ORGANIC OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND IN GERMAN MARKET
THE MARKET FOR ORGANIC VEGETABLES IS BOOMING IN GERMANY. CONSUMERS THERE SPENT 22% MORE ON THEM IN 2019 THAN IN THE PREVIOUS YEAR. TODAY MORE THAN 8% OF VEGETABLES SOLD IN THE COUNTRY ARE ORGANIC. CARROTS HAVE BY FAR THE LARGEST MARKET SHARE IN THE SEGMENT, REPRESENT NEARLY 30% OF SALES. THOUGH SEVERE DROUGHT LED TO A LEAN YEAR FOR CARROTS IN 2018, SALES BOUNCED BACK BY 12% IN 2019.
An import country
Although Germany is well suited to agriculture thanks to its large area and low population density, when it comes to vegetables it’s long been an import country. With the strong focus on industry, such as car manufacturing, vegetable cultivation has developed more slowly. But things are changing. We talked to Pieter Gabriëls, the director of Bejo Germany. “German organic growers have made great strides in terms of produce quality and yields,” he told us. “Since 2013, domestic organic carrot production has grown by 26%, to more than 53,000 tonnes in 2019. But total demand is still about 20% to 30% above that. At 42%, the share of organic carrot consumption accounted for by imports is still substantial. The greatest import volumes by far come from the Netherlands. More than half of Dutch organic carrots are sold on the German market. Organic carrots are imported from Israel and Spain specifically to compensate for the shortfall at the end of the winter season.”
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BEJO CARROT MAGAZINE
Increased area
After a period of stabilization, the acreage devoted to organic carrot cultivation increased by 9% in 2019, to 2,377 hectares. That’s about 17% of all land devoted to organic vegetables in Germany. The carrots are grown for use as snack, tray, winter and bunch carrots. They’re grown in the same areas as conventional produce, although organic cultivation is difficult in intensively farmed areas. In southwestern Germany, for example, combining the two increases disease pressure.
Bejo varieties • Storage: Norway and Nacton (organic seed), Nerac (conventional NCT seed, can be used for organic) • Early: Napoli (organic seed) • Taste: Mokum as snack carrots (NCT seed), Miami (organic seed)
"More than half of Dutch organic carrots are sold on the German market." Pieter Gabriels
Regional produce
“The market sets high quality standards for organic carrots, and it strongly prefers regional German produce,” Gabriëls says. “This preference stems from a desire for clarity around the origins of the product, partly because of food scandals. This is even more true for organic vegetables than for conventional ones. So in fact ‘regional’ stands for transparency around the origins of the product, which is a demand non-regional growers can also fulfil.”
Sales
Organic carrots are well represented in the various sales channels. Discount supermarkets like Lidl and Aldi still dominate the market, however. Organic carrots are almost a given for German discounters; they’re now the only kind some stores offer. They bring several benefits: they have a positive effect on the image of a store, are attractive to a broad public and can be sold at relatively high prices.
Pricing
Because of their greater production and certification costs, organic carrots are priced an average of 50% to 60% higher than their conventional counterparts. While German consumers don’t generally like to spend a lot on food, they make an exception for organic. As long as organic vegetables meet the criteria of high quality and regional (read: clear) origins, consumers are willing to pay relatively high prices for them. >>
Sales (x 1,000 tonnes) 70
Domestic German production
60 50
Total imports
40 30
Dutch imports
20 10
Sales (x 1,000 to
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
AMI 2020/OL-BI-238 | AMI-informiert.de Source: AMI
binnenlandse aanvoer 504
642
527 BEJO CARROT MAGAZINE
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Cultivated area and harvest volume at record highs
Organic vegetable cultivation in Germany
Cultivated area (in ha) and harvest volume (x 1,000 tonnes) for organic carrots in Germany
Open-field vegetable cultivation areas (in ha) and organic share (%) of totals in Germany, 2019
Cultivated area
Harvest volume
© AMI 2020/OL-117 | AMI-informiert.de
Source: Destatis
Sources: Destatis
Organic vegetable cultivation in Europe
Top 10 organic vegetables in Germany
Cultivated area in selected countries (in ha), 2018
Individual household demand (% of total volume), organic vegetables and all vegetables, 2019
Italy Spain France Germany Poland United Kingdom Austria Denmark Hungary Portugal Bulgaria Other countries
Organic vegetables = 100%
Organic vegetable cultivation in the EU-28 (x 1,000 ha)
Storability and the ability to deliver fresh produce earlier are key to enabling domestic organic carrot production to better span the winter season. Bejo has recently expanded its range of storage-friendly organic carrot seeds to include Norway and Nacton. Development of a new early organic type is underway. For now, Napoli is still grown from organic seed on a large scale.
Quality is important to German consumers, but so is price. Thus, convenience products still make up a relatively limited though growing share of the market. Flavour has also been steadily gaining in importance. The new trend is increased interest in the health effects of substances naturally occurring in vegetables.
BEJO CARROT MAGAZINE
tomatoes cucumber tomatoes
Storability and the growing season
Market trends
All vegetables = 100%
carrots carrots cucumber
onions peppers courgettes asparagus squash ginger mushrooms
onions peppers iceberg lettuce asparagus mushrooms courgettes cauliflower
other
Sources: AMI, Eurostat, FiBL, nationale Statistiken © AMI 2020/OL-122 | AMI-informiert.de
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© AMI 2020/OL-117 | AMI-informiert.de
© AMI 2020/OL-297 | AMI-informiert.de
other Source: AMI nach Gfk-Haushaltspanel
German forecast
Domestic production will continue to increase as a consequence of market demand (pull) and increasingly strict regulations around conventional cultivation (push). Land availability is limited; still, the conversion of farmland from conventional to organic cultivation is expected to accelerate. Consumption is expected to expand in the coming years, as interest in fresh vegetables grows and the introduction of products like snack carrots further boosts demand. Still, Germany isn’t yet self-sufficient when it comes to organic carrots, and that won’t change in the near term. So, in short, opportunities abound in this area in the German market.