Procurement of organic food by Latvian schools

Abstract

Organic and local food are a focus in discussions on sustainable school catering systems. A number of European regions have already implemented public procurement policies that give a priority to the use of organic food in school meals. At present, Latvia has not designed a single policy on public food procurement. As a result, progression towards green public procurement is hindered. The research aim is to analyse the public procurement of organic food by educational institutions in Latvia. The research employed document analysis, the monographic method and descriptive statistics. A case study of the involvement of certified organic enterprises focused on the results of the EU-co-funded programme ``School Milk and Fruit{''} for the period 2014-2017. The research found that local farmers could provide local schools and kindergartens with organic food, as the organic farming system was economically diversified. Besides, farmers preferred selling their organic produce in the market rather than using it for self-consumption. The current involvement of certified organic enterprises in public food procurement is low. It is affected by both exogenous and endogenous factors. Strategies on public organic food procurement should be designed by local governments based on an analysis of the situation in the particular region. The analysis would allow identifying territorial factors and market constraints, based on which the local governments could design an organic food ``basket{''}, determining the price and product quality standards.