THE ANTI SHOP SHOP: BIOCOOP

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THE ANTI SHOP SHOP: BIOCOOP

Can not giving the consumer choice actually work sometimes? Oliver Moore takes a look at French phenomenon Biocoop.

Not all national retail models are comparable. Ireland, Britain, and the English speaking world in general have a food system dominated by supermarkets.

In the wake of the current food scandal, supermarkets want more vertical control: that's control up and down the chain, from the producer and abattoir to the loyalty card carrying consumer.

However, there is a worry about even more concentration of power in supermarket hands. This is especially a concern in sectors without strong co-ops – where farmers are price takers and not price makers.

In this context, a model worth exploring from France is the Biocoop model.While its hard to compare retail models, if ever there was a time to start to look at things differently, its now.

Franck Bardet spoke at the recent OGI (Organic Growers of Ireland) conference in Birr about Biocoop, which currently sells about 14% of the (ever increasing amount of) organic food sold in the country.

The Biocoop network is not a chain or a franchise but a federation of over 300 independent shops, and also consumer and producer co-operatives with shared ideals, objectives and structures. The federation was founded in 1987, with socio-environmental aims, an emphasis on the need for consumers to be involved in their food purchases more, and procedures for all relationships - with other biocoop stores, with consumers, producers and staff.

This non-supermarket model can have what seem like gloriously anti-sales sales strategies. In fact, the organisation operated more as a cash-and-carry service in its early years, such was the general member's disdain for the retail dynamic.

Wages for top paid staff are capped at are no higher than 4 times the national minimum wage, while lots of produce is deliberately not stocked for environmental, animal welfare or workers' rights' reasons.

And yet, the federation is growing. They currently have about 330 stores, a number that rises by about 15 a year. As an organisation, Biocoop offer assistance at all stages from idea to ongoing support of the shops.

Biocoop have four regional distributional hubs, three of which were the original regional platforms of the movement. Now, these hubs supply about 80% of the produce in the individual store; the rest is sourced locally.

Their focus is on French food – of 21,000 tonnes of fruit and veg, about 13,000 are from France. A policy of replace-with-local-when-available seems to be a key consideration. “At the start and end of the season we bring produce in from Italy and Spain, to keep the price down and increase availability. But once the French product is available, we drop the imports” Bardet says.

They also avoid heated greenhouses; air travel and southern hemisphere foods: “we are waiting for pears right now, as we won't buy from Argentina, where organic pears are available”.

A Groupe-de-Bruges report on Biocoop also pointed out that “In ’93 the first charter was set up and was wider/more strict than the organic regulations themselves – no GM, no artificial flavours, producers had to be selected carefully and their ethics investigated (eg Biocoop won’t buy from organic producers in Almeria in Spain due to their poor treatment of labourers).”

In 2002 it became a formal co-op, so distribution of profits to members became possible.

Biocoop has a number of subsidiaries:
• A transport and distribution company which owns forty 24 tonne trucks;
• A specialist public sector catering supply company;
• A company that helps producers with loans for investment in processing
infrastructure;
• A company to help shops rent and buy premises

Over 700 full time staff equivalent positions are in place in biocoop, while 2500 are employed in the stores. Biocoop also forms alliances with strategic organic and sustainability organisations.

Here in Ireland, we still have some co-op shops. How do they compare to Biocoop?

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