The products

As more and more producers adhere to the “Genève Région - Terre Avenir” label, consumers have an easier time identifying local produce quickly when they shop.

Since the fall of 2006, beef, pork, and locally-raised buffalo meat now also bear the label although the best-known products are still the most widely available ones like fruit and vegetables. But lesser-known items brimming with good, fresh taste are worth discovering too; these include mushrooms, honey, and baked goods. Genetically modified plants and animals are excluded from the “Genève Région - Terre Avenir” label, which also stipulates that all products bearing the mark be grown according to pre-defined and monitored sustainable methods. Products bearing the label are not only super fresh – they also link producers and consumers in a kind of complicity, and they are also products that farmers are being paid fairly for. A wide range of products bears the “Genève Région - Terre Avenir” label: over 70 varieties of vegetables and fruit, including juices, honey, wine, mushrooms, different types of meat and cold cuts, 23 types of decorative and aromatic plants, oils, bakery products, and more.

In 2006, the “Genève Région - Terre Avenir” label was proudly borne by:

Tomatoes: 4,525 tons

Cereals: 4,000 tons

Apples and pears: 825 tons

Eggplants: 510 tons

Escarole and frisée endives: 400 tons

Zucchini: 270 tons

Berries, of which 70 tons of Mara des Bois strawberries: 106 tons

Fennel: 100 tons

Lamb’s lettuce: 90 tons

Green beans: 50 tons

Cardoons: 15 tons

Honey: 6 tons

Different types of lettuce: 5 million heads

Cucumbers: 2.3 million units

Aromatic herbs: 630,000 tubs

Organically-grown aromatic herbs: 200,000 pots

Labeled products can be purchased on the farm in some cases, or in supermarkets. In fact, big distributors like Migros, Manor and Coop are major players in the “Genève Région - Terre Avenir” project.

Three years after its creation, the project has proven a success, counting over 200 participating partners in a network that links producers, consumers, unions, and distributors. Polls indicate that “brand” recognition of the label – which features Geneva’s iconic water geyser, the Jet d’Eau – among the Genevois is high: only 26% were familiar with it in the fall of 2005, but a year later eight out of ten recognized it!