Do small food businesses enable small farms to connect to regional food systems? Evidence from 9 European regions

For small farms across Europe, connecting to small food businesses offers a significant route to market. We analyse survey data from 85 small food businesses in nine European regions and explore the enabling and limiting conditions around this connectivity. We show how connectivity depends on context-based interrelationships among food system actors and consider the effects of these relations on small farm integration. Results show stronger connections when small food businesses are themselves farm-based. Weaker linkages are also apparent in the absence of public and social support. We argue that regional food systems can be enhanced by increasing small food businesses’ capacity to source from small farms, with the added benefit of increasing the viability of these small businesses. •The degree of connection between SFB and small farms are territory-specific.•Farm-based SFB can better link small farms to the food system.•SFB may be critical to small farms in terms of processing or retail.•Restraints on sourcing, branding and funding affect the development of off-farm SFB.•Consumer awareness of ‘small farm’ provenance show much weaker than ‘local’ origin.