Apetit to eliminate bottlenecks in the organic food sector – launching an extensive development programme for organic farmers
The consumer demand for organic food is increasing rapidly.* However, there is a shortage of raw material supply: in spite of the growing market, half of Finnish farmers are not interested in moving into organic farming. This is revealed by the organic farming survey commissioned by Apetit.
As a food company specialising in vegetables, Apetit believes in growth of the organic food sector and takes a strategic step by establishing a development programme for organic farming.
With its programme, Apetit aims to develop organic farming methods in order to facilitate farmers’ changeover to organic farming and consequently to take organic farming to a whole new level.
To develop organic farming, Apetit’s Räpi experimental farm in Köyliö begins to study and develop organic farming as part of Apetit’s proprietary Vastuuviljely (Responsible farming) method. Some of the fields of the experimental farm are turned into fields supporting organic farming.
Practical farming problems as obstacles to the organic leap
The survey commissioned by Apetit in August 2017 revealed that farmers’ general interest in organic farming has increased from the previous year. Nearly one in four of the farmers responding to Apetit’s survey is interested in moving into organic farming.
Nevertheless, for a farmer it is a question of livelihood and often also personal investment and risk. As obstacles to starting organic farming, the farmers list concrete farming problems, such as weed management, insufficiency of know-how or laborious bureaucracy related to organic farming. The farmers also demand that food industry and commerce commit to purchasing organic raw materials and that they receive practical assistance and instructions on succeeding in organic farming.
“Our development programme offers help to farmers who wish to move into or towards organic farming. The goal of the programme is to increase the efficiency of organic farming and boost the crops it yields as well as to tackle various challenges related to moving over to organic farming. With this programme, we clear the way for organic vegetables to enter stores in the form of Apetit’s products. We hope that our commitment gives farmers some security”, says Anu Ora, Vice President at Apetit. Ora talked about this topic at the organic food event Luomuelintarvikepäivät on 5 October 2017.
Apetit introduces to organic farming a similar contract farming model as is used in ordinary farming. Farmers commit to meeting the high quality requirements of the Vastuuviljely (Responsible farming) method in organic farming, too, and in return, they have the security that their crops will be bought in the season.
The first Finnish organic frozen products to stores
As the first company to do so, Apetit brought Finnish organic frozen vegetables to the stores this autumn. The very first products featuring Finnish organic vegetables were Organic Spinach and Organic Peas. In November, two new favourites will be launched: Apetit Organic Potato & Soup Vegetables and Kotimainen Organic Potato and Onion Mix.
“In some areas in Finland, the demand for organic food already exceeds the supply. We believe strongly in growth of the organic food sector in Finland as well as in its export prospects. For the export potential to be realised, the entire food industry and commerce would need to commit to the productisation and sales of organic products. Promoting organic food is recorded in the Government Programme and what is needed now is concrete action. Apetit wants to be a trailblazer in this respect,” Ora says.
Product information
Apetit Kotimainen Organic Spinach 150 g and Apetit Kotimainen Organic Peas 200 g.
The Apetit organic vegetables have been grown at the Vanhakartano organic farm in Köyliö.
* In a year (July 2015–June 2016), the sales of organic food increased by 12%. During that period, the retail sales of organic products amounted to approximately EUR 250 million. (Estimate by Pro Luomu on the basis of information collected from retailer groups.) During the same period, the sales of daily consumer goods only increased by 0.3%. (Sales data from the Finnish Grocery Trade Association member companies.)
Key survey results
A total of 68% of the Finnish farmers who took the recent survey believe that the demand for organic food is increasing among consumers.
Furthermore, 44% of them believe that organic farming will become a significant agricultural activity in the future, whereas 25% disagreed on this statement and 30% could not or did not want to express their view on this matter. Of those already involved in organic farming, 49% feel that organic farming is economically more profitable than ordinary farming.
Organic food has the potential to become a significant export asset for Finland, believe 46% of Finnish farmers.
A total of 48% think that organic farming is a more environmentally friendly way of operating.
When questioned about obstacles to starting organic farming, 54% name the difficulty of weed management as the main obstacle, 29% feel that their own know-how is insufficient and 26% think that the bureaucracy related to organic farming is too heavy.
When inquired what would facilitate the changeover to organic farming, 43% of the farmers demand that food industry and commerce commit to purchasing organic raw materials over the long term, 42% need practical assistance and 41% demand support during the transition period from ordinary farming to organic farming.
When presented with the statement that organic farming is not economically sensible in Finland, 29% of the respondents agreed with the statement, 31% disagreed and 39% could not or did not want to express their view on this matter.
One in four responding farmers who are already involved in organic farming believe that organic food will become a permanent trend among consumers.
** Apetit had TNS Kantar Agri conduct a survey targeted at Finnish farmers of grain, vegetable, fruit, berries and oilseeds. The survey period was 17–30 August 2017. In the analysis phase, the respondent sample was weighted so that it is representative of the Finnish farm structure in terms of the farm size and organic status. The survey’s margin of error is approximately +/-6 percentage points for the entire sample. N=247 responses.
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