Title: Global organic food and beverage sales approach $US63 billion

[IFOAM 13 Feb 2013] -- The Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) and the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) reports that organic food and beverage sales have now top 60 billion US dollars for the first t time. Nearly two million farmers in 162 countries now grow organically on more than 37 million hectares of agricultural land worldwide. The global market for organic food reached 62.9 billion US dollars in 2011, which is 4 billion more than reported for 2010. "200.000 new organic farmers, this is good news for the environment and for the social and economic development of rural areas", says IFOAM president and Australian organic farmer Andre Leu. In fact, the results of the latest annual global survey on organic agriculture conducted by FiBL and IFOAM show evidence of continued growth. Past investments have clearly paid off and three new initiatives are now paving the way for investments in future growth and expansion. These figures show that in countries where organic agriculture is institutionally well embedded, there is constant market growth and expansion of the area under organic management. This is impressively shown in the case of Europe, where many countries provide a wide range of support measures such as direct payments, advisory services, relevant research and marketing measures. This underpins the importance of National Action Plan development, as promoted by FiBL and IFOAM. ${imageDescription} Comment

Global Statistics 2013: The market, the producers, and the area

The market research company Organic Monitor estimated the global market for organic products in 2011 at almost 63 billion US dollars (up from 59 billion US dollars) or more than 45 billion euros. The leading market is the United States with 21 billion euros. In Europe, where 21.5 billion euros were spent, Germany leads at 6.6 billion euros, followed by France (3.8 billion euros). The countries with the highest annual per capita spending were Switzerland and Denmark with more than 160 euros.

Moving from consumers to producers, approximately 80 percent of a global total of 1.8 million farms (up from 1.6 million) that practice organic methods are located in developing countries. As in previous years, the countries with the most producers are India (547’591), Uganda (188’625), Mexico (169’570) and Tanzania (145’430).

From a farmland perspective, a total of 37.2 million hectares were organic at the end of 2011. The largest growth of organic agricultural land was in Asia, where an increase of 0.9 million hectares was noted. This brings the figure for organic farmland to 3.7 million hectares (+34 percent year on year growth). In Europe, organic farmland increased by 0.6 million hectares (+6 percent); 10.6 million hectares are now organic. The countries with the highest growth rates were: China (+510’000 hectares), India (+304’266 hectares) and Spain (+165’226 hectares).

One third of all global organic agricultural land is in Oceania (33 percent), followed by Europe (29 percent), and Latin America (18 percent). Australia is the country with the largest organic agricultural area (12 million hectares, with 97 percent of that area used as grazing), followed by Argentina (3.8 million hectares) and the United States of America (1.9 million hectares). The countries with the largest share of organic agricultural land of all farmland are the Falkland Islands (36 percent), followed by Liechtenstein (29 percent) and Austria (20 percent). In ten countries more than ten percent of the agricultural land is organic.



Background



The data on organic agriculture worldwide are being presented for the fourteenth consecutive year at BioFach. The book “The World of Organic Agriculture Worldwide” contains reports, authored by long-standing experts, on the organic sector and emerging trends in all regions and selected countries. The statistics are supported with graphs and tables. In addition, background information on issues such as standards and legislation is provided. Further information is available at organic-world.net. Support for this work is granted by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and by NürnbergMesse.

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Article: WeedsNews4324 (permalink)
Categories: :WeedsNews:organic farming, :WeedsNews:international policy, :WeedsNews:research alert
Date: 8 March 2013; 12:35:11 PM AEDT

Author Name: David Low
Author ID: adminDavid