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Norway’s New Government Wants 15 % Organic

by Redaktion (comments: 0)

Norway’s new centre-left government has high expectations of organic farming: The target for the proportion of both organically farmed land and the consumption of organically produced food has been set at 15 % by 2015. The fact that this increase in organics is feasible is proved by about 30 committed administrative regions where the 10 % level in agriculture has already been exceeded. In Norway as a whole, however, the proportion of organically farmed land is only about 4 %. A mere 1 % of all food sold in Norway carries the Norwegian organic seal Debio (picture). It is all the more surprising that the only specialist organic chain in the Nordic countries was founded precisely here in Norway.

 

Picture: Organic seal Debio

Helios was founded as early as 1969 by a group of environmentally conscious people in Oslo and like-minded farmers who wanted to create a sales channel for bio-dynamic food. Today the company exists as a foundation. Turnover figures are not published. Five of its 18 stores are in Oslo, where 510,000 of Norway’s total population of 4.6 million live.

 

The light, spacious store in the capital, Colosseum that is situated on the edge of the recreational area Frognerparken, stocks the biggest range of products. In a sales area of 300 m2, customers have a rich and varied selection of foods, many of which are imported from Denmark, Sweden, Germany and Britain. Some of the products are sold under Helios’s own label, for example the juices produced by Voelkel. In the store other products are also on offer: wooden toys (picture below), esoteric items like stones and crystals, non-toxic paints, cosmetics, natural textiles and books. Another branch of Helios in the Grünerlokka part of town (picture below), where a lot of students live, makes a much trendier impression. This store has a café serving light meals.

 

The conventional retail food trade moved into organic sales later than in neighbouring countries. Maiken Pollestad Sele from the Organic Association Oikos reports that it is only in about the last five years that there has been a bigger organic selection in the supermarkets. Nevertheless, approximately 80 % of organic goods are sold in the conventional retail trade, even in Norway. Norgesgruppen with the full-range chains Meny and Ultra and the Coop concern with Mega and OBS have on average 160-170 organic products available. In the best stores about 350 products are on offer.

 

Organic products account for just 0.5 % of the total sale of food by the supermarkets, but the trend is upwards. Both Norgesgruppen and Coop report that the sales of organics have risen by 20 % in the first half of this year. Oikos organises about 200 campaign days a year, with farmers’ information stands in supermarkets. Experience has shown that sales of organic products can be increased considerably by campaigns like these. 

 

Even though they are small, the stores of the nationwide health food chains Sunkist (143 stores) and Nuturligvi (82 stores) are important outlets for organic products. These shops concentrate on health and cosmetics. In the larger stores, half of the shopping area is devoted to food.

 

 

About 150 Norwegian organic farms sell their produce on-farm. In 20 towns, farmers’ markets (“Bondensmarked” in Norwegian) are held regularly. For a few years, there has been an organic supply service in Oslo called Kolonihagen. You can also find a few organic products at Kaupa, a company founded in Oslo five years ago, that sells the select foods of small producers on the internet and sees itself as a political project for promoting the living village and traditional delicacies.

 

According to market studies, 14 % of Norwegians regularly purchase organic products. A further 56 % do so now and again, but 30 % are left cold by organics. The biggest obstacle to increasing the sale of organics is above all the price and the selection. According to Eurostat, food in Norway is 55 % more expensive than the EU average, and half of all food is purchased in discount stores that have so far shown little interest in organic products. In an organic “barometer” published by Oikos in October 2005, higher prices were shown to be an obstacle for those customers in particular who have never bought organic products before. For the customers who are familiar with and buy organics, the problem is rather that the selection is limited and the products are difficult to find. “We are fighting a battle against market structures. The needs of customers have been largely ignored” is the view of Mrs Sele from the Organic Association. Oikos provides information on organic nutrition (picture), for example by means of organic catering at the international Jazz Festival Moldejazz, the Hiphop-Festival Øyafestivalen and the Christian Summer Festival Korsvei.

 

The pioneer “Alternativ Mat” is the leading wholesaler. The company that was founded back in the 1980s now has 23 employees and supplies about 500 products to the specialist trade and conventional supermarkets, and it is growing rapidly. In 2004, the turnover amounted to 6.75 million Euros, and in 2005 they expect it to be 9 million Euros. It is striking how many of the other organic companies in Norway have been founded in the last three to eight years. Belonging to this group are Økompaniet that supplies supermarkets with organic fruit, and the canteen supplier Norganic. The organic dairy Rorosmeieriet was founded in 2001, when some farmers parted company with Norway’s biggest dairy Tine (picture). Even the internationally most successful Norwegian producer of organics, Graindrops, has only existed since 2000. The enterprise located in Lillehammer produces Demeter-certified rice milk, oat milk and spelt milk, using an old Japanese method of fermentation. Graindrops intends in the future to process other sorts of grain to manufacture milk-substitute products.

 

Other exporters are Norsk Øko-Urt (Norwegian Herbs), a marketing cooperative for spice herbs and tea herbs, consisting of more than 250 farmers throughout the country. The family firm Tata Cosmetics produces hand-made soaps and natural cosmetics.

Links (in Norwegian unless otherwise stated).


Organisations:


www.oikos.no, www.debio.no, www.bondensmarked.no


Companies:


www.helios.no, www.kaupa.no, www.alternativ-mat.no, www.okompaniet.no,
www.naturligvis.no
www.graindrops.com (English)
www.rorosmeieriet.no
www.nor-urt.no
www.soap.no (English)


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