HealthyGrowth - From Niche to Volume with Integrity and Trust, FULL CASE STUDY REPORT for the Producer-Consumer-Community Landwege cooperative – Germany

Summary

Most local organic market chains have inherent problems in moving from niche to volume, and mainstream large-scale market chains have inherent difficulties in securing and advancing organic values. The project “Healthy Growth: From Niche to Volume with Integrity and trust” investigated a range of successful mid-scale organic value chains in order to learn how they are able to combine volume and values, and to use this knowledge to support the further development of organic businesses, networks and initiatives. Research teams from 10 European countries contributed with 19 case studies. Landwege cooperative is one of the German case studies. The organic producer-consumer cooperative has 30 member farms producing local organic food products and around 600 consumer members. Landwege runs 5 modern supermarkets in the city of Lübeck and Bad Schwartau in the Federal State of Schleswig-Holstein. The case study report presents the development of the initiative since the 1980s, the related value chain of organic farm products and the stakeholder network around the cooperative. The in-depth analysis focuses on six tasks or perspectives: governance and organisation, business logic, quality and market differentiation, communication of values, transnmission of values and qualities, and risk and resilience.