Migros and Coop under pressure: Switzerland pays 100 million more for organic products

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Organic products are a profitable product. At Migros and Coop they often cost unjustifiably much more than conventional products. This is the conclusion of a new analysis by Mathias Binswanger, professor of economics at the University of Applied Sciences in Northwestern Switzerland. Binswanger and his research team found particularly high profit margins on potatoes, eggs, meat and carrots.

According to their estimates, the Swiss paid more than 100 million francs for organic products last year, writes the “Sonntagszeitung” newspaper. Binswanger and the Faire Markt Schweiz association, of which he is a co-founder, warn that these high profit rates will jeopardize the economic sustainability of organic products. It also prevents ecological change in agriculture.

Organic is at most 20 percent more expensive

They are therefore calling on Coop and Migros to rethink their pricing policies and pay fair prices to farmers. Binswanger requests that they not sell organically produced products at 20 percent more than the corresponding conventional product. His calculations show that the Swiss would pay more than 50 million francs for organic milk, organic potatoes and organic eggs alone. If you include products such as beef and pork, cheese or apples, the figure is over 100 million.

Major distributors disagree. Migros claims that you cannot achieve higher margins with organic products. Coop says the “bottom line” is that you can’t make more money with organic produce than with conventional produce.

Farmers want higher producer prices

What about farmers? First of all, they campaign for better producer prices. “Retailers use us Swiss farmers as advertising tools to attract customers to their branches,” a farmer told “Sonntagszeitung”. There they would showcase “an ideal Heidi world” and at the same time “overwhelm farmers with producer prices that threaten their existence.” (pbe)

Source :Blick