FOOD ECONOMICS - STATUS-QUO AND PROSPECTS OF THE INSTITUTE FOR BUSINESS-ECONOMICS AND MARKET-RESEARCH FOR FOOD-PROCESSING

The institutional, content-orientated and methodical aspects relating to the IfBM's research work shown indicate that economic research focu sed on the individual enterprise can be seen as an independent, interd isciplinary area of research as regards the sector of food economics. The density of regulations, e.g. within the framework of product quali ty, production, technology of treatment and processing of foodstuffs, food logistics and not least ecological concerns has at present reache d a stage where the accompanying research into food economics has prov ed an indispensable tool of political counseling. The comments on furt her new developments of the basic conditions of food economics as well as the needs of research - related to the IfBM's priority research ar eas - derived therefrom underline that political counseling grounded o n science will play a major role also in future. In this connection th e prerequisites of IfBM for converting the scientific concept and fulf illing the present tasks and those foreseeable in future within the fr amework of scientific political counseling are almost ideal because th ey are characterized from the institutional point of view by a permane ntly available potential of knowledge in the form of interdisciplinari ly filled scientific permanent positions, from the methodical point of view by rational dealing with scientific problems using suited method s mainly from the area of industrial business economics, by close prox imity to practice resulting from a continuous communication with trade and industry and the bodies representing interests of agricultural an d food economics, and finally by the ''Standort'' within the scientifi c combine of the product-related institutes of research which includes the proximity to the corresponding scientific-technical disciplines o f food processing.