D’Aucy

Vegetables in transition to organic

Bureau d’innovation

We imagined, with d'Aucy preserves, how to support farmers in the process of converting their crop to organic and upgrade their production.

The brief and what's at stake

Creating new outlets for canned organic produce, and motivating the cooperative’s members to transition from conventional to organic farming

In June 2018, d’aucy briefed Possible Future on a mission addressing challenges at the brand’s the cooperative’s level. What was it about? The future of organic.

Building upon the need to create canned organic produce that meets consumer expectations, d’aucy asked us to imagine and create new outlets for organic vegetables in order to motivate farmers to transition from conventional to organic farming. In fact, we are witnessing an increasing demand for organic produce in France, and the number of transitioning farmers isn’t growing at a fast enough rate to support it.

With this brief, we embarked with d’aucy on a multifaceted journey, with potential impacts on both consumers and farmers.

The idea

Raising consumer awareness while creating value for the cooperative’s farmers with a range of vegetables from in-transition organic farms.

Our exploration phase allowed us to explore the upcoming challenges of the organic sector, for the people who will be eating the produce … but also for the farmers growing it !

Our discussions with farmers and experts from d’aucy allowed us to understand the underlying issues with transitioning to organic farming and the challenges holding farmers back :

  • Financial and technical investments with a high uncertainty about future harvests
  • A 3-year period, mandatory in order to get the « organic » certification (Agriculture Biologique, AB certification) in France, during which farmers grow their crops in compliance to organic requirements without being able to sell and price their produce as such.

In order to build the future of organic farming and meet the increasing demand, the key is to minimize the risks taken by the farmer when transitioning from conventional to organic farming systems.

That’s why after two months of exploration and conceptualization, we presented to d’aucy the concept of a new product line of in-transition organic vegetables, sold online :

  • For consumers, it’s an opportunity not only to learn more about the issues of transitioning farms, but also to buy quality products at accessible prices, since these products are already being grown as organic products.
  • For farmers, it’s a way to benefit from higher prices, allowing them to be more fairly compensated during the difficult transition period.
The result

The transition to organic vegetables, co-created by d’aucy and consumers

In June 2019, after internalizing and reworking the concept that we had presented, d’aucy invited consumers to participate in creating this new line of “in-transition organic” vegetables : they were asked to help select the first vegetable to be marketed, along with its container, label, price (and the amount paid back to farmers) and method of distribution.

With the launch of this line, d’aucy is the first player in the food industry to implement such a strong initiative aimed at raising awareness of the general public around the transition from conventional to organic systems. This is an essential first step and is accompanied by a plan to support members of the cooperative to empower them to transition to a more environmentally-friendly agriculture.

Since the fall of 2019, we can buy those d’aucy vegetables co-created with consumers. We are very proud to have accompanied d’Aucy in the development of this new line of in-transition vegetables.

22

farmers and experts from d'aucy
met during the first phase of the project in order to understand what is at stake in transitioning to organic systems.

550

consumers
surveyed online. 30 qualitative interviews were also conducted.

+82%

growth
of organic product sales between 2011 and 2016

6200

farmers
decided to transition to organic systems in 2018 : an all-time record !

60k

future organic farmers
need to transition in the next 5 years in order to meet consumer demand, according to Biocoop's president, Orion Porta,

En savoir plus