Organic regional food for communal catering

RegioVers stands for the regionalisation of organic value chains through the diversification of supply sources for public catering. The aim is to promote a functioning supply of regionally produced organic food to the public catering sector in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern by creating or expanding regional value chains for organically produced agricultural products, thereby improving the overall supply of regional organic products.

Integrating regional food producers into value chains

This includes the approach of integrating small and large food producers from the region, whose quantities may not be sufficient for canteens and caterers, into the value chain through regional infrastructure solutions (bundling, further processing and distribution). The increased regional demand should

• create reliable regional sales opportunities for organic farms,
• thus enabling increased value creation and shortened transport routes and
• incentivise the conversion to organic farming.

Best practices, regional capacities and economic assessments are incorporated into strategy development

Firstly, the research partners inter 3, diversu e.V. and the Neubrandenburg University of Applied Sciences will jointly research existing examples of regional value chains in the public catering sector in M-V and throughout Germany and evaluate them with regard to the transferability of factors for success or failure. In a second step, the collection of spatial data on production capacities, processing structures and distribution channels will serve to determine the potential of regional value chains in the public catering sector in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The identified potential is then evaluated from an economic perspective: Using a target pricing model, more precise knowledge of the willingness to change on both the supply and demand side will be obtained in relation to pricing. Against this background, innovative strategies will be developed together with the practice partners and regional organic value chains and networks will be initiated in two selected study areas.

Close cooperation with stakeholders from agriculture and public catering

inter 3 manages and coordinates the RegioVers project network. To collect information on bioregional value chains and networks and to develop implementation concepts, the research partners involve a large number of practitioners from different positions along the value chains as well as experts and decision-makers, above all Bio-Vertrieb Watzkendorf GmbH and the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Regional Movement.

RegioVers is funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture on the basis of a decision by the German Bundestag as part of the Federal Organic Farming Programme.