Berlin, Germany
January 25, 2004
Benoit Finck
Agence France Presse English
via Agnet Jan
25/04
Whether its butchers, bakers or cattle breeders, the producers
of natural and health foods are, according to this story,
unanimous at Berlin's annual farm fair: the organic farming
industry in Germany is ailing.
Klaus-Bernd Meyer, selling organic beef and milk at a stand
here, was quoted as saying, "The supply of natural products got
bigger quicker than the demand did. Consumers are really
starting to pay attention to prices."
The story says that times are tough for Meyer and others who
came to display their wares at the international agricultural
fair in Berlin, and they haven't been helped by the fact that
the German economy has been in virtual recession for a year.
Juliane Greiner at a stand run by Terra, a chain of organic
bakeries founded in 1981, was quoted as saying, "The hoped-for
results did not occur. That's why we're in a situation of
over-production."
Yet just three years ago amid the mad-cow crisis, natural and
health foods were selling like hot cakes. Agriculture Minister
Renate Kuenast, from the Greens Party, had busily encouraged a
return to natural methods.
She said Berlin would invest 250 million euros (319 million
dollars) in the organic farming industry from 2002 to 2005.
Britta Ibing jumped at what she saw as a golden opportunity in
2001. She invested time and money in transforming her pig farm
in the central state of Hesse away from the industrial methods
of the past.
But her hopes were dashed and mad-cow has been all-but forgotten
here.
Now Ibing feeds her 800 pigs using conventional methods again
and laments the fact that the natural food fad "has faded as
quickly as it appeared." |