One of the critical success factors for the future development of the agri-food sector is the increased integration of enterprises and other stakeholders in horizontal and vertical ‘communities’. Tracking and tracing, agreements on quality policy, improvements in logistics, dissemination of innovations, cooperation in quality planning and market orientation, access to knowledge bases, etc. are all examples which build on an increased horizontal or vertical integration in information and communication activities. The paper will discuss ongoing research on the conceptualization, design and testing of online communities that provide the functionalities that might improve cooperation in the different (horizontal and vertical) dimensions. It builds on initiatives from the area of ‘collaborative working environments’, sometimes captured under the heading ‘electronic community house’. First prototypes utilize freely available software modules and demonstrate the capability of today’s level of development if one has a clear conceptual base.