The region's food and drink sector is growing at between five and ten per cent a year - with the success of farmer's markets a good sign for the rest of the industry. Frances Griss reports

THE number of farmers' markets in the region is a good indicator of how successful the food industry is. Foodstuffs from local farmers, producers and retailers is becoming more popular, with even the supermarkets recognising the strength of the sector and starting to source locally.

The mass food market is reaching saturation point and any growth area attracts the attention of the big players.

But the emerging popularity of local produce is a consumer-led revolution, with more people demanding to know more about the origins of the food on their plates.

Karl Christensen, industrial development officer at the department of agricultural economics and food development at the University of Newcastle, who is also chairman of the Regional Food Group, said: "There is huge growth.

"Those people who were in the market have seen a big increase in demand and those people who were perhaps inclined to go that way have been encouraged by the success of those businesses.

"It is very much a consumer thing. My personal feeling is that consumers, despite the phenomenal choice that there is in supermarkets, have a voracious appetite for something new. They are bored with what the multiples have to offer.

"In addition to that, consumers have lost confidence in what the multiple retailers are offering. This is partly through food scares."

He said that people liked to know exactly where the food they were buying had come from.

"The connection with the individual producing or processing that food seems to satisfy a lot of those concerns," he said.

Mr Christensen said that it seemed that looking the producer in the eye at the farmers' market or farm shop increased the trust the consumer had in the quality of the food.

This is all buoying a market that is worth £3.7bn nationally in a total food market worth £76bn in retail and £71bn in catering.

Last year, only five per cent of North-East businesses in the sector saw a decrease in turnover, while six per cent saw increases of more than 50 per cent.

Two-thirds of businesses saw a rise of some sort, according to research carried out by Newcastle University in September.

Of these local businesses, more than half have a turnover of more than £250,000 and 15 per cent have more than £1m.

According to Mr Christensen, the organic market is driven by other factors, one being a concern for the environment that supports a demand for food produced without chemicals.

But he said that ignored that the majority of the organic food we buy -about 60 per cent - is imported and entails a great many food miles.

Despite the growth in regional food sales, it is still a niche market and the overwhelming majority of food being purchased comes from supermarkets, with their downward pressure on prices and demands for uniformity.

Mr Christensen said that was bad for long-term sustainability.

He said: "We have lost huge rafts of food manufacturing. Those left are making so little profit that sustainability is under threat because they can't renew their assets.

"Regional food counteracts that, but it is only a tiny part of the market."

Regional food is bought mostly for special events, with people still shopping in supermarkets for their day-to-day food. It is more expensive and takes more effort to buy, because it is generally not available from mass-market outlets, with the exception of Asda, which has regional food in all 22 of its North-East stores.

But the impetus to buy more, Mr Christensen believes, is more than a passing fad, because the issues of food and health are not going to go away.