CASE STUDY : Switzerland – Notre Panier Bio – Innovation and risk sharing between producers and customers

The Notre Panier Bio organisation operates in the Freiburg Canton. With an area of 1,670.7 km2 and 303,377 inhabitants, the Freiburg Canton has a density of 180 inhabitants/km2 in 2014. More than 59% of the territory is used for agriculture. There are about 3,000 farms, mainly producing milk. The farms are an average of 25.4 ha. 12

There are about 160 families of organic farmers, so they account for 5% of the producers in the area.

Notre Panier Bio is a non-profit organisation funded in 2006 by both consumers and producers in the Freiburg Canton. It aims at developing and sustaining Community Supported Agriculture, through several means:

• Establishing direct links between producers and consumers

• Referring to and promoting food sovereignty

• Organising actions for the cultivation and distribution of organic products and processed produce that uses organic products

• Advocating in favour of local production

• Paying a price for the products that meets local fair trade requirements and that benefits both producers and consumers.

In January 2016, 540 consumer families and 22 producer families were members of this non-profit organisation. The 22 farmer families work with the organisation as well as allocating part of their production to this specific distribution method.

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