Study analyses the German organic poultry market

The organic share of poultry meat is only 1.5%; the products are around three times more expensive than conventional ones. The organic food trade accounts for more than a quarter of sales. There are no regional slaughterhouses to expand organic poultry farming. In addition, marketing is subject to great price pressure due to the entry of larger fattening farms. These are the key findings of a market study conducted by the German organisation Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (AMI).

Over a period of two years, AMI, funded by the Federal Programme for Organic Agriculture (German: Bundesprogramm ökologischer Landbau, BÖLN), has collected data on organic poultry production and marketing in Germany.

Most organic poultry is in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

For the year 2016, it came to stocks of 1.18 mn broilers and 202,000 turkeys. Since the statistics only cover farms with more than 1000 animals, the actual figures are higher. Most animals are located in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, followed by Lower Saxony. Bavaria is in third place for chickens and Saxony for turkeys. Around 4.4 mn chickens, 4.6 mn soup chickens and 600,000 turkeys were slaughtered in 2016. The AMI study was unable to provide comprehensive figures on slaughterhouses and cutting plants, as only 29 of the 130 companies contacted had responded. Only a dozen of them slaughtered themselves.

Organic food retailers and full-range suppliers are the most important distribution channels

Concerning the distribution channels for organic poultry meat, organic food trade was on a par with the full-range suppliers at 27%, while the market importance of discounters is still low at 11%. More than a third of the meat is sold via "others", including organic butchers, weekly markets and direct marketers.

The report also presents conventional label programs that compete with organic poultry in conventional food retailing.

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