2.4.3. FERMA ECOLOGICA TOPA (RO)

Short Schedule Farm/Company

Name: Ferma Ecologica Topa Web site: www.fcenet.de E-mail: fermatopa@yahoo.com

Farm description

Place

Country: Romania Region:Transylvania City: Sighisoara

Product Type Vegetables, roses, jam, milk, milk products, herbs

Reference year 2008/09

Start point/Challange

Successful elements

Output/Effects

Organic farming

Farm logo

Farm Description FERMA ECOLOGICA TOPA, is a 30 ha ecological farm with 9 cows, situated in the hilly region of central Transylvania. The farm is run by a 5-member family. Their specialty products are the rose products (jams, teas). These are marketed by one of their partners (ADEPT, slow food). The other farm products go to the neighboring city, Sighisoara, then Targu Mures (65 km) and Sibiu (90 km) with some 150,000 inhabitants each, as well as, the capital Bucharest 350 km (2 Mio inhabitants). The farm’s products are milk, white cheese, and fresh vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, onions, salads, carrots, red beets, herbs and cereals (oats) and wheat for the animals and for bread (rye). The farm is organic (biodynamic), which means a self sustainable organism (cows and fodder crops give dung for the cereal and vegetable production) with high quality products. The fresh raw milk is delivered in bottles direct to the clients in nearby Sighisoara. White fresh cheese, cheese with herbs and red pepper are locally sold, and also in Sibiu and Targu Mures. The vegetables: salads, onions tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, peppers, the home made ZACUSCA and jam products like trose jam, black currants, gooseberries and others are marketed mainly in Bucharest. The product quality is high (good taste, organic certified products). Local clients from Sighisoara need mainly fresh organic milk. Clients from bigger towns are keen on cheese, vegetables and preserves.

- Processing - Cooperation – 30 ha farm Direct marketing - Consumer awareness

Regional

marketing

Regional organic products for consumers in the region and to the capital. Creating a win-win situation in cooperations and copy this to others. Organic

Diversity

Processing

The farm house

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Ferma Ecologica Topa (RO) Pag. 2 of 4

Start Point

Children beeing The initial idea was to create a biodynamic farm with various products, a diversity of cultures and species as a self sustainable organism. It was created as an organic training farm. The basic idea - a self sustainable organism with a lot of components, ended up with cows, cereals, vegetables, soft fruit, roses, herbs, in-farm processing and direct marketing.

Farm description useful

Start point/Challange

This way, a client receives a whole range of ready for consumption products from a single producer. The traceability from the soil to the plate is guaranteed. The producer and the client meet direct; there is a permanent exchange offer/demand and a growing trust between the producer and the clients. Once they have tasted the products, they come back and determine other people to visit the farm. Nevertheless, it is hard to start, as the industrial food products in the supermarkets look so perfect. But there is a chance: a consumer will taste and appreciate the quality. We try to bring the real life to the city. A flyer was prepared to give more information about the farm and its people - the address, a telephone number and a product list.

Successful elements IN EVIDENCE! In the first place, in order to be recognized as a good producer the farmer must assure the hygiene and the quality of his products.

Output/Effects

Permanently sanitary control makes sure that the health of clients is not in danger. Dealing with competition, each farm must fight for quality, otherwise the whole farming activities will be in vain.

Rose in June

Challenge

Do we go for our initial idea or for the market? Product driven production and marketing or demand oriented production and marketing? A farm always has certain limits to react on clients demands: - it will never work to grow cherries or figs in Sighisoara; we do not have pigs, so we cannot offer sausages. But we can arrange a product mix from our fields and one product will support another product and we slowly go to increase the sales.

Still there are a lot of questions: - How to arrange the production in a way to avoid peaks in labor?

Always think healthy! - How to preserve surplus production?

- How to react if others copy our products? Our client is our master! - How to cooperate, in order to satisfy all clients’ demands

for regional organic food (bread, honey, juice, potatoes, cabbage)?

Meeting the needs of clients Marketing is a logistics problem, too. It needs transport and a lot of time. Cooperative behavior can help and create a win-win situation. We always sold bread and cheese from other farms on the market and sent our products with friends.

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Ferma Ecologica Topa (RO) Pag. 3 of 4

Success elements

The farm succeeded to: Farm description - create the foundation of the production by raising cows; the milk products are the start of whole farming process; Start point/Challange - create a mass product, which is marketed by a trader: the rose petal jam; - create an every day product line: milk, cheese and vegetables; Successful elements - create high value products on top: this is “Zacusca”, black currant and other jams; Output/Effects - create a stock: the dry product line with teas and herb salt. We could bring new life to the city: a big paper bag of calendula with its amazing golden-orange flowers attracted clients and they started to be interested in the products. A little goat and a sheep close to the market stall attracted children and their parents, so they had the opportunity to learn about organic farming and the different products from the farm. IN EVIDENCE The crowded stall attracted shop owners and the local press. To be known to the

customers by: Successful cooperation with other regional producers: BIOCOOP Sibiu, ADEPT Saschiz, Farmers Market Bucharest. - developing original

ideas; - making the same

advertisement; We are able to exist from the activities: We reach the brake even point in a period of four years with a turnover of 40.000 Euro in the year 2008/09 (The medium income of a Romanian family is 6.000 Euro/year). - keeping the quality at

the highest level; To keep the customers: - nice aspect of the

packages; - offering small gifts

(products, advertising bags, flyers, etc.);

- good prices. The behavior: - always be nice while

selling the products; - organize “The Farm’s

open doors day”- a pleasant way for the customers to spend a day together with the family members.

E X E R C I S E S - What can we produce in our region (soil, climate)? - What do we like to produce? - Do we go for a single product or diversity (wide product range)? - How do we attract the clients? - How do we look for cooperation? - How to establish the products’ price, related to the quality and the

customers’ demand?

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CASE STUDY END…...an end is always

a new start...

Ferma Ecologica Topa (RO) Pag. 4 of 4

Output/Effects

Farm description

Start point/Challange

Successful elements

Output/Effects

After 4 years since the first harvest, the farm is well known not only in the area, but also in very many regions of the country. The customers’ interest in bio-products is growing day after day. The farm has connections to many other national companies, NGOs, universities, slow food programs, etc.). Being receptive to different sorts of products, inventing new products (cheese with herbs) the farm’s number of customers is growing permanently. It is hard to succeed alone on a market suffocated by conventional products. That is why the cooperation between more groups of organic farmers and associations is useful for all the involved parties.

Discussion Questions/Remarks - Where to invest: in future production steps? - Where to invest: in future processing steps? - Which product to increase, which product to erase from the list? - How to intensify advertising and marketing (flyer, web page)?

Further investigations - Small product range or large product diversity - Direct marketing versus wholesaler - Primary production versus in farm processing

K e y p o i n t s f o r t r a n s f e r a b i l i t y Organic Processing Direct marketing Logistics Cooperation Clients’ awareness Turnover