Report highlights importance of local produce

July 21, 2005: The Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) has welcomed the publication of a report commissioned by the Department for the Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) on food miles and sustainable development.

The government department launched the report by stating that food transport has a significant and growing impact on road congestion, road accidents, climate change and noise and air pollution. The analysis reported that food transport now accounts for 25 per cent of all HGV kilometres in the UK and estimated the environmental cost of moving food at as much as £9 billion a year.

Defra has called for the food and drink industry to plan, by 2006, ways to achieve a 20 per cent reduction in the environmental and social costs of food transport by 2012.

"We are pleased this report notes that buying local products has the potential to greatly reduce the distance food is transported," said SIBA's commercial director Nick Stafford.

"An increasing concentration of pub ownership and the use of supermarkets' commercial practices as a model by pubcos mean this issue is surely as relevant in the on-trade as it is in the off-trade."

SIBA claims its members can play a role in offsetting the potentially harmful effects of pubcos' distribution practices as they outsource distribution to large-scale logistic companies with a growing reliance on regional distribution centres (RDCs).

"Local is usually interpreted as within a 30-mile radius, yet the use of RDCs force transport over far longer distances than this," said Nick.

"We note the report contrasts the social and environmental costs of light goods vehicles as driven by our members with the far higher costs of HGVs.

"Add to that the ridiculous practice of hauling beer all over the country to deliver it to a pub five miles from the originating brewery and it's easy to see how the pub industry can play a responsible part in reducing these costs by allowing pubs to access local beers directly, whether through individual negotiations with local brewers or through our own direct delivery scheme."