Creating a Business Environment for the Sustainable Development of Agri-Food SMEs and Farming Communities in Wales UK

Purpose: The business environment for Agri-food SMEs in Wales has, in recent years, been seriously affected by a succession of crises in agriculture such as the effects of Chernobyl fallout on hill farming in the 1980s, BSE in the 1990s, Foot and Mouth in 2001, the horse meat scandal in 2013, and now Brexit. This has been exacerbated through the farming industry finding difficulty in responding to these crises. Due to these, and other problems, Agri-food policy makers in Wales have been forced to make a major re-evaluation of the current business environment since the year 2000. Policy making bodies have been tasked with resolving these problems and this has involved the Welsh Assembly Government. Indeed, it is recognised that there is a need to develop what can be described as a “new” business environment for the Agri-food industry. Design/methodology/approach: The qualitative approach undertaken proffers a conceptual model for creating a business environment for the sustainable development of Agri-food SMEs and farming communities in Wales. The approach has involved building a conceptual model according to philosophy, definitions and procedure. The procedure followed to build the conceptual model involved an eight phase qualitative process of analysis. Findings: This paper considers the issues and reports on possible solutions that are both innovative and sustainable towards improving Agri-food business activity in Wales. These solutions form a loop and include knowledge transfer, community food projects, farmers' markets, and best-practice techniques. Knowledge transfer is considered to be a key driver for the sustainable development of the Agri-food industry, however it is of interest to identify the sources and assess the quality of the knowledge that reaches Agri-food businesses in Wales. Community food projects are perceived to be important too, and are characterised by food production and consumption in the same locality. Of direct relevance to community projects are farmers' markets, which enable locally produced food to be bought and sold in the same area and can be enhanced through direct sales via the farm gate and/or the Internet. Other solutions include benchmarking and best practice, which in turn feed back into knowledge transfer – so completing the loop. Originality: The paper concludes by outlining a business environment model for the sustainable development of Agri-food SMEs relevant to farming communities in Wales.