ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES OF ORGANIC VEGETABLE FARMS IN THE NETHERLANDS

One of the policies of the Dutch Department of Agriculture is to increase organic farming.
However, there is a great lack of information with policy makers and conventional farmers on the economic potential of organic vegetable production in The Netherlands.
The organic farmers at present are more and more real entrepreneurs.
Their attention has shifted to optimal financial returns within an organically sound environment.
Nevertheless, most conventional farmers still have a historical image of organic farming.
They suppose many problems in the production of and limited economic perspectives for organic vegetables.
This is one of the reasons that the conversion from conventional to organic farming is hampered.

From 1993 till 1997 the research institutes PAV and LEI-DLO have studied a group of 15 organic vegetable growers.
These growers have shifted to organic farming long ago and are considered as the best from an economic point of view.
The objective of this research project was to gain insight in the strategies and financial results of these farms.
Therefore also technical data on crop rotation, fertilisation, marketing strategy and labour requirement were collected.

In comparison with conventional vegetable farms the average farm income is about the same.
Higher prices of organic products are sufficient to compensate for extensification of the crop rotation with cereals, lower crop yields and a higher labour input for manual weed control.

XXV International Horticultural Congress, Part 14: Horticultural Economics at Micro and Macro Level, International Trade and Marketing, International Cooperative Programs, Relations between Research, Development, Extension and Education

C.G.M. Geven

economics, organic vegetable production

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2000.524.2