Naturata Luxembourg: cooperation as driving force in organic market

The number one organic company in one of the EU’s smallest member states (475,000 inhabitants) has experienced really dramatic development in recent years. The Naturata cooperative now operates several organic supermarkets and a wholefood wholesale business, and also operates as a processor. Without any sense of conflict, it supplies both the wholefood trade and the conventional retail trade. The driving force behind this concept and the expansion of Naturata Luxembourg are Roland Majerus and Änder Schanck. The company opened its first shop in the capital twenty years ago. (Picture: Naturata store)
They now have seven stores, and since November 2006 they have also been running an organic bistro (picture) under the Naturata flag. Since February 2009, there has been a “Bio-Snack” in Luxembourg city too. As a result of the strong growth experienced in recent years, they have opened two organic supermarkets with 300 m² and 560 m² retail space. 150 employees (including part-timers) now work in the branches of the various organic businesses that make up the cooperative. 95 are employed in retail and 50 in wholefood wholesale, and three are occupied with coordination and advice to farmers – which is carried out by the organic farmers cooperative BioG. 30 farmers and gardeners belong to this organisation.

The retail arm (see table of shops below) and the wholesale Biogros each had a turnover of 10.5 million euros in 2008. Around half of Biogros’s turnover came from business with the Naturata retail trade, and the conventional retail trade accounted for the other half. In addition, products by Dennree in Germany and Bonneterre in France are sold in Naturata stores. Agricultural production accounted for a turnover of 3 million euros achieved by BioG. Each of the three businesses grew by a good 10% in 2008. The managing director of Naturata (Roland Majerus) and the managing director of BioG and Biogros (Änder Schanck) are anticipating slower growth of 5-10 % on account of the economic crisis. (Picture: Roland Majerus and Änder Schanck)

21 years ago, in 1988, cooperative marketing was launched with the foundation of the organic farmers association in which the first organic farmers in Luxembourg worked together. As early as 1980, the brother of Änder Schanck, Jos Schanck, had converted his conventional farm to Demeter cultivation (picture). The Schanck farm is regarded as the germ cell of organic agriculture in Luxembourg. Whereas elsewhere producer-consumer associations have long ceased to exist, in Luxembourg they have developed the appealing idea of producers and consumers working together for the benefit of both sides. Step by step professionalisation followed and led to the creation of a big complex called Oikopolis on an industrial estate at Munsbach about 12 km east of Luxembourg city.

The two new buildings at the Oikopolis Centre (picture) are very impressive. One has used the roof to install big photovoltaic panels, and the other roof has been greened. When storage capacity became too small at the end of the 1990s, they began planning the first stage of this new facility. 4.5 million euros were invested in the first building (including machines) and it was occupied in 2001. In 2006, a second building costing 5 million euros was erected A fairly small wholefood shop (160 m²) had already been launched in 2001, and in 2006 it was expanded to create a 560 m² organic supermarket. As in the case of many German organic supermarkets, the store was fitted out by the Holzhof company managed by Jörg Kunze. The store sells around 5,000 food lines.

An organic restaurant and the natural goods store Akzent (picture) were added. Akzent also stocks about 5,000 articles in its product range, consisting of natural textiles, books, toys and accessories. This major project was financed by private investors and High Tide (previously TIF, Triodos Innovation Fund) in the Netherlands (nearly 1 million euros). The complex is administered by OEKimmO, the property management company founded specifically for this purpose.

As well as fair prices for farmers, regionality has been an issue at Naturata Luxembourg for 20 years. This is why they tried in the early days to expand their own processing of agricultural products. However, two of their three dairies had to close because of the increasingly strict hygiene regulations in the EU. To counter this move, since 2000 the organic farmers cooperative BioG has been collaborating with the conventional dairy Luxlait to process and market regional fresh milk. Cheese (picture) is produced on the Schanck farm. Butter comes from a dairy in the east of Belgium. In 2002 they began collaborating with Coboulux to market meat. Eggs, chicken and other meat have been produced and marketed in Luxembourg for a number of years. Fruit and vegetables are packed mainly by BioGros. Pasta, breakfast cereals, juices, oils, dried fruit, nuts and legumes are imported mainly from Germany, and some of these products are packaged at BioG (picture).

The marketing of organic goods produced in Luxembourg via the conventional retail trade has functioned extremely well since the 1990s. In 1994, a Demeter specialist trade contract was concluded with the supermarket chain Cactus, and consequently it was supplied with organic goods by BioGros. Today Cactus stocks about 1,800 organic products and operates 19 supermarkets in Luxembourg.

Naturata’s Bio-Snack, that occupies 30 m² in the centre of the capital, is open from 7.30 in the morning and sells a variety of organic take-aways: baguettes and rolls with vegetarian or meat filling, hot snacks like pizza, quiche and tarte flambée, salad variations like Greek, Italian and raw, cakes and pastries like tartlets, desserts like mousse au chocolat, home-made tiramisu, varieties of chocolate, biscuits and nibbles, yoghurts, lassis, yoghurt drinks and hot drink-to-go in the form of coffee and cappuccino.

Luxembourg stretches about 53 km from east to west and 80 km north to south. Whilst the 300 m² organic supermarket with its integrated organic butcher’s, located in the heart of Luxemburg city (in Rollingergrund), continues to pull in the crowds (over 3 million euros annual turnover), Naturata’s sales network covers the whole country. Dudelange is 15 km south of the capital, and Hupperdange is a good 60 km to the north. Halfway to Hupperdange lies Ettelbrück.
The proportion of agricultural land devoted to organic cultivation is 2.8 % or 3,600 ha that are managed by 72 organic farmers. The organic share of the food market is over 3 % and in 2006 organic turnover as a whole amounted to 41 million euros according to the Specialised Organic Market Retail Report.

The four-page leaflet “Naturata News” has a print-run of 7,000 copies. Every month for two years it has been providing information in German on developments in the cooperative. 2008 was the year of the 20th anniversary of the two organic growers’ associations Biolabel and Demeter in Luxembourg. Film shows, lectures, a farmers’ autumn market and a concert by the Dubliners rounded off the special year. The magazine Agri-Kultur is another channel of communication. It appears four times a year, has 24 pages and deals with current issues in organic agriculture and the food culture of Luxembourg.
(Picture: Georges Goedert from OIKO-Consulting Ltd., that also has an office in the Oikopolis Centre, is responsible for the layout and for ensuring the publications have a modern look)


Tip: www.naturata.lu, www.biogros.lu, www.biog.lu

Information brochure: “20 Joer Bio-Bauere-Genossenschaft Letzebuerg” (in German, 20 years of the organic farmers cooperative in Luxemburg)

Location	Area	Founded in	Facility
Luxembourg/city,  Rollingergrund	300 m²	1989	Organic supermarket, restaurant, butcher’s, natural goods
Hüpperdingen	35 m²	1992	Farm shop Schanck farm
Ettelbrück		1995	Closed 2008
Munsbach/Oikopolis	1060/560 m²	2006	Organic supermarket since 2006, Organic supermarket: 560 m², Natural goods: 250 m², restaurant: 250 m²
Dudelange	380 m²	2003	Organic supermarket
Foetz	300 m²	2005	Organic supermarket
Luxemburg/Stadt, Merl	560 m²	Nov. 2008	Organic supermarket with bistro
Erpeldingen	300 m²	Aug. 2008	Organic supermarket
Luxemburg/Stadt, Groussgaass	30 m²	Feb. 2009	Organic snack