Swiss farmers go organic: gone are the days when organic farming was the mainstay of hippies and health fanatics. Today, farmers are converting to "bio" because it is good business. Swiss News looks at several factors that are contributing to the success of eco-farming.
| Auteur | Hays, Kim |
| Fonction | News feature |
Sabine Lubow is the head of public relations at Bio Suisse, the umbrella organisation for organic farmers and food processors in Switzerland. "Farmers have to diversify to succeed," she says, "and going organic is one way to do that. It's no longer just alternative-types who are involved. Organic farming needs professional people, with lots of entrepreneurial skill. We are looking for farmers like [this] to join us."
Organic sales on the rise
Bio Suisse determines what constitutes an organic product in Switzerland and only grants its label--a white bud on a green field--to producers, processors and traders that meet its standards, which are monitored by independent inspectors. Products with a Bio Suisse bud are produced with no chemically synthesised pesticides or fertilisers, on farms committed to the welfare of livestock and the promotion of bio-diversity. If the bud label includes a Swiss flag, then over 90 per cent of the product's contents were produced in Switzerland.
Today, bio is booming. In 2010, sales of organic products in Switzerland rose 6.1 per cent, to a total of SFr 1.659 billion. Surveys show that 60 per cent of Swiss consumers say they buy organic products regularly: a figure that represents average annual sales of SFr 211 per person.
The Coop retail chain accounts for around 50 per cent of Switzerland's organic food sector, while Migros has another 25 per cent. But this doesn't mean that direct sales from farms and market stands have disappeared. Although they only represent 5.4 per cent of the market share, these direct sales have increased 10 per cent in the past year.
The village vegetable shop
Andrea Itel and Manfred Wolf of Ried, Canton Fribourg (FR), represent both sides of distribution--the personal and the professional. They have a 37-hectare farm, which is large by organic standards. Most of their produce goes to Coop and other major distributors, but for the past few years Itel has had her own self-service vegetable shop in Ried, open 8:00-19:00.
"For the big stores, we specialise in cucumbers, peppers and lettuce, but we grow a lot of other vegetables on a smaller scale that we sell at our store," says Itel. "I stock the shelves every morning, mark the prices, and then come back and check on the shop as often as I can during the day. But customers have to choose, weigh and pay for things themselves. The shop's profits aren't a crucial part of our income, but I like the fact that with the store, I can provide...
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