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Marktschwärmer: Shopping from many farmers in one way


Beckum / Berlin. Amazon and other Internet companies are now also selling groceries online. However, you can also shop online with several farmers in your neighborhood with just a few clicks. The farmers deliver at the same time to the agreed handover location. There you can pick up all your purchases: fresh, regional and mostly also "organic". Since the beginning of the pandemic, demand has increased significantly again. In the past two years alone, 75 Market riot opened.

 Pig luck

Farmer Ansgar Becker vor der Sandfort and his family keep dairy cows and pigs on their farm. They grow most of the forage themselves. Your pigs have more space after the barn conversion. Where previously 250 animals lived, 70 are now spreading. Some of them grunt comfortably outside in the spring sun. “Look how they romp around and play in the straw,” enthuses Ansgar Becker in front of the Sandfort. “You feel very good. Sometimes ", enthuses the farmer," we stand here, look at it and are happy. " 

But the pig's luck is expensive. More space for the animals costs more money that the trade doesn't pay for. That is why more and more farmers are relying on direct marketing. They sell their products directly to consumers at significantly higher prices, bypassing the retail trade. 

Market at the click of a mouse

To this end, the Sandforts have joined the online direct marketing platform Marktschwärmerei. Every Friday Ansgar and his wife Verena pack up the goods that customers have ordered online. In the afternoon they drive the parcels to a former pizzeria in the nearby town of Beckum on the outskirts of the Münsterland. Every customer was given a number when they placed an order on the Internet. Employees sort the meat, fruit, vegetables, jam jars and all the other ordered goods into boxes according to these numbers.

So everyone can find his or her package straight away. The corona pandemic has changed the process. The farmers at the distribution point bring each customer's parcel outside. That also works like clockwork.

Sell ​​everything first, then slaughter it

Market swarms like those in Beckum are now everywhere in Germany. The concept started 10 years ago in France under the title “La Ruche, qui dit oui”, “the beehive that says yes”. The founders wanted to bring farmers together with consumers and to strengthen regional economic cycles by going beyond trade.

With short transport routes and direct contact between producers and consumers, the market craze also makes a contribution to more sustainable, more environmentally friendly agriculture - and against food waste: "I only slaughter my cow when all the parts have been sold," explains Heike Zeller an advantage of direct marketing. The business economist and sociologist is researching direct marketing in agriculture at the Weihenstephan University of Applied Sciences. Farmers who sell their goods directly to end consumers do not produce on dump. The products do not end up in the grocery store, where they can go bad on the go or on the store shelf. Then there are the sometimes absurd regulations of the trade, which, for example, does not even buy vegetables that are too small, too crooked or too big.

Farmer women take pictures of their vegetables

The producers themselves take care of the presentation of their products. In front of the Sandort, they took photos of their delicacies themselves on a table with their mobile phones. For a professional presentation, she nevertheless recommends a professional to her colleagues - or at least someone “who can do it”.

The corona pandemic has given the market crazes a boost. Just a few months after it was founded, the Beckum initiative is one of the most successful in Germany. It now has 920 customers and suppliers. Around 220 order regularly. Nationwide, the meanwhile 130 market swarms have increased their sales in 2020 by 150% compared to the previous year, i.e. more than doubled. 

The weekly markets are also flourishing. The market enthusiasts see themselves as their complement. They serve working people who cannot go shopping in the mornings. Pick-ups in Beckum take place in the evening, as in the other market swarms. “We're an evening market,” says co-host and farmer Elisabeth Sprenker in Beckum. Despite the extra work for preparation and packaging, she is satisfied with the sales generated by the market craze. Your colleague Ansgar Becker from Sandfort is pleased that direct marketing is at least a little free from the price pressure of the retail trade. “We farmers have to learn again to market our products ourselves,” adds the farmer. Sometimes it hurts, but “it's also fun”.

Info:

The first market craze arose in France in 2011 under the title “The Hive that says yes”(“ The beehive that says yes ”). There are now market swarms in Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain and other countries. Across Europe, they claim to have an annual turnover of 100 million euros, one tenth of them in Germany.  

Demand has been increasing, especially since the beginning of the corona pandemic. In 2020 sales increased by 120 percent. Since March 2020, 67 new crushes have opened in Germany alone, doubling the offer. They regularly supply around 14.000 households. 900 more farmers and craft businesses have joined the network. In July 2021, the German market swarming headquarters in Berlin reported 151 market swarming, almost three times as many as in 2018 (62). They are supplied by 2396 producers (2018: 878).

France / Saarland:

Around 15 farmers supply the crush at the train station in Forbach near Saarbrücken. Some of them speak German. In the program they have almost everything - from vegetables to beef, poultry, eggs and even household goods, everything from a radius of no more than 60 kilometers and mostly from organic farming. 

There are other French market crazies in 26 places near the border Lorraine departments Moselle (57) and Meurthe et Moselle (54) 

Belgium:

In Belgium there are 140 ruches, or market swarms, who get their goods from a radius of only 28 kilometers. 

Switzerland: 

The offer is even more local in the Switzerland. There the producers come from a radius of only twelve kilometers to the respective market swarming. Close to the German border, the enthusiasm is in the market hall of Basel  which also has a delivery service.  

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Written by Robert B Fishman

Freelance author, journalist, reporter (radio and print media), photographer, workshop trainer, moderator and tour guide

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