International project “Healthy growth: From niche to volume with integrity and trust” of CORE ORGANIC II ERA-NET programme

2013-06-26
International project “Healthy growth: From niche to volume with integrity and trust” of CORE ORGANIC II ERA-NET programme
HealthyGrowth.jpg
Research group:dr. Virgilijus SkulskisIERD

Lithuanian Institute of Agrarian Economics takes part in the implementation of the international project “Healthy growth: From niche to volume with integrity and trust” („HealthyGrowth“) together with the partners from Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey. The coordinator of the project is Aarhus University, Denmark.

 

The main rationale of this project is that a healthy and sustainable growth in the organic market depends on the ability of market chains to combine volume marketing with measures that secure integrity and trust based on the organic values and principles. The organic markets have developed differently in different countries, but common to all is that the bifurcation process of organic market chains into either focusing on volume or on quality hampers a healthy growth of the organic market share. Local small-scale market chains have inherent problems in moving from niche to volume and mainstream large-scale market chains have inherent problems in securing and advancing the organic values.

 

The aim of this project is to study a range of mid-scale food value chains and show the fundamental prerequisites for their success in combining volume and values in order to support the development of new organic value chains and provide new opportunities for organic actors.

 

To achieve this aim the following objectives are set: to explore what characterises successful food value chains, and to describe the strengths and weaknesses of different organizational forms; to analyse and extract the main principles and lessons learned and jointly derive the main mechanisms and generalizable organizational principles underlying successful food value chains - taking into account the contextual importance of national, cultural and geographical settings; to support exchange of knowledge, network building and cooperation between actors, and jointly develop locally adapted recommendations for improvements. A close cooperation and interaction between the partners will be the cornerstone in obtaining these objectives.

 

HealthyGrowth is financially supported by the CORE Organic II funding bodies under FP7 ERA-NET scheme.

 

Project duration is 36 months.

 

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For more details please contact:

Project Manager dr.V. Skulskis,

+370 5 261 8147, virgilijus.skulskis@laei.lt