Food chains, small‐scale food enterprises and rural development: Illustrations from Ireland

The indigenous agri‐food sector in the Republic of Ireland has evolved to a stage where Irish companies are firmly implicated in a competitive European and global marketplace. Considerable restructuring of the sector has taken place, the central features of which are identified. One of the consequences has been a shift in the location of food industry employment to the more rural areas. Food chains and related state actions are described under three main product categories: agri‐industrial, organic and speciality foods. Small‐scale rural enterprises in the latter two categories form the main focus of the paper. Qualitative data from a study of these enterprises are used to discuss their recent growth and their production and marketing patterns, as well as their significance for rural development. They face particular problems in selling their products in a limited domestic market and in a context where more powerful interests are striving for greater efficiencies in food supply chains. The issues are analysed and producer options interpreted in terms of two general models: ‘incorporation’ into the dominant capital‐driven and globalizing market systems, or ‘adaptation’ by adhering to more localized and self‐controlled supply chains.