The SWOT Analysis of True Cost Accounting (TCA) in the German Agri-food Sector serves as the basis for the second interim report of the TCA Roadmap project. Commissioned by German Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Regional Identity (BMLEH) and funded by the European Union’s NextGenerationEU program, this project aims to develop a roadmap for a science-based system for capturing and evaluating the true costs and hidden benefits of the agricultural and food sector, with the goal of improving the transparency of sustainability performance along the entire food value chain in Germany.

As a second step in developing the roadmap, this report analyses the potential strengths and weaknesses of the TCA approach, existing TCA methods and databases, as well as external opportunities and risks that may influence its implementation. Based on these findings, it derives strategies for the further development and implementation of a TCA system in Germany.

In October 2025, the report’s findings were presented in an online workshop. Agricultural and food system stakeholders (agriculture, food industry, civil society, and research representatives) were asked to consider five measures that could be used for the implementation of TCA in the German agri-food system. The final project report is expected in January 2026, and will incorporate insights from the workshop.