This is a CTP of initiative: ProSpecieRara (Switzerland)
The CTP consists of the history of the Pro Specie Rara's cooperation with Coop which is the second biggest Swiss supermarket chain. Currently Coop accounts for almost the half of the organic products sold in Switzerland. Coop has been working with the Pro Specie Rara Foundation since 1999 to maintain the biodiversity of Swiss farming. After one of the organization's successful fruit exhibitions, Coop addressed Pro Specie Rara and expressed its interest in their work, moreover indicated their willingness to cooperate. "They had already got their own label but they wanted more, they wanted to bring our ideas to their shops as they presumed that if they developed a quality system with a small organization, the consumers would think that they were more reliable." Therefore PSR started to develop a common label and set up the criteria. "We defined what is an old variety and what is not; from where and how you get the seeds; how we develop this marketing network… etc."
The center of the whole network is the seed-producer Sativa. Pro Specie Rara evaluates varieties with this see-producer. Together they decide which varieties can be developed in a sense which fits for such a market. PSR came up with the idea to collaborate with Sativa. Together they have realized that they do have a critical mass to make qualitative seeds also a market to sell the seeds to make this process self-sustainable. "We had about 900 varieties and now we have 250 in the catalogue of Sativa, we do not have to worry anymore." Coop sponsored this cooperation between PSR and Sativa. In the end only 63 varieties were available in the supermarket out of the 900. However they had a chance to describe and evaluate 900 varieties and collect a lot of scientific information about them. Coop was sponsoring this cooperation and evaluation in 100%. Only for vegetables went into the stores.
Coop promoted the products of Pro Specie Rara several times. Between 2003 and 2009 Coop raised the public awareness of endangered species and varieties. Including others the company launched campaigns to preserve heirloom crops and breeds.
Pro Specie Rara is very glad to have such a fruitful cooperation with Coop. There was no tension among PSR and Coop during the cooperation.
The development of a marketing strategy is planned which is one of the consequences of the CTP. In addition to this, they would like to strengthen the cooperation with the field of gastronomy. PSR aims to improve the logistic chain. They try to bring stakeholders together. Pro Specie Rara organized degustation, cooking events, etc. The main task of PSR is mediation between the different players. There are a lot of products which is still unknown for the consumers. They do not know how they can use it or cook it. Therefore they need a help of those cookers who have experiences with these products. "We have 1000 of different apples but we cannot describe the value of the different varieties. We have not got enough practical information, but in the same time people get to know the varieties." The process is the following: "build up knowledge, get people interested, build up logistics, and improve the availability of the product […] in the end you have a couple of products which can be promoted by the cooks."
The CTP presented important lessons for the organisation. Coop supports the whole process, their cooperation with the supermarket chain made them popular and interesting among the local and regional stakeholders: "we always wanted to work in regions, with local communities, create little networks but nobody was interested, nor the farmers, nor the shops […] We started with Coop, we created this label, which became interesting and well-known, and now the local, regional players get interested in cooperating with us."
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