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Abstract
The Austrian national strategy for the fruit and vegetable sector provides a framework
for the producer organisation’s sustainable operational programmes. One main
objective of the national strategy is the bundling of production in order to improve the
competitiveness of the fruits and vegetables producers. According to the agricultural
census 2010, the share of production value of producer organisations in the fruit and
vegetables sector, has constantly risen since 1999 and amounted to 53% in 2010.
When analysing the number of projects and the expenditure of funds, it was found
that a majority of financial resources was invested into the improvement of marketing
activities / conditions and product quality. In order to justify ongoing public support in
future, it will become necessary to stress the benefits of the operational programmes for
the general public. This could be achieved, for example, by focusing on environmental
measures. Already, integrated production has become the standard production method
in the sector. Other environmental measures within the national strategy aimed at the
reduction of resources in production (such as pesticides or energy). For these measures
no improvements could be measured due to lacking monitoring data. For future
evaluations, indicators need to be defined more clearly and precisely, in order to make
the achievement of objectives measurable and visible.