Comparison of markets for organic food in six EU states

• Author(s): Sottomayor, Miguel
• Date: 2002
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/5329
• Origin: Veritati - Repositório Institucional da Universidade Católica Portuguesa
• Subject(s): Organic conversion; Marketing
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

Recent research confirms that the decision to convert is now highly influenced by financial incentives arising from EU regulations but the exact mix of incentives depends on prevailing government policies and access to premium markets so that the organic sector in most countries is now referred to as either government-led or market-driven. The objective of the paper is to compare development of the sector along these two polarities but set within the context of 'common elements of interest’ within new agrifood methodologies––time, space, power, and meaning (Cooke, Uranga and Etxebarria 1998; Morgan and Murdoch 2000). The paper presents preliminary findings relating to six EU States––UK, Ireland, Austria, Denmark, Portugal and Italy––and through the application of ‘worlds of production’ to market outlets and suggested discourses that define these outlets, the analysis aims to inform the further study of farmer marketing decisions and practices.