Some 60 entrepreneurs and development experts discussed the opportunities and challenges of ‘local sourcing’, meaning local enterprises buying their raw materials from local farmers, on Wednesday April 20 in Amsterdam.

What makes a company decide to shift from imported raw materials to locally produced raw materials? “I saw a business opportunity” an entrepreneur from Zambia stated. “Well, in 1989 we were forced by the government of Nigeria to shift from imported barley to locally produced sorghum” admitted the Heineken representative “ and now we have a policy to source locally for at least 60% in all countries ”.

Local sourcing is not easy, actually it is quite a hassle to get all those small farmers’ produce on the same level and at the right time. Still there is so much to gain: decreased dependency on world market prices, less transportation costs, increased local consumption and of course increased sustainable income for small farmers. Visit the website to find the outcomes of the debates, including descriptions of some very inspiring business cases and much more about the action-research trajectory related to this event!