How chain stores are destroying organic production

It is only with difficulty that most organic sellers make it: some go bankrupt, some just give up voluntarily, like Henry van Calker. After almost 22 years he closed his organic corner shop in Zeven near Bremen last November. "The most important thing is that two streets away a chain store is opening," he told the specialist magazine "Biohandel" (organic trade). "We will have no chance to compete against it and its 600 square meters as a small, owner-managed shop," says van Calker.

Hakobyan also experienced this in Hanover.

The Armenian believed that he had followed the right trend when taking over "Bittersüß" (bittersweet) eight years ago. The organic branch had just had a make-over and new consumer groups were starting to get attracted to organic foods.

Hakobyan renovated the shop, hired friendly staff and expanded his cheese and wine offers. The business picked up speed and sales rose. "That was the calm before the storm," recalls Hakobyan and reaches for a bottle of lemonade, which is labeled - of course - with the word "organic".

Meanwhile this word remains omnipresent in the trade. While Hakobyan initially counted only one direct competitor in the city, there are now ten Denn's and Alnatura stores in Hanover. Every fourth organic store in Germany, out of 2560, is already in the hands of a chain store - and they are not the only problem.

On the shelves of a typical Rewe supermarket there are already around 2000 organic products, whilst Kaufland sells 1200. Even in the discount stores Aldi, Lidl and Penny bananas, tomatoes and cucumbers are stacked in EU-standard organic quality. Within a decade, Germany's turnover has more than doubled, from EUR 2.9 billion to EUR 8.6 billion in 2015.

Lukas Nossol.

Source: Christoph Busse for WirtschaftsWocheBild