ORGANIC MARKETING FORUM 2010

 Setkání evropských obchodníků s biopotravinamia
producenty biosurovin 

The importance of Central and Eastern Europe’s role as a business market for organic products on one hand and as a provider of organic raw materials and high-quality organic food on the other hand is continuously increasing. The 5^th Organic Marketing Forum (OMF) on May 6^th and 7^th in Warsaw outlined this development with it’s around 380 participants and 60 exhibitors from approx. 30 countries. Also the appreciation from the part of the politicians for the sector has grown. This has been remarkably affirmed by the participation of the Vice-Ministers of Agriculture of Poland and Czech Republic. In spite of the economical and financial crisis the organic business demonstrates self-confidence. During the professionally very valuable presentations it was pointed out that organic agriculture can offer future-oriented answers to very actual questions raised by society and economy.

For the first time the Polish Producers Association Polska Ekologia was a partner of the main organizer EkoConnect e.V. and invited the participants to a delicious organic brunch. “We are glad to have won another competent partner for the OMF with Polska Ekologia. We are particularly delighted about the growing popularity of the Organic Marketing Forum and about the support we experience from the Organic Movement and from politics. These are all increasing signs for the growing importance of the organic market in Central-and Eastern Europe”, Sais Bernhard Jansen, director of EkoConnect.

The central concern of EkoConnect to link people and markets within Central-and Eastern Europe and between East and West was visible also in the concept of the forum: The introducing presentation of the FIBL-president Martin Ott showed the focus of Organic Agriculture on sustainability in production and markets. Further presentations were looking at the development of the organic market in different regions as well as strategies for building up regional markets and international co-operation. By these means the motto of the event was filled with life: ‘Fair & Responsible Action – Organic & Ecological Activity – Winning the Future’. Parallel to the presentations the participants were working in workshops on perspectives and possibilities of acting in meat marketing and international trade, as well as against GMO.

The good atmosphere and the numerous possibilities of making contacts to many countries were very much appreciated by many participants. This was supported by the business-partner platform offered for the first time this year. The will to collaborate was also shown in the idea of the “BioBrot Box” – the Organic BreadBox, filled with Polish organic products, which all participants were able to take away as a present. This was a good example of the “mutual learning” out of positive experiences from other countries, as the Organic BreadBox invented in Germany shall soon be given out to Polish school kids.

The Organic Marketing Forum was under the patronage of the Polish Ministry of Agriculture and the IFOAM EU Group. The Association Ekoland, the Polish consultancy service CDR, the Organic Retailers Association, Polska Ekologia and the Avalon Foundation from the Netherlands were partners of the OMF.