Review of organic market development in Europe - from OFCAP to QLIF

Summary

During the last decade the organic market in Europe has increased enormously, more than doubling the value of its turnover. At the end of the 1990s, the OFCAP publication 'The European market for organic products: growth and development' identified five main constraints for the organic market development: 1) the lack of professional marketing, 2) the weak role of conventional supermarket chains as potential drivers of organic market development, 3) the absence of public support of marketing activities, 4) the limited size of supply batches and 5) a lack of market transparency. Recommendations included improving the availability of organic food, encouraging conventional retail chains to promote organic ranges, reducing the additional premiums on consumer prices and developing well-balanced mar-keting plans to promote the development of the or-ganic market.
As a consequence several European research projects incorporated elements of the OFCAP analysis into new research topics and went on to recommend further ways in which the European organic market might be led out of its niche and consumers’ expectations of organic food might be satisfied. Both policy and mar-ket actors have taken on board fundamental ideas and concepts from the research projects in order to draw up marketing plans for the promotion of market development.