Project
True Price – From Insight to Action
Food production involves various environmental and social costs that are not factored into food prices. The public-private partnership (PPP) for True and Fair Prices for Sustainable Products (AF 18051) calculates realistic prices for food products and then helps stakeholders to conceive effective and feasible plans for reducing the environmental and social costs of food production based on the insights gained. The PPP helps stakeholders to arrive at effective and feasible action(s) that lead to lower social costs for food production.
The PPP for True and Fair Prices for Sustainable Products is developing a way to monetise the environmental and social costs of and income from food production in order to set a truer price. Once the true price of food has been calculated, the next challenge is to determine how this insight can be used to reduce the environmental and social costs of food production. Various stakeholders in and close to the food supply chain play a role in this, including food producers, food buyers (retail, out-of-home), financial institutions, government bodies, and consumers. They can use this insight into true product prices to decrease the negative effects of food production on the environment and society by identifying and implementing appropriate measures. What options do they have? What actions can they take?
True Pricing Options
In this PPP, we explore, test, and evaluate, the options for arriving at effective and feasible actions that reduce the social costs from food production, together with the stakeholders in and close to the food supply chain. We are exploring the directions below.
What options does true pricing offer:
- to encourage consumers to adopt different, more sustainable behaviour? to incorporate sustainability as a fully-fledged element into the sales conditions in B2B relationships?
- as a basis for internal business operations aimed at sustainability? to further expand quality marks with new sustainability elements?
- as a basis for government policy?
- as a basis for funding conditions and products from investors and banks?
- for a regionally oriented approach aimed at sustainability?
Our approach
We conduct practical experiments with stakeholders in food production who want to explore opportunities for reducing the environmental and social costs of their activities. These experiments are based on scientific research. The partners in the PPP will also share their experiences with each other so they can move forward together. The stakeholders are kept up to date on the latest scientific knowledge and insights into potential interventions and experiences had elsewhere. Potentially useful methods and interventions are tested and evaluated for their feasibility and effects.
Will you join us?
Is your organisation looking for ways to contribute to reducing the environmental and social costs of food production? Do you think you could benefit from the insights obtained from scientific research to this end? Would you like to learn from other organisations? Are you ready to face this pressing issue together? If so, we cordially invite you to participate in this research programme which is due to start on 1 January 2021.
Participants in the PPP are required to make both a cash and an in-kind contribution. Commercial partners are required to contribute only 30% in co-funding instead of the usual 50%.
What are the benefits?
- Partners gain insight into how true pricing can contribute to making the food system more sustainable.
- Advantages in various areas such as companies that want to influence consumer behaviour, companies that want to make their chain more sustainable, government policy, etc.
- We do this on the basis of real-life cases and experiments — together with our partners.