Growth, business logic and trust in organic food chains: an analytical framework and some illustrative examples from Germany

Summary

The organic food market in Germany has been growing significantly. While expanding, businesses and food initiatives face many challenges. The paper focuses on the challenge of maintaining the added values of organic farming and consumer trust. Both are key assets in organic food chains, and both are difficult to secure when volumes grow, distribution channels change and when producers, processors, sales businesses and con-sumers are less closely connected which tends to limit direct communication and trans-parency. In the central part of the paper, we present an analytical framework that can be used to better understand these connections. Focus is on changes in business logic, chain organisation and coordination. Three case studies of organic value chains in Germany are used to illustrate the application of the framework. The analyses show that business logics and strategies are implemented through a particular set of management and/or marketing instruments and that these impact on the organisation of the businesses, the linkages between chain partners and the marketing of products.