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Profit Participation Rights, Solidary agriculture and more: First survey results on the use of alternative forms of financing along the value chain for organic foods


At the 3rd BioFinanz project meeting on June 5, 2018 at the University for Sustainable Development in Eberswalde, the first results from the online survey of companies along the value chain for organic food on the use of alternative forms of financing were presented. This was followed by a discussion of their implications for the upcoming case study work.

Even if participation in the survey does not presuppose representativeness, the results provide new insights into the dissemination, modalities and motivations for using alternative forms of financing. Direct loans from citizens are the most frequently reported alternative form of financing (over the last five years). As a business model, Solidarity Agriculture together with Crowdfunding follow in second place, co-operatives with citizen participation and profit participation rights follow in third place.

For some companies, purely economic criteria are decisive for the choice of alternative forms of financing. For other companies, however, additional or exclusively socio-political-ideal criteria (e.g. the participation of citizens and consumers) are decisive. While the survey will focus on the perspective of capital takers, the forthcoming in-depth case studies will also examine the perspective of capital providers.

The overall results of the survey will be published promptly on the website of the BioFinanz project.

Contact persons at IfLS: Simone Sterly (sterly[at]ifls.de) and Sarah Peter (peter[at]ifls.de)