As every year, our partner the Inter-Continental Network of Organic Farmers Organisations (INOFO) represented the views of organic farmers during panel discussions. The Executive Board of the global association exhibited selected members’ products in Nuremberg and used the trade fair for strategic networking with like-minded people – with great success! As the legitimate representative of organic farmers around the world, INOFO provides a network that connects organic farms in Asia, Europe, Africa or anywhere else in the world on an international level. This unique network is of enormous interest to both civil society and private sector actors.
We used the presence of the Executive Board in Nuremberg to realise one of our goals for 2025: developing a diversified income model for the association. AHA trainer Fatma Ben Rejeb led an intensive hybrid workshop that produced three promising income models for INOFO.
A special highlight for the AHA International team was the inspiring meeting with Indian b|u|s trainer and advisor from PDS Organic Spices, Dr. J. Thomas, at the Demeter stand. Together with him, we reflected on the successful certification of eight new b|u|s trainers who were trained at PDS Organic Spices in December 2024. These trainers play a crucial role in accompanying and supporting Indian farmers. Through their work, they have made a valuable contribution to personal and entrepreneurial development in the region and to strengthening structures for sustainable organic farming.
Another important part of the programme was the exciting exchange with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and a delegation of government representatives from Madagascar. The discussions provided valuable insights into the country’s agricultural policy developments and highlighted both challenges and opportunities for the organic sector. The Malagasy government is increasingly focusing on establishing and strengthening cooperatives in order to better integrate farmers into value chains. Despite these positive developments, Malagasy producers are facing major challenges: the agricultural sector is still poorly organised. For the organic sector in particular, high certification costs make market access difficult and a large informal sector is colliding with EU regulations. In vanilla cultivation especially, organisations such as the National Council for Vanilla are trying to create market stability and establish sustainable structures.
Biofach 2025 has once again shown how essential international dialogue is to promoting organic farming practices. The personal exchange with partners from all over the world makes it possible to learn from each other, overcome challenges together and develop innovative solutions for future-oriented organic farming. The trade fair was therefore not only a place to meet, but also a source of new impetus for our daily work at AHA.
