Porto: Organic food in Northern Portugal

With 1.6 million inhabitants, the region around Porto and the adjacent towns Matosinkos and Gaia is a densely populated part of the country. A list of health food outlets produced by Agrobio gives 12 addresses. Organic-Market.Info visited the three leading stores selling organics that put their main emphasis on fresh green foods.

Picture: The sympathetic team of Quintinha

The biggest store in terms of shopping area (300 m²) is Naturocoop (www.naturocoop.org), a members’ store founded in 1998.  At the outset, there were 20 members, and this number has now risen to 250 families. At first sight, there is no difference from other specialist shops. There is plenty of room to walk between the shelves, and  opening times from 13.00 - 20.30 indicate a store not yet working to full capacity, and in fact only 200 customers come through the door each week. Alberto Gomes (picture) is the

managing director and one of the four people working in this large store located in the north east of the central area of town. Three people operate another shop (20 m²) that is right in the middle of town and open seven days a week. “Without being a member, you can shop here for a while to get to know what is available, but then we expect you to make a one-off payment of € 50 membership fee,” Mr Gomes explains.  To make the public more aware of the members’ store, talks to teachers in schools are organised and information and sales stands are set up. “Apart from this, we rely on our customers to spread the word,” says Mr Gomes.

Naturocoop, that started life in a 40 m² shop, has been in its new premises since August 2005. 350 m² for the office, warehouse and refrigeration is ample space for operations and for the regular goods which the majority of wholefood stores in the region get via the Coop. As well as having a large selection of fruit and vegetables, the Coop store scores with its 14 m long row of chilled cabinets (picture) where you can find both delicate vegetables and lettuces and a milk and dairy produce range that by Portuguese standards is extensive. The range consists of 200 articles in total, 90 % of which are obtained via the French Biocoop (www.biocoop.fr). Mr Gomes is critical:  “Of course, we favour producers in this region but, unfortunately, we don’t produce many processed goods in Portugal, so we don’t have our own milk products and pasta, for example.” Coop compensates for getting high-priced supplies from France by means of a low mark-up of only 30 %. Despite this, the people at Coop are fully aware that only the well-off can afford to buy organic products.

“We are doing a lot to attract new customers. We are working together with complementary medical practitioners, fitness studios and doctors. We disseminate information and use posters,” explains Graça Costa (picture), who owns a store and operates a delivery service in the Porto conurbation and in Lisbon. Tasting sessions are organised and information is distributed with the vegetable boxes. On the internet, links are set up to partners to make people aware of what the others are selling. The Portuguese airline TAP is one of a dozen partners. When it sends information to its customers via e-mail, the messages also draw attention to Graca Costa’s delivery service that operates under the name La Quintinha. (www.quintinha.com). Advertising is absolutely necessary: “I am sorry to say that because of the economic crisis we have had only very low growth in the wholefood business for a year and a half now in northern Portugal,” says Mrs Costa. The professionally trained manager employs 13, mainly part-time, staff.

She sources a large part of the fruit and vegetables for her delivery service from a dozen organic producers all over Portugal. Crossing the river Dovro, Gaia lies directly to the south of Porto and it is here in the shop in Gaia that attractive baskets are packed (picture). 2 tours per day with 20 baskets are made each day with one of the Fiat Duplos. The basket weight ist 5, 7.5 or 10 kg, costing € 18,50, 25 or 33,75 and they are delivered to customers’ houses once a week. Customers pay cash on delivery. The service began in December 2000 with 50 customers but, as Graca Costa says: “We have to grow to 400-500 customers if we are to make a profit.” As an additional service, she sells nicely packed wholefood baskets that can be given as presents. They cost between € 5 and € 50.

Targeting office workers and tourists, this quick thinking entrepreneur would like to open an organic restaurant in the lovely old part of Porto. The aim is to have 15 tables each seating four customers and to serve meat, fish and vegetarian dishes.

No fresh but an assortment of organic delicatessen offers Ricardo Almeida (photo above) in his shop Biologicamente. He has around 300 items including meat, tofu and seitan in a frige in the shop he founded in June 2005 on 45 sq. meters. At his website www.biologica-mente.com he is not only providing general information about organic lifestyle and recipies, but his clients can use it as online shop.  

The slogan of Biorigem (www.biorigem.com) could be ‘small but refined and fresh’. The shop, to the north of the central area in Porto, has 35 m² of floor space, in the middle of which an abundance of fresh green foods is on display. The shop, run by Ricarda Santos (photo: right side) and Alexandre Vieira (middle) since November 2004, is located in a side passage and unfortunately can hardly be seen from the main street. The number of customers (currently 60 to 70 a week) has to rise appreciably. The 560 articles are obtained from 49 suppliers, seven of whom are wholesalers. “With the large number of suppliers, we only order from some of them once or twice a year, but the cost of ordering is still extremely high,” Ricarda Santos complains. There is no comparison with Germany, where wholefood stores mostly have one or two main suppliers and just a few others who supply, for example, bread or vegetables.