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."