FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

We organize bulk orders via our online marketplace, which allows you to order organic food from climate-friendly cultivation directly from the producers. Far away from industrial mass production, you get access to authentic food from pesticide-free agriculture. We only import what you have ordered and ensure that the farmers are paid fairly. In this way, we prevent food from being wasted and create transparent supply chains from the field to your plate. Thanks to crowd ordering, you know who produces your food and who earns how much from it.

Is the entire range produced organically?

Our range comes from a resource-conserving and climate-friendly circular farming system that promotes variety and biodiversity and does not use synthetic chemical pesticides. All the food we offer is produced organically.

Why aren't all your products certified organic and Fairtrade?

Crowd Container deliberately refrains from displaying certificates and labels, as we have more trust in our direct relationships than in paper. In addition, certification often involves disproportionate effort for smaller producers, which ultimately benefits the certification industry more than the farmers themselves.

Although a label means that a minimum standard is met in certain areas, standardization does not make sense everywhere. We therefore prefer to rely on trusting relationships in the context of organic farming, where local conditions can also be taken into account in discussions with producers. Here you can find a blog post on the topic of certification using the example of coffee cultivation.

How does Crowd Container ensure that producers keep their promises?

At Crowd Container, we focus on the careful selection of producers and close, long-term contact. Instead of an annual audit - as is usual for certified products - we rely on constant dialog with the farmers and their willingness to receive spontaneous visits to their farms from us, our customers or other experts.

Our products also undergo strict quality controls on a regular basis. They are also tested in the laboratory for ecologically relevant parameters, which allow conclusions to be drawn about the use of pesticides, for example.

We cannot give a final guarantee that we will keep our promises, but we do guarantee open communication. Even on points that don't go as planned. We do not hide behind a label.

In principle, the producers decide at what price they want to sell their organically produced goods. Whenever possible, we draw up a production cost calculation with those responsible and decide together what a sustainable price is. Thanks to this so-called "bottom-up pricing", producers often achieve a multiple of the world market price for their products. In return, we receive high-quality food from small-scale, diversified production that comes from climate-friendly cultivation without pesticides. Our trading system therefore goes beyond the conventional understanding of "Fairtrade" and also ensures fair payment from the farmers' perspective, so that this forward-looking agriculture has a long-term perspective.