One way to incorporate farm-to-table principles into running supply chains would be creating an agricultural collection center to collect products from the local farmers and then distribute them through supermarkets, depending on the demand. This approach can definitely offer benefits due to the economy of scale (Tuqa et al., 2019). However, direct individual agreements with local farmers may prove more feasible when running just several supermarkets, although that would require more organizational work. The obvious benefit of incorporating farm-to-table principles is their potential to straighten the supply chain, thus reducing the logistical costs in the goods pricing. Apart from that, the environmentalist sentiment and the desire to support local farmers both contribute to the popular demand for local products. A potential risk is that small farms may be unable to provide a steady supply of the necessary magnitude or adhere to the same standards of quality.
In order for the supermarket to implement the endeavor, the first order of business is to get a clear picture of what local farms produce. Experience suggests that farm-to-table principles may often help find a new, cheaper supplier for the goods that used to be imported from further away (Tuqa et al., 2019). Regular communication with the farmers is necessary to make reasonable estimations of how much of which products they are going to be able to provide. The main data defining whether to implement farm-to-table principles will include the range of products that the farmers can provide, the volume compared to the current suppliers, and the average price compared to the current suppliers. Should the gain based on these metrics be significant enough, the organizational work of establishing direct connections with individual farm holds may be worth trying.
Reference
Tuqa, A., Lobendann, K., & Bainivalu, S. (2018). Farm-to-table via collection centers in Fiji. In Experience capitalization: Resilience and productivity in the Pacific (pp. 58-61). Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation.