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Alternative financing as a marketing instrument: BioFinanz at the BIOFACH Congress


What are the advantages for agricultural and food businesses of involving consumers in financing? How important is marketing here and where are the difficulties with this form of financing?

After presenting the first project results, the BioFinanz team - from which HNEE was represented as well as IfLS - posed these questions at the BIOFACH Congress 2019 in Nuremberg. They were discussed at the event "Alternative financing models in agriculture and food industry" by the following representatives from the organic sector:

  • Model Crowdfunding: Gregor Witt (Tante Olga, Cologne's 1st unpacked shop)
  • Model profit participation rights: Sylvia Haslauer (Managing Director Organic Market La Vida)
  • Model cooperatives: Hans Möller (Member of the Board of Meierei Horst eG)
  • Model public limited companies: Dorle Gothe (Regionalwert AG Rheinland)

Public relations work and network maintenance were emphasised as success factors by all panel participants. These include the establishment of a new crowd and contact with existing customers, consultants and partners. Further it became clear that the successful use of the models is no self runner, but requires courage, employment and perseverance on the part of the entrepreneurs.

The subsequent questions from the audience from the agricultural and food sectors, consulting and research showed that there is a lively interest in this topic, which is still generally little known.


Below you can view and download a results presentation (German): https://static.wixstatic.com/ugd/ba9a68_c7846c94202b44fda146cce1cb52c25b.pdf

More information on the BioFinanz project (German): www.alternative-finanzierung.bio

If you have any questions, please contact: Simone Sterly (sterly[at]ifls.de)