Companies operating in the speciality and fine foods category are increasingly emphasising their local sourcing policies to tap into growing desire among certain consumers to cut food miles and know where the products come from.

Recent success stories include The Yorkshire Soup Company, which sources ingredients from local growers - or as it calls them, local heroes - wherever possible and which sells different recipes according to seasonality.

The company even includes photographs of individual producers on pack, an initiative also adopted by Tanfield Food Company for its Look What We Found! brand. Keith Gill, Tanfield Food managing director, says: "By supporting the small supplier, we hope to start something of a rural revolution."

Yet companies should be under no illusions about the task ahead in encouraging the bulk of UK consumers to take an interest in where their food comes from as well as pay a premium for the privilege.

While IGD figures indicate that 65% of British consumers buy some kind of locally produced foods and 40% would like to buy more than they currently do, the British Market Research Bureau provides a more sober view.

It found that nearly two thirds of shoppers have never heard of the concept of food miles and that most consumers are unconcerned about where the fruit and veg have come from.

Almost a quarter of respondents said that the UK should maintain or increase imports of food to maintain variety in shops, irrespective of any damage to the environment.

However, while getting consumers to the speciality fixtures in retailers is a challenge, once they are there they are more than happy to shop for something a bit different- if it really is a bit different.

Elizabeth Halsall, trade and marketing manager at the regional food group for Yorkshire and Humber, says that while there hasn't been a better time for flying the local flag, this alone isn't a guarantee for success.

"The multiples are buying more locally," she says. "Asda pioneered local sourcing and there has been a real shift in regional ranges across the supermarkets. Issues of traceability and food miles have all helped.

"But the future is new products and innovation. Healthy eating is definitely a trend but it's the innovation side of this that is the most important aspect.

"Yorkshire is famous for rhubarb but nothing very specific. There are a lot of producers with really diverse ranges but they have to understand and research the market and look for gaps and opportunities and focus on these areas.

"They can't be just another jam maker."

This is a point that Rob Ward, co-founder of On-Ward, a company set up to help farmers and suppliers with all aspects of their businesses, feels companies are still failing to grasp.

"There is a lot of repetition in fine food," he says. "Companies need to stop copying each other. They are navel-gazing and consumers are getting bored. And I think that the supermarkets are guilty of doing this as well. "The danger is that people are saying 'I'm going to produce speciality sausages' but don't get to grips with the fact that they have to be amazing."

He believes that companies are jumping on the local bandwagon without giving their products any point of difference and that, in many cases, just because something is locally produced doesn't make it superior.

"There are words such as local and speciality, which are undermined all the time. Producers should think again about using them.

"Local should be changed to provenance, because as the market for speciality food evolves there will be entrepreneurs that will produce better quality products outside the area than companies that are close by.

"Companies need a differentiator other than just local. They will struggle if they don't differentiate."

Another bugbear of Ward is the traditional stance many speciality producers take. He acknowledges that while there is a market for traditional, and cleaner, production methods, these alone should not be the hallmark of speciality foods.

"We had a trend of nostalgia but you can't be nostalgic forever. Eventually people will regard things that have been made using traditional methods as not that interesting. The trick is to try and come up with something different. What's the next pork pie, for example?

"There are lots of fantastic pork pies out there but let's try and come up with something different."n