The increased cost of living is causing problems for the organic sector.
How are the organic shops in the region doing with this development?
District - Because fewer organic products are being bought due to high inflation and increased living costs, the industry is heading for a drop in sales, according to the Farmers' Association.
Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) has therefore proposed eliminating VAT on organic fruit, vegetables and legumes.
How are the organic shops in the region doing with this development?
Do you feel a drop in sales?
"My personal impression is that the level has fallen back to the level before the Corona crisis," says Kornelia Möller from Naturkost Möller in Füssen.
During the Corona period, natural food stores could have recorded a large increase in sales, "because many people cooked themselves and attached importance to quality".
She therefore considers it questionable to blame the current decline in sales solely on inflation.
Many familiar faces
She herself is happy to have many regular customers, some of whom have been shopping with her for years.
“These are locals, but also tourists who keep coming back.
You see a lot of familiar faces there,” she says.
She and her husband Christian Möller are among the pioneers in the organic sector – the organic food store has been in Füssen since 1991.
Kornelia Möller likes the Federal Minister of Agriculture's proposal: "Not for my business, but with a view to promoting organic farming even more." After all, protecting the environment and the soil affects everyone, not just those who work in the organic sector , says Moeller.
Frank Beckmann and Barbara Fritsch from Berghofer Biostadl in Halblech sense a clear reluctance among customers.
"Our regular customers are loyal to us, but we're definitely noticing a drop in sales," says Beckmann.
In conversations with the people who come regularly, Barbara Fritsch keeps hearing that the increased costs are a problem for many.
"Customers say they need to be careful with their money."
While the regular customers continue to shop in the Biostadl, "but just a little less", there are also some who no longer come at all.
"Of course, that hurts me - when people don't buy from us anymore, but go to the supermarket," says Fritsch, who has been running the organic shop with her husband for two years.
The shop has been around for 14 years and lives off both regular customers and tourists.
Fritsch sees Özdemir's move as a "positive signal from politics".
"Of course it would be nice if the federal government would also support buying organic products and not just subsidizing the conventional ones."
Win discounters
In the "Kräuterweible" in Pfronten, you also notice that customers are buying less.
"I can't say whether this is only due to inflation," says owner Elfriede Kober.
Since she has been running her shop for 35 years, she has always experienced fluctuations in sales.
In general, however, demand has increased since the store moved to a larger retail space ten years ago, she says.
The organic pioneer doubts whether suspending VAT on certain products will really help.
"I don't know if that will pull it off." Ultimately, she fears, "the big discounters will take over the business." It will be difficult for small organic shops like hers.
A few weeks ago, the farmers' association reported something similar in its official statement: the discounters are the "winners of a trend towards cheap shopping" for organic products, but demand has fallen dramatically in the natural food trade and in direct sales.
