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European Heat Council · Position 04

Issued 2026-06-25

Under Council authority

Championing local and regional supply chains

The Council’s affirmative case for local and regional sourcing in EU food production, grounded in documented consumer demand, measurable climate evidence, and existing EU policy direction.

Part I. Findings

The Council records three conditions that together support the case for local and regional supply chains in EU food production. Each is supported by sources cited at the foot of this Position.

Finding 1. EU consumers want to know where their food comes from, at scale.

The European Food Safety Authority’s 2025 Eurobarometer on Food Safety, surveying 26,370 respondents across the EU27 and a further 5,655 in seven candidate countries, records that on average 70 per cent of respondents consider the origin of food an important factor when buying it. In Slovenia, Luxembourg and Italy the figure rises to 66, 59 and 55 per cent respectively naming origin as the single most decisive purchase factor[1]. The European Parliament’s 2024 research briefing on food origin labelling records that approximately six in ten EU consumers want to know both the country in which a processed food’s primary ingredient was farmed or harvested and the country in which the food itself was manufactured[2]. The European Commission’s 2024 Consumer Conditions Survey confirms the broader pattern of consumer interest in food information at point of purchase[3].

Finding 2. Long-distance transport of food generates a material share of food-system emissions, and short supply chains reduce it.

The European Commission’s Knowledge for Policy service records that, when the full upstream food supply chain is considered, global food miles account for approximately 19 per cent of total food-system emissions, with the transport of fruit and vegetables alone contributing 36 per cent of food-miles emissions, around twice the greenhouse gases released during their production[4]. The Joint Research Centre’s analysis of short food supply chains in the EU records that the geographical proximity typical of such chains allows for reduction in the environmental costs associated with food distribution, while also noting that logistics and shipment-size effects must be managed carefully[5]. Peer-reviewed European analysis confirms that short food supply chains, properly designed, deliver measurable environmental and socio-economic benefits relative to long-distance commodity chains[6].

Finding 3. EU policy already recognises short supply chains and local food systems as positive instruments.

The European Commission launched a dedicated EU CAP Network on short food supply chains, signalling institutional support for shorter chains as a deliberate policy direction within the Common Agricultural Policy framework[7]. The European Parliament’s research briefings, dating to 2016 and updated since, frame short food supply chains and local food systems as established categories of EU agricultural and rural policy with their own funding and regulatory infrastructure[8]. The Farm to Fork Strategy, adopted as part of the European Green Deal, sets the broader policy frame within which shorter, traceable, lower-emission supply chains are a stated EU objective[9].

Part II. Position

On the basis of these Findings the Council holds that:

  1. The Council champions local and regional supply chains as a positive choice for consumers, climate, and producers. This is not a protectionist preference. It is an alignment with documented consumer demand, with measurable environmental benefit, and with the EU’s own policy direction.
  2. Value retained within EU producer networks compounds. A purchase from a small EU-internal producer supports another small EU-internal supplier, which supports a region, which supports a Member State economy. Anonymous commodity sourcing breaks that chain at the first transaction.
  3. The Council recognises three tiers of EU-internal sourcing against which members and other producers may make verifiable claims:
    1. Seed-to-sauce.The producer grows the chillies and makes the sauce. All primary ingredients originate on the producer’s own land or under their direct cultivation.
    2. EU-internal sourcing. All primary ingredients are sourced from named EU producers, with documented supplier relationships.
    3. Mixed traceable. Non-EU ingredients are permitted where the ingredient is not available at meaningful scale within the EU, but all sourcing must be traceable to a named producer.
  4. Where third-country ingredients are sourced, the Council holds that the standards regime applied to those ingredients should match what is required of EU producers under EU law. Asymmetry between domestic and import standards is not a trade preference; it is a consumer protection failure.

Part III. Commitments

The Council will:

  1. Publish and maintain the three-tier recognition framework above, with a transparent verification standard, against which members and other producers may make claims.
  2. Maintain a public directory of recognised producers, indicating each producer’s sourcing tier, so that buyers, journalists, and consumers can verify claims at source.
  3. Submit comment in EU consultations on origin labelling, the Farm to Fork Strategy, the Common Agricultural Policy, and short food supply chain policy where the impact on small and independent producers is material.

Revision

This Position will be reviewed annually, or sooner if the Farm to Fork Strategy is materially revised, if the Common Agricultural Policy framework changes its treatment of short food supply chains, or if new EU origin-labelling rules are adopted.

Sources

  1. [1]European Food Safety Authority, Eurobarometer 2025 on Food Safety, with 26,370 respondents across EU27 Member States and 5,655 in seven EU Candidate Countries. https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/corporate-pubs/eurobarometer-survey-2025-food-safety-eu
  2. [2]European Parliament, EPRS Briefing — Food origin labelling: Developments and issues, PE 767.165, 2024. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2024/767165/EPRS_BRI(2024)767165_EN.pdf
  3. [3]European Commission, 2024 Consumer Conditions Survey (full data set). https://commission.europa.eu/publications/2024-consumer-conditions-survey-full-data-set_en
  4. [4]European Commission, Knowledge for Policy — Global food miles account for nearly 20 per cent of total food-systems emissions (citing Li et al., Nature Food, 2022). https://knowledge4policy.ec.europa.eu/publication/global-food-miles-account-nearly-20-total-food-systems-emissions-0_en
  5. [5]Joint Research Centre, European Commission, Short Food Supply Chains and Local Food Systems in the EU: A State of Play of their Socio-Economic Characteristics, JRC80420, 2013. https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC80420
  6. [6]Short Food Supply Chains in Europe: Scientific Research Directions, Sustainability (MDPI), peer-reviewed analysis of SFSC environmental and socio-economic outcomes. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/6/3602
  7. [7]European Commission, EU CAP Network announcement — New European Network Launched to Boost Short Food Supply Chains. https://eu-cap-network.ec.europa.eu/news/new-european-network-launched-boost-short-food-supply-chains_en
  8. [8]European Parliament, EPRS Briefing — Short food supply chains and local food systems in the EU, PE 586.650, 2016. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2016/586650/EPRS_BRI(2016)586650_EN.pdf
  9. [9]European Commission, Farm to Fork Strategy — the EU policy framework for fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food systems. https://food.ec.europa.eu/horizontal-topics/farm-fork-strategy_en

Issued under Council authority. European Heat Council, 2026-06-25.

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