Josef Finke was one of Ireland's pioneering organic producers. Now his Ballybrado label is synonymous with naturally-produced foods. He talks with Lucinda Thomson.

"I am an environmental refugee,' says Josef Finke, simply describing his flight from Germany, wife Marianne and small children in tow, to buy an old farm in Cahir, Co. Tipperary with the intention of farming it organically.

Many continentals have fled their homelands with similar aspirations but not all of them have shared Josef's talents and energy.

It is his unconquerable energy and insight, which sees him today as the owner of a healthy profitable organic farm and also a major co-ordinator of organic produce in Ireland. He has done more to raise awareness, develop markets and preserve standards of organic food in Ireland than anyone else. Along the way he has also started and built his own mill, launched the manufacture of his own range of organic biscuits, woven his own organic cloth and blankets, sold organic oats to Nestle, organic wool to Esprit, and organic meat to Quinnsworth, in addition to working tirelessly with other organic farmers - plus the occasional clash with unenlightened authorities.

Perhaps most remarkable of all, after fifteen years his enthusiasm is undimmed. He is seething with energy and has great hopes for the future. He is delighted with the quality of Irish organic produce and with the current Irish enthusiasm for all things organic. His words cannot keep up with his ideas as his German accent mixes with the Tipperary lilt he picked up along the way as this organic Richard Branson threw himself wholeheartedly into Ireland and the Irish.

In Germany Josef worked in marketing and product development but he was increasingly dissatisfied.

"We felt quite threatened with developments and we had small children at the time. So we decided to look out for a healthy environment."

"It was not one of those modern farms with square fields and lots of concrete. It's an old Victorian farm with a rich environment with rivers, woodlands, fields and wetlands."

Initially he started with growing corn and other cereals, planting their huge walled garden with vegetables and developing a small sheep flock.

At that point, in the early eighties he was a lone voice crying in the wilderness. There was not today's awareness of the meaning of the term organic, neither was there today's concern over food safety. The Irish were not prepared to pay the unavoidably high price of organic produce. Josef and his family however had seen the way organic produce had developed on the continent and were confident that the same awareness would come to Ireland. In the meantime he decided to sell his produce abroad.

Displaying for the first time his acute business ability, he approached Nestle with cereals for their organic babyfoods. When Nestle inspected the farm and analysed the cereals and soils they were astonished at the purity of the produce, containing little or no metal residues. Then the ball started rolling. Soon he was involved with the Organic Farmers' Association and was bringing others into his developing network of companies looking for quality organic produce.

This initial contract with Nestle was the first example of what was to become Josef's approach to selling organic produce - to go abroad, secure a lucrative contract on the basis of the excellence of your product, and then return home and involve others on the same initiative. When the word got out that they were growing organic cereals people started calling in search of organic flour. So they built a new stone mill. He relates this in a matter-of-fact way as if it was the logical and obvious thing to do.

"It was the only chance we had to start a national distribution of grain," he says simply.

Today he himself only produces a fraction of the produce, which passes through his system under the company name of Ballybrado House. He is only farming 340 sheep, a tiny flock by today's standards. But he stresses that if you are to farm organically you cannot maintain large flocks. Instead he co-ordinates the distribution of the produce of 45 other organic farms and, being able to speak for so many, he is in a position to command respect from very major buyers. For example: he has just returned from Frankfurt where he secured a contract for 12,500 organic lambs; a couple of years ago the trendy clothing company Esprit ordered 10 tonnes of organic wool from him and now Greenpeace want 600 sweaters. This is big business. He is forced to buy organic wool from England in order to fulfil his contracts.

Despite his initial successes in selling organic grain, it became increasingly uncompetetive as transport costs rose. As soon as he saw the writing on the wall, Josef devised a secondary scheme with the aim of selling a finished product with greater added value instead of raw material. He went into biscuit making and now manufactures three types of luxury organic biscuits and is about to launch a new product, which he calls 'Savoury Nightbites'. These are little non-sweet biscuits, flavoured with different herbs, to be eaten with a glass of wine. He is confident that there is no other product available like it.

He is reluctant to reveal any overall turnover figure for the Ballybrado company but he does admit that one contract for biscuits alone to a single customer in Germany is worth an annual €40,000.

Many organic farmers are overwhelmed by the sheer practical enormity of what they take on as they attempt to grow their own vegetables, bake their own bread, spin their own wool, make their own cheese - and try to make a living on top of all that. Quickly life looses all joy as they find themselves on a hideous treadmill of their own making. Josef, however quickly realised the impossibility of doing absolutely everything himself and reckoned that if he could distribute and delegate the workload, more people would benefit and production would be higher The biscuits are made by a bakery in Bray using Josef's own organic cereals and are delivered to him ready for distribution. The mill has been moved to someone who will use it seven days a week instead of the one Josef was running it for. The weaving has been shifted entirely to the Kerry Woolen Mills and according to Josef, has developed into a lovely niche for them.

"I never thought you had to own the production plant to supply the consumer with organic produce," he says firmly "You have to oversee, to retain control, but just because organic farmers can't afford their own production plants or abattoirs doesn't mean you lose control of the process. You must make maximum use of existing facilities. I see myself as a co-ordinator."

From the start the farm was run as a company and every success of the farm was shared by others as Josef involved more and more organic farmers into his distribution and marketing network.
I never liked the idea that ownership is the key to distributing the earnings of work. It is easier to share success when it is run as a company.

Mad cow disease has been bad news for beef farmers but not all the farming community has suffered. Organic meat production
has blossomed as consumers turn away from traditionally produced beef and go for a "healthier" alternative.

This growing demand is reflected in consumption levels which are predicted to more than triple following last year's BSE crisis. A survey of food industry executives and consumers by market researchers Frost & Sullivan, due to be published later this month, leads it to forecast that the overall European market for organic meats and dairy products will increase from $1.1 billion last year to $3.2bn in five years' time.

Key factors in realising the growth will be government aid, availability through major retailers and marketing support, said F&S research manager Dr. Angela Gunning. "Government grants and funding are vital aspects in an effort to accelerate the conversion rate to organic farming, stimulating a rise in production levels", she said. Concerns about food safety have been brought into the limelight by the BSE scare last spring.

"Organic meat is increasingly being perceived as a much safer option among consumers, especially with the threat of salmonella and BSE, as well as the use of antibiotics and growth hormones in conventional meat production."

The survey reveals changes in lifestyle and purchasing patterns in Europe following the BSE crisis, says F&S. The organic beef market will triple from $300m last year to more than $1bn it says. Shipments of organic chicken and pork, and the more-developed organic yoghurt and milk markets, are also expected to rise.

Danes are the biggest organic beef eaters, accounting for more than a third of European consumption with an average of 1.3kg per capita per year. Austria and Germany are the second largest consumers, with the UK and France the lowest, with just seven and eight grammes per head respectively.

Germany produces the most organic meat and dairy products (39 percent of total European revenues), followed by Denmark (17.4 per cent), Austria (11.5 per cent) and the UK (8.4 per cent).

The study says: "The market is experiencing a gradual shift towards free range and organic meats.*