The World of Organic Agriculture

Statistics and Emerging Trends 2008

Minou Yussefi-Menzler, Helga Willer, Neil Sorensen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN: 9781136535222
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Agriculture
• Index: Technology & Engineering

The new edition of this annual publication (previously published solely by IFOAM and FiBL) documents recent developments in global organic agriculture. It includes contributions from representatives of the organic sector from throughout the world and provides comprehensive organic farming statistics that cover surface area under organic management, numbers of farms and specific information about commodities and land use in organic systems. The book also contains information on the global market of the burgeoning organic sector, the latest developments in organic certification, standards and regulations, and insights into current status and emerging trends for organic agriculture by continent from the worlds foremost experts.

For this edition, all statistical data and regional review chapters have been thoroughly updated. Completely new chapters on organic agriculture in the Pacific, on the International Task Force on Harmonization and Equivalence in Organic Agriculture and on organic aquaculture have been added.

Published with IFOAM and FiBL

EUROPE

Map 4: Organic farming in Europe 2006

Europe: Statistics, Policy and Research

HELGA WILLER¹

Statistical Development: Continued Growth

Since the beginning of the 1990s, organic farming has rapidly developed in almost all European countries. Almost 7.4 million hectares (1.6 percent of the agricultural land) were managed organically by more than 200′000 farms in 2006. In the European Union (EU-27), almost 180′000 farms managed 6.8 million hectares organically, constituting four percent of the agricultural area.

Compared to 2005, the organic land increased by 526′562 hectares (+7.7 percent), due to substantial increases in Spain (+118′821 hectares), Italy (+81′060 hectares), Poland (+68′300 hectares), Portugal (+56′646 hectares) and other countries. There have been substantial relative increases in many Eastern and South Eastern European countries; in Croatia and Macedonia, for instance, the organic area has doubled.

Figure 17: Development of organic land area in Europe 1985–2006

Source: Institute of Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, UK and FiBL Frick, Switzerland

It is expected that the organic land area also increased in 2007. Austria and the Czech Republic were the first countries to communicate new data. In the Czech Republic, the area was 312′890 hectares, an increase of more than 30′000 hectares, and Austria reported a 10′000 hectare increase with 371′000 hectares. (These data are not in the table at the end of the chapter, which presents the situation as of 2006).

The difference between individual countries regarding the importance of organic farming is substantial. More than 13 percent of agricultural land in Austria is organic (2007 estimates at 16 percent), 12 percent in Switzerland, and 9 percent in Italy and Estonia. The country with the highest number of farms and the largest organic land area is Italy, followed by Spain, Germany and the UK.

Figure 18: The ten countries with the largest area of organic land in Europe 2006

Source: FiBL survey 2008

In Europe, the organic agricultural land (7.4 million hectares) is mainly used for permanent pastures (44 percent) and for arable cropping (41 percent). Permanent crops account for 9 percent of the land. Information about the main land use categories was available for 99 percent of the organic land. Cereals and fodder crops play the most important role in arable farming. Among the permanent crops, olives, fruits, nuts, and grapes are the most important categories; for the European Union, a similar picture emerges (see following article by Diana Schaack). Furthermore, Europe has more than 9.5 million hectares of certified organic wild collection. Most of this land is in Finland, followed by Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovina.

Policy

Support for organic farming in the European Union includes support under the European Union’s rural development programs,¹ legal protection under the recently revised EU regulation on organic faming² and the launch of the European Action Plan on Organic Food and Farming in June 2004. Sources:³

The Rural Development policy 2007–2013,⁴ as set forth in Council Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 of 20 September 2005,⁵ employs targeted measures for strengthening rural development instead of a general support to the agricultural sector. Under the rural development programs, organic farming has been supported with area payments since 1992, and these payments are one reason for the high number of organic farms in the European Union and other European countries, many of which have similar schemes. Under the rural development policy 2007 to 2013, organic farming is supported in most countries by area based payments to farmers; these payments differ, however from country to country or even within one country. In Germany, for instance, payments for arable land are between 120 and 190 Euros per hectare and year, and some federal states grant up to 262 Euros during the conversion period. The rates for permanent grassland range between 120 and 187 Euros, and for permanent crops - like grapes and fruit - between 380 and 1020 Euros per hectare and year.⁶ The draft Rural Development Program of the Slovak Republic for 2007 – 2013 allocates financial support for organic farming ranging from approximately 130 Euros for permanent grass cover to approximately 903 Euros for orchards and vineyards. The financial support for arable land is approximately 205 Euros and for vegetables, and for medicinal plants, spice and aromatic plants, the payment is approximately 665 Euros per hectare (Source: Ministry of Agriculture of the Slovak Republic according to Lehocka & Klimekova 2008⁷).

At its European Organic Congress in December 2007, the IFOAM EU Group concluded it should be insured that some of the proposed increase in rural development funding is targeted at organic farming, in particular in regions and member states that have so far given a low priority to organic farming support.⁸

Regulation: On July 20, 2007 the new organic regulation was published - Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 of 28 June 2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91.¹ It will come into force on January 1, 2009. According to a press release of the European Commission,² the new rules set out a complete set of objectives, principles and basic rules for organic production, and include a new permanent import regime and a more consistent control regime. The use of the EU organic logo will be mandatory, but it can be accompanied by national or private logos. The implementation rules are expected to be published in mid of 2008. Most likely, many European States that are not members of the EU will start to adapt their regulations to the EU Regulation in 2008/2009.

The information campaign proposed in the European Action Plan for Organic Food and Farming is expected to start in 2008. With this campaign, Action 1 - a multi-annual EUwide information and promotion campaign to inform consumers, public institutions canteens, schools and other key actors - will be implemented. This campaign is funded under Council Regulation (EC) No 2826/2000 of 19 December 2000 on information and promotion actions for agricultural products on the internal market.³ With such funds, several national information campaigns have already been or are currently being co-funded, for instance the German campaign ‘Bio – mir zuliebe’ or the French ‘Printemps Bio.’

Research

Today, organic farming research is substantially funded under national research programs or national organic action plans, as well as through European projects.⁴ A unique overview of research currently conducted in Europe was given at the Joint Organic Congress, which was held in May 2006 in Odense, Denmark, where 300 papers were presented.⁵ Further results were made available at the 3^rd QLIF Congress, held March 20–23, 2007 in Germany.

Even though no figures for all European countries are available, it is known that the funds of the eleven countries that are part of the ERA-Net project CORE Organic (see below) and of the European Union amounted to approximately 64 million Euros for organic farming research in 2006.

The establishment of joint funding for transnational research in organic food and farming was one of the main objectives for the ERA-NET Project CORE Organic.¹ The eleven CORE member countries have contributed with 100′000 to 600′000 Euros each per year to this pilot program, which will run from 2007–2009. Under the CORE Organic pilot call for transnational research in organic food and farming, eight projects that began in 2007 have received funds.

The CORE Organic Project at www.coreportal.org portal has country reports on organic food and farming research in the eleven CORE Organic partner countries. A summary of these reports is below (see also Lange et al. 2006).

Figure 19: Funding for organic food and farming research in 11 European countries 2006

Source: Country reports in Lange et al., 2006; also available at www.coreportal.org, with updates of the CORE Organic partners

- In Austria, organic farming research started in 1980, initiated by the private Ludwig-Boltzmann Institute for Organic Farming and Applied Ecology in Vienna (now Bio Forschung Austria). In 1996, the Institute for Organic Farming at the Agricultural University in Vienna (BOKU) was set up in order to intensify teaching of students and to do research. Most recently, the national Centre for Agricultural Research at Raumberg Gumpenstein set apart an institute dedicated to organic farming research. In addition, the Veterinary University in Vienna and the University of Innsbruck are involved in organic farming research. In Austria, organic farming is one topic of the national research program PFEIL 05 (2002 to 2005), which was funded by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management. The new program (PFEIL 10, from 2006 to 2010) also funds organic farming research. A network of scientists and stakeholders called ‘BioEnquête’ helped to set priorities and to survey the research activities.

- France has several government programmes for organic farming research; most of this research is carried out at state research institutes like the National Institute of Agronomic Research INRA. Furthermore research activities carried out at private institutes like the Technical Institute for Organic Farming ITAB and the Research Group on Organic Farming GRAB. France spends about 6 million Euros on organic farming research annually. Between 2000 and 2006, almost 40 million Euros were spent.

- Germany was a pioneer country in organic farming research. The biodynamic research institute in Darmstadt was already funded in 1950, the first university chair dedicated only to organic food and farming started 1981 at the Kassel University in Witzenhausen, the second University chair 1987 in Bonn, followed by others since. In 1996, the entire Faculty for Agronomy at Kassel University with 20 chairs got oriented towards organic food and farming research. In 2000, the Federal Agricultural Research Centre (FAL) in Braunschweig established an institute for organic farming (in the very Northern part of Germany). In 2001, the German Ministry established - after a wide consultation with all stakeholders - the Federal scheme on organic farming that funded research activities in 2002 and 2003 with 10 million Euros annually. For the second phase from 2004 to 2007, 7 million Euros on average were allocated to research projects every each year. The program will be continued until 2009 at least. The communication of research activities is through the internet site forschung.oekolandbau.de. Research results are available at the open access archive Organic Eprints (www.orgprints.org/)....

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword Edition 2008
• Acknowledgements
• Sponsors
• The World of Organic Agriculture 2008: Summary
• Current Statistics
• Information Sources
• The Global Market for Organic Food & Drink
• Standards and Regulations
• Organic Aquaculture
• Africa
• Asia
• Europe
• Mediterranean Region
• Latin America
• North America
• Oceania/Australia
• Annex