Description
The Consumers Organization of Macedonia (COM) has created the Organic Way web app Organic World as part of the Organic World initiative. The platform aim to promote organic food and increase consumer awareness of the associated benefits. The platform also features a map that can be used to plan tours of producers of organic food in Macedonia, detailing shops, restaurants and accommodation providers offering organic products. The platform can be used to search for outlets for the purchase or consumption of organic food, to plan visits to the producers of organic food in Northern Macedonia, and to learn about organic food and its benefits for the environment and health.
Technology
The web app features an online data repository with access to organic farming and uses GPS to pinpoint sources of organic food, including restaurants, shops and farms. The app can be accessed by both Android and iOS devices, and through an online portal.
Target
The target users of the portal are smallholder farmers, other B2B businesses and consumers of organic food. The app can be accessed throughout North Macedonia, allowing users to pinpoint organic food producers and outlets such as restaurants as part of an organic agritourism experience. The app has been downloaded more than 1000 times from the Google Play Store, for which a Google account is needed. The portal has 231 registered producers, as well as 39 retailers, nine restaurants and three agro-touristic facilities.
Business model
Use of the platform and app are free of charge.
Impact
According to the Consumers Organization of Macedonia, the platform has been developed with the collaboration of food producers and organic food outlets from all over the country. More than 1000 people have downloaded the app from Google Play Store to date. The project employs a networking and advertising component as a modern tool for public outreach, which has aided in the dissemination of the core messages more widely and to larger audiences via the Internet. Such a public outreach created a more favourable climate for policy advocacy efforts related to government authorities, farmers’ organizations and supermarket chains. By raising public awareness and attracting significant consumer support for the cause through online promotions and media appearances, the project has provided considerable support to the efforts to promote the adoption of a policy framework on organic production as a sustainable form of agriculture. The project partners and relevant stakeholders have encouraged supermarket chains to collaborate with farmers involved in the project activities and to commit to expanding the organic sections of their shops.
Partners
Association for Development Initiatives – Zenit; the Association of Agro-Journalists Media Plus; North Macedonian Ministry of Agriculture; European Union; Russian Federation; Swedish society for nature conservation
Four Betters
Better production
Better nutrition
Better life
