"Open Food Network - Ireland" - Presentation (18th of May Advisinar)

Evonne Boland's presentation is about the Open Food Network (OFN) Ireland: what it is, what makes it useful for small-scale food producers, and the opportunities and challenges of using digital markets in short food supply chains.

OFN is a global, community-led, non-profit movement and open-source e-commerce platform designed to support short food supply chains. It launched in Ireland in 2020 and became a cooperative in 2021.

Its main strengths are that it was designed for and by small-scale food producers, it is low cost and flexible, it is community-owned with clear values around governance and subsidiarity, and it connects users to an international movement with shared resources and learning networks.

On the opportunities side, digital markets improve operational efficiency, reduce waste of time and produce, offer resilience against external factors like weather or lack of infrastructure, and allow hybrid models that combine digital and physical approaches.

On the challenges side, the presentation is honest: there is resistance to digital tools, producers and customers are not always ready, the model requires planning ahead through order cycles, and the wider local food sector in Ireland is struggling, with too few producers, limited customer understanding, weak infrastructure, and strong competition from supermarkets.