1st Bio-shop opens in Romania

On Dec. 6 the first Romanian Bio-shop called Bio-Markt opened in Timisoara, a city in the north-west of the country with 400.000 residents. The shop-concept (70 m²) was developed by the two brothers Cristian and Dan Onetiu. The Timisoara shop is the first of a growing number of shops planned throughout Romania.  
The product range consists of about 1000 different products - none of them of Romanian origin.

Over the years Romania has been known as a producer of organic commodities, mostly grains for the EU-market. Up until today no domestic organic processing or marketing exists in this 21.5 million country. With the emerging domestic organic marketing-structures this will certainly change over the coming years. Initially local bakers or vegetable producers are needed amongst a wide range of other different producers and processors.

The opening was technically supported by ORA, the Int. Organic Retailers Association. Supply came from Austrian Wholesalers, as well as directly from German Processors.  The opening was widely acknowledged by the media – incl. TV.

Plans for 2008 include  the opening of a 150 m² Bio-Markt-Shop in the capital of Bucarest. Another plan is to deveIop a franchise-system based on the Bio-Markt-Shop concept. The people behind this new initiative are considering incorporating opinion leaders and testimonials into their activities to achieve a broader, national awareness for the importance of the Organic issue. And also access to national and EU-funds is being investigated.