Mass Catering As A Driver For Austrian Organic Agriculture

Summary

In Austria, around 1.8 million meals are consumed daily in public and private mass catering facilities. The aims of this study was (1) to show and assess the current status and (2) to calculate the potential of public catering procurement regarding Austrian organic food. The central question was which share of organic food in mass catering would lead to what increase of organic agricultural area in Austria. These growth potentials were calculated with two scenarios: a monetary organic share of 60% and 100% in food procurement. The results show that 4.9% of the total Austrian agricultural area (132,139 ha) is already consumed by public catering facilities in 2017 and thereof 1.3% for organic food. An increased organic share of 100% in terms of monetary procurement in the public catering sector would theoretically lead to an only slight increase in the total utilized agricultural area need for catering food (from 4.9% to 5.3%). Concurrently, this would mean 3.8 times more demand of organic area.