South Tyrol's agriculture is very small-structured. The production and refinement of diverse products has a long tradition among farming families. The processing of farm products was originally purely for self-sufficiency. Due to their location in the Alps, until the 1960s the mountain farms were sometimes only accessible via narrow or tortuous roads. In addition to self-sufficiency, the sale of the farm's own products made it possible for the farming families to supplement their income a little. Mostly it was neighbours from the village who bought food directly at the farm. Some farm families also brought their products to the towns themselves and offered them at markets, in stores or in inns. With this additional income, they could in turn buy food and goods that could not be produced on their own farms. As a result, most mountain farming families were busy on a daily basis with the refinement and preservation of foodstuffs. Today, this is reflected in the wealth of knowledge of our direct marketers when it comes to refining milk into butter, yogurt and cheese, preserving meat and turning it into bacon and sausages, pickling vegetables and preserving berries, fruits and vegetables.

Railways, cable cars and roads changed South Tyrol's direct marketing

The tradition of direct sales continued among South Tyrol's farmers until the railways came into operation at the end of the 19th century. This meant that South Tyrol was connected to the market of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and could export foodstuffs. This laid the foundation for specialization and the rise of the co-operative movement. Apples, in particular, were exported abroad via the railway lines, which encouraged the formation of numerous fruit cooperatives, especially in the 1930s. On mountain farms, however, the original form of direct marketing was still practised until the 1960s, since many farms still had no connection to the valley. There, only the construction of roads and cable cars brought change

Increase in co-operatives - decline in direct marketing

Because of these groundbreaking developments, processing and marketing cooperatives gained importance in South Tyrolean agriculture. Farms subsequently specialized more and more in the production of milk, fruit and grapes. To this day, nowhere else in Europe is the co-operative system as strong as in South Tyrol. Currently, over 90% of the farmers are members of one of the more than 60 agricultural co-operatives. However, the organization through cooperatives also had a negative aspect. It led to a sharp decline in direct marketing by farmers.

New upswing

Only in the last thirty years is a new burgeoning of direct marketing of farm products noticeable. There are now about 500 direct marketers in South Tyrol, who sell their products directly on the farm or also at farmers' markets, in shops and in restaurants - and the trend is rising. This is because, on the one hand, more and more locals as well as guests are asking for food from the region, and on the other hand, direct marketing offers farming families the opportunity to earn an additional income directly on the farm and secure their farming livelihoods.

Thanks to the long tradition of direct marketing, our producers can now put extensive knowledge of refinement and preservation into the processing of their high-quality products. That's exactly what you can taste in every single one of our Roter Hahn quality products.