Portugal: High Rate of Growth from a Low Base

The organic industry is currently developing positively in Europe’s most westerly country. Both the specialist trade and the conventional retail trade sell organic products, and more and more new customers are being attracted to the first weekly markets to buy organic food fresh from the producer.

Picture: Celeiro Dieta

20 % of Portugal’s population (ten million) live in the Lisbon conurbation, and 16 % in Porto region. With the rest of the country being poor, it is no surprise that most specialist stores concentrate on these two cities. There are good examples of organic marketing here, which it is hoped will spread further in the next few years. What is clear, however, is that the organic idea is only just taking hold, and marketing structures still have to be greatly improved. The centres around Porto in northern Portugal and above all the Lisbon conurbation promise good opportunities for growth in the future.

The lion’s share of organic products is sold in the approximately 500 health food stores, in about 20 certified organic wholefood stores (picture: Biologicamente Porto) and in the 450 m² organic supermarket belonging to Biocoop in Lisbon. The proportion of organics in total consumption is still tiny, but the industry is, with a number of enterprises operating very professionally, well set up to meet increasing consumer demand in coming years by improving the supply side. The level of awareness of organic food and the degree of familiarity with organics in general have increased as a consequence of more reporting in the media on health and environmental issues.
 
The health food wholesaler Goncalo Lobo de Vale estimates that the conventional trade has a mere 10 % share of the organic market. The big conventional retailers, the French chain Auchan, the Spanish chain El Corte Ingles (picture) and Continente, all stock some organic products. The organic firm Biofrade is currently carrying out a special experiment in an Auchan store where, for several months, fruit and vegetables fresh every day have been sold on a 20 m² stand. According to those running the stand, it has been a great success.

Providing better consumer information is also underway, for example at the organic week Semana bio from 18 - 26 November 2006. Many events have been planned all over the country during this week, such as farm visits, tasting sessions, tours of companies and events to disseminate information. The organiser of the organic week is the umbrella organisation Interbio, that was founded a short time ago. The programme is available on the internet under www.semanabio.com.  Francisco Veiga from the cultural agency TerraCulta is responsible for running the event. Most of the events run in the Lisbon region. Find the complete programme under: http://www.naturlink.pt.

(picture on the right: the modern and attractive magazin "Beijaflor natural" reports regularly about environment and nutrition topics www.beijaflornatural.com)

Supporting the conversion to organic farming has simply led in Portugal, as in many other countries, to farmers getting their already extensively cultivated land certified as organic in order to receive more subsidies. In most cases, this has not resulted in marketable organic products or farmers who are interested in marketing their produce as organic. In consequence, future state subsidies will be tied to the actual marketing of organic products. Organic retailers like Angelo Rocha from the organic supermarket Biocoop in Lisbon (picture) are expecting this to lead to domestic supplies increasing in the future, bearing in mind that at the moment a high proportion of stock (sometimes up to 90 %) is imported, mainly from France and Germany. The result has been impressive ranges of goods, but the prices have been extremely high (sometimes 50-100 % above those in Germany). In a country with weak marketing structures and wages between 400 and 1000 Euros a month, it is not surprising that organics are not attractive - people simply cannot afford them. So the solution is to produce many more goods, like milk products and pasta, in the home country and thereby create a basic supply of affordable foods.

Organic marketing structures are being devised, and positive examples do exist: as well as two organic supermarkets, one health food chain and two weekly organic markets, there is also a company producing ready meals. Operating under the name Ecobio (www.ecobio.pt) Luisa de Vasconcelos hopes to supply restaurants and canteens with organic ready meals from late autumn 2006. She intends to dispatch the meals (packaged on a plate made from degradable sugarcane material) chilled or as frozen food to large-scale clients. 230 individual recipes have been worked out, and they are all certified as organic. The meals are prepared fresh and packaged in a district in the west of Lisbon in premises (about 80 m²) where a new kitchen has been installed. Recently tiled, and with new equipment such as a commercial gas cooker, vacuum packer, freezer, etc., the project, supported by the European Social Fund, will be launched shortly. Under ’biodieta’ there are vegetarian dishes, sandwiches, cake and paté (picture); ‘ecobio’ includes meat. It is planned to have the ready meals delivered from November by a contractor using refrigerated vehicles.

To enable private customers to enjoy the benefits of organic convenience foods, Luisa de Vasconcelos is collaborating with Georg Dutschke (picture), who is in the process of creating the firm Bio gourmet (www.bio gourmet.pt). They have 4000 customers who are supplied with conventional products by an already existing delivery service, and their aim is to make an attractive range of organic food available to them as well.

Regarding organic crops and marketing, Portugal has every reason to be optimistic about the future. The favourable natural conditions in the country mean there are many opportunities to produce organic crops. However, it will take a few years to build up the processing facilities and to improve the marketing structures in both the wholesale and retail trades.