Comment by TraceConsult™: It should be relatively clear now to industry insiders what the continuously expanding discount retailer is planning. The company focuses on the Bavarian market as a trial market serving to its clientele at first – without making the “Ohne Gentechnik” claim – the two criteria of regional origin and premium quality, as already submitted to trial by competing retailers.
Lidl will have to wait on for three months with the actual claim “Ohne Gentechnik” (GMO-free) because this is the qualifying period prescribed for “milk producing animals” by the pertinent regulation. This leaves Lidl enough time to set up all the technical aspects and to fathom the consumers' appreciation for regional origin – at first without officially being told about the absence of biotechnology.
But then, from April, things should become exciting: Will Lidl claim their milk “Ohne Gentechnik” and expand the program beyond the Bavarian state borders, even to its foreign markets? Will the company make “Ohne Gentechnik” claims in additional product segments? After all, Lidl is, like almost all German retailers, also a customer of poultry producer STOLLE who already produces “Ohne Gentechnik”.
At any rate, in April not only the retailer competition, who – except for regionally active tegut … – have skillfully abstained so far from any GMO-free claims, should come under a certain pressure to act. Brand manufacturer FrieslandCampina and its LANDLIEBE are unlikely to be caught up with: Sales have increased noticeably and otherwise the company has simply stepped around the exasperating topic of soy meal as a protein source. That should be hard for competitors to match.
http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/0,1518,670912,00.html
English translation provided by TraceConsult
New Regional Products
Lidl sells GMO-free milk
Lidl logo at a supermarket: Only “animal feed not genetically modified”
Hamburg – It is a quality offensive hitherto unknown from discount retailers: From Monday on, Lidl shelves in Bavaria will have dairy products of regional origin. Under the label “Ein gutes Stück Heimat” (A Good Piece of Home), the retail giant sells, for the first time, milk, yoghurt and butter from “guaranteed Bavarian milk”. This makes Lidl the first discounter to bet on regional products – a business the large retailers such as Edeka and Rewe are already conducting very successfully.
By launching this home brand, the company implements “consistently the consumer preference for good products of regional origin and production”, according to an internal letter made available to SPIEGEL ONLINE. During the next year, the range of goods is to be expanded by further food products of regional production and made available nationally. A plausible step because more and more consumers keep asking for food produced in their own region.
Lidl demands GMO-free animal feed from its farmers
It is surprising what Lidl is NOT writing on its new milk and butter packaging: That the products are GMO-free. For the dairy farmers producing for Lidl had to commit themselves that from January 2010 they feed “only animal feed not genetically modified” to their cows. This is part of a formal obligation available to SPIEGEL ONLINE. In addition, Lidl insists on an uninterrupted documentation and inspection of all waybills regarding purchased feedstuffs “so that proper evidence can be furnished on the feeding of GMO-free feedstuffs.”
Lidl itself remains silent on the question why they do not advertise openly that the offer GMO-free products. “Our new ‘Ein gutes Stück Heimat’ home brand places regionally certified premium quality into the foreground”, according to a company statement. Production plants fulfil clearly defined quality criteria that are to be expanded. The company works intensively so “that in the future, milk can be produced exclusively with GMO-free feedstuffs.”
It is indeed surprising why the discount retailer will not advertise this openly for the vast majority of consumers reject genetic engineering. “That is exactly why Lidl would do itself a disservice now it they were to stack their shelves with milk claiming ‘Ohne Gentechnik’ next to ‘normal’ milk”, says Heike Moldenhauer, genetic engineering expert with Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND) [= Friends of the Earth Germany]. “Consumers would start to ask immediately what the matter is with the other milk – and stop buying it.”
“At some point, consumers want all food products without genetic engineering”
Furthermore, the entire industry is afraid to extend the small finger to consumers for fear of awakening expectations that can be met only step by step. “Once milk and yoghurt are available than can be claimed GMO-free consumers will, at one point, want all other food products without genetic engineering, too”, says Moldenhauer. This is why currently no major retailer or manufacturer dares open advertising – although many already produce GMO-free. “Particularly large players such as Lidl, Aldi or Edeka have the market power to demand this type of production from their producers with blanket coverage,” adds Moldenhauer.
The Lidl advance shows at least one thing: The group, otherwise rather making the headlines for its harsh dealings with employees, has read the sign of the times. For, practically, very little has changed in the attitudes of German consumers towards genetic engineering since the first approvals in 1996; the vast majority still rejects it. Therefore, even large food manufacturers such as Kraft or Nestlé back off from an implementation of GM products in Europe.
“Especially because the food market in Germany is so highly competitive, manufacturers are looking for a competitive edge – and “Ohne Gentechnik” could become one,” says Moldenhauer. That the concept works has been demonstrated by Campina, one of the largest European dairy companies. In 2008, they switched milk of the “Landliebe” brand completely to GMO-free, marketed it aggressively – and recorded a significant rise in sales.
sam
© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2010
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