Sonderausgabe
Gewächshausgemüse
Landgard Management Board member Robert Sauer
“For the entire industry, the biggest challenge in 2022 will be to ensure the supply of goods in the retail sector” As one of Germany’s leading marketing organizations and producer cooperatives, Landgard can draw on some 3,000 farms and thus cover almost the entire German fruit and vegetable market. Landgard CEO Robert Sauer shared with us how the organization, based in StraelenHerongen, is dealing with current problems such as skyrocketing costs, what trends they are observing and what projects Landgard will be devoting itself to. ORGANIC; MORE THAN JUST A TREND In the organic sector, the company can currently report double-digit percentage growth rates. The COVID-19 pandemic in particular has led to a change in consumer behaviour, he said. “We are trying to take the positive effects in the perception of consumers* into the current year as far as possible. To achieve this, the value and sustainability of fruit and vegetable
“Our goal here is always to be as close as possible to the producing farms. This is also in line with the trade’s expectation of us as a grower cooperative. In addition, we are continuously trying to both attract more organic farms to become members of Landgard and to inspire conventional Landgard farms to convert to organic production. The duration of the conversion of three years is of course a challenge for the farms. In the medium term, our goal is to achieve a comparable product range in the organic sector as in conventional farming.”
products in general, and organic products in particular, must be further anchored in consumers’ minds. Among organic products, bananas, apples, pumpkin, ginger, ADDED VALUE OF COOPERATIVES and herbs currently play a particularly “Cooperatives like Landgard, and cooperimportant role. There is also a regional ative marketing in particular, are based focus on zucchini, salads, rhubarb, and on a fundamental idea that is as relevant root vegetables,” says Sauer. today as it was 100 years ago. The marketing organization offers members sales
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AGF Primeur • Gewächshausgemüse • 2022
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