Transparency Is Just A Click Away

“In 2004 we were preoccupied mainly with the growers; last year the priority was building contacts with trade and brand article partners; 2006 is for us the year of the consumer.” This was how the Foundation’s managing director, Hugo Skoppek, summed up the planning at an evening event held during BioFach in Nuremberg’s famous Hotel Rottner.

Picture: Nature & More at the BioFach

Being able to trace the exact origin of an item of organic food at all times, irrespective of where in the world it comes from - that is the target the Dutch Foundation Nature&More has set itself.  There is a little mauve sticker containing a three to four digit code number on every product that is tested and evaluated by Nature&More. The buyer can then input this code on the website www.natureandmore.com or soon by telephone via a service number and receive detailed information on the producer company or farm growing the product, its strategy regarding soil improvement and care of the environment, and not least the measures it takes to ensure the long-term quality of life of its employees.

“Permanent quality is something that occurs when people  see a meaningful link between their work and their own future,” is how Hugo Skoppek describes the approach. “Anyone researching trends will tell you that sustainability is topic number one in the 21st century.”  Despite this, even in the organic industry a cheap price policy can be found. In Mr Skoppek’s view, this has to do perhaps with the laudable intention of making organic food available to everyone. This is, however, rather one-sided. “We must not look just at the cost to the consumer without bearing in mind what it means for the producer to be able to operate organically in the long term,” he explained. Social justice is not always associated with an organic label. Complete transparency  of the channel from the farm to the shop is intended to give back to the consumer the trust that is shattered daily by confusion and scandals.

With the support of the ICCO and Hivos, the Foundation was created at the end of 2004 in Waddinxveen in Holland. Eosta BV, the leading company for organic fruit and vegetables, was the first company to make use of the unique traceability system set up by the Foundation and it had the ecological and social sustainability of its producers evaluated by Nature&More. As early as BioFach 2005, Lebensbaum, the specialist and market leader for coffee, tea, herbs and spices, introduced products bearing the quality seal of the Foundation. More products were displayed at BioFach 2006. The firms Voelkel and Naturata/Spielberger have also decided to get the Foundation to testify to the superior value of their products. According to Mr Skoppek: “We can’t complain about a lack of enquiries.  We have just launched our revamped  website and we can now guarantee the traceability of end products containing several raw materials.”

Since January 2006, he Foundation has gone public with wide-ranging campaigns. Whilst the trade is successfully using the Nature&More system already to convey the values inherent in their products, many consumers are still not fully aware of the wealth of information to be obtained from the little mauve labels. “That is about to change. Our main aim in 2006 is to make customers much more aware of the function of our product labels. So that we can include people who do not use the internet regularly we are going to set up a  nationwide service number. A customer can get product information via a mobile while standing in front of a shelf in a store or by phoning us from home.” He wants to go further and appeal directly to consumers with product-specific information material. These measures will be supplemented by the opportunity to win trips to attractive farming projects outside Europe.

Volkert Engelsmann (picture), the co-founder of Nature&More and head of the international organic company Eosta, adds: “We are a licensee of Nature&More and this opens up for us completely new opportunities in our information policy. At last we can do two things: we can show the efforts we have made for decades to promote organic cultivation  that goes far beyond the international guidelines for organics, and we can show the extensive testing methods we use to ensure product quality together with the intensive consultation and help we offer to create sustainable and fair production systems.”

So, in cooperation  with leading partners in the retail food trade and the Foundation Nature&More, Eosta is planning wide-ranging campaigns for citrus fruits that will begin in June 2006.