Regionalwert AG (citizen shareholder corporation) – capital provision

Since 2006, the 'Regionalwert AG' (citizen shareholder corporation – RWAG) has been developing as an alternative and innovative model targeted at an economically, socially and ecologically sustainable economy. Its aims and activities encompass promoting an integrated regional value added, providing capital to regional organic farms, and supporting farm succession. The latter is of relevance with regard to young farmers being a cross-cutting aspect of the FarmPath research. While the implementation of the RWAG approach in other regions has begun, the case study carried out within the FarmPath project focuses on the region of origin, i.e. the area surrounding the city of Freiburg in the German federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. As one of the cases of the FarmPath cluster on ‘farmer collaboration’, the initiative is being studied under the angle of its organisational structures and collaborative processes within the related network of – partly newly founded – RWAG partner enterprises (service providers, farms, processors, marketers). Key stakeholder interviews and a focus group are implemented to illuminate these aspects.