The time is ripe for local producers in the region to get their goods on major retailer's shelves

Locally-grown and made produce is no longer the preserve of just farmers' markets – it has become big business.

Superstore giant Tesco recently said its annual sales of UK locally-sourced product reached �1bn and it says it stocks more than 5,000 lines from more than 500 local and regional suppliers in the UK.

Asda, the UK's second largest supermarket, says it has 8,000 local lines from 750 suppliers.

No doubt both saw the rise in popularity of farmers' markets and people looking for local produce and wanted its slice of the market.

At the same time there seems to be ever more local producers offering everything from free-range eggs to curry-mix packs.

Social enterprise and co-operative Produced in Norfolk, founded in 2005, now supports and promotes more than 100 full members.

Its managing director, Jane Miller, said this year had seen a significant rise in the number of new businesses joining the group which were increasingly professional and determined with 'very good' product to offer.

But how do small producers, often starting out in their kitchen and selling at farmers' markets, get their products to those markets and take their business to another level?

There are regional retailers and distributors looking for produce to promote and sell.

The East of England Co-operative Society, for example, recently launched a new brand – its Sourced Locally label, aimed at complementing producers' own branding.

Since it began its local sourcing initiative in 2007 with just a few suppliers, it has increased turnover of local produce to �5.2m in its last year, through about 95 suppliers producing everything from smoked fish to pies.

The Ipswich-based chain, the largest independent retailer in East Anglia with more than 200 shops spread across 70 towns and villages, says it is putting more local products on its shelves than ever before.

Kevin Warden, who leads the scheme said: 'When we started in 2007 we spent a lot of time trying to find local producers and now they are starting to come to us.

'What is driving it is that people want it. In 2007 it was a trial in 12 stores. After six months customers were coming back and wanting more. Store managers wanted more space to do more.

'Produce comes straight from the farm to the store, it doesn't go to a middle-man and it is not sent away for packing. In some cases, like strawberries, it is picked in the field and is in store that afternoon.'

And instead of setting prices the Co-Operative asks what price the producer wants to sell at. If they can make a margin and the customer can pay it works.

Producers don't have to be large either. One, Guancheros Sauce Co, from Gorleston, only supplies the Gorleston store.

Royston Owen's bread goes just 92 steps down the road from his bakery in Long Stratton to the Co-Operative's store there.

R Tacon & Son from Great Yarmouth has twinned with Plaice UK to combine transport of predominantly strawberries direct to the stores.

Mr Warden wants the Co-operative to do more too.

'What I think we should be expanding on more now is produce. We have local strawberries, potatoes and asparagus. We should be getting more – runner beans, tomatoes, sweetcorn, stuff grown in this local area fresh and straight to stores.'

Roy's of Wroxham is another store which prides itself in local produce. In fact its locally supplied potatoes helped boost sales at the retailer over the last Christmas period.

Paul Roy, the firm's buying and marketing director, said the firm backed Buxton potatoes, based just four miles from Roy's Wroxham packing house, when it started out and because there is no middle-man they get a good price.

This also meant they could tempt a carrot grower from Asda.

So does selling to a supermarket mean selling out? Natasha Card, who is in charge of food wholesale at the Elveden Estate's food hub, says not.

She feels that, with the economy as it is, many small, high-priced artisan producers will not be sustainable.

But while many don't want to sell into supermarkets in order to retain the integrity of their brand, this should not put them off and, in fact, selling another line into supermarkets could bring in the cash that would mean producers can support their higher end lines.

'In order to keep the integrity of their brand they need a decent amount of money,' she said. 'Without distribution it is difficult to get to farm shops to make that pay.

'We have got people who have made another brand of product, perhaps recreating their recipe cheaper, and then sell in volume through Asda. Making a supermarket version open up their market place.

'This then supports the artisan side of the business and enables them to continue to produce a key product.'

Eleveden Estates, well known for its own produce, farmed across its fields near Thetford, launched its food hub in 2006.

The hub now distributes produce from 25 to 30 producers from the region, from rapeseed oil and beer to ham, turning over �1.8m.

A majority of that, at �1.5m, is for Asda, which Elveden is one of nine regional food hubs for, but it also supplies into Waitrose.

It recently spent �50,000 on a IT system which means all producers need is either a computer with an email account or even just a fax machine.

Mrs Card said: 'We are the communication between the supermarkets and the small producers. We collect product, bring it all in to the hub and then redistribute it.

'We take a margin from the price sold to the supermarket and for that the producer gets full distribution. We also deal with category management, support with accreditation, sourcing, marketing support, pricing promotions, electronic data interchange, packaging and labelling.

'It means the producer can concentrate on manufacturing and their product.'

Elveden can also give the producer weekly sales analysis. Where produce is stocked depends on what it is and how it is perceived, she says.

East Anglian chicken (with Banham Poultry a main supplier), for example, is a nationally recognised product, so it is stocked nationally. Rossi's ice-cream from Southend is in just nine stores, where it is a recognised brand.

Jane Miller says there is a lot of information now out there for people interested in launching businesses making produce – from advice online to help from Produced in Norfolk.

She says programmes such as Dragon's Den have helped, spurring people on to have a go themselves.

So how do producers get listed with the likes of Elveden of the Co-operative Society?

It needs to be a quality product but also a unique product – not a 'me too product' copying something else already popular on the market, like St Peter's Brewery, based near Bungay in Suffolk, with its unique bottles and beer, says Mrs Card.

So what would Mrs Card love to stock? An East Anglian cheese, she says. Producers like Mrs Temple's Cheeses don't want to or are too small to produce for supermarkets, so there is a gap in the market.

'Every single supermarket in East Anglia would buy it in a heart beat, it would be an instant success,' she said.

'But it involves a huge amount of investment and foresight.'

n elaine.maslin@archant.co.uk