BioFach Launch: Strong Growth in Turnover – Politicians Criticised

Although the organic market is again experiencing good growth rates, there is a lack of political framework conditions to motivate farmers to convert to organic. On the one hand, the organic market in Germany is growing by a very impressive 7.2% from 7.04 to 7.55 billion euros but, on the other, the area of organically managed land is increasing by a mere 1%. This is exacerbating the imbalance between domestic production and consumer demand that has been rising for years. In the view of experts, the blame for this state of affairs lies with politicians in Berlin who consistently ignore the demands of the organic associations. At a press conference to launch BioFach, that opened on 12.2.2014 in the Nuremberg Exhibition Centre, specialist journalists were given the current data. 

(Picture: André Leu/IFOAM, Udo Funke/head of BioFach, Petra Wolf/member of the management, Felix zu Löwenstein/BÖLW)

"The BioFach event here at NürnbergMesse is legendary,” said a delighted Petra Wolf, a member of the management, as the first speaker at the media day. "This trade fair is something quite exceptional." She said she could see that its special character was to do with the high level of personal commitment and the passion of the actors involved. This year's BioFach is celebrating its founding 25 years ago. One of the founders, Hubert Rottner, attended the media day. This year, the number of exhibitors came to 2,235, and they occupied over 42,000 square metres of exhibition space. “Although the number of exhibitors has gone down a little, the exhibition area has not declined, and the most important exhibitors are there. We see a high level of continuity among German exhibitors, which shows us that BioFach is firmly established,” Wolf explained. (Picture: Entrance with new design)
 
The German specialist wholefood trade is growing in its existing premises and by extending its retail area. According to calculations by the Bundesverband Naturkost Naturwaren (BNN) e.V. and the Kommunikationsberatung Klaus Braun, in 2013 it had outstanding double-digit growth. Turnover having increased by 7.1% in 2012, the equivalent figure for last year was 10.5%, which translates into an absolute figure for rising turnover in the wholefood retail trade of ca. 2.5 bn euros, explained Elke Röder, the managing director of BNN at the opening of BioFach 2014 in Nuremberg: “2013 was not only a good year but, above all, a signal to the food industry, politicians and society in general. Despite all the setbacks, the specialist wholefood trade is growing at a breathtaking speed. Price dumping by the conventional retail food trade in the organic sector has had as little effect on this development as the frequently non-existent support from the ranks of politicians.” (Picture from left: On stage during the  BioFach media day: Elke Röder, BNN, Dr. Hans-Christoph Behr, AMI, Stefan Zwoll, BÖLW, Helga Willer, FiBL, Markus Arbenz, IFOAM)
 
The positive development of the organic industry is largely down to the fact that young people in particular are more frequently buying organically produced food. The sales of vegetarian food like meat-less convenience products grew significantly last year. There has also been an increase in the rate of growth of specialist organic stores and organic supermarkets. Whereas the figure for new stores in 2012 was already high at 81, in 2013 it rose by a further 30 %. 105 new specialist organic stores opened their doors last year (see our earlir report). (Picture: Stefan Zwoll, the Managing Director of BÖLW, chaired the press conference)
 

The press conference was followed by a tour round the new products stand. One of the product groups that has seen above-average growth in the last three years is vegan food. According to data from BioVista, turnover rose between 2011 and 2013 by over 35% from 461m euros to 630m euros.  Another driver of turnover was the segment organic fruit and vegetables, with households in Germany spending 9% more on organic vegetables and 12% more on organic fruit from November 2012 to October 2013 compared with the same period the year before. Vegetables produced in Germany – with a rise in turnover of 11% and an increase in sales volume of 4% - were much more popular than goods from abroad. Currently, 56 % of organic vegetables and 44% of the turnover of organic vegetables are products grown in Germany, according to the analysis of Agrarmarkt Information (AMI) based on the GfK Household Panel. (Picture: Michael Radau, SuperBiomarkt, explains the trends in new products to representatives of the press)

From 2012 to 2013, organically managed land in Germany expanded only by around 10,000 hectares - from 1,034,355 to 1,044,953 ha. This represents minimal growth of 1%. Of this 1%, 715,303 ha, about 70 %, are cultivated by members of the nine organic farmers' associations, and the rest by so-called EU organic farms. The number of organic farms rose during the same period to 23,484 units, which is an increase of 452 farms or 2%. These figures are contained in the publication “Zahlen, Daten, Fakten – Die Bio-Branche 2014” (Link to the German publication)
 

“The Germans are buying more and more organic products - that has to be supported by a targeted policy to promote more organic growth,” said Felix Prinz zu Löwenstein, the Chair of the Bund Ökologische Lebensmittelwirtschaft (BÖLW), about the dynamic growth of the organic market in 2013. Löwenstein gave several reasons for the failure of the politicians. “Excessive support of biogas, an inadequate support policy for organic agriculture and the disproportionately weak promotion of organic breeding and research programmes are holding back the growth of organic agriculture,” said Löwenstein. His demand: “The federal government must pull out all the stops in implementing the agricultural reforms so that, using the instruments of agricultural policy, targeted benefits accrue for diversity in the fields, more animal welfare, healthy soils and clean drinking water. Together we have to ensure that organic agriculture and nutrition are given framework conditions within European law, within which they can do justice to their roles as a models. “Back into the niche” would be the wrong principle to achieve our goals!”
 

A further reason for the low number of converters could be the scarcely rising wages of organic farmers that have not kept pace with money losing its value. In the financial year 2012/13, the incomes of organic farms rose on average by only 1.5 % per worker and came to 30,982 euros. Unlike in previous years, organic farms achieved a lower average income than comparable farms in the conventional sector. These data result from the evaluation of   sample farms by the Thünen Institute for Management.