Interview with Hans-Jörg Lutzeyer about the OrganicDataNetwork project

The interview was lead by Kai Kreuzer of Organic-Market.info.

Why is the European Commission funding a research project on organic market data

The organic sector has a turnover of over 20 billion euros in Europe. While retailers claim there is not sufficient European production to cover their needs, some farmers and processers are reluctant to enter the market, because they see risks to market their products. Currently, important market data, like the amount of production or consumption, retail sales, trade between the countries of the European Union, international trade, or producer and consumer prices, do not exist or are rough estimates.

Let me add, the European Research and Innovation policy is supporting research needs of other policies. The Action Plan for organic farming requests research support to reach its objectives. Previous projects like EISfOM concluded with 24 recommendations, such as improvements in the current situation of data collecting and processing systems, innovation in data collection and processing systems, integration of conventional and organic data collection and processing systems

How could OrganicDataNetwork benefit the sector?

Big retail chains or processors are conducting their own market research. For small and medium enterprises and for farmers public available data are essential to understand the real opportunities and risks. It can be expected, that more reliable data will lead to a better match of organic consumption and production in Europe and better targeted investment, especially by farmers and SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises).

How will the results of OrganicDataNetwork be used?

Results of previous projects were widely used, both by the organic sector itself and by the European and national policy makers. Currently the EU organic farming legislation is reviewed with an ex-post evaluation and an ex-ante impact assessment, finally a new action plan is envisaged. Sound market data will be essential for the debate on the future policy.

More information

Contact

Kai Kreuzer, Organic-Market.info

Links

• EC.Europa.eu: OrganicDataNetwork
• EC.Europa.eu: Bioeconomy - ensuring smart green growth for Europe
• EC.Europa.eu: Research and Innovation