Wirtschaftsstandort Oldenburg

Im Nordwesten, und hier vor allem im Oldenburger Münsterland, herrscht
eine große Dichte an Geflügelzuchtbetrieben.
There are a great many poultry farms in the North West of Germany in general,
and in the Oldenburger Münsterland in particular.
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AGRIFOOD SECTOR: TAKING THE LEAD IN GERMANY
If Oldenburger Land has an economic blockbuster,
then it’s the agrifood sector, which accounts for nearly
half of all industrial turnover. Lower Saxony is Germany’s
leading agricultural state, and its agricultural heart
beats in the North West.
From the field to the plate: the agrifood sector in Oldenburger
Land covers the entire supply chain. Right at the
start, highly productive agriculture provides the necessary
raw materials. The natural prerequisites for agriculture
differ from region to region, so that various different focal
points have emerged. Fodder crops and dairy farming
dominate in the North of the Oldenburger Land, with
more than 200,000 cattle on the pastures and in the cowsheds
in the rural districts of Friesland and Wesermarsch.
In the middle and South of the Oldenburger Land, the
scenery is dominated by animal husbandry with a focus
on pig and poultry farming, together with fruit and
vegetable farming. For example, about 2.3 million pigs
and 15 million heads of poultry are kept in the rural
districts of Cloppenburg and Vechta. They are mainly fed
on the grain produced by the region’s arable farmers.
And one of Germany’s largest vegetable farming businesses
is based in the rural district of Vechta, with a range
of products going way beyond just asparagus and kale.
Every third German iceberg lettuce comes from this region,
for example. Fruit farming focuses mainly on soft
fruit. The region is one of Germany’s prime strawberry
growing areas. But agriculture does more than just cover
the raw materials needed for the food processing industry.
It also drives regional engineering firms to develop new
innovations in agricultural machinery and husbandry
systems. In turn, this has led to the development of a
dense network of suppliers in the metal and plastics
processing branch.
As the next link in the supply chain, food manufacturers
take the agricultural products and turn them into food
products ready for consumption. The North West supplies
“everything that tastes good”, as locals proudly say. Various
brand producers from the region lay the tables not only
in German households and restaurants but throughout
the whole of Europe and in some cases even worldwide.
More than just a few of them are market leaders, for ex -