Purchasing local products has become a popular trend both in Latvia and in the world; yet, no single definition is available regarding what may be regarded as local products. The term local product is interpreted based on the distance between the producer and the consumer, administrative and political theories, social factors and personal opinions. Food systems refer to a full cycle from production to sales, whereas local food systems, which are regarded as an alternative to the global food system, are characterised by a short distance between the producer and the consumer, which increases mutual trust between the parties engaged. Besides, it has been found that local food systems are considered sustainable and local communities benefit from them economically, environmentally and socially. Local products are sold through traditional channels – food products are marketed through wholesale and retail networks – and through those popularising local products – short supply chains and direct sale channels – when products are purchased directly from the producer. The present research gives a summary and a short description of such sale channels. An essential role in increasing the sales of local products is also played by the public sector, as local products are purchased through municipal public food procurements. Even though the EU legislation stipulates that municipal public procurements may not require bidders to supply only local products because it contradicts the principles of free trade in the EU, yet, food products produced in the local region are preferred if sustainability criteria are integrated in procurement requirements.

This review paper discusses possibilities of the identification of local food products at brand features. Initially, it was examined whether the identification of food products is possible at brand features, after it was established what type of brand could be used for the identification of local food products – store brand or national brand. Local food meets both definitions: national brand products and store brand products. The scientific literature does not provide an answer to the question about the use of imported raw materials in manufacturing process of national level and store brand products. The answer is not provided if the food products, which contain imported raw materials, are considered to be local food. The methodology used for the research is based upon a literature review – a monographic method.

Aim of the paper is to identify low productivity lands distribution in Vidzeme region, identify enterprises that could use wood chips from willow plantations established on these lands as the main resource in electricity and heat production and calculate produced wood ash amount from these enterprises that could be used as fertilizer and could be recycled in SRC plantations. For better soil fertility evaluation and economic turn predictions all agricultural lands are evaluated in quality units, where one quality unit in money is equal to 5.38 EUR or 70 kg of rye. According to studies, traditional farming in lands, which are below 38 quality units, could be unproductive. In Vidzeme region are 501,880 ha of agriculture lands from which 206,574 ha (52%) are lands with quality assessment under 38 units. According to local farmers’ opinion, the real quality unit, below which economically profitable farming is impossible, are 25 quality units. There are 87,900 ha of agricultural lands under 25 quality units, which represent 18% from all agricultural lands in region. These lands could be used by growing SRC plantations in 2013; the region has 48 enterprises that used wood chips, with total amount of 170,500 oven-dried tonnes per year. Wood chips from SRC plantation could be used in these enterprises. To fulfil the wood chip demand in the region, about 17,000 – 34,000 ha of agricultural land should be planted with SRC plantations. To increase the yields from these lands, fertilization is recommended. In this region are more than 300 enterprises, which use wood as the main resource for electricity or heat production leading to 14,000 oven-dried tons of wood ash production every year.

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