Strategies for the profitable marketing of organic products in supermarkets

Business platform for dedicated grocers and top providers of organic food

The 1st Organic Trade Forum - inspired by Anuga - from September 20th to 21st, 2004 has had an excellent response. The forum organized by Koelnmesse in cooperation with the bioPress publishing house, the CMA - Centrale Marketing-Gesellschaft der Deutschen Landwirtschaftswirtschaft - and the Federal Ministry for Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture (BMVEL) offers a compact two-day congress program tailored precisely to the target audience. The accompanying exhibition is designed by top companies from the organic spectrum. For the 1st organic trade forum entitled "How can food retailers market organic ranges profitably?" Federal Minister Renate Künast has taken over the patronage.

The exhibiting companies include EP Naturprodukte from Austria, Grabower Sweets, NABA, the Naturland Association with numerous members, Rapunzel, Rila Feinkost, and Ulrich Walter. The range of products extends from delicatessen and chocolate to meat and sausage products, tea and spices, from fresh fruit and vegetables to baby food and dietary supplements.

In total, more than 30 companies from Germany, France, Austria and Italy will be represented.

The announcement of the 1st Organic Trade Forum has also met with broad approval from the visitor target groups - managing directors and decision-makers in the food trade, independent retailers, druggists as well as service providers and logisticians.

The Federal Ministry of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture will contribute to the success of the organic trade forum with various measures as part of the federal program for organic farming: These include a comprehensive organic product exhibition, free specialist advice from trade experts at the company's own information desk and a show kitchen in the United Cooks of Nature will give everyone a taste for organic. Last but not least, a get-together is made possible as an important informal contact exchange.

The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) is also represented with an information stand. Representatives of the association also take part in the congress.

The conference program itself offers concrete information, presented by experts from the field, who cover the entire range of topics relating to the marketing of organic products in the food trade. Between the individual program points there is ample opportunity to visit the exhibition.

The schedule

Organic Facts & Figures are the topic of the opening lecture of the 1st Organic Trade Forum on September 20th.

The management consultant, lecturer and former employee of tegut with its own commercial agency Christoph Soika shows the congress participants together with the self-employed food merchants Dieter Jungjohann from Flensburg and Christian Buch from Hofheim how the "hurdles of organic marketing can be successfully mastered".

Afterwards Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier from the European Trade Institute, EHI in Cologne, the discussion "Using opportunities - adding value with organic" with board member of the Atlanta group Robert Zerres, Dushan Gert, marketing manager EDEKA Handelsgesellschaft Südwest and the president Ernst-Ulrich Schassberger of the chefs' association Eurotoques, which advocates for that uses fresh, original cuisine. For 18 months, the BMVEL has had a project investigating how branded companies are using the organic trend and why organic quality can support the trading strategies of the future. The first results will be presented as a practical example at the organic trade forum.

The afternoons are reserved for three series of workshops: I. Organic ranges in food retail, II. Quality and safety and III. Organic marketing at the POS. Karsten Ziebell from the CMA and Maren Lüth from the Institute for Agricultural Economics, for example, will give lectures on this. dr Paul Michels, Head of Market Research at the ZMP (Central Market and Price Reporting Office for Agricultural, Forestry and Nutritional Products GmbH) presents market figures and data on organic product potential for the food retail trade.

The second day will be introduced by the IFOAM Trade Forum. Mark Retzloff from Aurora Dairies in the USA, Maria Garrfjell from the Coop in Sweden and Carol Haest, organic consultant from Delhaize in Belgium, together paint a picture of "Successful organic marketing in Europe and the USA".

Organic products don't fall from the sky! Discussion leader Christoph Soika will keep this guiding principle in mind in the panel discussion "Organic full range needs logistics partners" when talking to Klaus Haak from Edeka Fruchtkontor West, Deutsche See Managing Director Dr. Peter Dill, sales manager Bernd Schmitz-Lothmann from the Biozentrale and Karsten Ziebell, responsible at the CMA for POS marketing in food retail.

The Bio Trade Forum will be moderated by Prof. Dr. Achim Spiller from the Institute for Agricultural Economics at the University of Göttingen. "Who cooks doesn't shoot" is the title of Michael Herl's satire, with which Ilja Kamphues frames the get-together on the first evening of the congress.

The participants will be supplied with organic products for the entire duration of the congress.

The 1st Organic Trade Forum takes place in the Congress Center West of Koelnmesse.

Source: Cologne [ KölnMesse ]