Author:
Baecke E.,Rogiers G.,De Cock L.,Van Huylenbroeck G.
Abstract
Organic products form a growing segment of the food market. Recent estimates speak about market shares between 1 to 4.25 per cent. In Belgium the share is only 1 per cent, but the market is growing exponentially. Organic farmers in Belgium often have to sell their products as conventional products because of non‐efficient marketing systems. Marketing problems are also mentioned as one of the main reasons by conventional farmers for not converting. Most conventional farmers are not only rather sceptical about the long‐term perspectives of getting a price premium for organic products, but consider the organisation of the supply chain as one of the main sources of uncertainty and therefore as a constraint for conversion. Therefore more efforts should be made to organise the supply chain for organic products. The problem seems to be that of the egg and the chicken: for a cost‐effective supply chain a condition is to have enough producers, while for a lot of producers a cost‐effective swupply chain seems to be a necessary condition to convert, mainly because of high transaction costs linked to non‐efficient marketing.
Subject
Food Science,Business, Management and Accounting (miscellaneous)
Reference19 articles.
1. Adesina, A. and Baidu‐Forson, J. (1995), “Farmers perceptions of new agricultural technology – evidence from analysis in Burkina Faso and Duinea, West Africa”, Agricultural Economics, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 1‐9.
2. Batz, F.J., Peters, K.J. and Janssen, W. (1999), “The influence of technology characteristics on the rate and speed of adoption”, Agricultural Economics, Vol. 21 No. 2, pp. 121‐30.
3. Beckers‐De Bruijn, M. (2000), Biologische landbouw: een historische kans. Advies aan de Minister van Landbouw, Natuurbeheer en Visserij, Mr. L.J. Brinkhorst ten behoeve van het Plan van Aanpak Biologische Landbouw 2001‐2004, Utrecht.
4. Coppens, A. and Van Huylenbroeck, G. (1999), “Situation de l’agriculture biologique en Belgique”, University of Ghent, Department of Agricultural Economics, Ghent.
5. De Buck, A.J., Van Rijn, I., Röling, N.G. and Wossink, G.A.A. (2001), “Farmers’ reasons for changing or not changing to more sustainable practices: an exploratory study of arable farming in The Netherlands”, The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 153‐66.
Cited by
17 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献，注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献，订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献