All the BIOFACH Congress topics and forums

Every year, the international patron of BIOFACH, IFOAM - Organics International, together with the national conceptual sponsor, the Federation of the Organic Food Industry (BÖLW), and BIOFACH, the world's leading trade fair for organic food, organize the congress focus of BIOFACH.

In 2022, the congress focus will be "Organic. Climate. Resilience."

In focus: how organic can make food production more resilient and climate-friendly.

Organic makes farming and food systems resilient and climate-friendly. Organic farmers and organic food producers are strengthening livelihoods while innovating with nature. And they are making organic the engine of resilient food systems. This is exactly what the most comprehensive international organic congress will focus on when the organic and natural cosmetics community gathers for the next edition of the trade fair duo BIOFACH and VIVANESS from February 15 - 18, 2022. During the four days of the trade fair, the organic industry will discuss a highly topical issue of socio-political scope both on site and digitally.

You can read thepress release about the theme of the 2022 Congress here.

The content of the Congress will be heavily influenced by Covid-19 and the impact of the pandemic. The coronavirus has affected everyone – farmers, manufacturers, dealers and consumers. There was a need to respond flexibly and creatively to mitigate the pandemic’s consequences. The crisis served as a magnifying glass, revealing both weaknesses and strengths. What will remain after the virus? There will be no taboos, and no going back to the pre-Covid era.

• What areas need work in order to do business more resiliently?
• What will be the strategies and guidelines – old and new – for the future?
• What exciting approaches to more resilient business practices can inspire the organic sector?
• Advertising, design and packaging: How are marketing, ecologically friendly design and packaging evolving?
• How to make the organic farming system crises-proof, with regional, national and international supply chains?
• Digital transformation: future strategies in the organic sector, strategies and ways digitalization push?
• Certification under pandemic conditions: new ways and experiences in control and integrity assurance of the organic sector?

What's next for the specialist trade, with and after the pandemic-related crisis? What changes are to be made? The Forum Specialized Trade takes up the current questions and discusses with impulse givers how the organic specialized trade can successfully implement them:

• The organic shop as a brand: Which messages have the power to reach new customers?
• How can we rebuild a good collaborative environment with colleagues, employees, suppliers, buyers and customers?
• When regionality and short supply chains become more important than organic. What are the bio sector's answers? Competition for organic customers! Who buys where? What drives organic buyers? What are the unique selling points of the future?
• How can the Fachhandel profit from the Corona-induced change in eating habits? How can it hold its own in the field of tension between food retailers and discounters?
• How does the organic trade position itself credibly and successfully as an ambassador of a qualitative development towards more sustainability?

Forum Fachhandel is a platform for dialoguing and exchanging experiences. We invite you to work up topics by and for practitioners, and also to bring in initiators from outside.

Sustainability has many facets, and the pandemic has once again made it clear to us that one-dimensional, economic action is a dead end.

• Examples and motives for courageous sustainability steps in the organic sector.
• How can we consistently operate sustainably, consistently apply the polluter-pays principle and assume responsibility for the environment and the next generation?
• How can sustainability be anchored in the consciousness and applied as a guiding principle in all areas and decisions?
• How can value chains be designed resiliently, taking into account all dimensions of sustainability (social, ecological and economic)?
• Where are there deficits? How does the current system need to evolve further so that organic practices finally become socially and politically viable as the future model for sustainable agriculture?
• How can (new) alliances be forged to fight collectively for sustainability under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?

There’s a wide range of topics. Let’s get together and help design a sustainable future, and discuss it together at the Sustainability Forum at BIOFACH.

The Politics Forum generates awareness of the topics that quite specifically deal with shaping the regulatory environment for the ecological food industry. Operators in the industry, government policymakers and representatives of state agencies are invited to discuss their positions. After all, one thing is clear – whether as a farmer, manufacturer, importer, dealer, crafts worker or specialty retailer, everybody needs a stable, reliable regulatory environment so they can face the challenges of the future.

But what conditions are additionally needed so that agriculture and food production can be transformed in such a way as to achieve sustainability goals, doing business in harmony with global resources and within our planet’s limitations?

You can expect critical, controversial, constructive discussions on current political issues that will affect the organic products industry after the pandemic and beyond.

Expert knowledge is needed more than ever, including because the problems to be solved are getting more and more complex. There are enough scientific studies that show the benefits of ecological farming for the environment, the climate, and species diversity. But – organically based practices also have a wealth of questions that science needs to answer in order for the sector to achieve its full potential.

The Science Forum offers a platform for dialogue among scientists, practitioners and consultants. Research projects must be adapted to practical conditions, research results must be communicated and discussed with the industry. What are the implications of research results, and how can they be put into practice?

What’s needed is discussions about issues and research results in agriculture, processing, commerce, food quality and marketing.

With the Agriculture Forum, we put the concerns of farmers at the center of the discussion:

"Future Agriculture. A task for society as a whole" is the title of the final report of the Commission on the Future of Agriculture (ZKL) set up by the German government. In July, the commission submitted its recommendations to the German government. Felix Prinz zu Löwenstein, ZKL commission member: "The ZKL recognizes organic as the only sustainability program that works and has a relevant and dynamic market".

But how can our agricultural and food system be redesigned so that organic farms can economically afford to implement the positive effects and avoid harmful effects on climate, environment, biodiversity, animal welfare and human health in the entrepreneurial interest? What concrete measures are these, even apart from government support systems? How can new organic farmers be won over and retained in the long term? What strategies, cooperations, coalitions are needed to achieve the transformation of agriculture? What is the contribution of research?

We expect impulses and interesting facts, models and initiatives for the organic farmers of today and tomorrow.