City Farm: the first Turkish Organic Chain

City Farm has established five specialist stores and organic supermarkets in Istanbul over the last five years. The enterprise started in 2000 when it founded some small wholefood shops, but the increasing number of customers encouraged the company ORYA, that runs City Farm, to transform the shops with an average of 50 m² shopping space into large-scale specialist stores.

Picture: City Farm offers a customer-friendly service

They have been closing the smaller shops since the beginning of 2005 in order, as far as possible, to acquire floor space of more than 200 m². Three organic stores with 210, 230 and 250 m² of shopping area have been opened already. The locations have so far not followed tradition by being in the city centre. Instead they are on the periphery, in the affluent residential and commercial districts surrounding the actual city.” At 30 % a year, the organic market is growing rapidly”, Özgü Yusefoglu, the Retail Business Manager of ORYA, is delighted to report. The four letters stand for Organik Yasam Gida Tekstil, which roughly translates as organic lifestyle in food and clothing.

A year after the company was founded, the venture capital company Esas acquired 50 % of ORYA, a move that meant, according to an internet article, that the company’s capital was increased to 1.36 million Turkish Lira. The aim of involvement in ORYA is given as wanting to develop the great potential of organics in Turkey. Esas belongs to the business empire of Sevket Sabanci. After an experimental phase lasting four years, the transition to larger shopping areas was undertaken. The stores create an upmarket impression and the products are presented attractively and with imagination. Quite a lot of the products, such as jams, honey and various kinds of hard cheese, are aimed at delicatessen customers. Before long, bread and bakery products will be baked fresh in some of the stores. Displays give specific information on the various ranges.

Despite the high growth rates, it has to be remembered that the consumption of organics by the Turkish population is minimal at the moment. “We are trying to get the message across to our potential customers in the areas of Istanbul that eating is not only about satisfying a basic need but also about enjoyment” says Özgü Yusefoglu. In her view, it is ultimately a question of lifestyle and whether people are interested in organic food. But, she admits, there is as yet no great awareness in Turkey of the importance of flavour or pesticide residues in food.

Around 90 % of the stock of 800 articles comes from Turkey and is sold under the City Farm own label. For the people running City Farm, it is important to maintain direct contact with the farmers and to get their produce direct. Three lorries fetch the organic products from the farms. The main supply area is a region 100 km northwest of Istanbul, where eight suppliers produce, among other things, fruit and vegetables for City Farm. So that they can start the season earlier, City Farm also receives goods from organic producers in the south of Turkey. City Farm offers a very convincing range of fresh foods both in the categories fruit and vegetables and cheese. Much of the green fresh food is kept fresh on chilled shelves.

Not everything that is sold comes from organic agriculture. “The range of products we can get in Turkey is limited, because a lot of produce is not organic. “So we have to take controlled conventional products from integrated agriculture as well,” says Mrs Yusefoglu. But about two-thirds of products sold are organic, and the number is rising. “We have created a market for products whose quality lies between conventional and organic,” she explains. By selling these products, we can help more and more farmers to convert to organic agriculture step by step.

A delivery service named "City Farm Eve Organik" supplies up to 160 customers each day. Traffic problems in many parts of the capital on the Bosporus, with its 15 million inhabitants, prevent many people going shopping in their own cars. In a situation like this, the City Farm’s delivery service is a godsend.

ORYA maintains good contact with the food retail trade, and in many conventional supermarkets one to two metres of shelf space with City Farm products can be found. This means that organic products are on sale in 141 stores. These include stores belonging to Carrefour, Champion Hipermarkets, Gima, Migros, Tansas and Tesco Kippa. Also, a fair number of delicatessen shops have listed some of their organic products.

There are currently over 40 employees working in sales in the stores (15), as drivers, in the office or in the depot, which is near the company headquarters in Maslak, a part of town 15 minutes by car north-west of the city centre. So that the flow of information not only to customers but also to the farmers and other suppliers can be improved, the company is planning to extend its internet presence (www.cityfarm.com.tr). “We want to make much better use of this modern means of communication,” explains Mrs. Yusufoglu. So far there is only basic information and the location of stores on the website. “As well as wanting to encourage people to consume more organic products, we want them to become more familiar with functional and health foods.”

The company is planning more locations for organic supermarkets, even though it cannot yet say where and when the next new store will be opened.  City Farm stores should experience moderate growth, since the market is developing from a low level but is in no way comparable with that in western European countries.