Regional Determinants of the Development of Short Food Supply Chains in Poland
Open accessAbstract
This study investigates the regional drivers shaping the development of short food supply chains (SFSCs). SFSCs are increasingly recognized as sustainable alternatives to industrial food systems; however, their development dynamics at the regional level remain poorly understood. Drawing on structured interviews and surveys with regional agricultural institutions, combined with official statistical data, we applied Spearman’s rank correlation to test five hypotheses related to structural, institutional, historical, and demand-related factors across 16 provinces in Poland. The results revealed weak or statistically non-significant associations between most of the analyzed factors and the development of SFSCs, with the notable exception of a strong correlation with urban population size. These findings challenge conventional assumptions about the role of agrarian or policy conditions in supporting localized food systems and suggest that regional food policy should focus more on enhancing urban–rural linkages and consumer engagement to foster sustainable food supply models.
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Regulatory regimes often impose high compliance costs, disproportionately burdening micro-producers and encouraging semi-formal or informal marketing practices.
“Regulatory regimes often impose high compliance costs, which disproportionately burden micro-producers and encourage semi-formal or informal marketing practices [16,19,39,44,45,47].”
From Who Reaches the Consumer? A Network Analysis of Market Reach Factors of Slovakia's Short Food Supply Chains (2026) · cites this paper as [39]
Large agricultural enterprises and vertically integrated processors retain advantages in logistics, contracting, and compliance with standards.
“Large agricultural enterprises and vertically integrated processors retain advantages in logistics, contracting, and compliance with standards [11,14,39].”
From Who Reaches the Consumer? A Network Analysis of Market Reach Factors of Slovakia's Short Food Supply Chains (2026) · cites this paper as [39]
Social capital and experience are important in participation in SFSCs.
“This finding supports previous research emphasizing the importance of social capital and experience in participation in SFSCs [31,39,42,47].”
From Who Reaches the Consumer? A Network Analysis of Market Reach Factors of Slovakia's Short Food Supply Chains (2026) · cites this paper as [39]
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- Authors
- Raftowicz, M., & Korabiewski, B.
- Affiliations
- Institute of Spatial Management, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 50-375 Wrocław, Poland
- University of Wrocław (PL)
- Venue
- Sustainability
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2025-11-02
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 21
- Pages
- 9772
- ISSN
- 2071-1050 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4415823654
- Cited by
- 6
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6
- FWCI
- 3.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Sustainability (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences (N0N00000/0241/12/2023)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Organic Food and Agriculture
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Agricultural economics and policies
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Urban Agriculture and Sustainability
- Keywords
- short food supply chains, regional determinants, local food systems, urban population size, urban-rural relations, regional food policy, customer engagement, sustainable food systems, agricultural institutions, Poland
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