Organically and regionally produced food in Germany: a survey of concepts in Saxony, Bavaria and Thuringia

Summarising all recent studies about the development in the organic-food sector the "organic-boom" seemed to be no fashion trend, but a sign of a long lasting change of consumer demand. Among the consumers also a positive attitude exists towards regionally/locally produced food. This can be explained by the consumers' opinion that these products are more natural and with better taste than others. Maybe the consumers' concepts that "regional products are healthy" and "organic food is healthy" explain why "organically and regionally produced food" combines the consumers' desire to buy organic food and to know its origin. The aim of this report is to analyse the concepts of organically and regionally produced food currently existing in Germany. In Germany, a number of projects concentrate on organically and regionally produced food, especially in some regions : Saxony, Bavaria and Thuringia. With the implementation of the concepts, the relevant Ministries tried to support organic agriculture in communication and advertising, but there are various problems that are mostly identical to the different projects. Regional marketing concepts and advertising materials cannot put emphasis on the individual users' images. Therefore the number of users is small and the concepts are not widely accepted. Nevertheless, on condition that the knowledge of food origin gains in importance, the offering of specialities like organically and regionally produced food may support the individual image of the users in a growing competitive market. Finally several theses are formulated evaluating the development of the markets for organic food and for regionally produced food as well as the impacts thereon caused by the growing globalisation of consumption patterns.