Trade-Offs in Growth Processes of Successful Organic Values Based Food Chains

This paper study trade-offs between quality differentiation, volume and economic performance in growth processes of values based food chains. Research in the Core organic II project Healthy Growth has shown that successful values based organic food chains depend on multidimensional quality differentiation strategies in addition to organic standards to stand out from mainstream organic or conventional chains. Such qualities can, among others, be connected to region or traditional handicraft and/or fair price to farmers. However, growth increases the focus on effectiveness and thus economy when the market expand from a local to in many cases more competitive national and/or export markets. In these processes, while for example investing in new machinery and equipment, it may be challenging to maintain established qualities such as a traditional production process giving the product a distinctive taste. To ensure that product qualities emphasised by customers are not degraded or lost in growth process, growth must be handled carefully. Based on analysis of case studies from ten European countries carried out in the Healthy Growth project, we will in this paper focus on trade-offs and adaptations processes chosen by the chain actors in growth processes. Theories on quality food, differentiation strategies and trade-offs are used to shed light on the problem formulated.