Germany: upswing in Berlin-Brandenburg organic sector

Bio Company is a Berlin-based organic supermarket. Photo © Karin Heinze

With around 150,000 hectares of ecologically managed land, Berlin-Brandenburg is one of Germany's most important regions for organic farming. The importance of the metropolitan region continued to grow in 2017, as evidenced by the sales curve of the Berlin-Brandenburg organic sector.

According to surveys by the Fördergemeinschaft Ökologischer Landbau Berlin-Brandenburg (FÖL), the total turnover of regional organic marketing (including direct marketers, small-scale enterprises and delivery services) in the two federal states is now almost 500 million euros. Compared to the previous year, in which there were already around 1,776 organic farms (see AMI-Bio-Structural Data 2016), this shows around 6% growth. In the following, you can read which factors, according to the FÖL, fundamentally support the growth of the region.

Growth through organic supermarkets

The organic supermarket Bio Company has 48 branches in the Berlin-Brandenburg region. Photo © Karin Heinze

The organic supermarkets continue to be engines of growth in regional specialist retailing. Their number rose from 108 to 118, an increase of more than 9 %. In the Berlin-Brandenburg region, the Bio Company (48 branches) remains the market leader, followed by denn's Biomarkt (36), Alnatura (18) and LPG (8 branches). According to information from the FÖL, another ten organic supermarkets will open in 2018.

The leap out of the niche market is accompanied by dynamic developments, some of which are accompanied by structural changes. For example, the specialist retailers recorded declines for the first time in the first two quarters of 2017, which could be balanced in the final half of the year. At the same time, the entire conventional food retailing sector is expanding its organic product range, and this is particularly noticeable in the case of full-range retailers such as Edeka and Rewe.

Berlin: 40% organic share in primary schools

The share of organic food in Berlin's public institutions is to be increased by 2021.

Out-of-home catering is also developing dynamically. The driving force behind this development is the Berlin school catering system, which, since 01.02.2014, has no longer been awarded according to price but according to quality criteria. As a result of this decision, the organic portion of supplies for Berlin primary school pupils is already around 40%. Furthermore, the Berlin coalition agreement records that the proportion of organic food in kindergartens, schools, canteens, cafeterias and catering in public institutions is to be significantly increased by 2021.

Demand for organic meat is growing dynamically

The broad public debate on animal welfare also has an impact on the organic sector. At the Biomanufaktur Havelland (owned by Bio Company), the largest regional producer of organic sausage and meat products, sales rose from 8.7 million euros to 10.2 million euros – an increase of 17%.

Brandenburg's organic meat production is still focused on beef. (Photo: Pixabay)

The greatest market potential exists on the regional and national organic market for the product groups poultry, pork and eggs (especially from mobile barn systems). So far, organic farmers in Brandenburg have rather been focused on beef production. In future, businesses and the state government will have to look more closely at how to convince more farmers to get involved in these areas.

Development of an animal protection plan for Brandenburg

Last year, Brandenburg’s animal welfare plan was drawn up as part of the agreement on the referendum against factory farming. The outcome of the working group meetings in the various sections is a recommendation to the state parliament and the Ministry of Rural Development, Environment and Agriculture of the Federal State of Brandenburg (MRDEA), which contains 131 concrete proposals for improving animal welfare in detail.

The three main proposals for the implementation of the animal welfare plan:

• Financing a network of demonstration farms to test and communicate welfare measures for animals
• Establishment of an animal health service for all animal species
• Remuneration of particularly species-appropriate husbandry

Positive land development

The development of land in Brandenburg is currently positive. The trend towards conversion is intensifying and the pace of last year is being maintained. While the area growth in 2015 was still at 0.87 %, it was at 7.26 % in 2016. In 2017, the organic farming associations in the region were overwhelmed with inquiries from interested companies.

With a time delay of 1-2 years, three important factors are noticeable:

• economic difficulties and uncertainties in the conventional market
• very stable market situation on the organic market
• increase of the eco-premium to 210 Euro / hectare

Perspectively, the organic market can easily take on further conversion companies because the growing German market is for German products more and more looking, such as organic milk. Due to the market-driven growth of the organic sector, the production side is still lagging behind.

Subsidies for Brandenburg's regional organic sector

A newly launched regional project aims at expanding Brandenburg's organic vegetable production. (Photo: Pixabay)

Within the framework of the European Innovation Partnerships "Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability (EIP-AGRI)", FÖL was awarded the contract for the project "Regional Organic Vegetables from Brandenburg". The aim of the project is to exploit the still hardly used market potential through the high demand for regional organic vegetables for community catering and restaurants and to establish and expand a sustainably profitable and scalable organic vegetable production in Brandenburg.

Furthermore, since November 2017, the MRDEA has been working on drafting an advisory guideline, which could take effect from mid-2018. Especially for the very young and innovative organic farming sector in Brandenburg, an advisory support would be a milestone.