 99% of British households. Recent trends in consumer habits and tastes have resulted in declining sales of sliced white bread. In recent years, more local chains have proliferated to meet consumer demand for bread identified with more ‘artisan-like’ qualities. 2. Context of the UK case study • Selection of the case study chains: The GLAMUR theoretical framework, where four key dimensions are identified to differentiate local from global, was used to help identify the chains. Three supply chains were selected: a large industrial plant baker - GC (more global); and two smaller chains with local characteristics - an in-store bakery - ISB (regional aspects), and a craft bakery chain- CRFT (more local). Interviews were conducted with farmers, grain collectors, millers, bakers and retailers as key stakeholders along each of the chains. Interviewees revealed a range of perceptions about how stakeholders make distinctions between ‘local’ and ‘global’. • Global-local issues in the supply chains include: i.) geography distance: all chains have global and local inputs. There was a scale of perceptions about how stakeholders made distinctions between ‘global’ and ‘local’, and reservations about defining ‘local’ purely in terms of distance. ii.) governance: high level of industrial organisation and governance – regulation, assurance schemes and contractual specifications; iii.) resources, knowledge and technologies: technological innovation and research development have led to more integrated and efficient industrial supply chains with some negative impacts at the local level; iv.) identity/role of territory: industrial and ISB chains are increasingly focussed on value added production, with an emerging focus on provenance linked to marketing potential. This mirrors and competes with key characteristics of origin and place that characterise the craft and artisan bakeries in the local chain. • Scope and systems boundaries of the research study: the system boundary was delimited for the scope of the case study research and only accounts for stages in the supply chain up to the point of www.glamur.eu 4 sale. Although consumers have not been directly interviewed as part of the analysis, stakeholders’ perceptions of their influence were sought. Conceptual maps were used to provide detailed comparisons and demonstrate some of the shared characteristics between the chains. • Critical issues include: wheat provenance and climate variation; seed breeding and wheat growing priorities and practices; concentration in the supply chain; GHG emissions; product composition and nutrition; (re-) use of traditional baking techniques versus industrial production linked with technological innovation. 3. Research design • Research questions incorporated the critical issues identified and addressed distinctions and connections/interactions between local-global chains. • Selection of the attributes: scientifically sound attributes were selected (biodiversity, technological innovation, nutrition and information and communication) that provided data for analysis in the five performance dimensions (economic, social, environmental, health, ethical). • Selection of the indicators: indicators were selected using a process that reviewed evidence for each attribute; the SAFA Guidelines; identified those for which data would be readily available; and to meet the needs of the research questions. • Constructing the indicators: criteria devised for assessment of the indicators was based on integrating analyses determined by stakeholder-specific interests and values gathered from the semi- structured interviews, with verifiable analyses from secondary data sources (practice based). • Benchmarking: the values and qualitative descriptions that defined each indicator were benchmarked to set its performance level and rate its sustainability performance. From this a rating of the sustainability performance for each attribute and each individual chain was calculated, and comparisons of performance levels between the global, regional and local chains as a whole were calculated. 4. Methods • Data gathering: methods used for data collection included 16 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders and associated organisations; and review and data from secondary sources. The methodology employed was mindful of the participatory approach and the need to include stakeholder views and perceptions throughout the research process. • Relevant descriptors: were used to provide a contextual baseline and ‘thicken’ the analysis. • Data quality check was carried out. 5. Results • Presentation of data: benchmarked scores of performance were calculated for each indicator. In sum, the local chain appears to perform best for both biodiversity and technological innovation and less well for information and communication. The regional chain scores least well for nutrition. Overall scores for these selected attributes and indicators show the local chain performed best (81.6%), then the global chain (63.3%), and then the regional chain (60.8%). www.glamur.eu 5 Overall scores of performance for attributes in global, regional and local chains biodiversity 100 80 60 40 global 20 info & technological 0 regional communicaon innovaon local nutricon 6. Discussion: • The methodology was effective for selecting key attributes and sets of indicators to evaluate the specific performance levels in each of the three chains and in providing a set of results for comparison with those of the Italian team. However, data provided by the analysis had some limitations and perhaps the most critical of these relates to the difficulty of assessing global-local performance when dealing with the breadth of scope between the large-scale industrial chain and the small-scale local chain. The methodology did effectively address some limits to its validity through the contextual descriptors and the data quality check. • Each of the attributes and their related indicators were considered using the relevant research question(s) to structure the discussion and identify key issues that emerged from the research findings about how global-local wheat to bread chains are innovating, adapting and interacting in the UK. The discussion included perceptions and observations about global-local interactions in the chains as expressed by stakeholders interviewed for the study. Some key findings include: • there were key differences between stakeholders in each chain about how they defined ‘global’ and ‘local’; • there is an unresolved debate about delivering biodiversity (environmental performance) and maximising productive output (economic performance) along the global-local continuum; • innovative technological practices, coupled with legislation, have positively affected both environmental and economic performance along the global-local continuum; • the use of industry oversight and public scrutiny has resulted in a marked decrease in salt content in industrially produced bread but there is a shortage of data in the other chains; • there was evidence of a ‘re-balancing’ of the chains as the industrial chain adapts and innovates using key qualities and characteristics associated with the local chain, with a counter-balance that is shifting demand towards more local bread, associated with traditional baking techniques; • although the industrial chain