Healthy growth in mid-scale values based food chains

Summary

This paper is a literature review of studies of mid-scale food values based food chains and healthy growth processes in the organic food sector. By midscale values based food chains we mean productions that are growing out of the niche/small scale market into larger volumes and sales. Previous research have shown that niche market chains might have inherent problems in moving from niche to volume, while mainstream large-scale markets have inherent problems in securing and advancing organic values. A main hypothesis is that mid-scale value based chains are able to deal with these challenges because they are based on a different form of marketing logic and strategies than either small- or large scale chains. As a first step in analysis of the success of mid-scale value based food chains is therefore to carry out a review of existing research. Main questions raised are: How are these value chains organized, and value distributed among actors? What seems to be the main challenges for growth? What kind of risks and options seems to exist? How do value chain actors manage to communicate integrity and consumer trust whilst growing? The paper disseminates findings of the CORE Orgainic II project HealthyGrowth.