Distribution of the added value of the organic food chain

Project Aims:

The main objective of this study is to identify and analyse the distribution of added value in the organic supply chain in the European Union.

Specifically, the study will assess three main study questions:

1. How much added value is created by the organic food supply chain and who are the market players, that are benefiting from this added value?
2. How is added value distributed in the supply chain among market players and how much of it returns to agricultural producers, in particular?
3. What factors influence added value formation and distribution for each relevant actor in the chain, including agricultural producers?

Three product supply chains for apples, milk and pasta are investigated, each one in six different countries with markets that are characterised by imports (e.g. apples in the UK and milk in Spain), emerging markets ( e.g. apples in Estonia and Hungary or milk in the Czech Republic) or markets that are mainly supplied by domestic products (e.g. milk in Germany and apples in Italy).

The study was proposed in proposed in Action 9 of the Action Plan for the future of Organic Production in the European Union. It builds on outputs of the Organic Data Network project that looked at Market Data for organic farming in the EU.

ORC's Role:

ORC is a core project partner with responsibility for data collection in the UK, to carry out a literature review and to develop the answers to the 1st of the three study questions.

Project leader and partners:

The project is co-ordinated Dr. Jürn Sanders from the German Thünen‐Institute. Other partners are Università Politecnica delle Marche (Italy), Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau (Switzerland), Organic Research Centre (United Kingdom) and partners in six other countries.

Previous Relevant Work:

• OrganicDataNetwork
• Use and efficiency of public support measures addressing organic farming in the EU
• Evaluation of the EU legislation on organic farming