Growth opportunities for local food systems

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) initiatives directly connect farmers and consumers. They contribute to the transition towards a regenerative food system, but often face challenges in financing. Invest-NL launched an exploration to identify how this form of agriculture can be accelerated.

The strength of local food communities

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a growing movement in which consumers engage with a local farm. Citizens may collectively own a farm or subscribe to a share of the harvest. Together, they invest in healthy farming practices, biodiversity, and community building. With around 200 initiatives in the Netherlands, CSA remains relatively small in scale, but has the potential to become a promising link in the transition to a regenerative food system. However, securing appropriate financing remains a significant challenge.

Barriers to growth

The small scale of these initiatives, the diversity of operational models, and a lack of standardisation make CSAs difficult to finance. In the start-up phase, cash flow is often uncertain, a clear entrepreneurial lead may be lacking, and profitability can take years to achieve.

Invest-NL sees opportunities

Invest-NL investigates where market failures hinder the growth of sustainable initiatives. This report maps out the obstacles faced by CSAs and explores ways to overcome them. Solutions include alternative financing structures such as guarantee schemes or social impact bonds, as well as sector-wide collaboration and standardisation.

“Community Supported Agriculture demonstrates that farmers and citizens can work together to build a sustainable, local and equitable food system. By organising financing in a smarter way, these initiatives can truly scale up,” says Diederik Greeve, Business Developer at Invest-NL.

Accelerating the agricultural transition

By supporting CSA, Invest-NL contributes to the transition towards an agricultural system that is ecologically, economically, and socially balanced. This aligns with our mission: to make the Netherlands more sustainable and innovative. In doing so, we are collectively building a future-proof food system.