Agro Eco is a consultancy agency for organic agriculture and fair trade operating worldwide, with a particular focus on Africa. From an international perspective, organic agriculture could become much more efficient. Agri-ProFocus can play a role in this by placing the topic of organisational support of producer organisations firmly on the international agenda.

Agro Eco works ‘hands on’ with farmers, extension workers and exporters to achieve a more sustainable use of land and resources and to improve incomes. Agro Eco strives to help farmers become full-fledged market participants through their producer organisations. Support is provided for the transition to organic production as well as for community building. Agro Eco is very knowledgeable about local opportunities and local markets. This local approach to projects is Agro Eco’s major strength. This approach is not unique, it is effective.

Agro Eco would like to cooperate with other Agri-ProFocus partners on sustainable and product-oriented capacity building of farmers’ organisations in the organic and fair trade sectors. Agro Eco would like to contribute its specialised knowledge of organic product chains and its applied knowledge of markets and market processes. In the past, working together with other Agri-ProFocus partners proved to be problematic at times, in part because an element of competition often plays a role. But the partnership also offers new opportunities. At the moment development organisations above all lack expertise on markets and market processes. However, there is no need for them to develop this expertise in-house, as cooperation within the Agri-ProFocus partnership offers opportunities to share this knowledge.

Agro Eco also sees the partnership as an ideal opportunity for networking. The exchange of information during expert meetings, for example, facilitates the development of new contacts, which can in turn lead to greater efficiency and effectiveness. Agro Eco sees opportunities to formulate projects with Agri-ProFocus partners and to jointly seek out financing.