Agora and Agora Marketplace › … › Basic Cost Contribution · 4 min read · Approved – this is how it will be
The basic cost contribution in the TEIKEI system does not fund the food itself, but rather the shared infrastructure that makes the system functional in the first place. It covers those costs that arise regardless of whether more or fewer orders are placed in a given month.
This makes it clear: behind a functioning food system are not just farms, products, and deliveries, but also coordination, software, maintenance, further development, and collectively supported organization.
The basic cost contribution covers the system’s basic costs.
These are costs that cannot reasonably be allocated to individual products because they do not serve just one delivery but the entire network. They arise continuously and form the prerequisite for orders, communication, transparency, price presentation, and the further development of the TEIKEI Agora to be possible at all.
This separation is particularly crucial when supply chains are to be organized without margins. Only when the basic infrastructure is supported independently of individual sales does the product price not need to include additional risk, profit, or system surcharges.
The basic costs to be funded by the basic cost contribution include in particular:
When such basic costs are invisibly included in product prices, confusion quickly arises. Members can then hardly trace what portion of a price is attributable to production, logistics, or system infrastructure.
Even more important: as soon as basic costs must be covered through products, a margin logic almost automatically emerges. Then risks, fluctuations, reserves, and development costs must be factored into the goods. This is precisely what TEIKEI aims to gradually overcome.
The basic cost contribution creates a cleaner separation here:
When the basic cost contribution covers the basic infrastructure, a more stable foundation for the entire network emerges. Ongoing work no longer needs to be continuously derived from sales fluctuations, margins, or uncertain growth assumptions.
This makes it possible:
This separation is not just a matter of clarity. It is key to ensuring that more of the final price can actually reach the farm.
When basic costs are covered by basic cost contributions and do not need to be factored into the goods, the product price can remain closer to the actual production and logistics costs. This is precisely what creates the opportunity to structure prices in a way that significantly increases the farm’s share.
The FairShare logic illustrates this particularly clearly:
It is not small bonus payments at the end of the season that change the system, but a different price architecture from the outset.
A concrete example calculation can be found here:
There, it becomes clear that a different price structure can result in members paying even less while significantly more money reaches the farm.
The basic cost contribution is therefore not an additional offering or a symbolic support contribution. It is a structural contribution to the shared sustainability of the system.
It makes visible that supply is not just about individual purchases. It is also about the ability to build, maintain, and further develop a digital, organizational, and communal infrastructure from a secure foundation.
In the TEIKEI system, the basic cost contribution funds the shared foundation, not the individual goods. It covers what keeps the network permanently operational: development, maintenance, coordination, organization, and infrastructure.
This is precisely what allows pricing at the product level to become more honest, traceable, and fair. At the same time, it creates the opportunity to gradually expand the Agora’s offerings and make more areas of a collectively supported basic supply accessible according to TEIKEI principles.
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By Felix Schröder, with support from AI (ChatGPT)
Created on April 2, 2026 · Last updated on April 2, 2026
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