Berlin: organs on track to grow in the metropolitan region

Although the small-scale, owner-managed organic stores are doing well and have expanded in terms of area and turnover, growth has been driven mainly by the organic supermarkets. Their number in the region has increased from 75 to 85 (11 %). Local industry leader BioCompany accounted for half of new openings with, as we reported earlier, the number of its stores rising from 32 to 37 (see our earlier report). However, its competitors - Alnatura (11 stores, we reported), denn’s Biomarkt(23) and LPG (7) - are focusing on expansion. A new addition in Berlin is the first Temma store, an organic supermarket subsidiary of Rewe. Moreover, an end to expansion is not in sight: according to the latest information from FÖL, as many as 18 new organic supermarkets are being planned for 2015.

Picture: Bio-Company opened the first store in its own building in Kleinmachnow. Photo BioCompany

Berlin is the organic capital

We could call Berlin the organic capital in terms of the number of organic midday meals consumed in schools. From 1 February 2014, Berlin re-organized catering in primary schools and fixed the price at 3.25 euros per meal. Since then, it has no longer been the price but prescribed quality criteria that underlie school catering. This is why most caterers, in order to get the contracts, offered more than the prescribed 15 % of organic ingredients and – according to surveys by the network with an overview of catering in nurseries and schools in Berlin - the average proportion of organics in all lunches is now as high as 40 %.

Picture: Children eating lunch in a nursery in Berlin. Photo Kai Kreuzer

“This figure is unique across the whole of Germany and makes Berlin not only the organic capital in school catering but also, as Wimmer points out, calls for the next step to be the use of raw materials produced in the region. And he adds: “For this to happen, some completely new value chains would have to be created that could then supply other large-scale consumer segments, such as student catering and canteens run by large firms.” The current supply situation regarding schools could be the focal point, because comparatively few school caterers could be seen as serious development partners for organic farms. The Berlin market for primary schools, with 88,000 midday meals, is shared by a total of 22 suppliers, of which the seven biggest cover more than 80 % of the market.

10.48 % organically managed land

Regarding the organic land area, the most recent survey of the structure of agriculture in Brandenburg in April 2014 demonstrates clearly what years of overcautious policy on the part of the Ministry of Agriculture have achieved - a 2 % decline in the area of organically managed land in the last four years. According to the figures of the then Ministry for Infrastructure and Agriculture, the loss compared with the year before was as high as 4.3 %, and the decline in the number of organic farms was 6 %. This means that organically managed land constitutes only10.48 % of farmed land in Brandenburg and that it has ceded its pole-position to Hesse and Saarland (currently 10.7 %). This outcome is in clear contradiction to the coalition agreement of the Brandenburg government at that time that stated: “Our aim is to continue extending our lead in organic agriculture in Brandenburg. In order to create better access to markets, in particular the Berlin market, we will develop a processing and marketing strategy.”

Support for organic farming is rising

Improvement is under way: the regional government has recognised where things have gone wrong, and in May 2014 it raised support for organic farming from around 135 euros per hectare to 210 euros. For the first time in its history, it adopted the rate recommended for agriculture geared to local conditions. “With what is nothing short of an historic decision, the government in our federal state is finally once again giving the green light to organic. In so doing, it is creating the precondition for halting the current decline in organically managed land and is restoring optimism in the regional organic farming scene,” Wimmer declares. 


Alliance demands a change of direction in agricultural policy

Founded at the end of 2013, the Aktionsbündnis Agrarwende Berlin-Brandenburg is an alliance that demands a change of direction in agricultural policy. This regional action group consists of 46 associations in farming, animal welfare, environmental and nature protection and other organizations and initiatives and has the aim of creating a future for agriculture and rural regions that respects nature, promotes animal welfare and ensures fair social conditions. In this context, the Volksinitiative Stoppt Massentierhaltung – an initiative opposing factory farming – has many followers who support its principles. From March to October 2014, around 34,000 signatures of the citizens of Brandenburg were collected (the required figure was 20,000) and submitted to the regional state government in Potsdam. The aim is to use this legislative tool to express the people’s desire to halt the current move towards animal keeping on an industrial scale.
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Picture: The new generation of organic farmers at the demo in January. Photo Karin Heinze