Fair and regional

Final report

Contact persons at the University of Kassel

  • Malte Bickel
  • Astrid Heid

Duration of project

December 2008 to April 2010

Head of project

"Sales analysis of regional and fair traded organic products"

Research project within the framework of the Ministry of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture (BLE)

In co-operation with

  1. BLE-Project "Pilotprojekt zur Entwicklung und Umsetzung eines qualitätsorientierten Fair-Preis-Konzepts entlang der Wertschöpfungsketten im Bereich der ökologischen Land- und Lebensmittelwirtschaft"
    Head of project: Kasseler Institut für ländliche Entwicklung, Dr. Anke Schekahn (www.kasseler-institut.org)
  2. BLE-Project "Fairness entlang der Wertschöpfungskette - Möglichkeiten der Profilierung am Biomarkt und der Verbraucheransprache mittels regionalem Mehrwert"
    Head of project: Zentrum Technik und  Gesellschaft, Technische Universität Berlin, Prof. Dr. Dr. Martina Schäfer (www.zfg.tu-berlin.de/fairness.shtml)

Aim of the project is to evaluate the sales success of different organic products which are sold under new regional and “fair-price” concepts in different organic food shops. This will be done in a close cooperation with two other research projects in which the regional and “fair-price” marketing concepts have been developed. The sales analyses include the sales amounts and turnovers of the new products in relation to close substitutional products which are offered in the test shops at the same time. Additionally, the success of sales promotion activities which are conducted in the framework of both projects will be analysed. Special attention is given to the sales effects of the new products on the rest of the product range within a time span of 10 weeks. Thus, it will be measured if and to which amount the introduction of the test products have a negative impact on the sales of other offered products over time or if total sales within the range increase.

The results of the analyses form the basis for conclusions if organic products sold under regional and ”fair-price” concepts offer new market opportunities for suppliers of organic food and if premium prices can be achieved for such products. As different sales promotions activities will accompany the launch of the new organic products in the retail shops conclusions will also be drawn for the design of successful promotion activities.