FiBL & IFOAM – ORGANICS INTERNATIONAL

the World oforganic agriculture
STATISTICS & EMERGING TRENDS 2021
OCEANIA 35.9 MILLION HAEUROPE 16.5 MILLION HA
LATIN AMERICA 8.3 MILLION HA
ASIA 5.9 MILLION HANORTH AMERICA 3.6 MILLION HA
AFRICA 2 MILLION HA

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Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBLIFOAM – Organics International

The World of Organic Agriculture
Statistics and Emerging Trends 2021
Edited by
Helga Willer, Jan Trávníček, Claudia Meier and Bernhard Schlatter

For the PDF version, corrigenda, supplementary material see
http://www.organic-world.net/yearbook/yearbook-2021.html

All of the statements and results contained in this book have been compiled by the authors and are to the best of
their knowledge correct and have been checked by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL and IFOAM –Organics International. However, the possibility of mistakes cannot be ruled out entirely. Therefore, the editors,
authors, and publishers are not subject to any obligation and make no guarantees whatsoever regarding any of thestatements or results in this work; neither do they accept responsibility or liability for any possible mistakes, nor for
any consequences of actions taken by readers based on statements or advice contained therein. Authors are
responsible for the content of their articles. Their opinions do not necessarily express the views of FiBL or IFOAM –Organics International.
This document has been produced with the support of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), theInternational Trade Centre (ITC), the Sustainability Fund of Coop Switzerland (Coop Fonds für Nachhaltigkeit) and
NürnbergMesse. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinions of SECO, ITC,
Coop Switzerland, or NürnbergMesse.
Should corrections and updates become necessary, they will be published at www.organic-world.net.
This book is available for download at http://www.organic-world.net/yearbook/yearbook-2021.html.
Any inquiries regarding this book and its contents should be sent to Helga Willer, FiBL, Ackerstrasse 113, 5070 Frick,
Switzerland, e-mail helga.willer@fibl.org.
Please quote articles from this book individually with name(s) of author(s) and title of article. The same applies to thetables: Please quote source, title of table and then the overall report. The whole report should be cited as:
Willer, Helga, Jan Trávníček, Claudia Meier and Bernhard Schlatter (Eds.) (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture.
Statistics and Emerging Trends 2021. Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, and IFOAM – Organics
International, Bonn (v20210301)
Die Deutsche Bibliothek – CIP Cataloguing-in-Publication-Data
A catalogue record for this publication is available from Die Deutsche Bibliothek© February 2021. Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL and IFOAM – Organics International.
Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Ackerstrasse113, 5070 Frick, Switzerland,
Tel. +41 62 865 72 72, Fax +41 62 865 72 73, e-mail info.suisse@fibl.org, Internet www.fibl.org
IFOAM – Organics International, Charles-de-Gaulle-Str. 5, 53113 Bonn, Germany, Tel. +49 228 926 50-10, Fax +49 228
926 50-99, e-mail contact@ifoam.bio, Internet www.ifoam.bio, Trial Court Bonn, Association Register no. 8726
Language editing: Lauren Dietemann and Laura Kemper, FiBL, Frick, Switzerland
Cover: Simone Bissig, FiBL, Frick, Switzerland
Layout: Jan Trávníček, Bernhard Schlatter, Helga Willer, FiBL, Frick, Switzerland
Maps: Jan Trávníček, FiBL, Frick, Switzerland
Graphs (if not otherwise stated): Jan Trávníček, Bernhard Schlatter, Olivia Keller, FiBL, Frick, Switzerland
Infographics: Jan Trávníček, Kurt Riedi, FiBL, Frick, Switzerland
Cover picture: Flight above organic farm, Velké Hostěrádky (VH), located in the South Moravia region, Czech
Republic, May 2020.
Background: VH Agroton s.r.o. is a 367 ha organic arable farm located in the heart of Southern Moravia. Despite thescenic surroundings, the farm is prone to excessive erosion due to its hilly landscape. These challenges are being
overcome and the knowledge gained is shared with others via demonstrations of suitable practices for profitable andsustainable organic production in arid and erosion threatened areas for the benefit of people and nature. It is apleasure to inspire others on this challenging but rewarding journey.
Picture: Martin Matěj, Czech Republic.
Printed by Plump Druck & Medien GmbH, Rolandsecker Weg 33, 53619 Rheinbreitbach, Germany
Price: 30 Euros, IFOAM – Organics International affiliates: 20 Euros
Printed copies of this volume may be ordered directly from IFOAM – Organics International and FiBL (see addresses
above) or via the FiBL shop at shop.fibl.org
ISBN Print Version 978-3-03736-393-5
ISBN PDF Version 978-3-03736-394-2

Table of Contents
Table of Contents

Glossary

10

Foreword from SECO and ITC

11Foreword from FiBL and IFOAM – Organics International

12

Foreword from the Editors

13

Acknowledgements

14

Organic Agriculture: Key Indicators and Top Countries

19

THE WORLD OF ORGANIC AGRICULTURE 2021: SUMMARY

20

Helga Willer, Claudia Meier, Bernhard Schlatter, Lauren Dietemann, Laura Kemper and Jan Trávníček

ORGANIC AGRICULTURE WORLDWIDE: CURRENT STATISTICS

31

Current Statistics on Organic Agriculture Worldwide: Area, Operators and Market
Bernhard Schlatter, Jan Trávníček, Claudia Meier, Olivia Keller and Helga Willer

32

General notes on the data

35

Organic land37

Organic producers and other operator types

56

Retail sales and international trade data

64

Organic farming in developing countries and emerging markets

69

Land use and key commodities in organic agriculture

71

Organic Cotton
Lisa Barsley, Evonne Tan, Suet Yin, Amish Gosai and Liesl Truscott

130

GLOBAL MARKET - ORGANIC IMPORTS

135

The Global Market for Organic Food & Drink
By Amarjit Sahota

136

Imports of Organic Agri-food Products into the European Union ‒Summary of the EU Agricultural Market Brief on EU Organic Imports 2019

140

STANDARDS AND LEGISLATION, POLICY SUPPORT

151

Organic Agriculture Regulations Worldwide: Current Situation
Cornelia Kirchner, Joelle Katto-Andrighetto and Joelle Katto-Andrighetto and Flávia Moura e Castro

152

Participatory Guarantee Systems in 2020
Flávia Moura e Castro, Sara Anselmi, Cornelia Kirchner and Federica Varini

158

Demeter International – Current Statistics
Christoph Simpfendörfer and Sarah Fischer

165

The Power of Public Food Procurement: Fostering Organic Production and Consumption
Federica Varini and Xhona Hysa

170

AFRICA179

Latest Developments in Organic Agriculture in Africa
David M. Amudavi, Venancia Wambua, Alex Mutung1, Moses Aisu and Olugbenga O. Adeoluwa

180

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

3

Table of Contents
Africa: Current Statistics

189

ASIA

197

Developments in the Organic Sector in Asia in 2020
Shaikh Tanveer Hossain, Jennifer Chang and Vic Anthony Joseph Fabre Tagupa

198

Asia: Current statistics

208

EUROPE

217

Organic in Europe: Recent Developments
Helga Willer, Bram Moeskops, Emanuele Busacca , Léna Brisset, Maria Gernert and Silvia Schmidt

219

Europe and the European Union: Key indicators 2019

228

Organic Farming and Market Development in Europe and the European Union
Jan Trávníček, Helga Willer and Diana Schaack

229

LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

267

Latin America: An Insight into the Latest Developments in Organic Agriculture
Patricia Flores

268

The Inter-American Commission for Organic Agriculture (CIAO)
Graciela Lacaze & Juan Manuel Gámez

272

Latin America and the Caribbean: Current statistics

274

NORTH AMERICA

283

US Organic Sales Break Through 55 billion Dollar MarkBarbara Fitch Haumann

284

CanadaTia Loftsgard

289

North America: Current statistics

291

OCEANIA

297

Australia
Nicole Ford and Owen Gwilliam

298

The Pacific Islands
Karen Mapusua

302

Oceania: Current statistics

305

OUTLOOK

309

Building Resilience
Louise Luttikholt

310

KEY INDICATORS BY COUNTRY AND REGION

313

DATA PROVIDERS AND DATA SOURCES

317

4

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Table of Contents
TablesTable 1: Countries and territories covered by the global survey on organic agriculture 2019 .......................... 33
Table 2: World: Organic agricultural land (including in-conversion areas) and regions’ sharesof the global organic agricultural land 2019 .......................................................................................................... 37
Table 3: World: Organic agricultural land (including in-conversion areas) by country 2019 (sorted)............. 39
Table 4: World: Organic agricultural land (including in-conversion areas) and organic share of total
agricultural land by region 2019.............................................................................................................................. 41
Table 5: World: Organic shares of total agricultural land by country 2019 (sorted) ........................................... 43
Table 6: World: Organic agricultural land (including in-conversion areas) by region: growth 2018-2019
and 10 years growth .................................................................................................................................................. 45
Table 7: World: Development of organic agricultural land by country 2018-2019 .............................................. 47
Table 8: World: Organic areas: Agricultural land (including conversion areas) and further
organic areas by region in 2019 ............................................................................................................................... 52
Table 9: World: Organic areas: Agricultural land (including conversion areas) andfurther organic areas by country 2019 .................................................................................................................... 52
Table 10: World: Development of the numbers of producers by region 2018 to 2019 ........................................ 56
Table 11: World: Organic producers and other operator types by country 2019 ................................................. 58
Table 12: Global market data: Retail sales and per capita consumption by region 2019 .................................... 65
Table 13: Global market data: Retail sales, organic share of all retail sales, per capita consumption, andexports by country 2019 ............................................................................................................................................ 67
Table 14: Countries on the DAC list: Development of organic agricultural land 2014-2019 ............................. 70
Table 15: World: Land use in organic agriculture by region (including in-conversion areas) 2019 ................. 74
Table 16: World: Land use and crop categories in organic agriculture worldwide 2019 ................................... 74
Table 17: Use of organic arable land (including in-conversion areas), 2018 and 2019 compared ..................... 75
Table 18: Use of organic permanent cropland (including in-conversion areas), 2018 and 2019 compared..... 77
Table 19: Wild collection and beekeeping areas by region 2018 and 2019 compared ......................................... 79
Table 20: Wild collection and beekeeping areas by crop group 2019 .................................................................... 79
Table 21: Wild collection and beekeeping areas by country 2019 .......................................................................... 81
Table 22: Number of organic beehives by country 2019 .......................................................................................... 86
Table 23: Organic aquaculture: Production volume by species 2019 ..................................................................... 87
Table 24: Organic aquaculture: Production volume by country 2019 ................................................................... 89
Table 25: World: Selected key crop groups and crops area in organic agriculture 2019
(overview including conversion areas) .................................................................................................................. 90
Table 26: Cereals: Organic area by country 2019 ....................................................................................................... 93
Table 27: Citrus fruit: Organic area by country 2019 ................................................................................................ 97
Table 28: Cocoa beans: Organic area by country 2019............................................................................................ 100
Table 29: Coffee: Organic area by country 2019 ...................................................................................................... 103
Table 30: Dry pulses: Organic area by country 2019............................................................................................... 106
Table 31: Temperate fruit: Organic area by country 2019 ...................................................................................... 110
Table 32: Tropical and subtropical fruit: Organic area by country 2019 ............................................................. 114
Table 33: Grapes: Organic area by country 2019 ..................................................................................................... 118
Table 34: Oilseeds: Organic area by country 2019................................................................................................... 121
Table 35: Olives: Organic area by country 2019 ...................................................................................................... 125
Table 36: Vegetables: Organic area by country 2019 .............................................................................................. 128
Table 37: Organic cotton farmers, area and production 2018/2019, ..................................................................... 132
Table 38: Organic cereals, oilseeds and sugar import volumes for key product categories,
2018 and 2019 (thousand MT) ................................................................................................................................ 142
Table 39: Organic fruit and vegetables import volumes by product category, 2018 and 2019 ....................... 144
Table 40: Organic permanent crops (excl. fruit and nuts) import volumes by product category,
2018 and 2019............................................................................................................................................................ 144
Table 41: Organic animal product import volumes by product category, 2018 and 2019 ................................ 145
Table 42: European Union: Imports by Member State 2019 .................................................................................. 145
Table 43: Organic import volumes by exporting country, 2018 and 2019 ........................................................... 146
Table 44: Organic import volumes by product category, 2018 and 2019 ............................................................ 149
Table 45: Status of organic agriculture regulation: Number of countries by region 2020 ................................ 152

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

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Table of Contents
Table 46: Status of organic agriculture regulations................................................................................................. 155
Table 47: PGS statistics 2020 ....................................................................................................................................... 163
Table 48: Certified Demeter operations in member countries with a certifying organisation (July 2020) ..... 167
Table 49: ICO-certified Demeter operations in other countries ............................................................................ 167
Table 50: Demeter certified vintners and grape area worldwide*........................................................................ 169
Table 51: Africa: Organic agricultural land, organic share of total agricultural land and number of organic
producers 2019 ......................................................................................................................................................... 194
Table 52: Africa: All organic areas 2019 .................................................................................................................... 195
Table 53: Africa: Land use in organic agriculture 2019 .......................................................................................... 196
Table 54: Africa: Use of wild collection areas 2019 ................................................................................................. 196
Table 55: Asia: Organic agricultural land, organic share of farmland, producers 2019.................................... 213
Table 56: Asia: All organic areas 2019 ....................................................................................................................... 214
Table 57: Asia: Land use in organic agriculture 2019 ............................................................................................. 215
Table 58: Asia: Use of wild collection areas 2019 .................................................................................................... 215
Table 59: Europe: Organic agricultural land in Europe and the European Union 2019 ................................... 231
Table 60: Europe and the European Union: Land use 2019 ................................................................................... 237
Table 61: Europe and the European Union: Key crops/crop group 2019 ............................................................ 240
Table 62: Europe and the European Union: Organic livestock 2019 .................................................................... 243
Table 63: Europe: Organic operators by country group 2019 ............................................................................... 245
Table 64: Europe and the European Union: Organic retail sales 2019: Key data ............................................... 248
Table 65: Organic shares for retail sales values (euros) for selected products 2019 .......................................... 254
Table 66: Europe: Organic agricultural land by country 2019 .............................................................................. 260
Table 67: Europe: Conversion status of organic agricultural land 2019 .............................................................. 261
Table 68: Europe: Land use in organic agriculture by country 2019 .................................................................... 262
Table 69: Europe: Organic agricultural land and wild collection areas by country 2019 ................................. 263
Table 70: Europe: Organic livestock by country 2019............................................................................................. 264
Table 71: Europe: Organic producers, processors, and importers by country 2019 .......................................... 265
Table 72: Europe: The organic food market 2019 .................................................................................................... 266
Table 73: Brazil: Organic producers in Brazil according to the certification system ......................................... 269
Table 74: Latin America: Organic agricultural land, organic share of total agricultural land,and number of producers 2019 .............................................................................................................................. 279
Table 75: Latin America: All organic areas 2019...................................................................................................... 280
Table 76: Latin America: Land use in organic agriculture 2019 ............................................................................ 281
Table 77: Latin America: Use of wild collection areas 2019 ................................................................................... 281
Table 78: North America: Organic agricultural land, organic share of total agricultural land,and number of producers 2019 ............................................................................................................................. 295
Table 79: North America: All organic areas 2019 .................................................................................................... 295
Table 80: North America: Land use in organic agriculture 2019 .......................................................................... 295
Table 81: Australia: Fire extent area during 2019–20 summer bushfire season in southern and eastern
Australia .................................................................................................................................................................... 299
Table 82: Pacific Islands: Main certified organic products .................................................................................... 302
Table 83: Oceania: Organic agricultural land, organic share of total agricultural land,and number of producers 2019 .............................................................................................................................. 307
Table 84: Oceania: All organic areas 2019................................................................................................................. 308
Table 85: Oceania: Land use in organic agriculture 2019 ....................................................................................... 308
Table 86: Key indicators by region 2019 ................................................................................................................... 313
Table 87: Key indicators by country 2019 ................................................................................................................. 313
Table 88: Development of the number of producers and the organic area according to the Ministry ofAgriculture, Livestock and Food in Brazil ........................................................................................................... 336

FiguresFigure 1: World: Distribution of organic agricultural land by region 2019 ........................................................... 38
Figure 2: World: The ten countries with the largest areas of organic agricultural land 2019............................. 38
Figure 3: World: Countries with an organic share of the total agricultural land of at least 10 percent 2019 .. 42
Figure 4: World: Distribution of the organic shares of the agricultural land 2019 .............................................. 42

6

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Table of Contents
Figure 5: World: Growth of the organic agricultural land and organic share 1999-2019 ................................... 46
Figure 6: World: Growth of the organic agricultural land by continent 2010 to 2019 ......................................... 46
Figure 7: World: The ten countries with the highest increase of organic agricultural land 2019 ...................... 47
Figure 8: World: Distribution of all organic areas 2019. Total: 107.4 million hectares ........................................ 51
Figure 9: World: Distribution of organic producers by region 2019 (Total: 3.1 million producers) ................. 57
Figure 10: World: The ten countries with the largest numbers of organic producers 2019 ............................... 57
Figure 11: Global market for organic food: Distribution of retail sales by country 2019.................................... 65
Figure 12: Global market for organic food: Distribution of retail sales by region 2019 ...................................... 65
Figure 13: Global market: The countries with the largest markets for organic food 2019 .................................. 66
Figure 14: Global market: The ten countries with the highest per capita consumption 2019 ............................ 66
Figure 15 (left): Countries on the DAC list: The ten countries with the largest areas oforganic agricultural land in 2019............................................................................................................................. 70
Figure 16 (right): Countries on the DAC list: The ten countries with the highest organic shares of the total
agricultural land in 2019 ........................................................................................................................................... 70
Figure 17: World: Distribution of main land use types by region 2019 ................................................................. 72
Figure 18: World: Distribution of main land use types and key crop categories 2019........................................ 73
Figure 19: World: Development of organic arable land, permanent cropland and permanent
grassland/grazing areas 2004-2019.......................................................................................................................... 73
Figure 20: World: Distribution of organic arable cropland by region 2019 .......................................................... 76
Figure 21: World: Use of arable cropland by crop group 2019 ............................................................................... 76
Figure 22: World: Distribution of permanent cropland by region 2019 ................................................................ 78
Figure 23: World: Use of permanent cropland by crop group 2019 ....................................................................... 78
Figure 24: World: Distribution of organic wild collection and beekeeping areas by region in 2019 ................ 80
Figure 25: World: The ten countries with the largest organic wild collection andbeekeeping areas in 2019 .......................................................................................................................................... 80
Figure 26: World: Distribution of organic beehives by region in 2019 .................................................................. 85
Figure 27: World: Development of the organic beehives 2008-2019 ...................................................................... 85
Figure 28: World: Organic aquaculture production volume:
Distribution by continent and top 10 countries 2019 ........................................................................................... 88
Figure 29: World: Organic aquaculture production volume: Distribution
by species and key species 2019 .............................................................................................................................. 88
Figure 30: Cereals: Organic area 2019 ......................................................................................................................... 91
Figure 31: Cereals: Organic area 2019 ......................................................................................................................... 92
Figure 32: Citrus fruit: Organic area 2019................................................................................................................... 95
Figure 33: Citrus fruit: Organic area 2019................................................................................................................... 96
Figure 34: Cocoa: Organic area 2019 ........................................................................................................................... 98
Figure 35: Cocoa: Organic area 2019 ........................................................................................................................... 99
Figure 36: Coffee: Organic area 2019 ......................................................................................................................... 101
Figure 37: Coffee: Organic area 2019 ......................................................................................................................... 102
Figure 38: Dry Pulses: Organic area 2019 ................................................................................................................. 104
Figure 39: Dry Pulses: Organic area 2019 ................................................................................................................. 105
Figure 40: Temperate Fruit: Organic area 2019........................................................................................................ 108
Figure 41: Temperate Fruit: Organic area 2019........................................................................................................ 109
Figure 42: Tropical and subtropical fruit: Organic area 2019 ................................................................................ 112
Figure 43: Tropical and subtropical fruit: Organic area 2019 ................................................................................ 113
Figure 44: Grapes: Organic area 2019 ........................................................................................................................ 116
Figure 45: Grapes: Organic area 2019 ........................................................................................................................ 117
Figure 46: Oilseeds: Organic area 2019 ..................................................................................................................... 119
Figure 47: Oilseeds: Organic area 2019 ..................................................................................................................... 120
Figure 48: Olives: Organic area 2019 ......................................................................................................................... 123
Figure 49: Olives: Organic area 2019 ......................................................................................................................... 124
Figure 50: Vegetables: Organic area 2019 ................................................................................................................. 126
Figure 51: Vegetables: Organic area 2019 ................................................................................................................. 127
Figure 52: Development of organic cotton fibre production in metric tons ....................................................... 131
Figure 53: Growth in Global Organic Food Sales by Leading Regions, 2000-2019 ............................................ 137
Figure 54: Organic agri-food import volumes by import country ....................................................................... 140
FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

7

Table of Contents
Figure 55: Share (%) of total organic agri-food import volumes by product groups (left) andexport country (right) 2019..................................................................................................................................... 141
Figure 56: Development of PGS certified producers worldwide ......................................................................... 159
Figure 57: Development of the number of Demeter-certified farms .................................................................... 166
Figure 58: Development of the Demeter-certified area .......................................................................................... 166
Figure 59: Africa: The ten countries with the largest organic agricultural area 2019 ........................................ 191
Figure 60: Africa: The countries with the highest organic share of total agricultural land 2019 ..................... 192
Figure 61: Africa: Development of organic agricultural land 1999-2019 ............................................................. 192
Figure 62: Africa: Use of organic agricultural land 2019 ........................................................................................ 193
Figure 63: Africa: The ten countries with the largest number of organic producers 2019................................ 193
Figure 64: Asia: The ten countries with the largest organic agricultural area 2019 ........................................... 211
Figure 65: Asia: The countries with the highest organic share of total agricultural land 2019 ........................ 211
Figure 66: Asia: Development of organic agricultural land 1999 to 2019 ............................................................ 212
Figure 67: Asia: Use of organic agricultural land 2019 ........................................................................................... 212
Figure 68: European Union: European Union: Growth of organic farmland and retail sales 2000-2019
compared................................................................................................................................................................... 220
Figure 69: Europe: Distribution of organic farmland by country 2019 ................................................................ 231
Figure 70: Europe: Organic agricultural land by country 2019............................................................................. 232
Figure 71: Europe: Organic shares of total agricultural land 2019 ....................................................................... 234
Figure 72: Europe and the European Union: Development of organic agricultural land 1985-2019 .............. 235
Figure 73: Europe: Growth rates for organic agricultural land in Europe and the European Union 1985-2019..................................................................................................................................................................................... 235
Figure 74: Europe: The ten countries with the highest growth in organic agricultural land in hectares andpercentage in 2019 ................................................................................................................................................... 236
Figure 75: Europe and the European Union: Conversion status of organic land in Europe and the European
Union 2019 ................................................................................................................................................................ 236
Figure 76: Europe and European Union: Distribution of land use in organic agriculture 2019 ...................... 237
Figure 77: Europe: Land use in organic agriculture by top 10 countries 2019 ................................................... 238
Figure 78: Europe: Growth in organic agricultural land by land use type 2004-2019 ....................................... 239
Figure 79: European Union: Growth in organic agricultural land by land use type 2004-2019 ...................... 239
Figure 80: Europe and the European Union: Development of organic cow’s milk production
2008-2019 ................................................................................................................................................................... 244
Figure 81: Europe and the European Union: Development of the number oforganic producers in 2000-2019 ............................................................................................................................. 246
Figure 82: Europe: Distribution of organic producers and processors by country 2019 .................................. 246
Figure 83: Europe: Number of organic producers by country 2019 ..................................................................... 247
Figure 84: Europe: Distribution of retail sales by country and by single market worldwide 2019................. 248
Figure 85: Europe: Retail sales by country 2019 ...................................................................................................... 249
Figure 86: Europe: Growth of organic retail sales in Europe and the European Union, 2000-2019 ................ 250
Figure 87: Europe: The countries with the highest organic market growth 2019 .............................................. 251
Figure 88: Europe: The countries with the highest per capita consumption 2019 ............................................. 252
Figure 89: Europe: Growth of the per capita consumption 2010-2019 ................................................................. 252
Figure 90: Europe: The countries with the highest shares of the total retail sales 2019 .................................... 253
Figure 91: Europe: Marketing channels for organic products in selected countries 2019 ................................ 256
Figure 92: Europe: Growth of marketing channels for organic products 2017-2019 in selected countries .... 256
Figure 93: Latin America and Caribbean: The ten countries with the largest areasof organic agricultural land 2019........................................................................................................................... 277
Figure 94: Latin America and Caribbean: The ten countries with the highest organic share of
total agricultural land 2019 .................................................................................................................................... 277
Figure 95: Latin America and Caribbean: Development of organic agricultural land 1999-2019 ................... 278
Figure 96: Latin America and Caribbean: Use of agricultural organic land 2019 .............................................. 278
Figure 97: North America: Organic agricultural land in Canada and the United States 2019......................... 293
Figure 98: North America: Organic share of total agricultural land in Canada
and the United States 2019 ..................................................................................................................................... 293
Figure 99: North America: Development of organic agricultural land 1999-2019 ............................................. 294
Figure 100: North America: Land use in organic agriculture 2019 ...................................................................... 294

8

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Table of Contents
Figure 101: Oceania: Organic agricultural land by country 2019 ......................................................................... 306
Figure 102: Oceania: Organic share of total agricultural land by country 2019 ................................................. 306
Figure 103: Oceania: Development of organic agricultural land 1999-2019 ....................................................... 307

Maps
Map 1: Organic agricultural land and non-agricultural areas in 2019 ................................................................... 31
Map 2: Organic agricultural land in the countries of Africa 2019 (in hectares) ................................................. 179
Map 3: Organic agricultural land in the countries of Asia 2019 ........................................................................... 197
Map 4: Organic agricultural land in the countries of Europe 2019 (in hectares) ............................................... 217
Map 5: Organic agricultural land in the countries of Latin America
and the Caribbean 2019 (in hectares) .................................................................................................................... 267
Map 6: Organic agricultural land in Canada and the United States 2019 ........................................................... 283
Map 7: Organic agricultural land in the countries of Oceania 2019 ..................................................................... 297

Infographics
Infographic 1: Key indicators 2019 .............................................................................................................................. 30
Infographic 2: Organic farmland 2019 ........................................................................................................................ 36
Infographic 3: Organic producers 2019 ....................................................................................................................... 55
Infographic 4: Organic retail sales 2019 ...................................................................................................................... 63
Infographic 5: Organic agriculture in Europe: Key indicators 2019 ..................................................................... 218

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

9

Glossary

Glossary€/person: Per capita consumption in euros
AfrONet: African Organic Network
AMI: Agrarmarkt-Informationsgesellschaft - Agricultural Market Information Company, Germany
AOC: African Organic Conference
AU: African Union
AUC: African Union Commission
CAP: Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union
CAADP: Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme
CIHEAM: Centre international de hautes études agronomiques méditerranéennes
CNCA: China National Certification and Accreditation Administration
COTA: Canada Organic Trade Association, Canada
CPC: Candidates and Potential Candidates for the European Union
CSC: Continental Steering Committee of the Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative for Africa (EOA-I)
EFTA: European Free Trade Association
EOA(-I): Ecological Organic Agriculture (Initiative for Africa)
EU: European Union
EU-28: Member countries of the European Union (from 2020 onward: EU-27)
EU-NACOA: EU/North-African Conference on Organic Agriculture
Eurostat: Statistical office of the European Union, Luxembourg
FAO: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations
FAOSTAT: Statistics Division of FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations
FiBL: Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau – Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, Switzerland
GOTS: Global Organic Textile Standard
ha: Hectares
Horizon 2020: Research and Innovation Programme of the European Union, running from 2014 to 2020
HS codes: Harmonized System Codes
ISOFAR: International Society of Organic Agriculture Research, Germany
ITC: International Trade Centre, Switzerland
MOAN: Mediterranean Organic Agriculture Network hosted by CIHEAM Bari, Italy
MT: Metric tons
NASAA: National Association for Sustainable Agriculture, Australia
NOARA: Network of Organic Agriculture Researchers in Africa
OTA: Organic Trade Association, United States of America
PGS: Participatory Guarantee Systems
POETcom: Pacific Organic and Ethical Trade Community
SDC: Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
SECO: State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, Switzerland
SÖL: Stiftung Ökologie & Landbau – Foundation Ecology & Agriculture, Germany
TP Organics: European Technology Platform for Organic Food and Farming
U.S.: United States
USDA: United States Department of Agriculture

10

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Foreword from SECO & ITC

Foreword from SECO and ITC
In the dynamic field of organic agriculture, access to good quality data on organic
farming helps to measure success toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) and serves as a resource for further analysis and informed decision-making byresearchers, policymakers, industry actors and other stakeholders along the wholevalue chain. Data can also support the development of a favourable policy
environment, reliable regulations and standards, as well as transparency in the organic
sector, which has proven to be particularly important over the past year.
COVID-19 is having a deep impact on all of us, highlighting the need to understandwhat is happening in the sector in order to mitigate the negative impacts of the crisisand reduce the vulnerability of supply chains. For the organic sector, it was a special
year, as consumer demand for organic foods increased substantially during the
pandemic. Evidence shows that retail sales have risen by up to 30 percent in somecountries.
This report, which looks at the consolidated data from 2019, shows that once again,increasing demand for organic products stimulated growth in the organic sector withorganic food sales heading towards the 110 billion euro mark. Double-digit growth
rates were recorded in many advanced markets for organic products. The production
side is also keeping pace: The latest data shows that organic farmland grew in many
countries, and the total organic area increased to more than 72 million hectares,
representing 1.5 percent of agricultural land worldwide, managed by more than three
million producers.
By providing dynamic and easy access to organic market and production data, theSwiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the International Trade Centre(ITC) aim to support decision-makers in governmental administrations, development
agencies, NGOs, and other actors of the international organic industry.
Considering the latest figures and the continuous and sustainable growth over many
years, the organic movement can look confidently to the future.
Dr. Monica Rubiolo
Head of the Division for Trade
Promotion
Swiss State Secretariat for Economic
Affairs (SECO)
Bern, Switzerland

Joseph Wozniak
Head, Trade for Sustainable Development
Programme (T4SD)
International Trade Centre (ITC)
Geneva, Switzerland

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11

Foreword from FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International

Foreword from FiBL and
IFOAM – Organics International
With the 22nd edition, FiBL and IFOAM – Organics International proudly present a newedition of “The World of Organic Agriculture.”
Data collection as such is a major and constant concern of the Research Institute ofOrganic Agriculture FiBL and IFOAM – Organics International. The comprehensive
data provided over more than two decades in this publication serve as an important
tool for stakeholders, policymakers, authorities, and the industry, as well as forresearchers and extension professionals. It has also proven useful for development
programs and supporting strategies for organic agriculture and markets, and crucial
for monitoring the impact of these activities. The publication also shows our ongoingengagement with transparency in the organic sector; the method of collecting the data
has been refined over time to reflect the global status of organic as much as possible.
“The World of Organic Agriculture” has become one of the most frequently quoted
pieces of literature in scientific, technical, and descriptive articles and reports on organic
agriculture.
This publication also demonstrates the contribution of organic agriculture to
overarching sustainability strategies like the Sustainable Development Goals, the EU
Farm to Fork Strategy and the upcoming UN Food Systems Summit. Given that organic
agriculture contributes substantially to all of the goals and strategies, this book not onlyshows the land area, number of producers, and market figures; it also highlights thecontribution of organic agriculture to tackling climate change, ensuring food andnutrition security, halting biodiversity loss, and promoting sustainable consumption,
to name a few. Overall, “The World of Organic Agriculture” shows the potential
organic farming has to contribute to a sustainable future!
We are grateful to the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), theInternational Trade Centre (ITC), the Coop Sustainability Fund and Nürnberg Messe
for supporting this publication. We would like to express our thanks to all authors anddata providers for contributing in-depth information and figures on their region, theircountry, or their field of expertise.
Lastly, we would like to thank the editorial team for their dedication and engagement,
and we would also like to express our thanks to the other members of the FiBL team,
who support the activities surrounding the data collection.
Frick and Bonn, February 2021
Prof. Dr. Knut Schmidtke
Director
Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL
Frick, Switzerland

12

Louise Luttikholt
Executive Director
IFOAM – Organics International
Bonn, Germany

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Foreword from the Editors

Foreword from the Editors
In the 22nd edition of “The World of Organic Agriculture”, we present the latest
available data on organic agriculture.
Again, many experts have provided valuable data, and we are very grateful to our dataand information suppliers from all over the world!
Knowledgeable authors once again contributed articles about their regions, theircountries, or their fields of expertise, including the global market report, publicstandards and legislation, Participatory Guarantee Systems, policy support with a focus
on organic food service, organic cotton, the European Union’s organic import data as
well as the statistics of Demeter International.
Like for the 2020 edition, we did not provide texts in the crop chapters, but instead, weare presenting graphs: A map on the global distribution by country for a given
crop/crop group, its development, the top countries in terms of organic area andorganic share of the total area, the distribution by continent and, in the case of cropgroups, the breakdown by crop. All of these graphics are based on interactive Power BIgraphs, which you can explore at https://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html.
Finally, we wish to announce that the Chinese edition of “The World of Organic
Agriculture” will be published for the 10th time by the Organic and Beyond company.
We want to express our warm gratitude to everyone who makes this report possible!

Helga Willer, Jan Trávníček, Claudia Meier and Bernhard
Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

13

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements
The Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL and IFOAM – Organics International arevery grateful to their supporters for granting financial support for the global data collection
and for the 2021 edition of “The World of Organic Agriculture”: the Swiss State Secretariat
for Economic Affairs (SECO), Economic Development and Cooperation (within theframework of its support activities for organic production in developing countries), Bern,
Switzerland, the International Trade Centre (ITC), Geneva, Switzerland, the Sustainability
Fund of Coop Switzerland (Coop Fonds für Nachhaltigkeit), Basel, Switzerland, andNürnbergMesse, the organizers of BIOFACH, Nürnberg, Germany.
Numerous individuals have contributed to the making of this work. The editors are very
grateful to all those listed below, without whom it would not have been possible to produce
this yearbook.
Olugbenga O. AdeOluwa, Network of Organic Agriculture Research in Africa (NOARA),
University of Ibadan, Nigeria, www.unaab.edu.ng; Marcelle Agius, Ministry for theEnvironment, Sustainable Development and Climate Change, Malta, Moises Aisu, Network of
Organic Agriculture Research in Africa (NOARA), University of Ibadan, Nigeria, Ibadan, Nigeria,
www.unaab.edu.ng; Khurshid Alam, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI),
Bangladesh, Saif Moh Al-Shara, Ministry of Environment and Water, Agricultural Affairs andAnimal Sector, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, www.moew.gov.ae; David Amudavi, Biovision
Africa Trust, Nairobi, Kenya; Sara Anselmi, IFOAM - Organics International, Bonn, Germany,
www.ifoam.bio; Stoilko Apostolov, Bioselena: Foundation for organic agriculture, Karlovo,
Bulgaria, www.bioselena.com; Lidya Ariesusanty, Indonesia Organic Alliance IOA, Bogor,
Indonesia, www.organicindonesia.org; Angela Atallah, CCPB Middle East, Beirut, Lebanon,www.ccpb.it; Vugar Babayev, Ganja Agribusiness Association (GABA), Ganja City, Azerbaijan,
www.gaba.az; Nouhoun Barro, Ecocert SA West Africa Office, Ougadougou, Burkina Faso,
www.ecocert.com; Lisa Barsley, Textile Exchange, London, United Kingdom; Elif BayraktarÖktem, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of the Republic of Turkey, Ankara, Turkey, Milena
Belli, Istituto per la Certificazione Etica ed Ambientale (ICEA), Bologna, Italy, www.icea.info;
Albrecht Benzing, CERES - CERtification of Environmental Standards - GmbH, Happurg,
Germany, Olena Berezovska, Organic Ukraine NGO of organic producers, Kyiv, Ukraine; Florian
Bernardi, Klaus Büchel Anstalt, Mauren, Liechtenstein, www.kba.li; Eva Berre, Ecocert
International, L'Isle Jourdain, France, www.ecocert.com; Rommel Aníbal Betancourt Herrera,
Agencia de Regulación y Control Fito y Zoosanitario - AGROCALIDAD, Ministerio de
Agricultura y Ganadería MAG, Quito, Ecuador, www.agrocalidad.gob.ec; Sandeep Bhargava,
OneCert International Pvt. Ltd, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, www.onecertasia.in; Olivera Bicikliski,
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Skopje, North Macedonia; Simone
Bissig, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland; Barbara Böck,
NürnbergMesse, Nuremberg, Germany; Thavisith Bounyasouk, Department of Agriculture(DOA), Vientiane, Lao PDR; Lorcan Bourke, Bord Bia - Irish Food Board, Dublin 2, Ireland,
www.agriculture.gov.ie; Léna Brisset, IFOAM Organics Europe, Brussels, Belgium, www.ifoameu.org; Danila Brunner, Nürnberg Messe; Marie Reine Bteich, CIHEAM Bari, Bari, Italy; Klaus
Büchel, Klaus Büchel Anstalt, Mauren, Liechtenstein, www.kba.li; Emanuele Busacca, IFOAM
Organics Europe, Brussels, Belgium, www.ifoam-eu.org; Myroslava Bzhestovska, Ministry for
Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine; Liliana Calmațui,Asociația Educație pentru Dezvoltare (AED), Chișinău, Republica Moldova; Celia Carave,
Ecocert Group, Sevilla, Spain; Geisel Carvalho de Menezes, Ministry of Finance, Commerce and

14

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Acknowledgements
Blue Economy, Sao Tomé and Príncipe; Jennifer Chang, IFOAM Asia, Seoul, Republic of Korea,
www.kfsao.org; Dong-Geun Choi, Korean Federation of Sustainable Agriculture Organizations,
Namyangju City, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea; Thomas Cierpka, IFOAM - Organics
International, Bonn, Germany, www.ifoam.bio; Genaro Coronel, Servicio Nacional de Calidad y
Sanidad Vegetal y de Semillas (SENAVE), Asunción, Paraguay, www.senave.gov.py; Finn Cottle,
Soil Association, Bristol, United Kingdom; Eduardo Cuoco, Technology Platform Organics,
Brussels, www.tporganics.eu; Joy Daniel, Institut for Integrated Rural Development (IIRD),
Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India; Nune Darbinyan, ECOGLOBE - Organic control andcertification body, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia, www.ecoglobe.am; Wahyudi David,
Universitas Bakrie,; Monique Decker, Administration des services techniques de l'agriculture(ASTA), Luxembourg, www.asta.etat.lu; Giorgia DeSantis, Food and Agriculture Organizationof the United Nations (FAO), Rome, Italy; Lauren Dietemann, Research Institute of Organic
Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland; Priyanga S. Dissanayake, Sustainable Agriculture Researchand Development Centre, Department of Agriculture; Dóra Drexler, Hungarian ResearchInstitute of Organic Agriculture (ÖMKi), Budapest, Hungary, www.biokutatas.hu; GitaĐurković, Ministry of Agriculture Croatia, Croatia, www.dzs.hr; Pilar M. Eguillor Recabarren,
Oficina de Estudios y Politicas Agrarias ODEPA, Santiago Centro, Chile, www.odepa.gob.cl;
Pauline Eid Saad, Ministry of Agriculture, Lebanon; Lucy Ellis, Department of Agriculture,
Stanley, Falkland Islands (Malvinas), www.agriculture.gov.fk; Carlos Andres Escobar
Fernandez, ECONEXOS, Conexion Ecologica, Cali, Colombia, www.econexos.com; Vic Anthony
Joseph Fabre, IFOAM Asia, Philippines; Nawal Farkacha, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries,
Rural development and Forests, Rabat, Morocco; Ditta Fekete, Control Union Certifications B.V.,
Zwolle, The Netherlands, www.controlunion.com; Li Feng, IFOAM Asia China Office; Sara
Fischer, Demeter-International e.V., Office Echterdingen, Echterdingen, Germany; Tobias
Fischer, BCS Öko-Garantie GmbH, Nürnberg, Germany, www.bcs-oeko.de; Barbara Fitch
Haumann, Organic Trade Association (OTA), Brattleboro, United States of America,
www.ota.com; Dorian Fléchet, Agence Bio, Montreuil-sous-Bois, France, www.agencebio.fr;
Patricia Flores Escudero, Latin American Office of IFOAM - Organics International, Lima, Peru;
Alexandra Forbord, Norwegian Agriculture Agency Landbruksdirektoratet, Oslo, Norway,
www.slf.dep.no; Nicole Ford, Australian Organic Ltd, Nundah, Australia; Emmeline Foubert,
Certisys, Walhain, Belgium, www.certisys.eu; Sergiy Galashevskyy, Organic Standard, Kyiv,
Ukraine; Juan Manuel Gámez, Comisión Interamericana de Agricultura Orgánica (CIAO),
Buenos Aires, Argentina, www.ciaorganico.net; Osvaldo Garcia, IMOcert Latinoamerica LTDA,
Cochabamba, Bolivia, www.imocert.bio; Maria Gernert, IFOAM Organics Europe, Brussels,
Belgium, www.ifoam-eu.org; Maheswar Ghimire, Kathmandu, Nepal; Juan Gilardoni, LETIS
S.A., Santa Fe, Argentina; Laurent C. Glin, Benin; Amish Gosai, Textile Exchange, Bangalore,
India; R.P.N. Gunaratne, Department of Agriculture, Sustainable Agriculture Research andDevelopment Centre, Makandura, Sri Lanka; Gunnar Gunnarsson, Vottunarstofan Tún ehf.,
Reykjavik, Iceland, www.tun.is; Owen Gwilliams, Australian Organic Ltd, Nundah, Australia;
Zuhair Hasnain, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan; Abid Ali Hasan,
Zakho Small Villages Projects ZSVP; Dohuk City, Dohuk, Iraq: Jan Heusser, Coop Fonds fürNachhaltigkeit, Basel, Switzerland; Serhii Hlushchenko, Ministry for Development of Economy,
Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine; Otto Hofer, Bundesministerium fürNachhaltigkeit und Tourismus, Wien, Austria, www.bmlfuw.gv.at; Lee Holdstock, Soil
Association, Bristol UK; Tanveer Hossain Shaikh, Asian Productivity Organization (APO),Tokyo, Japan, tanveerbrri.webs.com; Andrea Hrabalová, CTPOA, Brno, Czech Republic; Beate
Huber, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org; Dang
Huong, Vietnam Organic Agriculture Association VOAA, Vietnam; Xhona Hysa, IFOAM Organics International, Bonn, www.ifoam.org; Barbara Jäggin, Swiss State Secretariat for
FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

15

Acknowledgements
Economic Affairs SECO, Bern, Switzerland; Hakkyun Jeong, Korea Institute of Rural Social
Affairs, Chungnam Province, Republic of Korea, www.kfsao.org; ManChul Jung, Korea Instituteof Rural Social Affairs, Chungnam Province, Republic of Korea, www.kfsao.org; Joelle KattoAndrighetto, IFOAM - Organics International, Bonn, Germany, www.ifoam.bio; Olivia Keller,
Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland; Laura Kemper, ResearchInstitute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland; Liudmyla Khomichak, Ministry for
Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine; Cornelia Kirchner,
IFOAM - Organics International, Bonn, Germany, www.ifoam.bio; Natalie Kleine-Herzbruch,
FiBL Deutschland, Frankfurt; Lyubomyr Klepbach, Center for Environmental Solutions (CES),
Minsk, Belarus; Barbara Köcher-Schulz, AMA-Marketing GesmbH AMA, Wien, Austria,
www.ama-marketing.at; Milana Kosanovic, Ecocert Balkan, Belgrad, Serbia, www.ecocert.com;
Marja-Riitta Kottila, Pro Luomu, Kauniainen, Finland, www.luomu.fi; Daniël Kotzé, Ecocert
South Africa, Stellenbosch, South Africa, www.ecocertsouthafrica.com; Eva Lacarce, Agence Bio,
Montreuil-sous-Bois, France, www.agencebio.fr; Graciela Lacaze, Comisión Interamericana de
Agricultura Orgánica (CIAO), Buenos Aires, Argentina, www.ciaorganico.net; Nicolas Lampkin,
Organic Policy, Business and Research Consultancy; Julia Lernoud, IFOAM Board of Directors
Argentina; Francesca Lilliu, IFOAM Organics Europe, Brussels, Belgium, www.ifoam-eu.org;
Aurora Josefina Lobato García, Subdirectora de Autorización y Aprobación de Organismos de
Coadyuvancia, Servicio Nacional de Sanidad, Inocuidad y Calidad Agroalimentaria(SENASICA), Secretaría de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural (SADER), Ciudad de México, México;
Tia Loftsgard, Canada Organic Trade Association, Ottawa, Canada, www.ota.com; Pedro Lopez,
PROVOTEC, Madrid, Spain, www.provotec.es; Marly Cristina López Rengifo, Dirección
General Agrícola (DGA - MINAGRI), Lima, Peru; Anna Lubovedskaya, Union Organic Farming,
Moscow, Russian Federation, www.soz.bio; Virginija Luksiene, Ekoagros, Kaunas, Lithuania,
www.ekoagros.lt; Martin Lundø, Statistics Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark, www.dst.dk;
Louise Luttikholt, IFOAM - Organics International, Bonn, Germany; Samia Maamer Belkhiria,
Ministère de l'Agriculture, des Ressources Hydrauliques et de la Pêche, Tunis, Tunisia,
www.tunisie.com; Hossein Mahmoudi, Environmental Sciences Research Institute, Evin Shahid
Beheshti University SBU, Velenjak, Evin, Tehran, Iran; Fernando Maldonado Cestona, Dirección
General de Sanidad Vegetal y Animal, El Salvador; John Manhire, The AgriBusiness Group,
Lincoln, New Zealand, www.agribusinessgroup.com; Karen Mapusua, Pacific Community, SPC,
Suva, Fiji, www.spc.int; Félix Oswaldo Maquera Cuayla, Servicio Nacional de Sanidad Agraria(SENASA), Ministerio de Agricultura y Riego (MINAGRI), Lima, Peru; Roberto Maresca,
Controllo e Certificazione Prodotti Biologic CCPB, Bologna; Ayumi Matsuura, Cambodian
Organic Agriculture Association (COrAA), Phnom Penh, Cambodia, www.coraa.org; Virgínia
Mendes Cipriano Lira, Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento (DTECSDAMAPA),
Brasilia, Brazil; Manoj Kumar Menon; International Competence Centre for Organic Agriculture
ICCOA, Rajarajeshwarinagar, Bangalore, India; Dorota Metera, BIOEKSPERT, Warszawa,
Poland, www.bioekspert.waw.pl; Merit Mikk, Centre of Ecological Engineering - Ökoloogiliste
Tehnoloogiate Keskus, Tartu, Estonia, www.ceet.ee; Jelena Milic, Ministry of Agriculture,
Forestry and Water Economy, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia; Eugene Milovanov, Organic
Federation of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, organic.com.ua; Rodrigo Misiac, Argencert, Buenos Aires,
Argentina; Satoko Miyoshi, Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) Japan, Tokyo, Japan,
www.oci2010.org; Nadejda Mocanu, Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture, Chisinau,
Moldova, www.cnfa.org; Bram Moeskops, IFOAM Organics Europe, Brussels, Belgium,
www.ifoam-eu.org; Carolin Möller, NASAA Certified Organic, Stirling, Australia; Flávia Mourae Castro, IFOAM - Organics International, Bonn, Germany, www.ifoam.org; Arijana Mušić,
Organska Kontrola (OK), Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina; Mohammed Mutarad Aloun, Ministryof Climate Change and Environment of the United Arab Emirates, United Arab Emirates,

16

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Acknowledgements
www.moccae.gov.ae; Alex Mutung, AfrONet, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Từ Thị Tuyết Nhung,
Vietnam Organic Agriculture Association, Hanoi, Vietnam, www.vietnamorganic.vn; Urs Niggli,
Agroecology.Science, Frick, Switzerland, www.agroecology.science; Ramón Ernesto Noguera
García, Instituto de Protección y Sanidad Agropecuaria IPSA, Departamento de Inspección
Certificación Fitosanitaria, Managua, Nicaragua; Fatima Obaid Saeed, Ministry of Environment
and Water of the United Arab Emirates, United Arab Emirates; Sharon Ong, Ecocert South-East
Asia, Singapore; Susanne Padel, Thünen Institute, Germany; Amresh Pandey, Ecocert;
Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India; Elena Panichi, European Commission, Agriculture & Rural
Development, Brussels, Belgium; Vitoon Panyakul, Green Net, Bangkok, Thailand,www.greennet.or.th; Ejvind Pedersen, Landbrug & Fødevarer, Copenhagen, Denmark,www.lf.dkOekologi.aspx; Eliza Petrosyan-Sudzilovskaya, ECOGLOBE - Organic control andcertification body, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia, www.ecoglobe.am; Diego Pinasco, Servicio
Nacional de Sanidad y Calidad Agroalimentaria SENASA, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Roberto
Pinton, Pinton Organic Consulting, Padova, Italy; Ritu Priya, OneCert International Pvt. Ltd,Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, www.onecert.com; Natalie Prokopchuk, SECO-FiBL-SAFOSO SwissUkrainian Program “Higher Value Added Trade from the Organic and Dairy Sector in Ukraine”,
Kyiv, Ukraine, www.qftp.org; Andrijana Rakočević, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development, Podgorica, Crna Gora, Montenegro; Brayène Ramanantsoa, Ecocert,
Antananarivo, Madagascar; Juan Carlos Ramirez, Servicio Nacional de Sanidad y Calidad
Agroalimentaria SENASA, Buenos Aires, Argentina, www.senasa.gov.ar; Hans Ramseier, Bio
Suisse, Basel, Switzerland, www.bio-suisse.ch; Pia Reindl, AMA-Marketing GesmbH AMA,
Wien, Austria, www.ama-marketing.at; Michel Reynaud, Ecocert International, Office, L'Isle
Jourdain, France, www.ecocert.com; Kurt Riedi, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL,
Frick, Switzerland; Nathalie Rison Alabert, Agence Bio, Montreuil-sous-Bois, France,
www.agencebio.fr; Christian Robin, Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, Bern,
Switzerland; Fermín Vicente Romero Houlstan, Dirección Nacional de Sanidad Vegetal;
Ministerio de Desarrollo Agropecuario (MIDA), Panamá, República de Panamá,www.mida.gob.pa; Monica Rubiolo, Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, Bern,
Switzerland; Cecilia Ryegård, Ekoweb, Sweden; Olle Ryegård, Ekoweb, Sweden; Ayman Saad
Al-Ghamdi, Organic Agriculture Department, Saudi Arabia; Amarjit Sahota, Ecovia Intelligence,
London, United Kingdom, www.ecoviaint.com; Gregory Sampson, International Trade Centre(ITC), Geneva, Switzerland; Sisigué Arsène Sanou, Ecocert Burkina Faso, Ougadougou, Burkina
Faso; Diana Schaack, Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft mbH, Bonn, Germany, www.amiinformiert.de;
AenderSchanck,OIKOPOLIS
Groupe,Munsbach,
Luxembourg,
www.oikopolis.lu; Silvia Schmidt, IFOAM Organics Europe, Brussels, Belgium, www.ifoameu.org; Knut Schmidtke, Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau FiBL, Frick, www.fibl.org;
Claudine Schmit, Administration des services techniques de l'agriculture (ASTA), Luxembourg,
www.asta.etat.lu; Bernhard Schulz, CERES - CERtification of Environmental Standards - GmbH,
Happurg, Germany, www.ceres-cert.com; Hana Šejnohová, Institute of agricultural economics
and information, Brno, Czech Republic, www.uzei.cz; Andreas Selearis, Department ofAgriculture (MOA), Nicosia, Cyprus, www.moa.gov.cy; Dheeraj Sharma, OneCert International
Pvt. Ltd, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, www.onecertasia.in; Elene Shatberashvili, Elkana - Biological
Farming Association, Akhaltsikhe, Georgia, www.elkana.org.ge; Christoph Simpfendörfer,
Demeter-International e.V., Office Echterdingen, Echterdingen, Germany; Harpreet Singh
Sondh,
Control
Union
Certifications
B.V.,
Zwolle,www.controlunion.com
www.controlunion.com; Anamarija Slabe, Institut za trajnostni razvoj, Lubljana, Slovenia,
www.itr.si; Nicolette van der Smissen, Consultant for Organic Production, Feres, Greece; Manjo
Smith, Namibian Organic Association NOA, Okahandja, Namibia, www.noa.org.na; Francesco
Solfanelli, Università Politecnica Marche, Ancona, Italy, www.univpm.it; Michael Stadler,
FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

17

Acknowledgements
CERES - CERtification of Environmental Standards - GmbH, Happurg, Germany, www.cerescert.com; Marcela Stahil, Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment of
Moldova, Department for Organic Production and Products of Origin, Chişinău, Moldova;
Franziska Staubli, Bioinspecta, Frick, Switzerland, www.bio-inspecta.ch; Evonne Tan, Textile
Exchange, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Ilse Timmermans, Departement Landbouw en Visserij,
Brussels, Belgium; Thanh Trinh, Vietnam Organic Agriculture Association VOOA, Hanoi,
Vietnam; Bence Trugly, Hungarian Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (ÖMKi), Budapest,
Hungary, www.biokutatas.hu; Liesl Truscott, Textile Exchange, Bath, United Kingdom; Emma
Tsessue, Ecocert SAS, L'Isle Jourdain, France, www.ecocert.com; Kesang Tshomo, Ministry ofAgriculture MOA, Thimphu, Bhutan, www.moa.gov.bt; Daava Tungalag, Ministry of Food
Agriculture and Light industry of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; Tal Weil Tzameret, Ministryof Agriculture & Rural Development, Plant Protection & Inspection Services (PPIS), Israel;
Francesco Tubiello, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome,
Italy; Ray Tzeng, Organic Center, National Ilan University (NIU), Yilan City, Taiwan; Edgardo
Uychiat, Negros Island Sustainable Agriculture Research & Development, The Philippines;
Miriam van Bree, Bionext, JC Ede, The Netherlands, bionext.nl; Marijke van Schagen, European
Commission, Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, Bruxelles, Belgium;
Frederica Varini, IFOAM - Organics International, Bonn, www.ifoam.org; Jelena Vasiljevic,
Ministry of Agriculture Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia, www.minpolj.gov.rs; Airi Vetemaa, Estonian
Organic Farming Foundation EOFF, Tartu, Estonia, www.lzuu.lt; Rita Villarreal, Dirección
Nacional de Sanidad Vegetal; Ministerio de Desarrollo Agropecuario (MIDA), Panamá, República
de Panamá, www.mida.gob.pa; Venancia Wambua, AfrONet, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Joseph
Wozniak, International Trade Centre (ITC), Geneva, Switzerland; P.I. Yapa, Sabaragamuwa
University of Sri Lanka; David Yavruyan, Eco Consulting Group; Suet Yin Siew, Textile
Exchange, India; Qiao Yuhui, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China,
www.cau.edu.cnzihuan; Valentyna Zaiets, Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade andAgriculture of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine; Raffaele Zanoli, Università Politecnica delle Marche
UNIVPM, Ancona, www.univpm.it; José Zapata, Oficina de Control Agricultura Organica,
Direccion de Certificacion de Productos Agropecuarios (DICERT-RD), Santo Domingo, Republica
Dominicana, www.agricultura.gob.do; Diana Zeidan, Canada Organic Trade Association,
Ottawa, Canada, www.ota.com; Lisha Zheng, Ecocert China, Beijing, China; Zhejiang Zhou,
IFOAM Asia, China, www.ifoam.org; Darko Znaor, Independent Consultant, Zagreb, Croatia;
Silvia Zucconi, Nomisma - Economic Research Institute, Bologna, Italy

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FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Key Indicators

Organic Agriculture: Key Indicators and Top Countries
Indicator

World

Countries with organic
activities1

2019: 187 countries

Organic agricultural land

2019: 72.3 million hectares(1999: 11 million hectares)

Australia (35.7 million hectares)
Argentina (3.7 million hectares)
Spain (2.4 million hectares)

Organic share of total
agricultural land

2019: 1.5 %Liechtenstein (41.0 %)Austria (26.1 %)São Tomé and Príncipe (24.9 %)Wild collection and further
non-agricultural areas

2019: 35.1 million hectares(1999: 4.1 million hectares)

Finland (4.6 million hectares)
Zambia (3.2 million hectares)
Namibia (2.6 million hectares)

Producers

2019: 3.1 million producers(1999: 200’000 producers)

India (1'366'226)
Uganda (210’353)
Ethiopia (203'602)

Organic market2

2019: 106.4 billion euros(2000: 15.1 billion euros)

US (44.7 billion euros)
Germany (12.0 billion euros)
France (11.3 billion euros)

Per capita consumption

2019: 14.0 euros

Denmark (344 euros)
Switzerland (338 euros)
Luxembourg (265 euros)

Number of countries withorganic regulations

2019: 108 countries

Number of affiliates of IFOAM– Organics International

2020: 719 affiliates

Top countries

Germany: 79 affiliates
India: 52 affiliates
USA: 48 affiliates
Italy: 46 affiliates

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on national data sources, data from certifiers and IFOAM – Organics International

Where the designation "country" appears in this book, it covers countries and territories, see UNSTAT
website http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49regin.htm.
2 Please note that there are some differences in organic food sales figures from Ecovia Intelligence and thosefrom FiBL due to different methodologies. According to Ecovia Intelligence, global retail sales reached over
112 billion US dollars in 2019. One euro corresponded to 1.1195 US dollars in 2019 according to the European
Central Bank.
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The World of Organic Agriculture › Summary

The World of Organic Agriculture 2021: Summary
HELGA WILLER,1 CLAUDIA MEIER,2 BERNHARD SCHLATTER,3 LAURENDIETEMANN,4 LAURA KEMPER5 AND JAN TRÁVNÍČEK6
The latest available data on organic agriculture worldwide show that the year 2019 wasanother good year for global organic agriculture. According to the latest FiBL survey
on organic agriculture worldwide, the organic farmland and organic retail sales
continued to grow and reached another all-time high, as shown by the data from 187
countries (data as of the end 2019). Consolidated data for 2020, which were not available
at the time of writing this report, are expected to show the first impacts of the COVID19 pandemic on organic markets. This data will be released by the countries during2021 and made available in the 2022 edition of this report.
More than 72.3 million hectares of organic farmland

In 2019, 72.3 million hectares of organic agricultural land, including in-conversion
areas, were recorded. The regions with the largest organic agricultural land areas are
Oceania (35.9 million hectares, which is half the world’s organic agricultural land) andEurope (16.5 million hectares, 23 percent). Latin America has 8.3 million hectares(11 percent) followed by Asia (5.9 million hectares, 8 percent), North America (3.6
million hectares, 5 percent) and Africa (2 million hectares, 3 percent).
Australia has the largest area

The countries with the most organic agricultural land are Australia (35.7 million
hectares), Argentina (3.7 million hectares) and Spain (2.4 million hectares).
Globally, 1.5 percent of the farmland is organic
Currently, 1.5 percent of the world’s agricultural land is organic. The highest organic
shares of the total agricultural land, by region, are in Oceania (9.6 percent) and Europe(3.3 percent; European Union 8.1 percent).
Liechtenstein has the highest organic share with 41.0 percent
Some countries reach far higher shares than the global share: Liechtenstein (41.0
percent) and Austria (26.1 percent) have the highest organic shares. In sixteen countries,
10 percent or more of the agricultural land is organic.

Dr. Helga Willer, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
Claudia Meier, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
3 Bernhard Schlatter, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
4 Lauren Dietemann, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
5 Laura Kemper, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
6 Jan Trávníček, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
1
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The World of Organic Agriculture › Summary
Growth in organic farmland - Increase of 1.1 million hectares or 1.6 percent
Organic farmland increased by 1.1 million hectares or 1.6 percent in 2019. Many
countries reported a significant increase, for instance, India (18.6 percent increase; over
0.36 million hectares more) and Kazakhstan (18.6 percent increase; almost 0.1 million
hectares more).

Increase of organic farmland in almost all regions
In 2019, organic agricultural land increased in Africa, Europe, Latin America, andNorthern America (Table 6). The agricultural area decreased in Asia (-7.1 percent, -0.45
million hectares), mainly due to a drop in organic areas reported from China, andOceania (-0.3 percent, -0.12 million hectares). The highest absolute growth was inEurope (+5.9 percent, +0.9 million hectares), followed by Northern America (+9.1
percent, +0.30 million hectares) and Latin America (+3.5 percent, +0.28 million hectares).
Apart from land dedicated to organic agriculture, there are further areas of organic land
dedicated to other activities. The largest part of these is wild collection areas and areas
for beekeeping. Further non-agricultural areas include aquaculture, forests, andgrazing areas on non-agricultural land. These areas totalled 35.0 million hectares, andall the organic areas together summed up to 107.4 million hectares.

Growth in most major crop groups
Land use and crop details were available for over 92 percent of the organic agriculturalland. Unfortunately, some countries with very large organic areas, such as Brazil andIndia, had little or no information on their land use (see page 75).
Over two-thirds of the organic agricultural land was grassland/grazing areas (almost
49 million hectares), which increased in 2019 by 1.2 percent.
With over 13.1 million hectares, arable land constitutes 18 percent of the organic
agricultural land. A decrease of 1.7 percent since 2018 was reported, mainly due to adecrease of organic arable land reported from China. Most of this category of land wasused for cereals including rice (5.1 million hectares), followed by green fodder fromarable land (almost 3.2 million hectares), oilseeds (1.7 million hectares), dry pulses andvegetables.
The significant growth in organic cotton production seen in 2017/18, when global fibre
volumes rose 56 percent, continued into 2018/19 with a further 31 percent growth,according to the Textile Exchange. Global production reached 239´787 metric tons.
Estimates show that the current growth trend will continue next year, though to aslightly lesser degree, with a ten percent growth expected. Globally, an estimated222´134 farmers were growing certified organic cotton in 2018/19, spread across 19
countries and 418´935 hectares of certified land. For more information, see Barsley et al.
on page 130.
Permanent crops account for seven percent of the organic agricultural land,amounting to over 4.7 million hectares. Compared to the previous survey, an increaseof more than 17´000 hectares, or 0.4 percent, was reported. The most important crops
are olives, with nearly 0.9 million hectares or 19 percent, coffee (over 0.7 million
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The World of Organic Agriculture › Summary
hectares or 15 percent of the organic permanent cropland), nuts (0.6 million hectares or
13 percent), grapes (0.5 million hectares or 10 percent) and cocoa (almost 0.4 million
hectares or 8 percent) (see page 71).

Organic producers on the rise – 3.1 million producers in 2019
There were at least 3.1 million organic producers in 2019.1 Fifty-one percent of theworld’s organic producers are in Asia, followed by Africa (27 percent), Europe(14 percent) and Latin America (7 percent). The countries with the most producers are
India (1’366’226), Uganda (210’353) and Ethiopia (203’602) (page 58). There has been an
increase in the number of producers of more than 347’000, or 12.5 percent, compared to
2018.

Global market and EU organic imports
Global market reached more than 100 billion euros
Organic food and drink sales reached more than 106 billion euros, according to FiBL
(page 64)2,3 in 2019. In 2019, the countries with the largest organic markets were theUnited States (44.7 billion euros), Germany (12.0 billion euros), and France (11.3 billion
euros). The largest single market was the United States (42 percent of the global
market), followed by the European Union (41.4 billion euros, 39 percent) and China (8.5billion euros, 8.0 percent). The highest per-capita consumption in 2019, with 344 euros,
was found in Denmark. The highest organic market shares were reached in Denmark(12.1 percent), Switzerland (10.4 percent) and Austria (9.3 percent) (See the chapter on
the FiBL survey on the global market, page 64).

Effect of the pandemic on the global organic market
Although North America and Europe generate most sales, their share of the total
market is shrinking (Sahota (page 136). The coronavirus crisis is predicted to accelerate
this trend as more regional markets for organic foods develop. In particular, the shareof developing countries, such as China, India, Brazil and Indonesia, is likely to grow ata fast rate in the coming years. The pandemic, which began in spring 2020, has had aprofound impact on our daily lives, as well as on the organic food industry. Consumers
are turning to organic foods as they look more closely at personal health, wellness andnutrition. Organic is likely to benefit as the food industry transitions to a post-COVID
world, writes Sahota (page 136). According to him, the coronavirus pandemic is likely
to change the global organic food industry with several trends affecting the further

Please note that some countries report only the numbers of companies, projects, or grower groups, which
may each comprise a number of individual producers. The number of producers should, therefore, be treatedwith caution, and it may be assumed that the total number of organic producers is higher than that reported
here.
2 Please note that there are some differences in organic food sales figures from Ecovia Intelligence and thosefrom FiBL due to different methodologies. According to Ecovia Intelligence, global retail sales reached over
112 billion U.S. dollars in 2019.
3 One euro corresponded to 1.1195 U.S. dollars in 2019 according to the European Central Bank.
1

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The World of Organic Agriculture › Summary
development of organic agriculture in various ways. Examples of such changes include
the de-globalisation of food supply chains, increasing importance of food security,
more government support; move towards traceability and transparency in food supply
chains, changing consumer behaviour and increased importance of online retailing.

Organic imports in the European Union
The European Union, which is the second-biggest organic market, provided data on its
organic imports, showing the key import products and key importing countries (basedon volume in metric tons). In 2019, the EU imported a total of 3.2 million tonnes oforganic agri-food products. Imports of tropical fruit (fresh or dried), nuts and spices
represented the single biggest category, totalling 885’930 tonnes or 27.3 percent of total
imports, followed by oilcakes, cereals other than wheat, as well as rice, and wheat.
China is the biggest supplier of organic agri-food products to the EU, with 433´705
tonnes; 13.4 percent of the total organic import volume. Ukraine, the Dominican
Republic, and Ecuador each have a 10 percent share of the total organic import volume.
For more information, see the contribution about the EU organic imports on page 140.

Standards, regulations, policy support
According to the latest IFOAM survey on organic regulations, 72 countries had fully
implemented organic regulations as of 2020. Twenty-two countries had regulations,which were not fully implemented, while 14 unregulated countries were drafting
legislation. Among the countries that newly passed organic regulations in 2020 are
Madagascar and Egypt. Some countries are majorly revising their existing regulations,among these are the European Union and the United States. Countries that haveconcluded significant amendments of their existing regulations in 2020 include thePhilippines and Peru. For more information, see the chapter by Kirchner et al., page
152.
Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) are locally focused quality assurance systems.
PGS have proven to be an affordable alternative to third-party certification, an effective
tool to develop local markets for organic produce and are particularly appropriate forsmall-scale farmers. Despite the difficulties related to the impact of the COVID-19
pandemic in 2020, the number of PGS initiatives and producers involved and certified
by them has been growing worldwide. They represent today a well-establishedguarantee system for organic agriculture in many countries. The overall trend towards
an increase in the number of PGS initiatives and producers certified is maintained. To
date, IFOAM – Organics International has recorded in its PGS database 235 PGS
initiatives in 77 countries, with at least 1’153’220 producers involved and 1’110’964
producers certified. It is estimated that these producers manage over 755’000 ha of land(area under organic management that is PGS certified is not available for all PGS
initiatives and countries ). For more information, see the chapter by Moura e Castro etal. on page 158.
Statistics provided by Demeter International show that there are more than 4’400
Demeter farmers worldwide with over 220’000 hectares in 62 countries (July 2020).
Demeter International was founded in 1997 and currently has 19 members and four
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The World of Organic Agriculture › Summary
guest members from Europe, America, Africa, New Zealand and India. For details, see
the article by Simpfendörfer and Fischer, page 165.
When it comes to fostering organic production and consumption, of particular interest
to the organic sector is adopting sustainability-oriented public food procurement
policies and standards applied to food and catering services in public institutions. Suchmeasures can shift buying power to support environmental, health and socio-economic
objectives in line with the principles of organic agriculture. As shown with several
examples from all contents, public food procurement can help create new and stable
markets for organic products, stimulate changes in food habits and foster conversion toorganic agriculture. For more information, see the article by Varini and Hysa, page 170.

Organic in the Continents
AfricaThere were more than 2 million hectares of certified organic agricultural land in
Africa in 2019. Compared to 2018, Africa reported 177’054 hectares more, a 9.5 percent
increase. There were at least 850’000 producers. Tunisia was the country with the largest
organic area (with almost 287’000 hectares in 2018), and Uganda had the largest numberof organic producers (more than 210’000). The country with the highest organic shareof the total agricultural land in the region was the island state São Tomé and Príncipe,with 24.9 percent of its agricultural area being organic. The majority of certified organic
products in Africa are destined for export markets. Key crops are coffee, olives, cocoa,
nuts, oilseeds, and cotton (see page 189). Five countries in Africa have legislation onorganic agriculture, and five countries are drafting legislation. Six countries have anational standard but no organic legislation.
In Africa, the Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative realised several achievements
during 2020. Geographical coverage expanded to include Rwanda as the ninth country.
The value chains and market development approach was adopted with all participating
partners in nine countries in East and West Africa. An important current project is theKnowledge Center for Organic Agriculture in Africa, which aims at ensuringknowledge hubs in West, Eastern, North and Southern Africa and later also in Central
Africa. These hubs are successfully introduced as an innovative strategy for promoting
organic agriculture with actors in Africa. The African Organic Network AfrONet as
custodian of the African organic movements and organic sector development aims tostrengthen and support national, regional and continental networks, overseeing thedevelopment and growth of the Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative for Africa.
AfrONet has been bringing together all the networks, partners and other stakeholders
under the African Organic Conference platform. Morocco will be hosting the 5th
Conference in Marrakesh in November 2021. Furthermore, planning for the 6th West
African Organic Conference (WAOC) to be held in Burkina Faso from October 13 to 16,
2021. For more information, see the chapter by Amudavi, page 180.

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The World of Organic Agriculture › SummaryAsia
The total area dedicated to organic agriculture in Asia was more than 5.9 million
hectares in 2019. There were 1.4 million producers, most of which were in India. The
leading countries by area were India (2.3 million hectares) and China (over 2.2 million
hectares). Timor-Leste had the highest proportion of organic agricultural land
(8.5 percent) (page 189). Twenty-one countries in the region have legislation on organic
agriculture, and seven countries are drafting legislation.
Together with the rest of the world, Asia has suffered much due to the effects of COVID19, write Hossain et al. (page 198). As traditional markets were closed and schools,
offices and other establishments were shut down, every stakeholder across the supply
chain was affected in one way or another. However, the resiliency of many countries in
Asia was highlighted, as they searched for ways to mitigate the effects of the pandemic.
In South Korea, the closure of schools meant the cessation of school meals, which wasa significant source of income for many organic farmers. In response, aCountermeasures Committee for COVID-19 was established, providing thousands offood packages of environmentally-friendly farm products to more than 6’000 selfquarantined people. In Japan, there was a major development in the Basic Plan for
Agriculture and Management, aiming to triple the number of organic farmers andorganic lands by 2030. In Indonesia, the National Medium-Term Development Plan IV(2020-2024) will increase the policies related to organic agriculture. Finally, thePhilippines had one of the most significant milestones in organic agriculture with theamendment of the Organic Act of 2010, including Participatory Guarantee Systems(PGS) under the country’s national organic standards.
In 2020, IFOAM Asia expanded the networking activities of the Asian Local
Governments for Organic Agriculture (ALGOA), which celebrated its 5th anniversary.
The 6th ALGOA Summit was a historic occasion as ALGOA took the initiative in linking
up with the International Network of eco-regions and other European partners, tolaunch the Global Alliance of Organic Districts (GAOD). Another significant activity wasthat the Asian Organic Youth Forum took the initiative to expand its organic youth
network globally and launched the Young Organics Global Network in September 2020.
More information can be found in the chapter by Hossain et al., page 198.

EuropeAs of the end of 2019, 16.5 million hectares of agricultural land in Europe (European
Union: 14.6 million hectares) were managed organically by over 430’000 producers(European Union: almost 344’000). In Europe, 3.3 percent of the agricultural area wasorganic (European Union: 8.1 percent). Organic farmland has increased by over 0.97
million hectares compared to 2018. The countries with the largest organic agriculturalareas were Spain (2.4 million hectares), France (2.2 million hectares) and Italy (2.0
million hectares). In twelve countries, at least 10 percent of the farmland was organic:
Liechtenstein has the lead (41.0 percent), followed by Austria (26.1 percent) and Estonia(22.3 percent). Retail sales of organic products totalled 45.0 billion euros in 2019
(European Union: 41.4 billion euros), an increase of 8.0 percent since 2018. The largest
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The World of Organic Agriculture › Summary
market for organic products in 2019 was Germany, with retail sales of 12.0 billion euros,
followed by France (11.3 billion euros) and Italy (3.6 billion euros) (see the article byTrávníček et al., page 229).
In December 2019, the European Commission unveiled the European Green Deal, a new
growth strategy aiming for Europe to be the first climate-neutral continent by becoming
a modern, resource-efficient economy. The Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy, which was
published in April 2020, is part of the European Green Deal and includes a target ofincreasing the total of the EU’s agricultural land under organic farming to least 25% by2030 and a significant increase in organic aquaculture. As part of the F2F strategy, theCommission pledged to review the EU promotion programme for agricultural and foodproducts to enhance its contribution to sustainable production and consumption. For
more information about the Farm to Fork strategy, the Common Agricultural Policy
and research updates, see the article by FiBL and IFOAM Organics Europe on page 219.

Latin America and the Caribbean
In Latin America, over 224’000 producers managed almost 8.3 million hectares ofagricultural land organically in 2019. This constituted 11 percent of the world’s organic
land and 1.2 percent of the region’s agricultural land. The leading countries were
Argentina (3.7 million hectares), Uruguay (2.1 million hectares) and Brazil (1.3 million
hectares). The highest organic shares of total agricultural land were in Uruguay(15.3 percent), French Guiana (11.3 percent) and the Dominican Republic (5.5 percent).
Many Latin American countries remain important exporters of organic products suchas coffee, cocoa, and bananas. In Argentina and Uruguay, temperate fruit and meat are
key export commodities. Nineteen countries in the region have legislation on organic
agriculture, and two countries are drafting legislation. Brazil has the largest market fororganic products in Latin America. Like Asia, demand is coming from a growing
middle class seeking healthy, nutritious foods.
In the last 20 years, the organic agriculture sector has developed, especially organised
export-oriented family farmers focused on international trade to supply markets in theEuropean Union, the United States, Canada and Japan. Organic production of coffee,cocoa, tropical fruits (banana, mango), ginger, turmeric and Andean grains stand out.
This is especially noteworthy in the industry of fine aroma cacao and chocolate – here
the cacao value chain has been developed based on native genetic resources and theorganisation of cacao growers giving special attention to the quality of the final product.
Notable developments which took place in 2020 included the implementation of theMemorandum of Understanding on Organic Products between Chile and Brazil, and in
Mexico, the competent Mexican authority SENASICA is also developing equivalenceagreements with its main trade partners, the United States, Canada and the EU. The
equivalence will allow the free flow of Mexican organic products that hold the National
Organic Seal to the world's most competitive markets. For more information, see thechapter by Flores on page 268.
The Inter-American Commission for Organic Agriculture (CIAO), which comprises
Competent Authorities for Control of Organic Agriculture in the region, is a technical26

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The World of Organic Agriculture › Summary
entity created in July 2008 with the aim of contributing to the development of organic
agriculture and organic trade in countries in the Americas. In May 2020, CIAO andIFOAM - Organics International signed a Memorandum of Understanding tostrengthen the collaboration among the parties. Since 2019, CIAO and the ResearchInstitute of Organic Agriculture FiBL have been working together to collect statistical
data on organic production. For more information, see the article by Lacaze & Gámez,page 272.

North America
In North America, over 3.6 million hectares of farmland were managed organically in
2019. Of these, 2.3 million were in the United States and 1.3 million in Canada,
representing 0.8 percent of the total agricultural area in the region (see page 291).
New records were achieved in both the US organic food market and organic non-foodmarket. Organic food sales reached 50.1 billion US dollars (approx. 44.7 billion euros),an increase of 4.5 percent compared to 2018. Sales of organic non-food products jumped
by 8.7 percent to 6 billion US dollars. Almost six percent of the food sold in the UnitedStates is now organic.
In the United States (although 2020 numbers are not yet available), the COVID-19
pandemic has had dramatic consequences for the organic sector. As shoppers searched
for healthy, clean food to feed their families, organic proved to be the food of choice forhome consumption. Demand for organic fresh produce grew substantially from March
onward as consumers continued at-home eating in the face of restaurant closures. In
fact, the Organic Produce Network predicted double-digit growth of fresh produce
sales in its analysis during the year. Fresh fruit and vegetable sales averaged 18 percent
year-over-year growth in each of the first three quarters. Another notable development
were the Organic Trade Association’s ‘Organic Fraud Prevention Solutions’programme and a fraud-fighting training package from USDA. Furthermore, the
USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP) published its Strengthening Organic
Enforcement and Oversight proposed rule to support the continued growth of theorganic market and improve oversight at critical links in the supply chain. For more
information, see the article by Haumann on page 284.
Canada’s total organic market (including food and non-food items) reached 6.93 billion
Canadian dollars (approx. 4.7 billion euros), up from 3.5 billion in 2012, with acompound annual growth rate of 8.7 percent. Statistics indicate the market share oforganic food and beverages sold through mainstream retailers has grown from 2.6 to
3.2 percent (2019).
In Canada, the most recent State of Organic Performance Report outlines the current
forms of support for the organic sector from Federal, Provincial and Territorial
jurisdictions and provides a broad set of summarised recommendations for each levelof government. One finding includes that while there is great consumer confidence in
the Canada Organic Regime, and recognition is growing for the Canadian Organic
Logo, the lack of comprehensive programming assistance at the provincial/territorial
level leaves a patchwork of provincially applied standards for intra-provincial trade.

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The World of Organic Agriculture › Summary
There is also a need for the federal government to provide more robust andcomprehensive data on production, imports, exports and consumption, which areparamount for good decision making on government objectives related to climatechange. For more information, see the chapter by Loftsgard on page 289.
OceaniaThis region includes Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Island states. Altogether,
there were over 18’000 producers, managing almost 36.0 million hectares. This
constituted 9.7 percent of the region's agricultural land and half of the world’s organic
land. More than 99 percent of the organic land in the region is in Australia(35.7 million hectares, most of which is extensive grazing land), followed by New
Zealand (almost 89’000 hectares) and Samoa (over 41’000 hectares). The highest organic
shares of all national agricultural land were in Samoa (14.5 percent), followed byAustralia (9.9 percent), Fiji (5.5 percent), Vanuatu (4.5 percent), Solomon Islands(3.5 percent) and French Polynesia (3.4 percent). Four countries in Oceania havelegislation on organic agriculture, and twelve countries have a national standard but
no organic legislation.
In Australia, fueled by years of drought, hot summer temperatures and an abundanceof fuel loads, such as dry leaf litter, over ten million hectares of bushland wereincinerated. For some of the hardest-hit regions, re-establishing their organic status willtake much time, and some have lost entire orchards and native tea tree plantations.
Many of these operators will be without production for years. Due to the drought andshortages of available feed for many livestock producers, the year 2020 has seen thelargest demand for organic hay and grain for at least a decade with livestock fodder.
Following on from the improvements to the regulatory system for exports, in December
2020, the Australian Minister for Agriculture, Water and the Environment hasrequested his Department appoint an Organics Industry Advisory Group to investigate
the creation of a nationwide regulatory framework for the production and sale oforganic products domestically. The group will review whether the current domestic
regulatory framework is fit for purpose and better understand the potential of
improving current regulations to facilitate the organic industry's development andgrowth. For more information about Australia, see the report by Ford on page 298.
While generally, certification continues to expand across the Pacific, some countries arereflecting a drop in certified land in recent years. This can be attributed to natural
disasters affecting perennial crops, such as coconuts, causing the licensees to suspend
or leave certification programs until their crops produce again. Governments are
becoming more and more interested in creating a supportive policy environment. A
significant development is regional and national agencies and development partners
increasingly recognising the value of organic agriculture as a development tool for the
Pacific islands context. The local market for organic products is expected to continue toexpand as the tourism and hospitality industries in the Pacific Islands develop theirbrand for organic and sustainability (see the chapter by Mapusua, page 302).

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The World of Organic Agriculture › Summary
OutlookThe year 2020 will be remembered for the global COVID-19 pandemic, the impact ofwhich is likely to be felt for a much longer time, writes Louise Luttikholt, executive
Director of IFOAM – Organics International. According to her, the crisis revealed thevulnerability of global food systems and that the transition to sustainable and resilient
food systems is needed; in COVID times, it almost looked as if food was regarded as
medicine. It remains to be seen if the 2021 United Nation’s Food Systems Summit,
aiming to ‘launch bold and new actions to transform the way the world produces andconsumes food’, will take these signals seriously. For more information, see the chapter
by Luttikholt on page 310.

IFOAM Organic World Congress and Statistics pre-conference
The 20th Organic World Congress (OWC), originally scheduled to take place in 2020,
will be held from September 6 to 10, 2021 in Rennes, France. In the days leading up to
the congress, delegates have the opportunity to participate in one of eight, topic-specificpre-conferences, one of them focusing on statistics. More information is available at
OWC 2021 website https://owc.ifoam.bio/2021/.

Next FiBL survey on organic agriculture worldwide
The next global organic survey will start in mid-2021; data will be published in
February 2022 and presented at the Biofach Organic Trade Fair in Nuremberg,
Germany. We will contact all relevant experts and would be very grateful if data could
be sent to us. Should you notice any errors regarding the statistical data in this volume,
please let us know; we will then correct the information in our database and provide
the corrected data in the 2022 edition of “The World of Organic Agriculture.”
Corrections will also be posted on www.organic-world.net.
Contact: helga.willer@fibl.org.

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Source: FiBL survey 2021

Infographic 1: Organic agriculture worldwide - key indicators 2019

The World of Organic Agriculture › Summary

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Organic Agriculture
Worldwide:
Current Statistics

Map 1: Organic agricultural land and non-agricultural areas in 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021

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31

Statistics › Introduction

Current Statistics on Organic Agriculture Worldwide:
Area, Operators and Market
BERNHARD SCHLATTER,1 JAN TRÁVNÍČEK,2 CLAUDIA MEIER,3 OLIVIAKELLER4 AND HELGA WILLER5
Introduction
The 22nd survey of certified organic agriculture worldwide was carried out by the
Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL in collaboration with many partners
from around the world. The results are published jointly with IFOAM – Organics
International. The survey was supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic
Affairs (SECO), the International Trade Centre (ITC),6 the Sustainability Fund of Coop
Switzerland,7 and NürnbergMesse.8

Data providers
In total, data were provided by more than 200 experts. Governments, private sector
organizations, certifiers, and market research companies have contributed to the datacollection effort.
Several international certifiers deserve special mention as they provided data on several
countries: ACO Certification, BioInspecta, CCPB, CERES, Certisys, Control Union,
Ecocert, Ecoglobe, Ekoagros, ICEA, Imocert, Kiwa BCS Oko-Garantie GmbH, LACON,LETIS, NASAA Certified Organic (NCO), Organic Agriculture Certification Thailand(ACT), Organización Internacional Agropecuaria (OIA), OneCert and Quality
Certification Services (QCS).
Our collaboration with the Inter-American Commission for Organic Agriculture(CIAO) eased data collection in Latin American and the Caribbean substantially. Data
from the Mediterranean countries were supplied by the Mediterranean Organic
Agriculture Network (MOAN, c/o Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari). Data
from the Pacific Islands was provided by the Pacific Organic and Ethical Trade

Bernhard Schlatter, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
Jan Trávníček, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
3 Claudia Meier, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
4 Olivia Keller, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
5 Dr. Helga Willer, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
6 Since 2014, data collection on organic agriculture worldwide and on further voluntary standards has been
funded by the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO)
under the project “T4SD Global Platform for Market Data on Organic Agriculture and Sustainability
Standards”. For more information on this project, see www.vss.fibl.org
7 Since 2019, the data collection on organic agriculture has been supported by the Sustainability Fund of Coop
Switzerland.
8 The organisers of BIOFACH, the World Organic Trade Fair in Nuremberg, Germany (today:
NürnbergMesse), have supported data collection on organic agriculture worldwide and the production of the
yearbook “The World of Organic Agriculture” since 2000.
1
2

32

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Introduction
Community (POET.com). Another important source covering many countries is
Eurostat. A list of all data sources and contacts is provided in the annex.

Countries covered
In total, data from 187 countries/territories were available. Updated data on the organicarea was available for 142 countries; however, for some countries, updates were only
available for the total organic area and not necessarily for the number of farms, landuse, or other indicators. For the countries for which FiBL compiles the data amongcertifiers, not all certifiers provided updated data. When no new data was available,
data from the previous survey were used.
Table 1: Countries and territories covered by the global survey on organic agriculture
2019
RegionAfricaAsia
EuropeLatin America and the
Caribbean
North America
Oceania
World

Countries* with data onorganic agriculture

Countries per
region1

Share of countries thatprovided data (%)

47
42
48

60
50
52

77%
82%
94%

35

52

73%

3
12
187

5
29
249

75%
50%
78%

Source: FiBL survey 2021
*Where the designation "country" appears in this book, it covers countries or territories, see UNSTAT
website.2

Indicators covered
Data on the following indicators were collected:−−−−

organic area and production including breakdown by crop;
livestock numbers; production data (volumes and values);
producers and further operator types;
domestic market data (total retail sales and food service sales values and volumes,
per capita consumption, share of the total market, and breakdown by product);international trade data (total import and export values and volumes, andbreakdown by product).

Not all data that was collected is published in this book (e.g., production, livestocknumbers, breakdown by product for the domestic market and international trade data)
because it was not possible to draw a complete global picture for these indicators. Moreinformation about the data collection and analysis process is available in our metadata,
which can be found on Organic Eprints https://orgprints.org/36848/).

Number of countries and areas are mostly based on countries as listed in the FAO database at
http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/RL as well as some additional countries such as Kosovo.
2 For more information on countries, territories and regions see the UNSTAT website at
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49.htm.
1

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

33

Statistics › Introduction
Challenges with the 2021 survey
With the 2021 survey, we experienced a number of challenges:− We had data in our database, for which we had not received updates or
confirmation for several years. We decided not to continue using this data after acertain point of time (e.g. from 2015 onwards), which resulted in a substantial drop
in area and producers for some countries.
− We revised some of the crop data for some countries, as the data seemed
implausible.
− We received some major data revisions for some countries, sometimes resulting ina drop of area and producers or change of crop data compared to what we hadcommunicated previously.
More information on statistics.fibl.org
Interactive tables and graphs with more details on crops, markets, and international trade,
as well as explanations for certain data can be found on FiBL’s statistics website
statistics.fibl.org.
Contact: Enquiries related to the data should be sent to Helga Willer, Research Institute ofOrganic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, e-mail helga.willer@fibl.org.

34

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › General Notes

General notes on the data
Area: Data represents certified organic land that is already fully converted as well as land underconversion because many data sources do not separate or include the latter (for instance, Austria,
Germany, and Switzerland) and because land under conversion is under organic management.
For a definition of organic agriculture, see the IFOAM – Organics International website.1
Area share of total agricultural land: In some cases, the calculation of the organic share of thetotal agricultural land or that of individual crops, based on FAOSTAT and in some cases theEurostat data, might differ from the organic shares obtained from ministries or local experts.
Producer data: Some countries report the number of smallholders, while others report only the
number of companies, projects, or grower groups, which may each comprise several producers.
This applies in particular to many African countries. The number of producers is, therefore,
probably higher than the number communicated in this report.
Market data: It should be noted that for market and trade data, comparing country statistics
remains very problematic due to differing methods of data collection. Furthermore, for market
and trade values fluctuating exchange rates must be kept in mind.
PGS: For some countries, areas certified by Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) have been
included. (For more information about PGS, see the article by Moura e Castro et al. on page 158).
Country definitions: For countries and territories, the FAO country list is used. Where thedesignation "country" appears in this report, it covers countries or territories. In most cases,
countries are groups by region according to the Standard Country and Area Classifications as
defined by the United Nations Statistics Division.
Sources: Data was gathered from private sector organizations, governments, and certification
bodies. For detailed information on the data sources, please check the annex at the end of thisvolume (page 317).
Direct year-to-year comparison: A direct year-to-year comparison is not possible for all data, as
the data sources may change, data may not be provided on an annual basis, data may have beenrevised or corrected, data access may improve, or exchange rates might change from year to year.
Completeness of data: For some countries, either no current data were available, or the data
provided may not be complete. For others, no data were available. It may, therefore, be assumed
that the extent of organic agriculture is larger than documented in this publication.
Data revisions: Data revisions and corrections are communicated at statistics.fibl.org.
Metadata: Metadata for the FiBL survey on organic agriculture worldwide are available on
Organic Eprints at https://orgprints.org/36848.

The definition of organic agriculture is available at the website of IFOAM – Organics International
www.ifoam.bio/en/organic-landmarks/definition-organic-agriculture
1

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

35

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Source: FiBL survey 2021

Infographic 2: Organic farmland 201936

Statistics › Organic Agricultural Land

Organic land
Organic agricultural land
In 2019, 72.3 million hectares were under organic agricultural management worldwide.1
The region with the most organic agricultural land is Oceania, with 35.9 million
hectares, followed by Europe with 16.5 million hectares, Latin America (8.3 million
hectares), Asia (5.9 million hectares), North America (3.6 million hectares) and Africa(2.0 million hectares).
Oceania has half of the global organic agricultural land. Europe, a region that has had
a very constant growth of organic land over the years, has over 23 percent of the world’sorganic agricultural land followed by Latin America with 12 percent (Figure 1, page
38).
Australia is the country with the most organic agricultural land (increased by +200
percent in the last decade); it is estimated that 97 percent (increased by +200 percent in
the last decade) of the farmland is extensive grazing areas. Argentina is second,
followed by Spain in third place (Figure 2, page 38). The 10 countries with the largest
organic agricultural areas have a combined total of 56.5 million hectares and constitutealmost 80 percent of the world’s organic agricultural land.
Apart from the organic agricultural land, there are further organic areas such as wildcollection areas. These areas constitute approximately 35 million hectares.
Table 2: World: Organic agricultural land (including in-conversion areas) and regions’shares of the global organic agricultural land 2019
RegionAfricaOrganic agricultural land
[hectares]

Regions’ shares of the globalorganic agricultural land

2’030’830

2.8%

Asia

5’911’622

8.2%

Europe16’528’677

22.9%

Latin America

8’292’139

11.5%

Northern America

3’647’623

5.0%

Oceania

35’881’053

49.6%

World*

72’285’656

100.0%

Source: FiBL survey 2021. Note: Agricultural land includes in-conversion areas and excludes wild collection, aquaculture,
forest, and non-agricultural grazing areas.
*Includes correction value for French overseas departments.

1 Data provided both for the fully converted and in conversion area are included in this work. However,some countries provided only data on the fully converted area, others only on the total organic agriculturalland, and thus the conversion area is not known for many countries.

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

37

Statistics › Organic Agricultural Land

Figure 1: World: Distribution of organic agricultural land by region 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

The ten countries with the largest areas of organic
agricultural land 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021

Australia

35.69

Argentina

3.67

Spain

2.35

USA

2.33

India

2.30

France

2.24

China

2.22

Uruguay

2.14

Italy

1.99

Germany

1.61
0

10

20
Million hectares

30

40

Figure 2: World: The ten countries with the largest areas of organic agricultural land
2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

38

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Organic Agricultural Land
Table 3: World: Organic agricultural land (including in-conversion areas) by country
2019 (sorted)
For an alphabetical country list, see page 313.
Country

Hectares

Country

Australia
Argentina
Spain
United States of America
India
FranceChina
Uruguay
Italy
Germany
CanadaBrazilRussian Federation
Austria
SwedenCzech Republic
GreeceTurkeyPolandUkraineUnited Kingdom
Romania
Finland
Hungary
MexicoKazakhstan
Portugal
LatviaTunisia
Denmark
Tanzania’ United Republic ofIndonesia
Lithuania
Peru
Ethiopia
Estonia
Slovakia
Thailand
UgandaSwitzerland
Philippines
Sierra Leone
Kenya
Bolivia (Plurinational State of)Dominican Republic
Bulgaria

35’687’799
3’672’350
2’354’916
2’326’551
2’299’222
2’240’797
2’216’000
2’143’640
1’993’225
1’613’785
1’321’072
1’283’054
674’370669’921613’964
540’986528’752
518’435
507’637
467’980459’275
395’228306’484
303’190301’891294’289
293’213289’796286’623285’526
278’467
251’619242’118
235’592
221’189
220’737
197’565
188’451
183’598
172’713168’352
157’531154’488
144’231
134’375
117’779

Egypt
Croatia
Belgium
New Zealand
Democratic Republic of the
Congo
GuatemalaBurkina Faso
Madagascar
Ireland
Sudan
Sri Lanka
NetherlandsCôte d'Ivoire
Pakistan
Viet Nam
Paraguay
Nigeria
Slovenia
Ecuador
NorwayNicaragua
Samoa
Togo
Azerbaijan
Timor-Leste
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
Ghana
Colombia
South Africa
Republic of Korea
Honduras
Moldova
Cambodia
Papua New Guinea
Saudi Arabia
Fiji
SerbiaChile
Syrian Arab Republic
Kyrgyzstan
Benin
Myanmar
Malawi
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Mali

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Hectares116’000
108’127
93’11988’87188’727
88’17887’49076’53073’95273’90370’43668’06866’72864’88561’90157’56655’047
49’63847’83645’31242’952
41’08338’50637’63032’47231’93731’19930’44730’21429’71129’27427’83325’757
24’696
24’51722’612
21’266
20’897
19’98719’05415’16412’94812’29411’91611’30039

Statistics › Organic Agricultural LandCountry

HectaresSão Tomé and Príncipe
Japan
Tajikistan
MoroccoTaiwanNepal
Lao People's Democratic
Republic
Costa Rica
VanuatuMozambique
BhutanSenegalIsraelCyprusPanamaLuxembourg
Iceland
Palestine
Montenegro
United Arab Emirates
Solomon Islands
North Macedonia
French Guiana (France)
Haiti
Cuba
Bangladesh
El Salvador
Bosnia and Herzegovina
LebanonFrench Polynesia
Réunion (France)
LiechtensteinGeorgia
JordanBelarus
Malaysia
RwandaComoros
Tonga
Chad
KosovoGuineaUzbekistan
Zimbabwe
Eswatini
New Caledonia
Afghanistan
Guinea-Bissau
Algeria
Albania40

10’934
10’792
10’340
9’917
9’536
9’361
8’952
8’832
8’368
7’762
6’632
6’486
6’307
6’240
5’929
5’814
5’740
5’388
4’751
4’642
4’086
3’711
3’667
3’333
2’373
2’249
1’708
1’692
1’574
1’562
1’474
1’470
1’452
1’446
1’375
1’276
1’265
1’164
1’119
1’113
1’036
1’000
932
848
843
800
786
781
772
653

Country

HectaresMartinique (France)
Armenia
Cape Verde
Guadeloupe (France)
Jamaica
Niger
Faroe Islands
Dominica
ZambiaCameroon
Channel Islands
Namibia
Suriname
GrenadaBurundiBelizeGambiaIraq
Mongolia
Malta
BahamasNiue
Oman
MayotteKuwaitUnited States Virgin Islands
Cook Islands
Singapore
Puerto Rico
Mauritius
AndorraLiberia
World*

613
594
495
492
374
254
251
240
207
204
180
112
109
84
84
77
68
63
61
55
49
43
43
41
33
26
15
15
14
6
2
2
72’285’656

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information fromthe private sector, certifiers, and governments. For
detailed data sources see annex, page 317*Total includes correction value for French overseas
departments

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Organic Agricultural Land › Organic Share
Organic share of total agricultural land
The share of the world’s agricultural land that is organic is 1.5 percent.
The highest organic share of total agricultural land, by region, is in Oceania (9.6 percent)followed by Europe with 3.3 percent and Latin America with 1.2 percent. In theEuropean Union, the organic share of the total agricultural land is 8.1 percent. In theother regions, the share is less than one percent (Table 4).
Many individual countries, however, have a much higher organic share (Table 5, page43), and in 16 countries, 10 percent or more of the agricultural land is used for organic
production. Most of these countries are in Europe. The country with the highest organic
share is Liechtenstein, with 41 percent of its agricultural land under organic
management. It is interesting to note that many island states have high shares ofagricultural land under organic management, such as Samoa and São Tomé and
Príncipe.
However, 58 percent of the countries for which data is available have less than one
percent of their agricultural land under organic management (Figure 4: World:
Distribution of the organic shares of the agricultural land 2019).
Table 4: World: Organic agricultural land (including in-conversion areas) and organic
share of total agricultural land by region 2019
RegionOrganic agri. land [ha]Share of total agri. land

Africa2’030’830

0.2%

Asia

5’911’622

0.4%

Europe16’528’677

3.3%

Latin America

8’292’139

1.2%

North America
Oceania

3’647’623
35’881’053

0.8%
9.6%

World*

72’285’656

1.5%

Source: FiBL survey 2021.
* Total includes correction value for French overseas departments.
To calculate the percentages, the data on the total agricultural land for most countries was taken from FAO’s
Statistical database on the FAOSTAT website.1 For the European Union, most data were obtained from
Eurostat. Where available, data from national sources were used for the total agricultural land (for instance,
Austria, Switzerland, and the United States), which sometimes differs from that published by Eurostat or
FAOSTAT.
Please note that the calculation of the organic shares based on Eurostat and FAOSTAT data may differ insome cases from the data published by ministries and experts.

FAOSTAT, the FAO Homepage, FAO, Rome at faostat3.fao.org > Agri-Environmental Indicators >Download http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/RL

1

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

41

Statistics › Organic Agricultural Land › Organic Share
Countries with an organic share of at least 10 percent of
the agricultural land 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021

Liechtenstein
Austria
Sao Tome and Principe
Estonia
SwedenSwitzerland
Czech Republic
Uruguay
Italy
LatviaSamoa
FinlandFrench Guiana (France)
Denmark
Slovenia
Slovakia

41.0%

26.1%
24.9%
22.3%
20.4%
16.5%
15.4%
15.3%
15.2%
14.8%
14.5%
13.5%
11.3%
10.9%
10.3%
10.3%
0%

10%

20%
30%
Share of total agricultural land

40%

50%

Figure 3: World: Countries with an organic share of the total agricultural land of atleast 10 percent 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. Calculation oforganic shares based on FAOSTAT, Eurostat, and national sources. For detailed data sources see annex, page 317

Figure 4: World: Distribution of the organic shares of the agricultural land 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. Calculation oforganic shares based on FAOSTAT, Eurostat, and national sources. For detailed data sources see annex, page 317

42

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Organic Agricultural Land › Organic Share
Table 5: World: Organic shares of total agricultural land by country 2019 (sorted)

For an alphabetical country list, see page 313.
Country
Liechtenstein
Austria
São Tomé and Príncipe
Estonia
SwedenSwitzerland
Czech Republic
Uruguay
Italy
LatviaSamoa
FinlandFrench Guiana (France)
Denmark
Slovenia
Slovakia
Australia
Germany
Spain
GreeceTimor-Leste
Faroe Islands
Portugal
Lithuania
FranceCroatia
Belgium
Hungary
Dominican Republic
Fiji
CyprusNorwayVanuatu
Luxembourg
Sierra Leone
Netherlands
Solomon Islands
PolandFrench Polynesia
Tonga
Réunion (France)
Egypt
Tunisia
Romania
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
United Kingdom
Sri Lanka
Argentina

Organic share
41.0%
26.1%
24.9%
22.3%
20.4%
16.5%
15.4%
15.3%
15.2%
14.8%
14.5%
13.5%
11.3%
10.9%
10.3%
10.3%
9.9%
9.7%
9.7%
8.7%
8.5%
8.4%
8.2%
8.1%
7.7%
7.2%
6.9%
5.7%
5.5%
5.3%
5.0%
4.6%
4.5%
4.4%
4.0%
3.7%
3.5%
3.5%
3.4%
3.2%
3.1%
3.0%
2.9%
2.9%
2.8%
2.6%
2.5%
2.5%

Country
Bulgaria
GuatemalaCanadaSingapore
Papua New Guinea
Martinique (France)
Channel Islands
Montenegro
Republic of Korea
IrelandTurkeyPhilippines
BhutanIndia
UgandaMoldova
United Arab Emirates
TaiwanPalestine
UkraineGrenadaCook Islands
IsraelTogo
Peru
Dominica
Guadeloupe (France)
Comoros
EcuadorHonduras
Niue
Thailand
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Azerbaijan
Burkina Faso
Tanzania, United Republic ofUnited States Virgin Islands
Cape Verde
SerbiaEthiopia
United States of America
Kenya
BrazilViet Nam
Costa Rica
Malta
Cambodia

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Organic share
2.3%
2.3%
2.3%
2.2%
2.1%
2.0%
2.0%
1.8%
1.8%
1.6%
1.4%
1.4%
1.3%
1.3%
1.3%
1.2%
1.2%
1.2%
1.2%
1.1%
1.1%
1.0%
1.0%
1.0%
1.0%
1.0%
1.0%
0.9%
0.9%
0.9%
0.9%
0.9%
0.8%
0.8%
0.8%
0.7%
0.7%
0.7%
0.6%
0.6%
0.6%
0.6%
0.6%
0.5%
0.5%
0.5%
0.5%
0.5%

43

Statistics › Organic Agricultural Land › Organic Share
Country

Organic share

New Caledonia
China
Indonesia
Benin
Bolivia (Plurinational State of)
Lao People's Democratic
Republic
IcelandBahamasCôte d'Ivoire
Russian Federation
North Macedonia
MexicoDemocratic Republic of the
Congo
Paraguay
PanamaKosovoJapan
Lebanon
Nepal
Tajikistan
Malawi
Ghana
MayotteMadagascar
Haiti
Kyrgyzstan
Pakistan
Syrian Arab Republic
JordanKazakhstan
Chile
Suriname
El Salvador
Sudan
MyanmarGuinea-Bissau
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Jamaica
Nigeria
SenegalRwandaEswatini
Colombia
Georgia
Albania
BelizeCuba
Armenia
Morocco

44

0.4%
0.4%
0.4%
0.4%
0.4%
0.4%
0.4%
0.3%
0.3%
0.3%
0.3%
0.3%
0.3%
0.3%
0.3%
0.2%
0.2%
0.2%
0.2%
0.2%
0.2%
0.2%
0.2%
0.2%
0.2%
0.2%
0.2%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
0.04%
0.04%
0.04%
0.03%

CountrySouth Africa
Mali
Iran (Islamic Republic of)Bangladesh
KuwaitMozambique
Belarus
Malaysia
Saudi Arabia
GambiaAndorraPuerto Rico
Guinea
MauritiusZimbabwe
BurundiUzbekistan
Oman
Chad
Cameroon
Afghanistan
Algeria
ZambiaIraq
Niger
Namibia
Liberia
Mongolia
Bermuda (Processing)Brunei Darussalam (Aquaculture)
Guyana (Wild collection)
Hong Kong (Processing)
Mauritania (Wild collection)
Monaco (Processing)
San Marino (Processing)Somalia (Wild collection)
Venezuela (Processing)Organic share
0.03%
0.03%
0.03%
0.02%
0.02%
0.02%
0.02%
0.01%
0.01%
0.01%
0.01%
0.01%
0.01%
0.01%
0.01%
0.004%
0.004%
0.003%
0.002%
0.002%
0.002%
0.002%
0.001%
0.001%
0.001%
0.0003%0.0001%0.0001%

World

1.5%

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information fromthe private sector, certifiers, and governments.
Calculation of organic shares based on FAOSTAT,
Eurostat, and national sources. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Organic Agricultural Land › Development
Growth of the organic agricultural landCompared with 1999, when 11 million hectares were organic, organic agricultural land
has increased more than six-fold (Figure 5: World: Growth of the organic agriculturalland and organic share 1999-2019). In 2019, 1.1 million hectares, or 1.6 percent, more
were reported compared with 2018. Many countries reported a significant increase, forinstance, India (18.6 percent increase; over 0.36 million hectares more) and France (10.1
percent increase; almost 0.21 million hectares more). In addition, Ukraine (51.4 percent
increase; almost 0.16 million hectares more) and Mexico (almost 0.12 million hectares
more) reported significant increases (Figure 7: World: The ten countries with thehighest increase of organic agricultural land 2019).
In 2019, the organic agricultural land increased Africa, Europe, Latin America andNorthern America (Table 6). The agricultural area decreased in Asia (-7.1 percent, -0.45
million hectares; mainly due to a drop in organic farmland reported from China) andOceania (-0.3 percent, -0.12 million hectares). The highest absolute growth was inEurope (+5.9 percent, +0.9 million hectares), followed by Northern America (+9.1
percent, +0.30 million hectares) and Latin America (+3.5 percent, +0.28 million hectares).
Ninety countries experienced an increase in the area of their organic agricultural land,
while a decrease was reported in 48 countries. In 41 countries, the organic agriculturalarea either did not change, or no new data was received.
The figures shown in the following tables and graphs with historical figures may differ
from what was previously communicated, as data revisions were received andincluded in the FiBL database.
Table 6: World: Organic agricultural land (including in-conversion areas) by region:
growth 2018-2019 and 10 years growth
RegionOrganic
agri. land
2018
[ha]

Organic
agri. land
2019
[ha]

1 year
growth[ha]

1 year
growth [%]10 years
growth[ha]

10 years
growth [%]Africa1’854’646

2’030’830

176’1849.5%

958’706

89.4%

Asia

6’364’778

5’911’622-453’156-7.1%

3’453’707

140.5%

Europe15’607’636

16’528’677

921’0425.9%

6’499’896

64.8%

Latin America

8’008’581

8’292’139

283’5593.5%

752’496

10.0%

North America

3’342’849

3’647’623

304’774

9.1%

1’174’944

47.5%

Oceania

35’999’373

35’881’053-118’320-0.3%

23’735’998

195.4%

World*

71’172’783

72’285’656

1’112’873

1.6%

36’571’729

102.4%

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on data from government bodies, the private sector, and certifiers. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317* Total includes correction value for French Overseas Departments.

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

45

Statistics › Organic Agricultural Land › Development
Growth of the organic agricultural land and organic share
1999-201970

Million hectares

60
50
40
30
20
10
0

1.6%
1.4%
1.2%
1.0%
0.8%
0.6%
0.4%

Organic share in percent

80

1999 11.0
0.3%
2000
15.0 0.3%
2001
17.3
0.4%
2002
19.9 0.4%
2003
25.8 0.5%
2004
30.0 0.6%
2005
29.2 0.6%
2006
30.2 0.6%
2007
31.5
0.7%
2008
34.5 0.7%
2009
36.3
0.8%
2010
35.7
0.8%
2011
36.7
0.8%
2012
36.8
0.8%
2013
43.1 0.9%
2014
48.7 1.0%
2015
50.4 1.0%
2016
58.1 1.2%
2017
69.4 1.4%
2018
71.2
1.5%
2019
72.3
1.5%

Source: FiBL-IFOAM-SOEL-Surveys 2001-2021

0.2%
0.0%

Figure 5: World: Growth of the organic agricultural land and organic share 1999-2019
Source: FiBL-IFOAM-SOEL surveys 2001-2021

Figure 6: World: Growth of the organic agricultural land by continent 2011 to 2019
Source: FiBL-IFOAM-SOEL surveys 2012-2021

46

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Organic Agricultural Land › Development
The ten countries with the highest increase of organic land
2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021

India

361’002USA

295’273

France205’773

Bolivia205’746

Ukraine158’880

Mexico118’666

Spain

108’441

Kazakhstan102’156

Brazil94’799Hungary

93’808’0

100’000

200’000
Hectares300’000

Figure 7: World: The ten countries with the highest increase of organic agriculturalland 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on data from government bodies, the private sector, and certifiers. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

Table 7: World: Development of organic agricultural land by country 2018-2019
Important note: A direct year-to-year and 10 years comparison is not always possible for many countries,
because the data sources may have changed over the years, or data access may have improved. The figures
published here may differ from previously published data due to data revisions. Data are not available for all
countries for every year and; in these cases, the figure for the previous year is used (see also page 317). On
statistics.fibl.org data back to 2000 is available.1

1Country

Organic
agri. land2018 [ha]Organic
agri. land2019 [ha]1 year
growth[ha]

1 year
growth[%]10 years
growth[ha]

10 years
growth[%]Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
AndorraArgentina
Armenia
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
BahamasBangladesh
BelarusBelgium
Belize
Benin

786
747
772
2
3’629’968
694
35’687’799
637’805
37’630
49
2’249
1’361
89’025220
16’454

786
653
772
2
3’672’350
594
35’687’799
669’92137’630
49
2’249
1’375
93’11977
15’1640-94
0042’382-99
0
32’116
0
0
0
14
4’094
-143
-1’2890.0%-12.5%
0.0%
0.0%
1.2%
-14.3%
0.0%
5.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
1.0%
4.6%
-65.0%
-7.8%

725
369
149
0
-502’124-156
23’686’075
101’728
16’284
49
1’450
1’375
33’899-399
13’9971182.4%129.9%
23.9%
0.0%-12.0%-20.7%
197.4%
17.9%
76.3%
181.5%
57.2%-83.9%
1198.9%The data is available at http://www.organic-world.net/statistics/statistics-data-tables.html.
FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

47

Statistics › Organic Agricultural Land › Development
Country

BhutanBolivia (Plurinational State
of)
Bosnia and Herzegovina
BrazilBulgaria
Burkina Faso
BurundiCambodia
Cameroon
CanadaCape Verde
Chad
Channel Islands
Chile
China
Colombia
Comoros
Cook Islands
Costa Rica
Côte d'Ivoire
Croatia
Cuba
CyprusCzech Republic
Democratic Republic of theCongo
Denmark
Dominica
Dominican Republic
EcuadorEgypt
El Salvador
Estonia
Eswatini
Ethiopia
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
Faroe Islands
Fiji
FinlandFranceFrench Guiana (France)
French Polynesia
GambiaGeorgia
Germany
Ghana
GreeceGrenadaGuadeloupe (France)
GuatemalaGuineaGuinea-Bissau
GuyanaHaiti
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
India

48

Organic
agri. land2018 [ha]Organic
agri. land2019 [ha]1 year
growth[ha]

1 year
growth[%]10 years
growth[ha]

10 years
growth[%]6’632
114’306

6’632
144’2310
29’925

0.0%
26.2%

6’632
32’12328.7%

896
1’188’255
128’853
56’66381
27’550
1’089
1’311’572
495

796
94’799-11’074
30’8273-1’793
-885
9’501
0
1’113
0
4’592
-919’000
8’133
-978
-9
-132
16’154
4’961-3’808218
2’093
28’103

88.8%
8.0%
-8.6%
54.4%
3.3%
-6.5%
-81.3%
0.7%
0.1%

180
16’3053’135’000
22’314
2’142
24
8’964
50’574103’166
6’181
6’022
538’894
60’624

1’692
1’283’054
117’779
87’49084
25’757204
1’321’072
495
1’113
180
20’897
2’216’000
30’447
1’164
15
8’832
66’728108’1272’373
6’240
540’986
88’727

1’112
350’934
92’13173’688-266
17’673-292
617’394
495
1’113
-180
-10’800
1’126’000-2’887119-2-2’28248’594
84’775267
2’665
92’78456’204

256’711240
169’026
41’793116’000
1’679
206’590186
197’503
31’937251
41’154297’4422’035’024
3’103
1’512
20
1’452
1’521’314
29’663492’62784
272
14’00010835

285’526240
134’375
47’836116’000
1’708
220’737843
221’189
31’937251
22’612306’484
2’240’797
3’667
1’562
68
1’452
1’613’785
31’199528’75284492
88’178
1’000
781

4’403
29’274209’382
24’855
1’938’221

3’333
29’274303’190
5’740
2’299’222

28’815
0-34’651
6’043
0
29
14’147657
23’68600-18’5429’042
205’773564
49
48
0
92’471
1’536
36’1250220
74’178990-53
0-1’070093’808-19’115361’002

0.0%
28.2%-29.3%
36.4%-45.6%-35.5%
-1.5%
31.9%
4.8%
-61.6%
3.6%
0.4%
46.4%
11.2%
0.0%
-20.5%
14.5%
0.0%
1.7%
6.8%
353.7%
12.0%
0.0%
0.0%
-45.1%
3.0%
10.1%
18.2%
3.3%
243.5%
0.0%
6.1%
5.2%
7.3%
0.0%
80.9%
529.8%
9900.0%-6.4%-24.3%
0.0%
44.8%-76.9%
18.6%

122’623240-30’734-16’91533’833-5’029107’765837
83’993-366’869-2
22’512137’316
1’395’355
1’891
-165
68
51
623’083
18’564218’929-1465
74’803
1’000
781-4’2493’199
11’449175’585-66
1’519’222

191.7%
37.6%
359.2%
533.9%-76.1%
218.6%-59.0%
87.7%-50.0%-34.1%
103.3%-8.7%
11.4%-13.5%-20.5%
268.0%
363.0%
12.7%
74.5%
20.7%
172.8%
75.3%-18.6%-26.1%
41.2%-74.6%
95.4%
14427.2%
61.2%-92.0%-0.7%
22511.8%
81.2%
165.0%
106.5%-9.6%

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

3.6%
62.9%
146.9%
70.7%-1.7%
1722.2%559.3%-100.0%2378.9%64.2%+137.0%-1.1%
194.8%

Statistics › Organic Agricultural Land › Development
Country

Organic
agri. land2018 [ha]Organic
agri. land2019 [ha]1 year
growth[ha]

1 year
growth[%]10 years
growth[ha]

10 years
growth[%]Indonesia
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Iraq
IrelandIsraelItaly
JamaicaJapan
JordanKazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
KosovoKuwaitKyrgyzstan
Lao People's Democratic
Republic
LatviaLebanonLesothoLiberia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Madagascar
MalawiMalaysia
Mali
Malta
Martinique (France)
Mauritius
MayotteMexicoMoldova
Mongolia
Montenegro
MoroccoMozambique
Myanmar251’631
11’916
63
118’699
6’666
1’958’045
374
10’792
1’446
192’134
154’488
1’600
160
22
36’7497’668

251’619
11’91663
73’952
6’307
1’993’225
374
10’792
1’446
294’289
154’488-1200-44’747-359
35’18000
0102’1560-1’600876
11-17’695
1’284

0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
-37.7%
-5.4%
1.8%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
53.2%
0.0%
-100.0%547.5%
51.2%-48.2%
16.7%

180’505
4’660
63
26’088-2’487879’483
-168
1’725
-23
160’727
149’646
0
1’036
33
4’014
2’946

253.8%
64.2%

9’413
333
-1
0
57
2’427

123’476347
02
450
98’474
0.6%
56’242
11’471-305-3’899
31
422
-29
41
-30’594-4’27261
1’190-7’1132’243
12’889-12-429
21’835800-35’593
9’330
206
43’069-116-31’453-11’9073
42’782-966
2’687
21’540
6’376
18’83688’360-14’333

Namibia
Nepal
Netherlands
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Niue
North Macedonia
NorwayOman
Pakistan
Palestine
PanamaPapua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland280’383
1’241
1
2
1’413
239’691
5’782
48’757
12’3999’576
12’65547398
3
35
183’225
17’151
636
4’455
9’917
14’93312’30566
9’361
63’80994
88’87134’787254
54’59043
4’409
46’37743
64’8854’870
5’929
49’57342’818311’461
218’570484’676

1’036
33
19’054
8’952
289’796
1’574

76’530
12’294
1’276
11’30055613
6
41
301’891
27’833
61
4’751
9’917
7’762
12’94827’773-105-8’300-1’3558215
3
6
118’666
10’682-574
297
0-7’172
643

3.4%
26.8%
-100.0%
0.0%
4.0%
1.0%
32
57.0%
-0.8%
-86.7%-10.7%
16.5%
54.0%
132.0%
17.1%
64.8%
62.3%
-90.4%
6.7%
0.0%-48.0%
5.2%

112
9’361
68’068800
88’87142’952254
55’04743
3’711
45’31243
64’8855’388
5’929
24’696
57’566
235’592
168’352507’637

46
0
4’259
706
0
8’165
0
457
0
-698
-1’06500518
0-24’878
14’748-75’869-50’218
22’961

69.7%
0.0%
6.7%
751.1%
0.0%
23.5%
0.0%
0.8%
0.0%
-15.8%
-2.3%
0.0%
0.0%
10.6%
0.0%
-50.2%
34.4%-24.4%-23.0%
4.7%

2
1’470
242’118
5’814

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

54.5%
-28.3%
79.0%-31.0%
19.0%-1.5%
120.3%
3090.4%

26.7%
49.1%
74.2%
28.3%

44.1%
68.6%
2’094
277.2%
1392.6%-19.3%-25.7%
129.2%
220.9%-83.3%-9.2%-13.3%
33.4%-41.8%
40.6%
21520.4%
-9.7%
-4.4%
47.2%
-28.6%
27.8%
428.3%
359.5%-72.8%-89.4%-20.8%
8.6%
193.6%-15.2%
82.9%
682.5%
12.5%
8.7%
110.5%-2.7%

49

Statistics › Organic Agricultural Land › Development
Country

Organic
agri. land2018 [ha]Organic
agri. land2019 [ha]1 year
growth[ha]

1 year
growth[%]10 years
growth[ha]

10 years
growth[%]Portugal
Puerto Rico
Republic of Korea
Réunion (France)
Romania
Russian Federation
RwandaSamoa
São Tomé and Príncipe
Saudi Arabia
SenegalSerbiaSierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
South Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Suriname
SwedenSwitzerland
Syrian Arab Republic
TaiwanTajikistan
Tanzania’ United Republic of

213’11814
24’700
1’272
326’260
606’975
2’130
97’656
10’93418’631
7’989
19’25599’2383
188’986
47’8484’714
23’2782’246’475
77’16976’941
94
608’758
160’992
19’9878’759
8’806
278’467

293’21314
29’711
1’474
395’228674’370
1’265
41’083
10’93424’517
6’486
21’266
157’53115
197’565
49’638
4’086
30’2142’354’916
70’43673’903
109613’964
172’713
19’987
9’536
10’340278’467

80’0950
5’011
202
68’96867’395-865-56’573
0
5’886-1’504
2’011
58’293
12
8’579
1’790
-628
6’936
108’441-6’733-3’03816
5’206
11’721
0
777
1’534
0

37.6%
0.0%
20.3%
15.9%
21.1%
11.1%
-40.6%-57.9%
0.0%
31.6%-18.8%
10.4%
58.7%
461.5%
4.5%
3.7%-13.3%
29.8%
4.8%
-8.7%
-3.9%
16.6%
0.9%
7.3%
0.0%
8.9%
17.4%
0.0%

92’15914
14’193
1’197
212’522630’353-2’33531’3696’524-17’859-21’689
12’631
92’27915
23’09418’942
2’780-25’406898’244
48’17720’301
98
175’271
61’199
0
6’575
9’949
205’802

45.8%

Thailand
Timor-Leste
Togo
Tonga
Tunisia
TurkeyUgandaUkraineUnited Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States of America
United States Virgin Islands
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Viet Nam
ZambiaZimbabwe
World*

95’06663’88241’323685
286’623646’247
183’598309’100
4’687
457’377
2’031’277
26
2’147’083
943
25’64851’3591’228
415
71’172’783

188’451
32’47238’506
1’119
286’623518’435
183’598467’980
4’642
459’275
2’326’551
26
2’143’640
932
8’368
61’901
207848
72’285’656

93’385-31’410-2’817434
0-127’8120
158’880-45
1’898
295’2730-3’443-11-17’280
10’542-1’021433
1’112’873

98.2%-49.2%
-6.8%
63.4%
0.0%
-19.8%
0.0%
51.4%
-0.9%
0.4%
14.5%
0.0%
-0.2%
-1.2%
-67.4%
20.5%-83.2%
104.3%
1.6%

154’372
7’722
35’097
1’119
111’557
134’653-44’821
197’754
4’282-240’363
557’55026
1’212’675
867
5’680
42’629-3’395-1’14736’571’729

91.5%
432.1%
116.3%
1432.1%-64.9%
322.9%
147.9%-42.1%-77.0%
146.3%
141.4%
13.2%
61.7%
212.9%-45.7%
61.7%
216.4%
37.9%
891.4%
40.0%
54.9%
0.0%
222.0%
2546.3%283.2%
453.0%
31.2%
1029.5%
63.7%
35.1%-19.6%
73.2%
1189.6%-34.4%
31.5%
130.3%
1333.2%211.3%
221.2%-94.3%-57.5%
102.4%

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see previous editions of “The World of Organic Agriculture” and annex, page 317*Total includes correction value for French overseas departments.

50

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › All Organic Areas
Further organic areas
Apart from land dedicated to organic agriculture, there are further areas of organic land
dedicated to other activities. The largest part of these are wild collection areas and areas
for beekeeping. Further non-agricultural areas include aquaculture, forests, andgrazing areas on non-agricultural land. These areas totalled 35.0 million hectares, andall the organic areas together summed up to 107.4 million hectares.
It should be noted that many countries do not report non-agricultural organic areas.
We can, therefore, assume that the data on the other areas are incomplete, in particular,
the data on aquaculture and forests.
For organic aquaculture and beekeeping, other indicators (production and number ofbeehives) are more relevant than the area, and the significance of organic aquaculture
and beekeeping cannot be measured in hectares (Table 22: Number of organic beehives
by country 2019, Table 24: Organic aquaculture: Production volume by country 2019).
While some area data on aquaculture are available, it should be noted that it is notcomplete.
For more information on aquaculture and beekeeping, see pages 87 and 84. Moreinformation on the use of the wild collection areas is available in the corresponding
chapter, page 79.

Figure 8: World: Distribution of all organic areas 2019. Total: 107.4 million hectares
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

51

Statistics › All Organic Areas
Table 8: World: Organic areas: Agricultural land (including conversion areas) andfurther organic areas by region in 2019
RegionAgriculture [ha]Africa2’030’830

Asia

5’911’622

Europe16’528’677

Latin
America
Northern
America

8’292’138

Aquaculture[ha]

Forest [ha]Grazednon-agri.
land [ha]Wildcollection[ha]*

Other nonagri. land
[ha]

Total
[ha]

50’29522’595

16’341’099

3’028

18’447’847

123

20’0003’222’620

5’156

106’195

19’563568

10’613’341

40’007

2’750

4’593’699

9’265’716
27’162’684

23’09012’952’253

3’647’623

24’1193’671’742

Oceania

35’881’053

112

35’881’165

World**

72’285’656

106’762

109’988

45’34534’794’989

31’275107’375’118

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317; Blank cells: No data available.
*Wild collection and beekeeping areas; **Total includes correction value for French overseas departments.

Table 9: World: Organic areas: Agricultural land (including conversion areas) andfurther organic areas by country 2019
Agriculture[ha]Country
Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
AndorraArgentina
Armenia
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
BahamasBangladesh
BelarusBelgium
BelizeBenin
BhutanBolivia (Plurinational
State of)Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
BrazilBulgaria
Burkina Faso
BurundiCambodia
Cameroon
CanadaCape Verde
Chad
Channel Islands
Chile
China
Colombia
Comoros
Cook Islands
Costa Rica
Côte d'Ivoire
Croatia
Cuba
CyprusCzech Republic

52

786
653
772
2
3’672’350
594
35’687’799
669’92137’630
49
2’249
1’375
93’11977
15’164
6’632

Aquaculture[ha]Grazednonagri.
land
[ha]

Wild
collection
[ha]*

Other
nonagri.
land[ha]

20’900
8’570
123

123

1’063

2

946’897
3

5’781

7’746
1’455’835
11’5792
1’701’438
307’020265’582
112’000
24’1195’800
489

93’079
1’549’800
7’320

Total [ha]786645’695
1’400
2
3’693’250
9’164
35’687’799
669’92138’93949
8’030
948’273
93’12177
15’16414’378645’042628

144’231
1’692
1’283’054
117’779
87’49084
25’757204
1’321’072
495
1’113
180
20’897
2’216’000
30’447
1’164
15
8’832
66’728108’1272’373
6’240
540’986

Forest[ha]

23’0901’600’066
13’2712
2’984’492
424’799353’07284
25’757112’204
1’345’191
495
6’913
180
114’465
3’765’800
60’858
1’164
15
8’832
66’728108’1272’373
6’240
540’986

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › All Organic Areas
Country
Democratic Republic of
the Congo
Denmark
Dominica
Dominican Republic
EcuadorEgypt
El Salvador
Estonia
Eswatini
Ethiopia
Falkland Islands(Malvinas)
Faroe Islands
Fiji
FinlandFranceFrench Guiana (France)
French Polynesia
GambiaGeorgia
Germany
Ghana
GreeceGrenadaGuadeloupe (France)
GuatemalaGuineaGuinea-Bissau
GuyanaHaiti
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Iraq
IrelandIsraelItaly
JamaicaJapan
JordanKazakhstan
Kenya
KosovoKuwaitKyrgyzstan
Lao People's
Democratic Republic
LatviaLebanonLesothoLiberia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Madagascar
MalawiMalaysia
Mali
Malta
Martinique (France)
Mauritania
Mauritius
MayotteMexicoMoldova
Mongolia
Montenegro
MoroccoMozambique
MyanmarNamibia
Nepal

Agriculture[ha]

88’727285’526240
134’375
47’836116’000
1’708
220’737843
221’189

Aquaculture[ha]

Forest[ha]Grazednonagri.
land
[ha]

Wild
collection
[ha]*

Other
nonagri.
land
[ha]

2’648
79

40’007

1’000
104’305564
7’629

31’937251
22’612306’484
2’240’797
3’667
1’562
68
1’452
1’613’785
31’199528’75284492
88’1781’000
781

04’600’000

215
51’720317’053
147’234
1’075
55’4493’333
29’274303’190
5’741
2’299’222
251’619
11’91663
73’952
6’307
1’993’225
374
10’792
1’446
294’289
154’488
1’036
33
19’05420’0001’370’579
18’41250’219236703’886
179’580
13’4798’952
289’796
1’574

17’068259
1’667’0282
1’470
242’118
5’814
76’530
12’294
1’276
11’30055613

12’195
9’254
2’800

6
41
301’891
27’833
61
4’752
9’917
7’762
12’948112
9’361

952’755
1’845

20

143’410268’129
1’287’690
2’609’108
24’422

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Total [ha]88’727288’174240
134’375
88’921116’000
1’708
325’0421’406
228’818
31’937251
22’6124’906’484
2’241’903
3’667
1’562
68
1’667
1’613’785
82’919845’805
84492
235’4122’075
781
55’4493’333
29’274303’190
5’741
3’669’801
270’031
82’13563
73’952
6’309
1’993’225
410
10’792
1’446
294’289858’374
180’61633
32’53326’020289’796
1’833
1’667’0282
1’470
242’118
5’814
88’725
12’294
1’276
20’554
55
612
2’800
6
41
1’254’646
29’67861
148’161278’046
1’295’452
12’9682’609’220
33’78353

Statistics › All Organic Areas
Agriculture[ha]Country
Netherlands
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Niue
North Macedonia
NorwayOman
Pakistan
Palestine
PanamaPapua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
PolandPortugal
Puerto Rico
Republic of Korea
Réunion (France)
Romania
Russian Federation
RwandaSamoa
São Tomé and Príncipe
Saudi Arabia
SenegalSerbiaSierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
SomaliaSouth Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Suriname
SwedenSwitzerland
Syrian Arab Republic
TaiwanTajikistan
Tanzania’ United
Republic ofThailand
Timor-Leste
Togo
Tonga
Tunisia
TurkeyUgandaUkraineUnited Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States ofAmerica
United States Virgin
Islands
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Viet Nam
ZambiaZimbabwe
World**

Aquaculture[ha]

68’068800
88’87142’952254
55’04743
3’711
45’31243
64’8855’388
5’929
24’696
57’565235’592
168’352507’637
293’21314
29’711
1’474
395’228674’370
1’265
41’083
10’93424’517
6’486
21’265157’53115
197’565
49’638
4’086
30’2152’354’916
70’43673’903
109613’964
172’71219’987
9’536
10’340278’467
188’451
32’47238’506
1’119
286’623518’435
183’598467’980
4’642
459’275

Forest[ha]Grazednonagri.
land
[ha]

Wild
collection
[ha]*

Other
nonagri.
land
[ha]

93
112
556’600
44’620

2’750
19’533

158’560
40’0001’787’548
158’052
42’37741’06413’238887

822’300
1’778’702
38’184451

604’718

3’028

8’000
2
2’403’700
90’716

269

5’156

6’470
48’956

22’59529

48’958180’336
78’684580’000

2’326’551
26
2’143’640
932
8’368
61’901
207848
72’285’656

Total [ha]68’068800
88’87143’045254
55’047155
560’308
45’312
43
109’505
5’388
5’929
24’696
57’565396’902
168’352507’637352’74614
29’711
1’474
2’182’776
832’42243’642
41’083
10’93424’517
47’54921’265157’53115
197’565
62’876
4’086
822’300
1’812’833
2’393’100
70’436679’073109
613’964
172’71227’987
9’538
10’3402’682’167
284’592
32’472
44’976
1’119
407’132698’771262’282
1’048’009
4’642
459’275
2’326’551

5’000
100’000
106’762

109’988

45’34512’4503’200’000
309’037
34’794’989

31’27526
2’143’640
5’932
8’368
174’351
3’200’207
309’885
107’375’118

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317 ; Blank cells: No data available.
*Wild collection and beekeeping areas, **Total includes correction value for French overseas departments.

54

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and BonnFiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Source: FiBL survey 2021

Infographic 3: Organic producers 2019

Statistics › All Organic Areas

55

Statistics › Producers and Other Operators

Organic producers and other operator types
Producers
There were more than 3.1 million organic producers worldwide. According to the dataobtained, over 91 percent of the producers are in Asia, Africa, and Europe (Table 10).
The country with the most organic producers is India, followed by Uganda andEthiopia (Figure 9: World: Distribution of organic producers by region 2019 (Total: 3.1
million producers).
Reporting precise figures on the number of organic farms remains difficult as somecountries:− report only the numbers of companies, projects, or grower groups, which may
each comprise many individual producers;− do not provide data on the number of producers at all;− include collectors in case there are wild collection areas, and− provide the number of producers per crop, and there may be overlaps for thosegrowers who grow several crops.
The number of producers should, therefore, be treated with caution, and it may be
assumed that the total number of organic producers is higher than that reported here.
There is a challenge with the number of producers in some countries, as some certifiers
provide data on all producers, including smallholders, whereas other certifiers provide
data on the certificates only. This problem became particularly marked in the case of
Mexico, where the data source changed in 2018, and the new source did not include thesmallholder farmers, resulting in a major drop of organic producers in Mexico and
Latin America as a whole. There has been an increase in the number of producers ofmore than 347’000, or 12.5 percent, compared to 2018. In all continents, with the
exception of Latin America and Oceania, the number of producers increased.
Table 10: World: Development of the numbers of producers by region 2018 to 20192018 [no.]2019 [no.]1 year
growth[no.]1 year
growth[%]10 years
growth[no.]

10 years
growth[%]Africa786’808

850’490

63’682

8.1%

315’275

58.9%

Asia

1’307’220

1’589’563

282’343

21.6%

1’127’789

244.2%

Europe419’019430’742

11’723

2.8%

157’419

57.6%

Latin America

227’609

224’388-3’221-1.4%-44’336-16.5%

RegionNorth
America

20’00822’153

2’145

10.7%

5’234

30.9%

Oceania

20’85918’416-2’443-11.7%

9’933

117.1%

World

2’781’523

3’135’129

353’606

12.7%

1’570’832

100.4%

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

56

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Producers and Other Operators

Figure 9: World: Distribution of organic producers by region 2019 (Total: 3.1 million
producers)
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

The ten countries with the most organic producers 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021

India

1’366’226

Uganda (2016)

210’353

Ethiopia (2015)

203’602

Tanzania (2013)

148’609

Thailand

118’985

Peru

80’785

Turkey74’545Italy

70’561

Madagascar

69’505Togo

48’4430500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

Number of producers

Figure 10: World: The ten countries with the largest numbers of organic producers
2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

57

Statistics › Producers and Other Operators
Further operator types
Regarding data on further operator types, there are over 105’000 processors andapproximately 7’300 importers, most of them in Europe. However, not all countries
reported the number of processors, exporters, importers, or other operator types. For
instance, data for the United States is missing, and it can be assumed that the numberof processors, importers, and exporters is far higher than what is indicated in Table 11.
Further operator types reported were beekeepers, exporters, importers, smallholder
groups, and aquaculture enterprises as well as the number of collectors (wildcollection).
Table 11: World: Organic producers and other operator types by country 2019
For many countries (particularly those with no private or governmental data collection system), data on thevarious operator types are missing or incomplete.
Country

Data year

Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
AndorraArgentina
Armenia
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
BahamasBangladesh
BelarusBelgium
BelizeBenin
BermudaBhutanBolivia (Plurinational State of)Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
BrazilBulgaria
Burkina Faso

BurundiCambodia

2018
2019
2019
2015
2016
2019
2016
2019
2019
2016
2018
2019
2015
2016
2017
2018
2018
2019
2019
2018
2019
2017
2019
2017
2018
2019
2018
2019
2019
2018
2019
2018
2017
2018
2019
2019
2018

Producers1

Processors

1
86

1
8

Importers

Exporters
5

1
64

3
3

1’269
29

462

1’829
26’042
305
1
2

2’077
1’691
50
1

24
7
2’394

24

99

157
4’028
1’142
4’354
14’16125186
1
15
22’1766’213
19’402
2
9’810
25

1’585
1

161

299

58
50

4

1
7
304

24
1
1
7’619
23
51
1
10
35
234
96
2
20
1

153
1
18

2
233
20

26

Some countries report only the numbers of companies, projects or growers groups, which my eachcompromise a number of producers.
1

58

25
2

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

1
7
1
4
71

1
13

Statistics › Producers and Other Operators
Country
Cameroon
CanadaCape Verde
Chad
China
Chile
Colombia
Comoros
Cook Islands
Costa Rica
Côte d'Ivoire
Croatia
Cuba
CyprusCzech Republic
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Denmark

Dominican Republic
EcuadorEgypt
El Salvador
Estonia
Eswatini
Ethiopia
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
Faroe Islands
Fiji
FinlandFranceFrench Guiana (France)
French Polynesia
GambiaGeorgia
Germany
Ghana
GreeceGrenadaGuadeloupe (France)
GuatemalaGuineaGuinea-Bissau
GuyanaHaiti
HondurasHong Kong
Hungary

Data year

Producers1

Processors

2019
2017
2019
2019
2017
2016
2013
2019
2018
2019
2019
2019
2019
2017
2019
2019
2018
2019
2019
2019
2019

6’350
499
5’677
1

57
44
1’710
1
3
3’865

2015
2018
2019
2014
2019
2019
2019
2019
2019
2019
2015
2019
2019
2019
2019
2019
2019
2019
2019
2019
2014
2015
2019
2017
2019
2019
2018
2019
2019
2011
2014
2017
2019
2018
2018
2019
2009
2017
2017
2019

6’308
781
3’496
659
851
58
54
2’770
135
5’153
1
8
1’252
4’694
34’613

Importers

22
19

66

202
58
12
7
42
30
17
395
4
61
802
20

Exporters

1
3
1’198
88
89
21
7

22

14
311

49
25
3
3
1
1
163
17
99

94
4’109
16’31113’744
970
380
2’060
2
203’602

1’092
152
190
242
10
173
2

14

38

150
3
1
13
5’129
47’196
84
59
1

136
233
242
16
2
31

1
399
19’311
10

63
662

20

1
2

1’075
34’1363’147
52
30’12423

16’162
22
29
1’642

103

5
10
23

1’831

44

1’288
20
31
52

92

6’346
1
4’631
2

3
1
1
1
1
1

3
1
1
7
1
25

6’023
5’136

1
523

44

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

59

Statistics › Producers and Other Operators
Country

Data year

Producers1

Processors

Importers

Iceland
India
Indonesia

2019
2019
2017
2018
2019
2019
2016
2017
2019
2019
2016
2019
2018
2016
2017
2015
2017
2018
2019
2018
2019
2019
2019
2019
2011
2019
2017
2019
2019
2019
2019
2019
2019
2017
2019
2018
2019
2019
2017
2019
2019
2017
2019
2019
2018
2019
2019
2019

26
1’366’226
17’836
326

20
1’667
120
655
5
50

2

112
393

Namibia
Nepal

2019
2019
2016
2018
2018
2019
2018
2019
2019
2017

Netherlands
New Zealand

2018
2019
2018

Iran (Islamic Republic of)
IrelandIsraelItaly
JamaicaJapan
JordanKazakhstan

Kenya
KosovoKuwaitKyrgyzstan
Lao People's Democratic Republic
LatviaLebanonLesothoLiberia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Madagascar
MalawiMalaysia
Mali
Malta
Martinique (France)
Mauritania
Mauritius
MayotteMexicoMoldova
MonacoMongolia
Montenegro
MoroccoMozambique
Myanmar60

24

Exporters

224
28
24

1’725
350
70’561
127

26
144
21’940

78
527

3’678

4
3’361

302

23

5

2
48
741

4
7
10
19
12
37’295
200
1
1’051
1’342
823
4’178
122
3
1
47
2’417
105
1’728
67’7771
431
12’272
24
80
19
11

1
6
22
4
35
1
9

2
15

1

1
51
69
3

10
5

124
101

3
7

196
1
4
34
13
7
21
1
5

21
2

1

0

148
1
4
13
16

14
1
5
24
3

52

1
11
75

277
149

12

48
13
983

81
15

1’867
876

8
1
6
1

1

39
36’587
241

32

6
1’021
304

215
2
10
27
1
1

462
29

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

120
94

Statistics › Producers and Other Operators
Country

Data year

Nicaragua

2009
2019
2017
2017
2018
2019
2019
2019
2013
2019
2018
2019
2011
2018
2019
2015
2019
2018
2019
2019
2019

Niger
Nigeria

North Macedonia
NorwayOman
Pakistan
Palestine
PanamaPapua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
PolandPortugal
Puerto Rico
Republic of Korea
Réunion (France)
Romania
Russian Federation

RwandaSaint Lucia
Samoa
San Marino
São Tomé and Príncipe
Saudi Arabia
SenegalSerbiaSeychelles
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
SomaliaSouth Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Suriname
SwedenSwitzerland

2019
2015
2016
2016
2019
2019
2019
2016
2017
2019
2018
2019
2019
2019
2018
2017
2015
2019
2013
2017
2019
2018
2019
2019
2019
2017
2018
2019
2019
2017
2019
2019
2019
2018
2019
2019
2018
2019
2019
2017

Producers1

Processors

Importers

Exporters

30
10’448
2
310
9
817
1’976
4
1
415
1’449

61
1

18
23
428

125
46
2

18
12’458

5

5’122

24

80’78512’03718’655

59
20
636

5’637

933
2

5
94

2
3
7

37
4
6
23
80
33
238

39
256

41

34

24

15

5
729
18’199
38
9’277
6
51
6’990
1
1’875
3’563

41
191
1

6
8
4
10

38
19
1
2
3

2
5
2

244
18’369
19
6
373
5’502

802
3’823
1’127

154
41’838
2’338
5
39
5’730

4
123
1
3
6
85

15
51

6
22

142

27

1
4
193
5’230

10
364

681
3
1
2
1’117
1’289

3

3
3
1
3
10
1

4
113
137
312
10
2
1

257
548

19
18

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

61

Statistics › Producers and Other Operators
Country
Syrian Arab Republic
TaiwanTajikistan
Tanzania’ United Republic ofThailand
Timor-Leste
Togo

Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
TurkeyUgandaUkraineUnited Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States of America
United States Virgin Islands
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)Viet Nam
ZambiaZimbabwe
World*

Data year

Producers1

2019
2009
2010
2019
2018
2011
2013
2019
2018
2019
2018
2019
2017
2018
2019
2019
2019
2018
2019
2016
2019
2018
2017
2019
2019
2019
2017
2018
2019
2018
2019
2019
2018
2018
2019
2019
2019

7’284

Processors

Importers

Exporters

9
2’458
3’761
949

11
1
28

148’6072

2

118’985214

4
19’708
1’770
26’965
81

16
42

2
4

7’456
74’545210’352
1
470
95
7
3’581
16’476

748
1
1
40

1
1
4
330
1’356

31

1
12
58

66
20
5
2’566

19
18
8
216

1
21
1

1
555
17’17458

58

3’135’129

109’250

149
209

10

6
10

40

1
60
5
6

7’355

8’640

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317
Blank cells: No data available.
*Total number includes data for countries with less than three operators.

62

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Source: FiBL survey 2021

Infographic 4: Organic retail sales 2019
FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

63

Statistics › Retail Sales and International Trade

Retail sales and international trade data1
Retail sales
Whereas Amarjit Sahota presents global trends for the organic market along with muchbackground information (page 136), in this chapter, we show the country-related
market data that was compiled under the framework of the FiBL survey on organic
agriculture. Data on total retail sales value was available for 57 countries (30 percent of
the total countries with organic data), which means that for many countries withorganic farming activities, such data is missing.
Total retail sales according to the FiBL survey amounted to over 106 billion euros in
2019. The country with the largest market for organic food was the United States (44.7
billion euros), followed by Germany (12.0 billion euros), France (11.3 billion euros) andChina (8.5 billion euros). The largest single market was the United States, followed by
the European Union (41.4 billion euros) and China (Figure 84). By region, North
America had the lead (48.2 billion euros), followed by Europe (45.0 billion euros) andAsia (Table 12).
Market growth was noted in all countries for which 2019 data were available, and insome cases, it was in the double digits. France was the country that registered thebiggest growth; the market increased by 13.4 percent. Whereas the highest per capita
consumption by continent is in North America (132 euros), by country it is highest in
European countries. In 2019, Denmark had the highest per capita consumption (344euros) worldwide, followed by Switzerland (338 euros), Luxembourg (265 euros) andAustria (216 euros) (Table 13).
Looking at the shares the organic market has of the total market, the leader is Denmark(12.1 percent), followed by Switzerland (10.4 percent), Austria (9.3 percent), Sweden (9percent) and Luxembourg (8.6 percent) (Table 13).

Export data
International trade data is becoming available for more and more countries. These canbe expressed as total export/import volumes in metric tons or as values. Some countries
also provide breakdowns by crop and product. Table 13 shows the values of totalexports where available. More than 50 countries provided data on export values.

Import data
Import data are not available for many countries. Since 2018, the European Union has
collected import data; these are available on page 140. Data on US organic imports andexports (values and quantity) are available on the USDA website.2

Please note that due to differences in the methodology, some of the figures presented in this chapter differ
from those collected in by Ecovia Intelligence (see chapter by Amarjit Sahota on page 146).
2 The data can be found at http://apps.fas.usda.gov/gats/ExpressQuery1.aspx. Go to “standard query” andchoose “Organics selected”.
1

64

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Statistics › Retail Sales and International Trade
Table 12: Global market data: Retail sales and per capita consumption by region 2019
RegionAfrica*Asia
EuropeLatin America**
North America
Oceania
World

Retail sales [Million €]1

Per capita consumption [€]17
10’94945’049810
48’201
1’378
106’404

0.01
2.4
55.8
1.5
132.3
33.5
14.0

Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021, based on data from government bodies, the private sector, and market researchcompanies. For data sources, see annex, page 317.
* Data from Ethiopia and Kenya.
** Data from Belize, Brazil, Chile, Jamaica, Mexico, and Peru.

Figure 11: Global market for organic food: Distribution of retail sales by country 2019
Figure 12: Global market for organic food: Distribution of retail sales by region 2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021, based on data from government bodies, the private sector, and market researchcompanies. For data sources see annex, page 317

1

According to the Central European Bank, 1 euro corresponded to 1.1195 US dollars in 2019.
FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

65

Statistics › Retail Sales and International Trade
The ten countries with the largest markets for organic food2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021

United States of America

44’721

Germany

11’970France11’295

China

8’504

Italy

3’625

Canada3’480

Switzerland

2’912

United Kingdom

2’679

Sweden

2’144

Spain

2’133
’0

10’000

20’00030’00040’00050’000Retail sales in million euros

Figure 13: Global market: The countries with the largest markets for organic food2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021, based on data from government bodies, the private sector, and market researchcompanies. For data sources see annex, page 317

The ten countries with the highest per capita consumption
2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021

Denmark

344

Switzerland

338

Luxembourg

265

Austria216

Sweden215

France174

Germany

144

USA

136

Canada93

Norway

83
0

100
200
300
Per capita consumption in euros

400

Figure 14: Global market: The ten countries with the highest per capita consumption
2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021, based on data from government bodies, the private sector, and market researchcompanies. For data sources see annex, page 317

66

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Statistics › Retail Sales and International Trade
Table 13: Global market data: Retail sales, organic share of all retail sales, per capita
consumption, and exports by country 2019
It should be noted that for market and trade data, comparing country statistics remains very problematic,
due to differing methods of data collection. Comments on this table should be sent to helga.willer@fibl.org.
Revisions will be posted at http://www.organic-world.net/statistics/statistics-data-revisions.html andincluded into the FiBL database.
Country
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belgium
BelizeBhutanBolivia (Plurinational State of)Bosnia and Herzegovina
BrazilBulgaria
CanadaChile
China
Colombia
Costa Rica
Croatia
CyprusCzech Republic
Denmark
Dominican Republic
Estonia
Ethiopia
FinlandFranceGermany
GreeceHungary
India
Ireland
Italy
JamaicaJapan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
KosovoKyrgyzstan
LatviaLithuania
Luxembourg
Mexico1

Data year
2009
2018
2019
2011
2019
2015
2018
2011
2017
2018
2016
2018
2019
2019
2009
2019
2019
2007
2008
2009
2011
2018
2006
2018
2019
2018
2019
2015
2019
2019
2019
2017
2009
2015
2018
2017
2019
2016
2017
2018
2015
2016
2018
2015
2019
2017
2017
2019
2013

Retail sales[Million €]1
1'224
1'920
3
779
0
0

Organic
share [%]

9.3
3.1
0.3

€/person

49
216
0
68
0
0

0

0

778
30

4

3'480
2

0.4
3.2

4
93
0

Exports[Million €]
122
434

0
0
179
6
126
310
245

8'504

6

1

0

13
19
3
99
2
164
1'979

2.2
0.1
1.6
12.1

24
2
16
344

62
13
368
11'295
11'970
66

3.7

47
0
67
174
144
6

30
186
206
3'625
1

0.3

2.6
6.1
5.7
0.3

83
406
423
27
181
28
826
20

2.5
3.7

3
0.2
43
60
0

613
2'425

1.4
1'419

11
9
24

4
51
51
160
14

0
1.5
1.0
8.6

6
18
265
0

6
288
51
45
373

According to the Central European Bank, 1 euro corresponded to 1.1195 US dollars in 2019.
FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

67

Statistics › Retail Sales and International Trade
Netherlands

UgandaUkraine

2016
2019
2017
2016
2019
2010
2019
2019
2011
2019
2011
2016
2009
2018
2016
2017
2010
2009
2013
2016
2017
2018
2015
2018
2019
2019
2014
2018
2014
2017
2015
2019

United Kingdom

2016

New Zealand
NorwayPeru
PolandPortugal
Republic of Korea
Romania
Russian Federation
Saudi Arabia
SerbiaSingapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sri Lanka
SwedenSwitzerland
ThailandTunisia
TurkeyUSA
Viet Nam
World

2019
2016
2018
2019
2018
2019

1'200
1'211
155

4.9
2.2
1.7

442
14

71
33
83
0

338
314
21
357

0.6
0.2

41

0.2

8
2
6.5

8
200

2
4

296

8

16
4

0.2

3
1

49

1.8

27

19
0
891
2.8
2'133

47
259
117

2'144
2'912
12

9.0
10.4

46

215
338
0

28
224

1

36

1

182
50
168
194

2'679

1.8

40

2'981

136
44'721
157
106'404

5.8
0.2
2
14.0

Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021, based on data from government bodies, the private sector, and market researchcompanies. For data sources see annex, page 317
Blank cells: No data available.

68

224

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

502

Statistics › DAC Countries

Organic farming in developing countries and emerging
markets
The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is a forum to discuss issues surrounding aid,
development and poverty reduction in developing countries. The recipients of Official
Development Assistance (ODA) according to the DAC are studied in this section.
More than 2.7 million organic producers from the countries on the DAC list1 werecounted (87 percent of all organic producers). More than a fifth of the world’s organic
agricultural land, 15.1 million hectares, is located in countries listed on the DAC list.
If wild collection and beekeeping areas are included, the total area is 41.5 million
hectares. Almost half of the agricultural land of the countries on the DAC list is locatedin Latin American countries (almost 6.1 million hectares), with Asia (5.8 million) and
Africa (2.0 million) in second and third place. The countries with the largest areas oforganic agricultural land are Argentina, India, China and Brazil, in that order. Not
surprisingly, all of them are large countries (Figure 15).
However, when it comes to organic agricultural land as a percentage of the total area
under cultivation, the order is different. The countries on the DAC list with the highest
percentages of organic agricultural land are São Tomé and Príncipe (24.9 percent),
Samoa (14.5 percent) and Timor-Leste (8.5 percent). Argentina, with by far the largest
area under organic cultivation (with 3.7 million hectares), is ranked thirteenth when theorganic agricultural area is expressed as a share of the total agricultural area. The
organic share of the total agricultural land of the top ten countries on the DAC list iscomparable to that of many European countries, and they can be attributed in part to ahigh production potential for, and focus on, exports. Support activities may also play arole. However, out of all the countries on the DAC list, only 18 percent of them have anorganic share higher than one percent of the total agricultural area (Figure 16).
Land use details were available for almost 80 percent of the agricultural land of thecountries on the DAC list; crop data is missing for some of the world’s largest producing
countries (India and Brazil). Available statistics show that organic arable land areas
constitute over 29 percent of the organic agricultural land, organic grassland/grazingover 25 percent, and organic permanent crops almost 20 percent. Exports play animportant role, either for meat products (mainly from Argentina and Uruguay) or for
unprocessed permanent and arable crops. The most important crops are export crops,
such as cereals, coffee, oilseeds, textile crops (mainly cotton), nuts, coconuts, olives,cocoa, etc. For Africa, coffee and olives, for Asia, cereals and oilseeds, and for Latin
America, coffee and cocoa are the most important crops.

The country list of the Development Assistance Committee DAC is available on the OECD website at
http://www.oecd.org/dac/stats/daclist.htm

1

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

69

Statistics › DAC Countries
Table 14: Countries on the DAC list1: Development of organic agricultural land 20142019
2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

1'252'674
3'432'816
931'955
5'097'592
85'14910'800'185

1'685'509
3'765'408
947'430
5'422'748
73'792
11'894'888

1'711'656
4'809'139
957'978
5'667'297
113'154
13'259'224

1'917'717
5'935'403
861'048
6'058'204
158'846
14'931'218

1'842'166
6'517'479
1'002'419
5'809'394
221'073
15'392'531

2'029'315
5'826'027
1'047'354
6'090'804
102'006
15'095'506

RegionAfricaAsia
EuropeLatin America
Oceania
Total

Source: FiBL surveys 2016-2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed
data sources see annex, page 317

The ten countries on the DAC list
with the largest areas of organic
agricultural land 2019

The ten countries on the DAC list
with the highest organic shares of
the total agricultural land 2019

Source: FiBL survey 2021

Source: FiBL survey 2021

Argentina

3.67 Sao Tome and Principe

India

2.30

Samoa

China

2.22

Timor-Leste

Brazil

24.9%
14.5%
8.5%

Dominican Republic

1.28

5.5%

Turkey0.52

Fiji

Ukraine0.47

Vanuatu

4.5%

Mexico0.30

Sierra Leone

4.0%

Kazakhstan

0.29

Solomon Islands

3.5%

Tunisia

0.29

Tonga

3.2%

Tanzania

0.28

Egypt

3.0%

0

2
Million hectares

4

0%

5.3%

10%
20%
Organic share

30%

Figure 15 (left): Countries on the DAC list: The ten countries with the largest areas oforganic agricultural land in 2019
Figure 16 (right): Countries on the DAC list: The ten countries with the highest
organic shares of the total agricultural land in 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

The development is displayed for all countries, which are on the 2019 DAC list. The data is not comparable
to those previously published, as there were changes in the list.
1

70

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Statistics › Land Use

Land use and key commodities in organic agriculture
Land use
Over two-thirds of the 72.3 million hectares of organic agricultural land in 2019 were
grassland/grazing areas (almost 48.9 million hectares). The cropland area (arable landwith 13.1 million hectares and permanent crops with 4.7 million hectares) constituted
17.8 million hectares, and about a quarter of the organic agricultural land. The croplandarea is probably much higher because details on land use are not available for somecountries with large organic agricultural areas such as Brazil and India.
General land use information was available for 92 percent of the organic agricultural
land; however, this does not mean that detailed crop information is available for all
areas as not all countries provided detailed crop data.1
The FAO classification2 of land use was utilized for this survey with slight
modifications. A system similar to that of Eurostat was used for the classification ofcrops. The following main levels were used to classify the land use data: arable land,
permanent crops, cropland for which no further details were available (cropland= arable land + permanent cropland), permanent grassland/grazing areas, otheragricultural areas (such as hedges) and agricultural land for which no details wereavailable at all. For crop groups by land use type, see Table 16.
Aquaculture, forest, and grazed non-agricultural land were distinguished from
“agricultural land” with a separate category, as were organic wild collection areas andbeekeeping areas.
The land use information can be summarized by geographical region as follows (Table
15):− Africa: Land use information was available for more than 91 percent of the totalorganic agricultural land in Africa. Almost two-thirds of the agricultural land isused for permanent crops. The main permanent crops are cash crops, such as
coffee, cocoa and olives; among the main arable crops are oilseeds (sesame, andsoybeans) and cotton. For land use details in Africa, see page 189.
− Asia: Land use details are known for almost two-thirds of the total organic
agricultural land in Asia. Arable land is mainly used for cereals, including rice.
Furthermore, oilseeds, dry pulses and textile crops are important. For land use
details in Asia, see page 208.
− Europe: In Europe, agricultural land use is well known, and the main crop
categories are well documented. Permanent grassland accounts for almost 40
percent of the organic agricultural land. Arable land (48 percent) is mainly used
for the cultivation of cereals and by green fodder (almost 3 million hectares and

1 For some countries, only information on the main uses (arable crops, permanent crops, and permanent
grassland) was available. For other countries, very detailed statistical land use information can be found.
2 For more details, see the FAOSTAT homepage, faostat.fao.org: Home > Concepts and Definitions >Glossary, or http://faostat.fao.org/site/379/DesktopDefault.aspx?PageID=379

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

71

Statistics › Land Use
almost 2.6 million hectares respectively). Permanent crops account for almost
eleven percent of the organic agricultural land. More than one-third of this land
was used for olives, followed by grapes, nuts, and temperate fruits. For land use
details, see page 228).
− Latin America and the Caribbean: Almost three-quarters of the total organic
agricultural land in Latin America is permanent grassland. Permanent crops
account for almost 8 percent of the total organic agricultural area. 40 percent of thepermanent cropland is used for coffee, followed by cocoa and tropical fruits. For
details on land use in Latin America and the Caribbean, see page 218.
− North America: Arable land and permanent grassland/grazing areas arecontributing the majority of the total organic agricultural land, 36 respectively 46
percent. A major proportion of the arable land is used for cereal production andcultivation of green fodder. For details on land use in North America, see page284.
− Oceania: Most of the land in Australia is used for extensive grassland/grazing. A
wide range of permanent crops is grown in the Pacific region. For details, see page
298.

Figure 17: World: Distribution of main land use types by region 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

72

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Land Use

Figure 18: World: Distribution of main land use types and key crop categories 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

Development of the organic land by land use type 2004-2019
Source: FiBL-IFOAM-SOEL-Surveys 2002-2021

60
46.9 48.2

Million hectares

50
38.0

40

33.0 33.0
27.3

30
21.8

20
10

48.9

20.1 20.4 20.0

22.3 22.9 23.1 22.0 21.9

Arable land
crops
Permanent
crops
Permanent
grassland

12.7 13.3 13.1
10.0 10.8
8.9
8.5
7.7 8.0
5.9 6.5
4.6 4.9 4.8 4.7
3.5 4.4 4.5 4.9 5.1
2.9 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.9
2.6
2.5
2.0
0.9 1.4 1.4 1.9

0

Figure 19: World: Development of organic arable land, permanent cropland andpermanent grassland/grazing areas 2004-2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn73

Statistics › Land Use
Table 15: World: Land use in organic agriculture by region (including in-conversion
areas) 2019Land use
Arable crops
Permanent crops
Permanent grassland
Total*

Africa [ha]

Asia
[ha]

Europe[ha]

Latin
America[ha]North
America[ha]

Oceania
[ha]

World
[ha]
13’095’796

535’953

2'906’354

7’855’566

440’691

1’311’899

45’334

1’299’865

795’381

1’768’061

643’12984’464102’797

4’693’697

26’96864’815

6’535’444

5’889’601

1’669’772

34’681’443

48’868’043

2’030’830

5’911’622

16’528’677

8’292’138

3’647’623

35’881’053

72’285’656

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

Table 16: World: Land use and crop categories in organic agriculture worldwide 2019Land use
Agricultural land and crops, no details
Arable crops

Crop group

Area [ha]Arable crops, no details
Arable crops, other
Cereals
Dry pulses and protein crops
Fallow land, crop rotation
Flowers and ornamental plants
Fresh vegetables and melons
Green fodder from arable land
Hops
Industrial crops
Medicinal and aromatic plants
Mushrooms and truffles
Oilseeds
Root crops

3'811'294
61'891
265'955
5'073'137
806'862519'575
12'633433'165
3'238'540
434
16'169320'385
12'5691'676'502
101'674134

Seeds and seedlings
Strawberries
Sugarcane
Textile crops
TobaccoPermanent crops total
Permanent grassland

7'253
88'585459'607725
13'095'796
74'672102'897363'706
300'960
709'118
23
29'173308'543237'026
4'027
467'760
97'679777
600'328
881'543332'856
182'609
4'693'697
48'868'043

World*

72'285'656

Arable crops total
Permanent crops

Berries
Citrus fruit
Cocoa
Coconut
CoffeeFlowers and ornamental plants, permanent
Fruit
Fruit of temperate climate zones
Fruit, tropical and subtropicalFruit/nuts/berries
GrapesMedicinal and aromatic plants, permanent
Nurseries
Nuts
OlivesPermanent crops, other
Tea/mate, etc.

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317. *Totals include other agricultural areas, land for which no details were available, andcorrection values for some countries for land with double cropping during one year.

74

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Land Use › Arable Land
Arable landWith a total of more than 13 million hectares, organic arable land constitutes 18 percentof the world’s organic agricultural land and 1 percent of the world’s arable cropland.
The reported 1.7 percent decrease compared to 2018 was mainly due to a loss of 663’000
hectares of temporary grassland in China. This loss hides the actual growth in major
crop groups like cereals, oilseeds, dry pulses and vegetables.
Around 60 percent of the arable land is located in Europe, followed by Asia (22 percent),and North America (10 percent) (Figure 20). Most of the arable cropland is used for
cereals including rice (5.1 million hectares), green fodder (3.2 million hectares), andoilseeds (1.7 million hectares) (Figure 21 and Table 17).
Table 17: Use of organic arable land (including in-conversion areas), 2018 and 2019
comparedCrop group2018 [ha]2019 [ha]Change2018-2019[ha]

Organic
share [%]

Cereals
Dry pulses
Flowers and ornamental plants
Green fodder from arable land
Hops
Industrial crops
Medicinal and aromatic plants
Mushrooms and truffles
Oilseeds
Root crops
Strawberries
Sugarcane
Textile crops
TobaccoVegetables
World*

4’763’398
734’293586
3’802’355
713
9’997
280’628
16’605
1’493’941
113’062
7’470
94'811472'725
5'013
387'754
13'318'218

5’073’137
806’862
12’6333’238’540
434
16’169320’385
12’5691’676’502
101’674
7’253
88'585459'607725
433'165
13'095'796

309’738
72’56912’047-563’815-279
6’172
39’757-4’036
182’561-11’388-217-6'226-13'118-4'28845'411-222'421

0.70
0.84
0.00
7.12
0.46
15.16
17.44
17.18
0.70
0.15
1.94
0.34
1.30
0.02
0.69
1.00

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317
Not all countries included in the FiBL survey provided data on land use or crop areas.
*Total includes arable crop groups for which no further details were available, data for fallow land, some minor or not
specified crop groups.

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

75

Statistics › Land Use › Arable Land

Figure 20: World: Distribution of organic arable cropland by region 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

Figure 21: World: Use of arable cropland by crop group 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

76

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Land Use › Permanent Crops
Permanent crops
Permanent crops accounted for almost 4.7 million hectares, which is 2.8 percent of theworld’s permanent cropland. Compared with 2018, an increase of more than 17'000
hectares, or 0.4 percent, was reported.
Seven percent of the organic agricultural land is permanent cropland. Thus, permanent
cropland has a higher share in organic agriculture than in total agriculture, wherepermanent crops account for slightly more than 3 percent of the total.
Most of the permanent cropland is in Europe (almost 1.8 million hectares), followed by
Africa (1.3 million hectares) and Asia (almost 0.8 million hectares) (Table 15 and Figure22). The most important crops are olives, with nearly 0.9 million hectares, constituting
almost 19 percent of the organic permanent cropland, followed by coffee (more than
0.7 million hectares), nuts (0.6 million hectares), grapes (almost 0.5 million hectares),and cocoa (almost 0.4 million hectares) (Figure 23 and Table 18).
Table 18: Use of organic permanent cropland (including in-conversion areas), 2018and 2019 compared
Crop group2018 [ha]2019 [ha]Change2018-2019 [ha]Organic
share [%]

Berries
Citrus fruit
Cocoa
Coconut
CoffeeFlowers and ornamental plants’ permanent
Fruit
Fruit of temperate climate zones
Fruit’ tropical and subtropicalFruit/nuts/berries
GrapesMedicinal and aromatic plants’ permanent
Nurseries
Nuts
OlivesWorld*

60’54590’045321’484386’448729’31924
24’318236’325276’6426’071
422’747
92’277981
631’929858’978
4’676’455

74’672102’897363’706
300’960
709’11823
29’173308’543237’026
4’027
467’760
97’679777
600’328881’543
4’693’697

14’127
12’85242’223-85’488-20’201-1
4’854
72’218-39’616-2’04345’012
5’402-204-31’601
22’566
17’242

13.5
0.9
3.1
2.4
6.7
0.0
0.5
2.6
0.8
0.0
6.7
3.1
0.0
4.1
8.4
2.8

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on data from governments, the private sector, and certifiers. For detailed data sources
see annex, page 317*Total includes permanent crop groups, for which no further details were available.

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77

Statistics › Land Use › Permanent Crops

Figure 22: World: Distribution of permanent cropland by region 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

Figure 23: World: Use of permanent cropland by crop group 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

78

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Statistics › Land Use › Wild Collection
Wild collection and beekeeping areas
The collection of wild-harvested crops is defined in the IFOAM Norms (IFOAM 2014),
and wild collection activities are regulated by organic laws. A collection area (including
beekeeping) of 34.8 million hectares was reported in 2019. The organic wild collection
areas are concentrated in Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Asia (Figure 24 and Table19); the distribution is thus quite different from that of the organic agricultural land.
The countries with the largest areas are Finland (mainly berries), followed by Zambia,
Namibia and the United Republic of Tanzania (beekeeping) (Figure 25). According toexperts, wild berries, apiculture, and medicinal and aromatic plants, as well as nuts in
Africa and Latin America, play the most important roles (Table 20). Unfortunately, formost of the wild collection areas, no details are available.
Table 19: Wild collection and beekeeping areas by region 2018 and 2019 comparedRegionAfricaAsia
EuropeLatin America
North America
OceaniaWorld

2018 [ha]2019 [ha]Change2018-2019 [ha]Change2018-2019 [%]11'471'980
2'795'448
16'939'795
3'444'450
6'981
765
34'659'419

16'341'099
3'222'620
10'613'341
4'593'699
24'119112
34'794'989+4'869'119+427'172-6'326'454+1'149'249+17'137-653+135'570+42.4%+15.3%-37.3%+33.4%+245.5%-85.4%+0.4%

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on data from governments, the private sector, and certifiers.
For detailed data sources see annex, page 317

Table 20: Wild collection and beekeeping areas by crop group 2019Land use

Area [ha]Apiculture

2'581'592

Berries, wild

161'613

Coffee, wild

8'666

Forest honey

2'500'000

Forest products

2'685

Fruit, wild

2'379'232

Medicinal and aromatic plants, wild

4'119'427

Mushrooms, wild
Nuts, wild collection
Oil plants, wild11
3'660'356
31'995

Palm sugar

916

Palmito, wild

60'249Rose hips, wild

2'692'271

Seaweed2'255

Wild collection, no details

16'593'722

World

34'794'989

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. The total includes
areas, for which no details were available. For detailed data sources see annex, page 317

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79

Statistics › Land Use › Wild Collection

Figure 24: World: Distribution of organic wild collection and beekeeping areas byregion in 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on data from government bodies, the private sector, and certifiers. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

The ten countries with the largest wild collection andbeekeeping areas 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021

Finland

4.6

Zambia3.2

Namibia

2.6

Tanzania (2017)

2.4

Romania (2014)

1.8

South Africa

1.8

Brazil

1.7

Lesotho

1.7

China

1.5

Bolivia

1.5
0

1

2
3
Million hectares

4

5

Figure 25: World: The ten countries with the largest organic wild collection andbeekeeping areas in 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on data from government bodies, the private sector, and certifiers. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

80

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Statistics › Land Use › Wild Collection
Table 21: Wild collection and beekeeping areas by country 2019
Country

Land use

Area [ha]Albania
Algeria
Argentina
Armenia
Azerbaijan

Wild collection, no details
Wild collection, no details
Wild collection, no details
Wild collection, no details
Blackberries, wild
Buckthorn, wild
Chestnuts, wild
Cornel, wild
Fruit, wild, other
Hawthorn, wild
Medicinal and aromatic plants, wild, other
Walnuts, wild
Wild collection, no details
Strawberries, wild
Wild collection, no details
Wild collection, no details
Wild collection, no details
Berries, wild
Medicinal and aromatic plants, wild, otherBrazil nuts, wild collection
Wild collection, no details
Fruit, wild, other
Bamboo, wild
Brazil nuts, wild collection
Acai, wild collection
Wild collection, no details
Shea nuts, wild
Wild collection, no details
Fruit, wild
Wild collection, no details
Gums natural
Berries, wild, otherBlackberries, wild
SeaweedWild collection, no details
Palmito, wild
Wild collection, other
Wild collection, no details
Wild collection, no details
Wild collection, no details
Forest products
Coffee, wild
Wild collection, no details
Wild collection, no details
Wild collection, no details
Coconuts, wild
Medicinal and aromatic plants, wild
Shea nuts, wild
Wild collection, no details
Wild collection, no details

645'042628
20'900
8'570
8
3
49
374
167
150
56
130
126
3
946'895
3
7'746
69'0731
1'386'761
11'5792
27
1'693'830
7'581
307'020229'172
36'410
112'000
24'1195'800
92'092187
800
1'549'800
6'800
520
2'648
1'000
104'305564
7'629
0
4'600'000
215
44'750
3'777
3'193
317'053
147'234

BelarusBelgium
BhutanBolivia

Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
BrazilBulgaria
Burkina Faso
Cameroon
Canada
Chad
Chile

China
Colombia
Denmark
EcuadorEstonia
Eswatini
Ethiopia
Faroe Islands
Finland
Georgia
Ghana

GreeceGuatemala

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81

Statistics › Land Use › Wild Collection
Country

Land use

Area [ha]GuineaGuyanaWild collection, other
Forest products
Palmito, wild
Wild collection, no details
Apiculture
Oil plants, wild
Palm sugar
SeaweedWild collection, no details
Apiculture
Wild collection, no details
Strawberries, wild
Bamboo, wild
Apiculture
Coconuts, wild
Wild collection, no details
Almonds, wildApples, wild
Pistachios, wild
Plums, wild
Walnuts, wild
Bamboo, wild
Wild collection, no details
Nuts, wild, no details
Rose hips, wild
Medicinal and aromatic plants, wild
Shea nuts, wild
Wild collection, other
Wild collection, no details
Wild collection, no details
Fruit, wild, other
Medicinal and aromatic plants, wild, other
Rose hips, wild
Walnuts, wild
Wild collection, no details
Argan Oil, wild
Caper, wild
Carob, wild
Opuntia, wild
Wild collection, other
Fruit, wild, other
Wild collection, no details
Devil's claw
Wild collection, no details
Medicinal and aromatic plants, wild, other
Fruit, wild, no details
Medicinal and aromatic plants, wild
Pine nuts, wild
Brazil nuts, wild collection
Wild collection, no details
Wild collection, no details

1'075
2'000
53'4491'370'579
16'703
303
916
136
354
39'56410'6552
36
121'625582'261
179'580
177
1'995
2'900
1'214
7'193
282
16'786259
1'667'028
12'195
9'247
7
2'800
952'755
200
234
68
1'343
143'41031'692
250
1'820
4'367
230'000
1'256'290
31'4002'609'108
24'422
93
112
556'600
44'620158'560
40'0001'787'548

India
Indonesia

Iran (Islamic Republic of)IsraelJamaica
Kenya
KosovoKyrgyzstan

Lao P.D.R.
LebanonLesothoMadagascar
Mali
Mauritania
MexicoMoldova

Montenegro
MoroccoMozambique
Namibia
Nepal
Nicaragua
Niue
North Macedonia
Pakistan
Peru
Portugal
Romania82

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Land Use › Wild Collection
Country

Land use

Area [ha]Russian Federation

Pine nuts, wild
SeaweedWild collection, no details
Medicinal and aromatic plants, wild
Gums natural
Nuts, wild
Wild collection, other
Wild collection, no details
Gums natural
Medicinal and aromatic plants, wild, no details
Wild collection, no details
Aloe vera, wild collection
Devil's claw
Forest products
Honeybush
Medicinal and aromatic plants, wildMushrooms, wild
Rooibos tea, wild
Rose hips, wild
Wild collection, no details
Coffee, wild
Wild collection, no details
BaobabFruit, wild
Gum Olibanum
Gums natural
Wild collection, other
Wild collection, no details
Apiculture
Wild collection, no details
Fruit, wild
Wild collection, other
SeaweedWild collection, other
Berries, wild
Medicinal and aromatic plants, wild
Nuts, wild
Wild collection, other
Shea nuts, wild
Wild collection, no details
Wild collection, no details
Wild collection, no details
Forest honey
Fruit, wild, other
Forest products
Fruit, wild, other
Medicinal and aromatic plants, wild

121
1'317
156'61442'377
20'240
20'724100
13'238801'000
14'000
7'300
45'000
10'0006
1'358
667'35411
28'756
1'025'175
5
1'037
38'184
1'340
98'026
1'053
404'300
100'000
8'000
2'403'700
90'7166'455
15
2
48'95695
9'796
23'392147'053
78'684580'000
5'000
12'4502'500'000
700'000
115
190'450
118'472
34'794'989

RwandaSenegalSlovenia
SomaliaSouth Africa

Spain
Sudan

Syrian Arab Republic
Tanzania, United Republic ofThailand
Togo
Tunisia
TurkeyUgandaUkraineUzbekistan
Viet Nam
ZambiaZimbabwe

World

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

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83

Statistics › Beehives
Beehives
There were 3 million organic beehives in 2019, representing almost 3.4 percent of theworld’s beehives.1 Organic beehives are concentrated in Europe (47 percent) and Latin
America (30 percent) (Figure 26). The country with the largest number of organic
beehives is Brazil (629’939), followed by Zambia (368’274) and Bulgaria (264’069). The
total number increased almost six-fold since 2007 when over 535’000 beehives werereported (Figure 27).
However, it is important to note that some of the increases can be attributed to thecontinually improving data availability. The large increase from 2014 to 2015 is due tothe fact that data for some countries such as Brazil was available for the first time. In
addition, the growth between 2016 and 2017 is due to a significant increase of thebeehives in Brazil, China, and Zambia. For 2019, decreases were reported for Bulgaria,
Mexico and Chile.
Nevertheless, it is expected that organic beekeeping will continue to grow worldwide
thanks to the increasing demand for organic honey and bee products. One of the main
challenges for new organic beekeepers is the conversion process due to the lack ofaccess to knowledge on organic beekeeping practices and the organic certification
process. Furthermore, the production of good quality organic honey and the control of
the Varroa parasite with organic methods are major obstacles for organic beekeepers.
In 2015, FiBL, Naturland, Demeter, and Apicon created a new beekeeping platform, the
IFOAM Apiculture Forum (IAF).2 The IAF is a self-organised structure of IFOAM Organics International with the aim to advance the development of organic beekeeping
and to encourage the traditional practices employed by sustainable beekeeping.

According to FAO, there were 90’116’413 beehives in 2019. The FAOSTAT website > Production > Liveanimals at http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QA
2 For more information about the IFOAM Apiculture Forum, please visit www.organicbeekeeping.info
1

84

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Statistics › Beehives

Figure 26: World: Distribution of organic beehives by region in 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on data from government bodies, the private sector, and certifiers. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

Development of the organic beehives 2008-2019
Source: FiBL-IFOAM-SOEL-Surveys 2006-2021

3’025’224

3’112’003
1’260’359

1’129’371

1’064’057

939’310500’000

897’836

1’000’000

527’763

1’500’000

2’057’393

2’000’000

2’135’041

2’500’000

889’913

Beehives

3’000’000

2’929’641

3’500’00002008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

Figure 27: World: Development of the organic beehives 2008-2019
Source: FiBL-IFOAM-SOEL surveys 2006-2021. For detailed data sources see annex, page 317

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85

Statistics › Beehives
Table 22: Number of organic beehives by country 2019
Country

Beehives [no.]Argentina

33'426

Mexico111'131

Armenia

2'358

Moldova

7'200

Australia

6'475Montenegro

1'964

Austria

22'874

Morocco

1'242

Azerbaijan

932

Nicaragua

20'985Belarus65

North Macedonia

17'199Belgium

22

Norway3'551

Bhutan177

Poland5'175

150

Portugal95'954

Bosnia and Herzegovina
BrazilBulgaria
Burkina Faso

Country629'939

Réunion (France)

264'069

Romania11

Beehives [no.]1'332
262'154

Russian Federation

716
5'794
3'061

Canada10'882

Saudi Arabia

Chile

10'123

SerbiaChina

229'084

Slovakia

439

Croatia

2'023

Slovenia

1'814

Cuba

58'901

South Africa

Czech Republic

703

Spain

1
158'050

Denmark

631

Sweden2'182

Dominican Republic

9'804

Thailand

27'337

Estonia

2'530

Tunisia

786

Finland5'483

Turkey50'100France245'192

Ukraine300

Georgia

570

Uruguay

24'297

Germany

35'000

Zambia368'27480World

3'025'224

Guadeloupe (France)
Guatemala

2'210

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

4'640

Iraq

1'900

Italy

171'094

Kosovo40

Latvia52'369Lebanon527

Liechtenstein

174

Lithuania

1'785

Luxembourg

145

Madagascar

47'79886

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information fromthe private sector, certifiers, and governments. For
detailed data sources see annex, page 317

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Aquaculture
Aquaculture
Naturland from Germany was the first organisation to certify organic aquaculture
products, starting in 1995 with the certification of carp in Germany. Organic was thefirst Voluntary Sustainability Standard (VSS) to cover aquaculture production (Potts etal. 2016). In 2005, IFOAM – Organics International approved the final version of its
aquaculture standard.
A production volume of almost 690'000 metric tons of organic aquaculture was reported
in 2019. According to the available data, aquaculture production is concentrated in Asia
(81 percent mainly China) and Europe (15 percent). The largest production volume wasfound in China (561'200 metric tons) followed by Ireland (more than 27’000 metric tons)
and Chile (more than 26'000 metric tons) (Table 24 and Figure 28).
Unfortunately, some of the countries with a large aquaculture production, such as
Brazil and Indonesia, did not provide data on organic aquaculture; so, it can beassumed that the organic aquaculture production volume is higher.
A breakdown by species was available for two thirds of the total production. According
to the available data, organic mussels are the most produced species (over 27’000 metrictons), followed by salmon (16’400 metric tons), and sturgeon (almost 1’800 metric tons).
Table 23: Organic aquaculture: Production volume by species 2019
Main species

Production [MT]Aquatic plants
Aquaculture, no details
Mussels
SalmonSturgeon
Rainbow trouts
Carps
Trout
ShrimpsSea bass
Seabream
Bream
Bass
Oysters
Total

417'383
222'153
27'31516'361
1'766
1'581
1'574
560
382
244
216
54
44
6
689'638

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

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87

Statistics › Aquaculture

Figure 28: World: Organic aquaculture production volume: Distribution by continentand top 10 countries 2019
Source: FiBL-survey 2021; based on national data sources and certifier data. For detailed data sources see annex, page
317

Figure 29: World: Organic aquaculture production volume: Distribution by species
and key species 2019
Source: FiBL-survey 2021; based on national data sources and certifier data. For detailed data sources see annex, page317

88

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Aquaculture
Table 24: Organic aquaculture: Production volume by country 2019
Country

Production [MT]Bangladesh
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Croatia
Czech Republic
Ecuador
GreeceHungary
Iceland
IrelandItaly
LatviaLithuania
Netherlands
NorwayPolandPortugal
Romania
Slovenia
Spain
Switzerland
TaiwanViet Nam

342
5'004
26'194561'200
291
1
79
1'267
2'970
17'48227'264
9'608
8
613
8'536
17'771
160
1'100
1'493
733
7'062
370
50
40

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

References and further reading
Bergleiter, S., Berner, N., Censkowsky, U. & Julià-Camprodon, G. (2009): Organic aquaculture 2009 –production and markets. Munich, Organic Services GmbH and Gräfelfing, Naturland e.V. 120 pp.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (2010): Organic aquaculture: The future of
expanding niche markets. Available at http://www.fao.org/docrep/015/i2734e/i2734e04c.pdf
Potts, Jason; Wilkings, Ann; Lynch, Matthew; and McFatridge, Scott (Eds.) (2016): State of Sustainability
Initiatives Review: Standards and The Blue Economy. International Institute for Sustainable
Development, Manitoba, Canada. Available at http://www.iisd.org/ssi/standards-and-the-blueeconomy/

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

89

Statistics › Selected Crops
Statistics on selected crops
In this section, some of the data on key crops and crop groups is presented, including
the area under organic management compared with the total area of the crops. FiBL
collected land use and crop data for the first time in 2004; hence, the development
graphs show the growth since that year.
Also in this edition, we are presenting graphs on selected crops and crop groups: A
map on the global distribution by country for a given crop/crop group, its development,
the top then countries in term of organic area and organic share of total, the distribution
by continent and, in the case of crop groups, the breakdown by crop. All these graphics
are based on interactive Power BI graphs, which you can explore athttps://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html.
It should be noted that the organic areas are mainly compared with the area harvested
in 2018 as provided by FAO and Eurostat. The data may not necessarily be directlycomparable to the areas sown or planted as registered by the certification bodies.
Data on conversion status: For some countries, data were collated from several
certifiers, some of which provided information on the conversion status while others
did not. In those cases, where the certifiers did not include information status, we
assumed that land was fully converted. The tables presented in this section are only
part of the information available in the FiBL crop database, which is available atstatistics.fibl.org.
Furthermore, at www.organic-world.net slides on key crops are available.
Table 25: World: Selected key crop groups and crops area in organic agriculture 2019
(overview including conversion areas)
Crop

Africa
[ha]

Asia
[ha]

Europe[ha]

Latin
America[ha]North
America[ha]

Oceania[ha]

Total [ha]Cereals
Citrus fruit
Cocoa
CoffeeDry pulses
Fruit temperate
Fruit, tropicaland subtropical
GrapesOilseeds
OlivesVegetables

74'344
10'378217'169
330'253
51'84615'09147'4841'253'310
12'787423
99'47883'896118'124
69'957

2'958'165
57'472582'255
5'403

41'293115
104'829
19'117
5'122

10'855548'275
147'926
38'874

163'769
16'857146'114268'418
18'016
8'284
75'5135'073'137
102'897363'706
709'118806'862308'543237'026

3'401
183'884
243'552
40'05517'141640'235
6'512
66'833398'659653'600
624'260
201'071

13'61260'805
6'591
41'05027'444137'978628
80'120

7'503

76

4'035

467'760
1'676'502
881'543433'165

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

90

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Crops › Cereals› Cereals
In 2019, almost 5.1 million hectares or 0.7 percent of the global cereal area was underorganic management.

Figure 30: Cereals: Organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments.
Online at https://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

91

Statistics › Crops › Cereals

Figure 31: Cereals: Organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments.
Online at https://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html

92

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Crops › Cereals
Table 26: Cereals: Organic area by country 2019
Country

Organic area[ha]

Organic share[%]

Argentina

14'2980.09

Australia

41'2930.25

Austria

135'561

17.50

Azerbaijan

1'598

0.15

Belarus464

0.02

Belgium

12'199

3.90

4

0.00

Benin
BhutanArea fully
converted [ha]Area underconversion [ha]41'293
1'598
8'944

3'255

537

0.96

523

14

Bolivia
Bosnia andHerzegovina
Brazil106'232

7.59

96'865

9'367

138

0.04

138

434

0.00

Bulgaria

17'8460.87

15'821Burkina Faso

5'163

0.11

5'163

Cambodia

23'8580.77

23'420

Canada292'000

1.95

Chile

273

0.05

273

China

810'000

0.81

593'000

212

0.01

212

Congo D.R.
Costa Rica

2'026
438

217'000

38

0.10

38

Croatia

15'814

3.22

13'357

Cyprus

890

3.86

725

164

Czech Republic

40'9093.03

29'926

10'983

Denmark

103'385

7.57

65'64137'744

Ecuador

1'289

0.19

1'147

141

Egypt

8'869

0.29

8'869

Estonia

53'91914.81

46'247

7'674

Finland

67'012

7.07

57'058

9'955

203'943

143'675

2'457

France347'617

3.75

Germany348'000

5.46

Greece46'494

6.39

26'74819'747

Hungary

40'698

1.61

31'534

9'164

Iceland

59

3.93

59

Indonesia

53'9740.25

53'963

Iran

522

0.01

510

11
12

Ireland

2'511

0.94

2'005

507

Israel

1'188

1.72

1'068

120

Italy

330'284

10.77

268'177

62'110

2'964

Japan

2'964

0.16

146'444

0.99

Kenya

486

0.02

214

272

Kyrgyzstan

462

0.08

334

128
5'980

Kazakhstan

35'468Lao P.D.R.

4'598

0.45

Latvia58'523

7.96

52'544

Lebanon

61

0.11

61

Liechtenstein

98

0.00

95

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

3

93

Statistics › Crops › Cereals
Organic area
[ha]
100'938

Organic share[%]

Area fully
converted [ha]Area underconversion [ha]7.45

95'2485'690

Luxembourg

1'114

4.09

999

114

Madagascar

56

0.01

46

10

Mali

260

0.00

260

Country
Lithuania

Malta

4

0.00

4

Mexico

3'888

0.04

3'888

Moldova

11'401

1.23

8'201

3'200

Montenegro

110

4.98

79

31

Morocco

12

0.00

12

Mozambique

4

0.00

4

Netherlands

3'807

2.12

3'259

North Macedonia

1'145

0.71

638

507

Norway

6'427

2.30

5'783

644

Pakistan

31'1790.23

27'3273'851

Palestine

95

0.40

51

44

Paraguay

250

0.01

250

Peru

37'067

2.98

Poland154'984

2.20

117'875

37'109Portugal

4'513

1.99

4'079

435

Republic of Korea

1'686

0.20

Romania

126'843

2.28

83'47043'373

Russian Federation

241'130

0.57

Saudi Arabia

430

0.17

367

63

Serbia

4'789

0.28

2'741

2'048
4'029

548

2'650

Slovakia

22'691

2.95

18'662

Slovenia

2'267

2.30

2'068

198

South Africa

1'797

0.06

1'607

190

Spain

211'757

3.55

190'547

21'212

Sweden126'776

13.14

111'079

15'697

Switzerland

14'482

10.19

Taiwan

3'033

1.00

3'033

Tanzania

50'8600.77

50'860Thailand

169'042

1.44

Tunisia

1'595

0.10

1'595

Turkey153'383

1.41

120'368

Uganda

5'016

0.27

Ukraine107'537

0.76

United Kingdom

39'647

1.23

36'674

USA

290'2560.54

290'256

8'057

Viet Nam

1'640

0.02

1'263

Zimbabwe

10

0.00

10

5'073'137

0.70

2'835'482

World

33'0152'973
377
766'079

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317
Blank cells: No data available

94

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Crops › Citrus Fruit› Citrus fruit
In 2019, about 100’000 hectares or 0.9 percent of the global citrus fruit area was underorganic management.

Figure 32: Citrus fruit: Organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments.
Online at https://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

95

Statistics › Crops › Citrus Fruit.

Figure 33: Citrus fruit: Organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments.
Online at https://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html

96

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Crops › Citrus Fruit
Table 27: Citrus fruit: Organic area by country 2019
Country

Organic area[ha]

Organic share[%]

Argentina

1'512

1.1

Azerbaijan

21

0.7

Benin

2

0.0

Brazil1'094

0.2

Burkina Faso

283

Area fully
converted [ha]Area underconversion [ha]

2

19

283

Burundi

0

0.0

0

Chile

144

0.7

144

0

China

11'812

0.4

4'348

7'464

Colombia

1'017

1.4

980

37

Côte d'Ivoire

1'197

10.8

1'197

Croatia

23

1.0

12

11

Cuba

167

1.5

Cyprus

79

2.5

66

13

Ecuador

580

1.7

531

49

Egypt

1'420

0.7

1'420
398

France681

14.8

Gambia

11

0.0

Ghana

5'333

20.6

5'333

283
11

Greece

2'144

4.8

1'379

Guatemala

224

0.9

224

Guinea-Bissau

1

0.0

1

Indonesia

0

0.0

0

Iran

583

0.3

4

Israel

274

1.2

239

35

Italy

36'80826.2

31'813

4'995
3

Jordan13

0.2

Lebanon

23

0.2

20

Madagascar

33

0.2

33

Malta

1

0.0

11'8322.0

11'832

Morocco

1'274

1.0

995

Nicaragua

40.0Palestine

1

0.0

Peru

283

0.4

311

1.5

Republic of Korea

60

0.3

South Africa
Spain
Togo
Turkey
USA
World

579

0
1

MexicoPortugal

766

279
4

1
204

107

815

0.9

610

205

16'691

5.6

10'045

6'646

9

0.3

9

734
5'403
102'897

0.5
1.9
0.9

249
5'403
77'775485
21'991

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317. Blank cells: No data available.

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

97

Statistics › Crops › Cocoa› Cocoa beans
In 2019, about 363’000 hectares or 3.1 percent of the global cocoa area was under organic
management.

Figure 34: Cocoa: Organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments.
Online at https://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html

98

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Crops › Cocoa

Figure 35: Cocoa: Organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments.
Online at https://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

99

Statistics › Crops › Cocoa
Table 28: Cocoa beans: Organic area by country 2019
Organic area[ha]Country

Organic share[%]

Belize40

7.9

Bolivia

4'595

44.4

1

-

Cameroon

Area fully
converted [ha]Area underconversion
[ha]

3'976

619
18

Colombia

375

0.3

357

Costa Rica

1'492

34.3

1'492

Côte d'Ivoire

6'638

0.2

Congo D.R.

71'609Dominican Republic

89'623

Ecuador

6'368

270

71'60958.5

89'62318'205

3.6

15'708

2'497

2

0.2

18'646

1.0

18'259387

Grenada84

8.0

Guatemala

194

4.5

194

Haiti

1'955

7.1

1'955

Honduras

753

18.7

El Salvador
Ghana

2

Indonesia

376

-

360

17

Madagascar

6'504

50.9

6'504

0

Mexico

119

0.2

119

Nicaragua

3'228

27.8

2'563

Peru

25'448

15.9

Philippines

47

0.2

47

São Tomé and Príncipe

6'884

22.9

6'884

Sierra Leone

79'797

66.9

79'797

Tanzania, United Republic of

14'948665

014'948

Togo

1'900

4.4

Uganda10'243

15.9

World

363'706

3.1

1'900
322'662

4'474

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317
Blank cells: No data available.

For more information on cocoa production (organic and other Voluntary Sustainability Standards - VSS),
please see the report “The State of Sustainable Markets – Statistics and Emerging Trends 2020.”1

1

Meier, C., Sampson, G., Larrea, C., Schlatter, B., Voora, V., Dang, D., Bermudez, S., Wozniak, J., and Willer,
H. (2020). The State of Sustainable Markets 2020: Statistics and Emerging Trends. ITC, Geneva. Available at:https://vss.fibl.org/.
For interactive online graphics see the Sustainability Map at https://www.sustainabilitymap.org/trends

100

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Crops › Coffee› Coffee
In 2019, around 709’000 hectares or 6.7 percent of the global coffee area was underorganic management.

Figure 36: Coffee: Organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments.
Online at https://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

101

Statistics › Crops › Coffee

Figure 37: Coffee: Organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments.
Online at https://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html

102

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Crops › Coffee
Table 29: Coffee: Organic area by country 2019
Country
Bolivia
BrazilCameroon
Cape VerdeColombia
Costa Rica
Congo D.R.
Dominican Republic
EcuadorEl Salvador
Ethiopia
GuatemalaHaiti
Honduras
Indonesia
JamaicaKenya
Lao P.D.R.
Madagascar
Malawi
MexicoMyanmar
Nepal
Nicaragua
Papua New Guinea
Peru
Philippines
RwandaSão Tomé and Príncipe
Sierra Leone
Tanzania
Thailand
Timor-Leste
UgandaUSA
Viet NamWorld

Organic area[ha]

Organic share[%]

Area fully
converted [ha]Area underconversion [ha]

4'807
576

19.5
-

4'255

552

17
495
12'773591
16'791
205
1'550
1'522
160'307
16'000169
23'50060'046
2
251
2'982
571
8
72'90037804
31'09410'855102'730
6
586
429
3'489
81'740
1'259
32'22565'570115
2'120
709'118

1.6
0.7
22.2
0.3
4.9
1.2
23.4
5.5
0.2
5.4
4.8
0.0
0.2
3.6
0.5
0.2
11.6
0.3
30.3
23.4
19.9
23.0
0.0
1.2
26.4
44.3
2.9
68.6
16.6
3.7
0.3
6.7

495
11'864591
16'791
205
1'289
1'468
160'307
16'000169
59'828250571
772'90037804
22'88510'855
6
586
429
3'489
81'740

909

261
53

218
2
1
0
1

8'209

0
0

32'225115
420
500'580

1'700
11'905

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317
Blank cells: No data available.
For more information on coffee production (organic and other Voluntary Sustainability Standards - VSS),
please see the report “The State of Sustainable Markets – Statistics and Emerging Trends 2020.”1

1

Meier, C., Sampson, G., Larrea, C., Schlatter, B., Voora, V., Dang, D., Bermudez, S., Wozniak, J., and Willer,
H. (2020). The State of Sustainable Markets 2020: Statistics and Emerging Trends. ITC, Geneva. Available at:https://vss.fibl.org/.
For interactive online graphics see the Sustainability Map at https://www.sustainabilitymap.org/trends
FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

103

Statistics › Crops › Dry Pulses› Dry pulses1
In 2019, almost 807’000 hectares or 0.8 percent of the global dry pulses area was underorganic management.

Figure 38: Dry Pulses: Organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments.
Online at https://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html

In past editions of “The World of Organic Agriculture”, this category was called “Protein crops”. In order toharmonize nomenclature with Eurostat, we changed this to “Dry pulses.”
1

104

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Crops › Dry Pulses

Figure 39: Dry Pulses: Organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021 based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments.
Online at https://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

105

Statistics › Crops › Dry Pulses
Table 30: Dry pulses: Organic area by country 2019
Organic area[ha]Country

Organic share[%]

Argentina

1'224

0.2

Austria

12'37470.0

Area fully
converted [ha]Area underconversion [ha]

2

4

326

58
10

Azerbaijan

60.0Belarus40

0.0

Belgium

384

8.3

Benin

0

0.0

Bolivia

31

0.0

21

Bosnia and Herzegovina

24

0.2

24

12'380

29.4

11'154

16

0.0

16

Canada73'2482.3

China

70'0002.5

57'0004

0.0

4

Bulgaria
Burkina Faso

Colombia
Croatia

1'227

13'000

97

3.9

84

12

Czech Republic

4'115

12.2

2'882

1'233

Denmark

10'645

48.0

4'924

5'722

Ecuador

49

0.2

25

24

Estonia

8'544

19.9

7'034

1'511

Finland

20'61465.2

16'312

4'302

France131'070

41.9

92'66638'404

74

40
6'241

French Guiana (France)

114

0.0

Germany

52'00031.2

Greece19'28215.0

13'041

66

97.1

45

21

Hungary

3'244

18.5

2'923

321

Ireland

101

1.2

78

24

Israel

38

0.5

32

6

Italy

47'52341.0

39'653

7'869

Kazakhstan

13'388

1.6

215

0.0

Guadeloupe (France)

Kenya
Kyrgyzstan

8'880
215

400

0.4

400

Latvia10'902

27.0

9'903

999

Lithuania

23'882

16.1

22'338

1'544

96

23.4

96

Luxembourg
Macao

0.0

Madagascar

183

0.2

183

0

Martinique (France)

46

2.6

43

3

Mauritius

0

0.0

0

Mayotte4

0.0

3Mexico16'273

0.9

16'273

Moldova

1'658

4.3

889

1

0.2

1

Montenegro
Netherlands

242

6.9

212

Nicaragua

205

0.1

205

Norway

426

13.1

355

106

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

1
769
30
71

Statistics › Crops › Dry Pulses
Organic area[ha]5

Organic share[%]
0.0

Area fully
converted [ha]Area underconversion [ha]Poland47'101

19.6

34'944

12'157

Portugal

1'016

4.8

983

34

64

0.5

Réunion (France)

275

0.0

239

36

Romania

7'411

6.3

5'991

1'420

Country
Peru

Republic of Korea

Russian Federation

58'464

2.2

Slovakia

2'257

23.1

1'857

878

Slovenia

75

7.3

66

9

South Africa

300

0.4

263

37

400

Spain

35'9088.5

31'713

4'194

Sweden

12'783

32.5

10'252

2'532

Switzerland

1'628

28.9

Tanzania

50'853

2.4

50'853

Turkey13'620

1.5

6'249

4'964
3'403
31'581806'862

0.9
1.9
1.8
0.8

2'754
31'581477'181

UkraineUnited Kingdom
United States of America
World

7'371
327
650
122'371

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317
Blank cells: No data available

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

107

Statistics › Crops › Temperate Fruit
Temperate Fruit
In 2019, more than 308’000 hectares or 2.6 percent of the global temperate fruit area wasunder organic management.

Figure 40: Temperate Fruit: Organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments.
Online at https://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html

108

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Crops › Temperate Fruit

Figure 41: Temperate Fruit: Organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments.
Online at https://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

109

Statistics › Crops › Temperate Fruit
Table 31: Temperate fruit: Organic area by country 2019
Country
Albania

Organic area[ha]

Organic share
[%]

2

0.0

Argentina

4'902

5.8

Austria

2'235

26.0

Azerbaijan

754

1.3

Belarus14

0.0

Belgium

1'043

Bolivia2

Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria

Area fully
converted [ha]Area underconversion [ha]
2

112

642

6.0

628

415

0.0

2

2

0.0

2

0

7'101

22.8

4'645

2'456

Canada

987

4.4

Chile

3'273

3.2

3'273

China

116'000

2.0

84'00032'000

Croatia

2'337

16.4

1'607

731

Cyprus

210

13.2

167

44

Czech Republic

4'034

29.6

3'461

574

Denmark

624

27.1

439

186

Ecuador1

0.0

1

Estonia

477

80.8

416

Finland

88

12.8

80

62
6

France23'45023.5

14'4638'987

855

Georgia855

2.1

Germany

8'400

17.0

Greece

2'013

2.4

1'299

714

Hungary

6'884

10.1

3'736

3'148

2

0.0

2

Iran (Islamic Republicof)Ireland

54

7.6

51

2

Israel

39

0.4

30

9

Italy

26'49913.0

19'304

7'195

0

0.0

JordanKyrgyzstan

282

0.6

276

6

Latvia

1'337

32.2

1'207

129

Lebanon

58

0.2

54

4

Liechtenstein

3

0.0

2

1
108

Lithuania

1'006

7.8

898

Luxembourg

60

18.2

60

Malta

1

0.0

Mauritius

1

0.0

1
1

Mexico

107

0.1

107

Moldova

656

0.7

609

Montenegro

102

7.6

53

49

Morocco

3'759

3.8

3'568

191

Netherlands

597

3.4

518

79

North Macedonia

240

0.6

131

112

Norway

229

10.7

182

46

Oman

4

0.0

110

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

47

Statistics › Crops › Temperate FruitCountry

Organic area[ha]

Organic share[%]

Area fully
converted [ha]Area underconversion [ha]Poland13'326

5.9

10'0033'324

Portugal

1'447

3.5

1'204

245

Republic of Korea

130

0.2

Romania

4'144

3'498

7'640

5.8

Russian Federation

20

0.0

Senegal

1

0.0

1

20

Serbia

2'352

1.7

1'833

Slovakia

555

15.4

522

33

Slovenia

392

12.8

228

165

87

0.2

71

16

7'979

4.1

4'950

3'030

264

47

South Africa
Spain
Sweden313

18.5

Switzerland

851

14.0

11'24320'244
1'943
1'164
18'130308'543

23.4
4.0
1.2
6.2
7.2
2.6

Tunisia
TurkeyUkraineUnited Kingdom
USA
World

11'24311'355
1'111
18'130211'298

518

8'891
1'039
54
78'826

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317
Blank cells: No data available.

Further reading
Granatstein, David, Elizabeth Kirby, Harold Ostenson, and Helga Willer (2015) Global situation for organic
tree fruits. Scientia Horticulturae. Available online 18 December 2015
doi:10.1016/j.scienta.2015.12.008

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

111

Statistics › Crops › Tropical and Subtropical Fruit› Fruit: Tropical and subtropical fruit
In 2019, around 237’000 hectares or 0.9 percent of the global tropical and subtropicalfruit area was under organic management.

Figure 42: Tropical and subtropical fruit: Organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments.
Online at https://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html

112

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Crops › Tropical and Subtropical Fruit

Figure 43: Tropical and subtropical fruit: Organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments.
Online at https://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

113

Statistics › Crops › Tropical and Subtropical Fruit
Table 32: Tropical and subtropical fruit: Organic area by country 2019
Organic area[ha]

Organic share[%]

Area fully
converted [ha]Algeria

564

0.3

564

Argentina

19

0.2Country

Area underconversion [ha]Azerbaijan

495

4.0

Benin

58

0.4

Brazil1800.0Bulgaria

36

0.0

32

4

6'133

39.9

6'115

18

83

0

Burkina Faso

180

315

Burundi83

0.0

Cameroon

183

0.0

Canada

1

13.8

Chile

315

0.8

315

China

34'000

1.1

11'000

23'000Colombia

6'290

0.9

5'553

737

Cook Islands

15

13.5

15

Costa Rica

5'243

4.6

5'243

Côte d'Ivoire

2'777

0.4

2'406

371

Croatia

153

36.4

49

104

Cuba

68

0.1

Cyprus

142

67

17.5

75

Democratic Republic of
the Congo
Dominican Republic

7

0.0

7

25'523

22.4

25'523

Ecuador18'027

5.8

15'006

Egypt

542

0.2

542

3'021

El Salvador

12

0.1

12

France

284

1.5

125

158

French Guiana (France)

326

11.0

237

89

French Polynesia

61

13.9

61

Gambia

48

18.3

48

Ghana

1'034

0.3

1'034

Greece

1'182

7.6

770

413

Guadeloupe (France)

131

3.7

62

69

Guatemala

270

0.2

270

Guinea

1'000

1'000

0.4

Guinea-Bissau

98

0.5

98

Indonesia

888

0.1

888

Iran (Islamic Republicof)Israel

4'750

1.7

4'619

1'021

4.1

837

184

Italy

9'984

36.7

7'625

2'359

Jordan

167

3.2

Kenya

8'437

5.2

3'272

5'165

Kuwait

10

0.3

10

131

Lebanon

55

1.3

28

Madagascar

3'303

1.5

3'303

0

Mali

1'800

2.1

1'720

80

114

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

27

Statistics › Crops › Tropical and Subtropical FruitCountry
Martinique (France)
Mauritius
MexicoOrganic area[ha]

Organic share[%]

Area fully
converted [ha]Area underconversion [ha]

266

4.3

176

90

0

0.0

0
8'407

8'407

1.4

Montenegro

3

0.2

1

Mozambique

785

0.8

785

Nicaragua

1'384

7.1

1'258

125

9

23.1

2

7

2'117

0.5

2'117

5

0.2

1

8'935

3.1

North Macedonia
Pakistan
Palestine
Peru

1

3

Philippines

61

0.0

61

Portugal

1'013

10.6

767

246

8

0.1
91

Puerto Rico
Réunion (France)

368

0.0

277

Rwanda

243

0.1

238

6

Saudi Arabia

3'868

3.3

2'776

1'092

Senegal

1'491

6.4

1'491

Serbia

0

0.0

0

3'097

17.8

3'097

0

47

27.6

29

18

Sierra Leone
Slovenia

8

0.0

6

2

Spain

South Africa

5'957

8.1

3'584

2'374

Sri Lanka

591

0.6

591

0

Sudan

19

0.0

19

Suriname

109

4.2

109

Taiwan

1'548

1.8

1'548

Tanzania

6'063

0.7

6'063

Togo

976

41.6

976

Tunisia

6'425

7.4

6'425

20'064
1'942
0
403
5'122
800
19'1781
237'026

29.3
0.2
0.1
1.0
13.8
18.2
7.6
0.0
0.9

14'421

5'643

402
5'122
800
19'1181
179'395

1

TurkeyUgandaUkraineUnited Arab Emirates
USA
Uzbekistan
Viet Nam
ZimbabweWorld60
46'071

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments.

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

115

Statistics › Crops › Grapes› Grapes
In 2019, almost 468’000 hectares or 6.7% of the global grape area was under organic
management.

Figure 44: Grapes: Organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments.
Online at https://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html

116

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Crops › Grapes

Figure 45: Grapes: Organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments.
Online at https://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

117

Statistics › Crops › Grapes
Table 33: Grapes: Organic area by country 2019
Country
Albania
Algeria
AndorraArgentina
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
BelarusBelgium
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Croatia
CyprusCzech Republic
Denmark
Egypt
Estonia
FinlandFranceGeorgia
Germany
GreeceHungary
IranIsraelItaly
JordanLebanon
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
MexicoMoldova
Montenegro
Netherlands
New Zealand
North Macedonia
Peru
PolandPortugal
Republic of Korea
Romania
SerbiaSlovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
SwedenSwitzerland
TurkeyUkraineUK
USA
Uzbekistan
World

Organic area [ha]Organic area [%]

3
208
2
4'878
5'783
6'567
41
0
118
3'611
3'526
14'000
1'072
262
977
55
2'157
3
1
112'057130
10'600
5'488
1'883
2'012
80
109'423
10
713
4
1
141
9
5'138
18
0
19
1'720
124
70
235
3'997
70
2'790
52
163
706
1'036
121'279
5
1'737
15'10256
98
27'444
85
467'760

0.0
0.3
0.0
2.2
4.3
13.5
0.3
0.0
31.0
12.0
1.7
1.8
5.4
3.9
6.1
0.0
2.7
0.0
0.0
14.8
0.2
10.5
5.4
2.9
1.2
1.0
15.7
0.3
9.2
0.0
0.0
11.4
2.2
16.7
0.0
0.0
11.9
4.4
0.5
0.2
31.8
2.2
0.6
1.6
0.3
2.1
4.5
0.9
12.9
10.0
12.0
3.6
0.1
3.8
7.2
0.1
6.7

Area fully converted [ha]Area under conversion [ha]
3

208
2

1

40

82
2'967
3'526
11'000
908
245
851
31
2'157
3
1
68'506
55

35
644
3'000
164
17
126
24
1
43'551
75

4'283
1'313
2'012
48
83'825

1'204
570
32
25'599

651
4
1
101
6
5'138
4
0
17

62

40
2
13
2
124

177
3'036

59
961

1'644
11
98
548
762
99'386
5

1'145
41
64
158
274
21'893

9'273

5'829
5
15

84
27'44485
330'500

105'774

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317
Blank cells: Not data

118

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Crops › Oilseeds› Oilseeds
In 2019, more than 1’676’000 hectares or 0.7 percent of the global oilseeds area wasunder organic management.

Figure 46: Oilseeds: Organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments.
Online at https://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

119

Statistics › Crops › Oilseeds

Figure 47: Oilseeds: Organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments.
Online at https://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html

120

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Crops › Oilseeds
Table 34: Oilseeds: Organic area by country 2019
Country

Organic area [ha]Organic area [%]Area fully
converted [ha]Area underconversion [ha]

50

76

200

56
2'021

Argentina

12'3330.1

Austria38'65724.4

Azerbaijan

126

0.5

Belarus100

0.0Belgium

256

2.7

Benin

3'001

0.7

Bolivia

24'671

1.6

22'650

29

0.2

29

Bulgaria

10'636

1.1

9'556

Burkina Faso

34'305

4.0

34'305

CanadaBosnia and Herzegovina

1'080

54'095

0.4

Chile

31

0.0

31

China

466'000

2.3

394'000

40

0.1

40

Côte d'Ivoire

1'000

4.1

1'000

Croatia

9'557

6.0

7'875

1'682

Czech Republic

2'434

0.5

1'308

1'126

Denmark

3'457

2.1

1'959

1'499

Ecuador

28

0.1

12

16

Egypt

1'761

1.4

1'761

Estonia

5'243

6.8

4'706

538

Ethiopia

33'3993.4

22'936

10'463Finland

2'797

8.7

2'475

322

France91'984

4.8

56'37235'613

Colombia

French Guiana (France)

72'0000.0

Germany

18'800

2.1

Ghana

228

0.0

228

Greece

4'959

4.6

2'917

27

0.1

27

Hungary

11'780

1.2

10'280India

130'000

0.5

Indonesia

221

0.0

221

Iran

650

0.2

650

Israel

649

9.1

347

302

Italy

28'737

7.1

23'5995'137

Kazakhstan

42'118

1.5

715

0.4

1

4

0.0

3

1

2'084

1.5

1'814

269

Guinea-Bissau

Kenya
Kyrgyzstan
LatviaLiechtenstein

2'043
1'500

2'679
714

26

0.0

26

7'279

2.9

7'034

245

Luxembourg

30

1.0

29

1

Madagascar

1'387

1.5

1'387

0

Malawi11'996

2.0

11'996

Mali

8'153

1.8

8'153

Mexico

9'244

2.5

9'244

Lithuania

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

121

Statistics › Crops › Oilseeds
Country

Organic area [ha]Organic area [%]Area fully
converted [ha]Area underconversion [ha]Moldova

9'192

2.1

6'818

2'374

Myanmar

345

0.0

345

Nepal

122

0.0

Netherlands

69

1.9

61

8

Nicaragua

6'389

11.3

4'639

1'750

Nigeria

122

4'581

0.1

4'581

North Macedonia

23

0.5

16

7

Norway

72

2.2

52

20

Paraguay

7'783

0.2

7'783

Peru

183

3.1

Poland

4'292

0.5

1'551

2'741

Portugal

29

0.4

22

7

Réunion (France)

4

0.0

3

1

Romania

76'848

4.3

54'51922'329Russian Federation

214'894

1.6

Serbia

2'172

0.4

2'091

82

Slovakia

5'733

2.2

2'766

2'968

Slovenia

318

3.7

265

52

South Africa

219

0.0

209

10

Spain

10'544

1.3

8'353

2'192

Sudan

7'209

0.1

7'209

Sweden

8'441

7.8

7'892

Switzerland

1'225

4.3

Togo

31'311

45.3

30'410901

Turkey16'201

1.7

8'550

7'6511

Turkmenistan

179

548

0.0

Uganda44'587

4.3

Ukraine64'595

0.7

107

0.0

16

91

83'883
3
1'676'502

0.2
0.0
0.7

83'8833
871'255

188'558

United Kingdom
USA
Zimbabwe
World

5'143

Source: FiBL survey 2021 based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317. Blank cells: no data.

For more information on soybean production (organic and other Voluntary
Sustainability Standards - VSS), please see the report “The State of Sustainable Markets– Statistics and Emerging Trends 2020.”2

2

Meier, C., Sampson, G., Larrea, C., Schlatter, B., Voora, V., Dang, D., Bermudez, S., Wozniak, J., and Willer,
H. (2020). The State of Sustainable Markets 2020: Statistics and Emerging Trends. ITC, Geneva. Available at:https://vss.fibl.org/.
For interactive online graphics see the Sustainability Map at https://www.sustainabilitymap.org/trends

122

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Crops › Olives› Olives
In 2019, over 881’000 hectares or 8.4 percent of the global olive area was under organic
management.

Figure 48: Olives: Organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments.
Online at https://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

123

Statistics › Crops › Olives

Figure 49: Olives: Organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments.
Online at https://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html

124

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Crops › Olives
Table 35: Olives: Organic area by country 2019
Organic area[ha]

Organic area[%]

Area fully
converted [ha]Area underconversion [ha]Albania

50

0.1

41

9

Argentina

6'330

9.8
8

Country

Azerbaijan

13

0.4

5

Chile

146

0.7

146

Croatia

1'888

10.1

1'503

385

Cyprus

1'662

15.0

1'532

130

Egypt

1'103

1.5

1'103

France

5'754

32.5

4'324

1'430

Georgia70

0.0

GreeceIran (Islamic
Republic of)Israel57'062

6.3

36'46220'600

245

0.4

155

90

566

1.7

538

28

Italy

242'70821.3

203'273

39'43470

Jordan356

0.6

Lebanon

108

0.2

98

10

Malta

14

0.0

9

5

Mexico

40

0.8

40

4

2.6

4

MoroccoMontenegro

1'284

0.1

1'168

116

Palestine

5'154

8.2

4'317

837

Peru

74

0.3

Portugal

23'122

6.4

21'023

2'099

Slovenia

278

20.3

232

46

South Africa

13

0.0

13

0

Spain

209'288

8.0

182'579

26'709Tunisia241'152

15.8

241'152

TurkeyUnited States ofAmerica

82'431

9.5

60'875

628

4.0

628

881'543

8.4

761'220World

21'556

113'561

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317
Blank cells: No data available.

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

125

Statistics › Crops › Vegetables› Vegetables
In 2019, over 433’000 hectares or 0.7 percent of the global fresh vegetable area was underorganic management.

Figure 50: Vegetables: Organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments.
Online at https://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html

126

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Statistics › Crops › Vegetables

Figure 51: Vegetables: Organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments.
Online at https://statistics.fibl.org/visualisation.html

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

127

Statistics › Crops › Vegetables
Table 36: Vegetables: Organic area by country 2019
Country

Organic area [ha]Albania
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
BelarusBelgium
BelizeBenin
Bolivia (Plurinational State
of)
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria
CanadaChile
China
Colombia
Costa Rica
Côte d'Ivoire
Croatia
CyprusCzech Republic
Denmark
EcuadorEgypt
El Salvador
Estonia
FinlandFranceFrench Polynesia
GambiaGeorgia
Germany
Ghana
GreeceGuatemala
Hungary
IcelandIndonesia
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Iraq
IrelandIsraelItaly
Jamaica
JordanKazakhstan
Kenya
KosovoKuwaitKyrgyzstan
Lao People's Democratic
Republic
LatviaLebanon
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Madagascar
Malaysia
Malta

128

Organic area [%]

4
1'114
3'902
4'481
213
159
2'934
36
1
31

0.0
0.5
5.3
24.9
0.2
0.3
4.4
1.7
0.0
0.0

9
2'433
2'447
150
55'363
10
456
59
239
93
339
4'093
2'949
25'6903
125
1'099
30'69025
1
8
14'467
1
2'353
147
4'743
13
123
385
53
367
733
64'762
57
16
923
4'786
522
23
30
47

0.0
6.9
3.2
0.2
0.2
0.0
2.9
0.0
2.7
3.5
3.2
33.5
4.1
3.4
0.0
6.1
9.1
12.0
4.2
0.0
0.1
11.4
0.0
3.4
0.1
5.2
44.8
0.0
0.1
0.0
8.5
1.0
15.7
0.3
0.0
0.4
2.6
0.0
0.5
0.0
0.0

424
59
13
408
55
118
161
5

5.0
0.2
0.0
3.3
50.0
0.2
0.2
0.3

Area fully
converted [ha]Area underconversion [ha]

4
3'902
55

158

2'717

217

21

10

9
2'121

311

150
38'143
10
456
59
194
76
277
4'035
2'485
25'6903
98764
26'89525
1
8

17'220

44
18
62
57
464
28
335
3'795

1
1'688
147
3'265
13
123
100

1'479

287
727
53'09356

80
6
11'669
0

4'786
522
23
25

46

399
59
13
388
54
114
161
4

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

665

285

24
0
20
4

Statistics › Crops › Vegetables
Country

Mauritius
MexicoMoldova
Mongolia
Montenegro
MoroccoMozambique
MyanmarNamibia
Netherlands
Nicaragua
Nigeria
North Macedonia
NorwayOman
Palestine
Peru
Philippines
PolandPortugal
Republic of Korea
Romania
Russian Federation
Saudi Arabia
SenegalSerbiaSingapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka
SwedenSwitzerland
TaiwanThailand
Togo
Tonga
Tunisia
TurkeyUgandaUkraineUnited Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States of America
Viet Nam
Zimbabwe
World

Organic area [ha]1
35'969
18
27
1
2'160
6
50
79
9'008
1
105
347
373
16
13
128
5
8'080
3'945
310
774
3'535
438
163
171
15
624
298
560
22'022
121
2'168
3'096
2'930
2'693
8
108
179
4'453
6'125
1'877
23
5'450
77'6732'057
14433'165

Organic area [%]

0.0
4.9
0.1
0.3
0.0
1.2
0.0
0.0
1.1
9.2
0.0
0.0
0.7
5.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.0
4.3
8.2
0.1
0.5
0.5
0.6
0.3
0.2
1.0
8.8
4.6
0.5
5.8
0.2
16.5
18.8
2.0
0.6
0.0
1.5
0.1
0.5
2.4
0.4
0.2
4.7
9.5
0.2
0.0
0.7

Area fully
converted [ha]1
35'96918

Area underconversion [ha]

0
1'795
1
50
79
8'843
1
100
126
367

27
1
365
5
165
221
6

6

7

5
7'081
3'778

1'000
166

415
344
163
132
15
523
242
516
18'692
121
2'144

361
5
94
39
100
57
44
3'329
24

2'930
108
179
2'680
21
5'207
77'673
1'981
14
346'561

8
1'774
64
1
244
76
45'184

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

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129

Organic Cotton

Organic Cotton1
LISA BARSLEY,2 EVONNE TAN,3 SUET YIN,4 AMISH GOSAI5 AND LIESL
TRUSCOTT6
Global Trends
The significant growth in organic cotton production seen in 2017/18, when global fibre
volumes rose 56 percent, continued into 2018/19 with a further 31 percent growth.
Global production reached 239´787 metric tons (MT), which is just shy of the largest
ever organic cotton harvest, seen in 2009/10, just before the financial crash that
prompted a dramatic decline. Estimates show that the current growth trend willcontinue next year, though to a slightly lesser degree, with growth expected to bearound ten percent.
Globally, an estimated 222’134 farmers were growing certified organic cotton in
2018/19, spread across 19 countries and 418’935 hectares of certified land. Although thenumber of countries growing organic cotton remained the same, the list changedslightly, with Senegal temporarily dropping out of certification, and Pakistan joining
the line up with its first harvest of certified production in 2018/19.
The top seven countries producing organic cotton remained the same, although
Tanzania jumped marginally ahead of the US as the sixth biggest producer. Ranked byproduction, the top seven producing countries were: India (51 percent), China (17percent), Kyrgyzstan (ten percent), Turkey (ten percent), Tajikistan (five percent),
Tanzania (two percent), and the US (two percent). These seven countries continue toaccount for the vast majority (97 percent) of global organic cotton.
India was by far the biggest contributor to the global growth seen in 2018/19, adding
37’138 MT to the worldwide total. Turkey was also a significant contributor, followed
by Tajikistan, China and Uganda. India and Pakistan had the most land in conversion
to organic in 2018/19, with 23’251 ha and 17’632 ha, respectively, followed by Turkey,
Greece, and Tajikistan.

This article is a condensed version of the 2019 Organic Cotton Market Report produced by Lisa Barsley,
Evonne Tan, Liesl Truscott, and Amish Gosai, with production data collected by the following Textile
Exchange Regional Ambassadors: Atila Ertem (Turkey and Central Asia), Amish Gosai (India), Sandra
Marquardt (United States), Silvio Moraes (Latin America), Leonard Mtama (East Africa), Silvère Tovignan(West Africa), and Lazare Yombi (West Africa).
The full 2020 Organic Cotton Market Report is available here: https://store.textileexchange.org/product/2020organic-cotton-market-report/
More information about Textile Exchange is available here: https://textileexchange.org/
More information about organic cotton is available on www.aboutorganiccotton.org
2 Lisa Barsley, Materials Program Manager, Textile Exchange, UK
3 Evonne Tan, Data Management & China Strategy Director, Textile Exchange, Malaysia
4 Suet Yin Siew, Senior Data Analyst & Statistician, Textile Exchange, Malaysia
5 Amish Gosai, South Asia Manager, Textile Exchange, India
6 Liesl Truscott, European and Materials Strategy Director, Textile Exchange, UK
1

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Organic Cotton

Development of organic cotton fibre production

239’787
106’4242015/16

182’482
113’497
2014/15

118’032

117’034
2013/14106’557

2019/20

2018/192017/18

2016/17

2012/13

2011/122010/11

2009/10

2008/09

2007/08

57’924
2006/070

2005/06

50’00025’394100’000

37’728150’000

138’813145’872

200’000

2004/05

Metric tons

250’000

152’243

209’950

300’000

242’722

Source: Textile Exchange Organic Cotton Market Report 2020

Figure 52: Development of organic cotton fibre production in metric tons
Source: Textile Exchange Organic Cotton Market Report 2020; Estimate for 2019/2020

Geography of production
Though a total of 19 countries grew certified organic cotton in 2018/19, 97 percent of
production stemmed from just seven countries: India (51 percent), China (17 percent),
Kyrgyzstan (10 percent), Turkey (10 percent), Tajikistan (5 percent), the United States(2 percent) and Tanzania (2 percent).
The remaining three percent was produced by Uganda (1.08 percent), Greece (0.49
percent); Benin (0.42 percent); Peru (0.23 percent); Burkina Faso (0.19 percent); Pakistan(0.17 percent); Egypt (0.12 percent); Ethiopia (0.05 percent); Brazil (0.04 percent); Mali
(0.03 percent); Argentina (0.005 percent); and Thailand (0.003 percent).
See Table 37 for more detail on country-level production, or read on for region-levelsummaries.

AfricaCountries producing organic cotton in Africa in 2018/19 included Ethiopia, Tanzania
and Uganda in the East, and Benin, Burkina Faso, and Mali in the West. A total of 9’527
metric tons of organic cotton fibre was produced on 51’576 hectares by 46’264 farmers
across Africa. This represents a fibre production growth of 35 percent over the previous
season, and Africa currently accounts for four percent of global organic cotton
production. An additional 1’661 hectares of cotton-growing land were in conversion toorganic in Tanzania.

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

131

-

955

Tajikistan

220

Kyrgyzstan

Greece8’114

12’852

1’460

219

19’464

18

Egypt

1’279

10’29026’60851’57620’400Uganda174
7’900

46’264

10’729-3’506

Tanzania

Senegal

Mali

2’726

3’879

Certifiedorganic landarea [ha]*30’44659’093

3’540

776

108’808

23’7096’401

13’144

-

228

364

1’098

2’473

Organic seedcotton [MT]12’17823’637

1’168

287

41’247

9’527

2’581

5’281

-

84

130

453

998

Organic
cotton fibre
[MT]

5.08

9.86

0.49

0.12

17.20

3.97

1.08

2.20

-

0.03

0.05

0.19

0.42

Share ofglobal organic
fibre prod.
[%]

2’226

103

2’592

-

710

1’661

-

1’661

-

-

-

-

-

Total inconversion
land area
[ha]

132

1

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Please note that the land area figures reported by Textile Exchange refer to total land area certified to an organic standard by a producer group growing organic cotton. The
same piece of land could be, and increasingly is being, used to grow other organic crops in addition to cotton as part of a rotation system; a fundamental element of organic
agriculture. This means that reported land area figures do not necessarily reflect the land area used to grow only organic cotton and, as a result, may seem disproportionately
high compared to the organic cotton volumes harvested.
2 Please also note that some organic cotton farmers are involved in group certification under ICS (Internal control system), so not all land listed is necessarily allocated to organic
cotton, or not all farmers listed are necessarily under organic cotton cultivation. The figures might also include land/farmers in-conversion to organic.

Middle East & Central Asia

China

Africa Total

Burkina Faso
200

7’027

Benin

AfricaEthiopia

4’402

Country

RegionNo. offarmers

Table 37: Organic cotton farmers, area and production 2018/20191, 2

Organic Cotton

2’11913

MyanmarGlobal total

66
222’134

418’935

8’050

303’698

8

46

781

302’863

2’835

663

2’072

100

33’313

10’668

Certifiedorganic landarea [ha]*FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Source: Textile Exchange Organic Cotton Market Report 2020

USA Total

USA

170’829

46

South Asia Total

4’003

Thailand

166’767

Pakistan

India

Latin America Total

184

Total

South Asia Total

Latin America Total

1’903

32

1’577

Peru

Argentina384

No. offarmers

Brazill

Middle East & Central Asia Total

TurkeyCountryLatin America

Region133649’656

14’756350’975

-

17

1’172

349’786

1’793

1’486

280

27

149’61455’759Organic seedcotton [MT]239’787

5’165

123’072-6

398

122’668

666

558

97

11

60’11022’839Organic
cotton fibre[MT]

100.00

2.15

51.32

-

-

0.17

51.16

0.28

0.23

0.04

0.00

25.07

9.52

Share ofglobal organic
fibre prod.
[%]

55’833230

40’8928-

17’632

23’251

1’272

745

527

-

11’069

6’148

Total inconversion
land area[ha]

Organic Cotton

134

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and BonnGlobal Market
Organic Imports

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

135

Global Market for Organic Food and Drink

The Global Market for Organic Food & Drink1
BY AMARJIT SAHOTA2Introduction
The coronavirus pandemic is described as a multi-layered crisis with health, social andeconomic impacts. Since it began in spring 2020, it has been having a profound impact
on our lives. It is also elevating consumer demand for organic foods.
Organic food sales are seeing an uplift during the coronavirus pandemic. Retailers
across the globe are reporting significant sales increases since the virus outbreak in
March. Consumers are turning to organic foods as they look more closely at personal
health, wellness and nutrition.
Ecovia Intelligence predicts demand will continue to follow the positive trajectory inthe coming years. Previous health and food scares have caused an initial spike inorganic food sales, followed by sustained demand. The current crisis is, however, likely
to have long-term ramifications. Sustainability issues, such as food security,transparency and supply chain integrity, are likely to become more prominent.
Organic, as the most sustainable form of agriculture, is likely to benefit as the foodindustry makes the transition to a post-COVID world.

Global market overview
International sales of organic food and drink reached 112 billion US dollars in 2019. The
market has expanded by 55 percent since 2013.3
Figure 53 shows that although North America and Europe generate most sales, theirshare (roughly 90 percent) is shrinking. The two regions generated 97 percent of global
sales in 2000. The coronavirus crisis is predicted to accelerate this trend as more regional
markets for organic foods develop. In particular, the share of developing countries suchas China, India, Brazil and Indonesia is likely to grow at a fast rate in the coming years.

This chapter has been prepared by Ecovia Intelligence (formerly known as Organic Monitor) from its
ongoing research on the Global Market for Organic Food & Drink. No part of this chapter maybe reproduced
or used in other commercial publications without written consent from Ecovia Intelligence. To request
permission, write to Ecovia Intelligence, 79 Western Road, London W5 5DT, UK, Tel. +44 20 8567 0788, e-mailservices@ecoviaint.com, www.ecoviaint.com
2 Amarjit Sahota, President of Ecovia Intelligence, Ecovia Intelligence, 79 Western Road, London W5 5DT,
UK, www.ecoviaint.com
Amarjit Sahota is the Founder and President of Ecovia Intelligence (formerly Organic Monitor), a specialist
research, consulting & training firm that focuses on global sustainable product industries. More details are on
www.ecoviaint.com
3 Please note that there are some differences in organic food sales between the calculations of Ecovia
Intelligence and those of FiBL due to different methodologies.
1

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FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and BonnGlobal Market for Organic Food and Drink

Figure 53: Growth in Global Organic Food Sales by Leading Regions, 2000-2019
Source: Ecovia Intelligence

Coronavirus impact
The global COVID-19 pandemic is creating a demand surge for organic foods.
According to Nielsen, US organic food sales increased by 25 percent in the 17 weeks
prior to July 2020. In the UK, organic food sales rose by 18 percent in the 12 weeks before
June.
Consumers are turning to organic products as they look to boost their personal
immunity. Since organic foods avoid synthetic pesticides, fertilisers, growth promotersand related agro-chemicals, they are considered healthier and safer than conventional
foods.
Organic food retailers have benefited from the emergency measures (lockdowns or
circuit-breakers) introduced by national governments. Organic food and health foodshops have remained open during the crisis, attracting new shoppers to their stores
whilst existing customers are spending more. In France, organic food shops like
Biocoop and Naturalia reported sales increases of over 30 percent since the crisis
started.
Online retailers are reporting the highest sales growth. The pandemic has encouraged
many consumers to shop from home. In the UK, analysts predicted online grocery sales
will increase by a quarter in 2020. Amazon is widely tipped to be a major winner of thecurrent crisis, expected to report record sales and profits. Its subsidiary Whole Foods
Market is also benefiting from the shift to online sales. In April, the natural and organic
food retailer was limiting the number of its online grocery customers because of
unprecedented demand.
Organic vegetable box scheme operators are also reporting a sales surge. Abel & Cole,the leading operator in the UK, reported a 25 percent increase in sales orders in March

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

137

Global Market for Organic Food and Drink
2020. It delivers over 55’000 food boxes a week. Riverford, another organic vegetable
box scheme company, also showed a demand spike.
Online organic food retailers in Asia also reported the same trend. Nourish Organic, anIndian online retailer, experienced a 30 pcercent sales rise in March 2020. Greenheart
Organic Farms and Koita Milk in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) observed a threefold increase in home deliveries.
The coronavirus crisis has also brought supply issues. Many organic food companies
have international supply networks that have come under pressure. Many of the raw
materials used by organic food companies in Europe and North America are produced
in other regions. Lockdowns have disrupted supply chains. For instance, India is amajor source of organic tea, herbs, spices and related ingredients. Emergency measures
introduced by the Indian government halted food processing and exports. The virus
outbreak has led many companies to look at diversifying their source bases.

Implications of COVID-19
The coronavirus pandemic is likely to change the global organic food industry in six
major ways:
i. De-globalisation of food supply chains

Some argue that COVID-19 has put the brakes on globalisation. The pandemic has
highlighted the vulnerabilities of international supply chains. The supply of raw
materials was disrupted as countries entered emergency measures. For instance, somecountries halted exports of agricultural products as they entered lockdowns. The flowof organic ingredients continues to be adversely affected by higher freight andtransportation costs and longer delivery times. Organic food companies and ingredientfirms have set up international supply chains for their raw materials. COVID-19 has
shown that winners in the current crisis are those that have kept their supply chainsclose to home. Operators that are reliant on organic ingredients from other geographic
regions have been the most negatively affected. The way forward appears to be more
local – if not, regional – supply chains.
ii. Food security

The pandemic has also re-iterated the importance of food security. Seeing the frailtiesof their supply chains, some national governments focused on keeping food supply
networks moving during the crisis. Countries like Singapore and the United ArabEmirates ensured there was no disruption to food imports during the crisis. Expect tosee more governments invest in domestic farming and food production in the coming
years. Access to safe, sufficient and nutritious food is likely to rise on the political
agenda. Organic food production is likely to play an important role, considering there
is growing acceptance of its environmental and health benefits. Asian and Africancountries that have traditionally focused on export-oriented organic food industries
will look to developing internal markets.
iii. Government support

The previous two trends are likely to be accelerated by government support. National
governments are expected to invest more in organic farming as they look to make theirfood industries more resilient. Organic farming will also be encouraged as countries
138

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and BonnGlobal Market for Organic Food and Drink
look to reduce pesticide usage and improve soil fertility. In May 2020, as part of theEuropean Green Deal, the EU announced the target of reaching 25 percent of farmland
organic by 2030. The EU’s farm to fork strategy aims to improve food security inEurope. The strategy plans to reduce the environmental impact of the European foodsystem, reduce chemical pesticide use by 50 percent, hazardous pesticide use by 50
percent, fertiliser use by 20 percent and nutrient losses by 50 percent by 2030.
iv. Transparency and traceability

The move towards traceability and transparency in supply chains of agricultural
products is expected to gain impetus. As supply of organic ingredients/products
becomes tighter, risks of fraud and adulteration increase. Traceability tools will be
deployed to maintain the integrity of organic products. Blockchain technology is
expected to play a key role. Carrefour, Europe’s largest supermarket chain, is alreadyusing blockchain to provide transparency for some of its private label organic products.
The Thai government is also planning to use blockchain to promote its organic rice inexport markets.
v. Changing consumer behaviour

COVID-19 is arguably having the most impact on us as consumers, changing the way
we shop and eat. From initial panic-buying and stockpiling to less frequent shopping
visits and online purchasing, the coronavirus is causing a major shift in consumer
attitudes and behaviour. Organic food sales are rising during the crisis. However,demand for plant-based foods, nutritional supplements, and natural products is also
increasing. Consumers are turning to health and wellness products as they look moreclosely at disease prevention and maintenance. The challenge for the industry is toensure organic product sales meet the needs of changing consumer behaviour. Organic
dairy product sales have already been adversely affected by the rise of plant-based
products. Organic meat sales could suffer the same fate if consumers do not associatethem with ethics and nutrition.
vi. Food retailing

Online retailers are clear winners of the current crisis. Amazon, along with Whole
Foods Market, has capitalised on the shift to home shopping. Online retailers are
expected to take a bigger chunk of organic food sales in the coming years. Large
conventional grocery chains and dedicated organic food online retailers will gain
market share. Organic food retailers, especially those in Europe and Asia, will need toadapt. The growing purchasing power of millennials and Gen Z is expected toaccelerate this trend.

Conclusions
Organic foods were first introduced on a large-scale in the early 1990s. It took over 15
years for global organic product sales to reach 50 billion US dollars in 2008. Ten years
later (2018), they surpassed the 100 billion US dollar mark. With COVID-19 changing
the way we shop and eat, the next leap to 150 billion US dollars could possibly be within
the next few years.

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139

Organic Imports to the European Union

Imports of Organic Agri-food Products into theEuropean Union ‒ Summary of the EU AgriculturalMarket Brief on EU Organic Imports 20191
This is a summary prepared by FiBL of the EU Agricultural market brief “EU importsof organic agri-food products - Key developments in 2019” published by the European
Commission, DG Agriculture and Rural Development.

The present brief describes data on EU organic imports2 of agri-food products in 2019and reflects on key developments compared to 2018. It characterises these imports interms of origin and destination, as well as product categories.

Figure 54: Organic agri-food import volumes by import country
Source: Traces/European Commission 2020

In 2019, the EU imported 3.24 million metric tons (MT) of organic agri-food products.
This represents a negligible increase compared to the 3.23 million metric tons imported
in 2018 (+0.4 percent). Almost one-third of the 2019 organic imports into the EU were
imported by the Netherlands (32 percent). Other EU Member States that imported asignificant share of organic products include Germany (13 percent), the UK (12 percent)

European Commission (2020): EU imports of organic agri-food productsKey developments in 2019. EU
Agricultural Market Briefs No 17, June 2020. https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/food-farmingfisheries/farming/documents/market-brief-organic-imports-june2020_en.pdf
2 These data include the 28 countries that were member states of the European Union in 2019.
1

140

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Organic Imports to the European Union
and Belgium (11 percent). Organic imports in Member States which joined the EU after
2004 remain minor at slightly more than 3 percent (Figure 54, Table 42).

Main trade partners for organic imports include China, Ukraine, Dominican
Republic and Ecuador
Seventy percent of EU organic imports came from ten countries (Figure 55, Table 43).

Figure 55: Share (%) of total organic agri-food import volumes by product groups(left) and export country (right) 2019
Source: Traces/European Commission 2020

Together, these ten countries increased their exports to the EU substantially, by 13
percent. In comparison with 2018, the United States and the United Arab Emirates losttheir ranking in the top ten and were replaced by Colombia and Kazakhstan.
Imports from China include mainly organic oilcakes (75 percent), while Ecuador, theDominican Republic and Peru supply the EU with organic tropical fruit, nuts andspices. Organic cereals (including wheat, excluding rice) is the main imported productfrom Ukraine, Turkey and Kazakhstan, and organic sugar is the number one from
Brazil and Colombia.

Key imported organic products
Tropical fruit still on top of imported products
The ten most imported product categories represent 82 percent of total organic import
volumes in 2019 (Figure 55). First come tropical fruit, nuts and spices with 27 percent(0.9 million MT), followed by oilcakes with 12 percent (0.4 million MT), cereals otherthan wheat and rice, and beet and cane sugar (both 7 percent, 0.2 million MT) (Figure
55, Table 44).
Compared to 2018 organic imports, a significant increase was observed in the volume
imported of tropical fruit, nuts and spices (+13 percent), oilcakes (+13 percent), sugar
FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

141

Organic Imports to the European Union(+29 percent), vegetables (+8 percent), unroasted coffee, tea and maté (+11 percent) andsoybeans (+25 percent). Also, for the first time, a very small volume of organic cheese
was imported in 2019 (1.2 MT).
The remaining top-ten product categories decreased compared to the previous year:
cereals other than wheat and rice (-8 percent), wheat (-16 percent), oilseeds other thansoybeans (-17 percent), fruit other than citrus or tropical fruit (-8 percent).

Almost one-fifth of imported olive oil estimated to be organic
For some of the products categories, organic imports are estimated to represent asignificant share of total imports. In particular, for olive oil, almost 20 percent of imports
are estimated to be organic. For the other product categories, organic imports represent
up to a maximum of 10 percent of total imports, and for the large majority, less than 5
percent. Overall, organic agri-food imports are estimated to represent about 2 percentof the total volume of agri-food imports (Table 44).

Imports of organic cereals, oilseeds, sugar and derived products1
Close to half of the imported organic products pertain to the arable crop productcategories or to their derivatives (45 percent or 1.5 million metric tons) (Table 38).
Table 38: Organic cereals, oilseeds and sugar import volumes for key productcategories, 2018 and 2019 (thousand MT)

Oilcakes›of which soybean meals
Cereals, other than wheat and rice›of which maize
Beet and cane sugar
Wheat
Oilseeds, other than soybeans›of which sunflower›of which linseed›of which rapeseed›of which sesamum seed
Soybeans
Rice
Palm & palm kernel oils
Flours and other products of the milling industry
Vegetable oils other than palm & olive oils

2018 Imports(1000 MT)2019 Imports(1000 MT)

Change (%)

342
305
254
224
166
242
193
103
29
17
15
106
216
40
20
10

386
357
233
208
214
204
160
58
27
22
19
132
71
41
19
13

13.0
16.5
-8.3
-7.3
28.9
-15.7
-16.8
-43.4
-5.4
30.9
23.6
24.8
-67.4
2.4
-5.0
28.1

Source: Traces/European Commission 2020

Of these, oilseeds, oilcakes and vegetable oils cover slightly more than 0.7 million MT(50 percent), with the largest category being oilcakes (of which 92 percent are soybean

The analysis covers only the largest product categories listed in Table 38. It does not include imports ofother organic derived products such as starches, pasta, pastry, biscuits and bread, or ethanol, for which
imports remain limited.
1

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Organic Imports to the European Union
meals). Oilcakes are an important feed component for EU livestock production, inparticular for organic pig meat and poultry. A further 0.5 million MT is composed of
cereals and flours (36 percent), mainly wheat and maize. The remaining 0.2 million MT
is sugar (15 percent).
Imports of organic oilseeds and derivative products increased on average by 6 percent
in 2019. Among these product categories, only imports of oilseeds other than soybeansdecreased compared to 2018. For cereals (including wheat and rice), organic imports
show a decline over all product categories, resulting in an average decrease of 28
percent in 2019 imports. With regard to sugar, an additional volume of 29 percent was
imported.
Over 80 percent of organic oilcakes are imported from China. With regard to oilseeds,
important origins include China, Ukraine and India, as well as Togo for soybeans andTurkey for other oilseeds. The vast majority of organic cereals (excluding rice) are
imported from Ukraine (32 percent of wheat, 77 percent of other cereals) and Turkey(22 percent of wheat, 11 percent of other cereals) as well as from Kazakhstan for wheat(31 percent). Pakistan and India are the main origin countries of imported organic rice(respectively 36 percent and 25 percent of total organic rice imports). Three-quarters oforganic sugar is imported from four countries: Brazil (27 percent), Colombia, India(both 18 percent) and Paraguay (14 percent).

Imports of organic fruit and vegetables
Fruit and vegetables is the second largest category of imported organic products, with
1.35 million MT imported in 2019 (42 percent of total organic imports). The largest shareis composed of tropical fruit, nuts and spices (66 percent) which include mainly bananas(85 percent of tropical fruit) (Table 39).
Imports of organic fruit and vegetables increased by 8 percent in 2019. A particularly
strong increase is observed in imports of tropical fruit, nuts and spices, with 2019
imports close to 0.9 million MT (+13 percent). Two categories show, however, adecrease compared to the previous year: fruit other than exotic and citrus fruit (-8percent) and fruit juices (-3 percent).
Organic tropical fruit, nuts and spices are imported mainly from the Dominican
Republic (34 percent of total, equal to 0.3 million MT), Ecuador (31 percent) and Peru
(15 percent). Almost half of the imported organic citrus fruit originates from South
Africa (46 percent), while other organic fruits come from mainly from Turkey (25percent) and Argentina (17 percent). Half of the organic fruit juices imported come fromTurkey and Mexico (both 25 percent). Middle Eastern countries are the main origin oforganic vegetables, including Egypt (26 percent), Israel (22 percent) and Turkey (17percent). For preparations of vegetables, fruit or nuts, none of the origin countries
export significantly more to the EU than the others.

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

143

Organic Imports to the European Union
Table 39: Organic fruit and vegetables import volumes by product category, 2018 and2019 (thousand MT)2018 Imports(1000 MT)2019 Imports(1000 MT)

Change (%)

Tropical fruit, fresh or dried, nuts and spices

785

886

12.8%

of which bananas

654

749

14.6%

›

Vegetables, fresh, chilled and dried

147

159

7.9%

›

of which dried leguminous

58

58

1.3%

›

of which potatoes

33

28-16.1%›of which onions, shallots and garlic

13

27

115.5%

Fruit, fresh or dried, excl. citrus & tropical fruit

146

134

-8.5%

›

of which apples and pears

59

38-36.3%›of which grapes

20

22

11.0%

89

87

-2.8%

Fruit juices›of which orange juice

32

30

-4.6%

›

of which apple juice-20.1%

30

24

Preparations of vegetables, fruit or nuts

55

57

3.9%

of which preparations of fruit

50

51

1.0%

29

30

2.7%

›

of which lemons

16

16

5.9%

›

of which oranges

8

7

-4.3%

1’252

1’352

8.0%

›
Citrus fruit

Total

Source: Traces/European Commission 2020

Imports of organic permanent crops (excluding fruit and nuts)
Besides organic fruit and nuts, a further 260’000 MT of organic permanent crops (andtheir derivatives) are imported (Table 40). This includes in particular unroasted coffee,
tea in bulk and maté (54 percent), of which 92 percent is coffee, as well as cocoa beans(25 percent). Organic imports under these product categories increased slightly in 2019
compared to 2018 (+3 percent). While unroasted coffee, tea in bulk and mate increasedby 11 percent, imports of cocoa beans showed a similar percentage decrease.
Table 40: Organic permanent crops (excl. fruit and nuts) import volumes by productcategory, 2018 and 2019 (thousand MT)2018 Imports(1000 MT)2019 Imports(1000 MT)

Change (%)

Unroasted coffee, tea in bulk & maté

127

141

11.1

of which coffee

117

130

11.6

74

66

-11.3

›

Cocoa beans
Olive oil

30

34

11.6

Wine, vermouth, cider and vinegar

21

20

-5.3

of which wine

19

19

2.3

Roasted coffee and tea

0.8

0.9

13.4

Total

253

262

3.3

›

Source: Traces/European Commission 2020

144

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Organic Imports to the European Union
Unroasted coffee is largely imported from Peru and Honduras: Peru and Honduras

together represent 58 percent of the coffee exports (respectively 32 percent and 26
percent). Cocoa beans come from the Dominican Republic (37 percent), Peru (20percent) and Sierra Leone (17 percent). Tunisia is the sole exporter of organic olive oilto the EU. Chile and Argentina each export about a third of the organic wine, vermouth,
cider and vinegar to the EU, and further quantities are imported mainly from South
Africa and Australia.

Imports of organic animal products
Honey is the main imported organic animal product. Imports in 2019 remained stablecompared to the previous year around 18 000 MT. Besides honey, imports of organic
animal products in the EU are negligible and together represent less than 1’000 MT in2019 (Table 41).
China, Mexico and Brazil are the main exporting countries of eggs and honey to the EU.
Bovine meat and non-edible animal products are imported mainly from Uruguay.
Organic sheep and goat meat originates from New Zealand. The 1 MT of cheese isimported from the United States.
Table 41: Organic animal product import volumes by product category, 2018 and 2019
(MT)
2018
Imports (MT)2019
Imports (MT)Change (%)

Eggs and honey›of which honey
Bovine meat, fresh, chilled and frozen
Non edible animal products
Sheep and goat meat, fresh, chilled and frozen
CheesePork meat, fresh, chilled and frozen
Butter17’808
17’693
666
453
132
0
19
0.2

18’032
17’901
486
233
71
1
0
0

1.3
2.6
-27.1
-48.4
-46.3
N.A.
N.A.
N.A.

Total

19’07918’823-1.3

Source: Traces/European Commission 2020

Reference
European Commission (2020); EU imports of organic agri-food products - Key developments in 2019 = EU
Agricultural Market Brief No 17 of June 2020. European Commission, Brussels. The EU AgriculturalMarket Brief including the full data set is available at https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farmingfisheries/farming/facts-and-figures/performance-agricultural-policy/studies-and-reports/marketanalyses-and-briefs_en

Table 42: European Union: Imports by Member State 2019
Member State

Quantity in MT

Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
CyprusFiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

28’379.11
371’911.61
14’847.12
1’058.96
251.62145

Organic Imports to the European Union
Member State

Quantity in MT

Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
FinlandFranceFranceGermany
GreeceHungary
IrelandItaly
LatviaLithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
MexicoNetherlands
PolandPortugal
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
SwedenUnited Kingdom
European Union

19’955.99
120’704.77
326.0618’921.34
240’582.45
240’582.45
432’897.05
8’269.80
991.76
4’099.41
180’388.11
3’359.44
8’346.20
47.25
8.82
134’278.00
1’037’553.49
29’285.29
4’305.05
9’025.71
616.9622’418.91
100’140.05
190’023.20
393’666.09
3’242’382.00

Source: Traces/European Commission 2020

Table 43: Organic import volumes by exporting country, 2018 and 2019
Rank

Exporting countries

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21

China
UkraineDominican Republic
Ecuador
Peru
TurkeyIndia
Colombia
Kazakhstan
BrazilMexicoArgentina
Egypt
Togo
Tunisia
IsraelMoldova, Republic of
Paraguay
Honduras
Pakistan
Sri Lanka

146

2018
Imports(MT)

2019
Imports(MT)

Change(%)

Share in
total (%,
2019)

Cumulatedshare (%,
2019)

404 ‘623
265 ‘817
271 ‘801276 ‘879
204 ‘871
262 ‘722
125 ‘477
63 ‘11450 ‘25072 ‘204
69 ‘497
66 ‘838
46 ‘599
22 ‘12340 ‘12640 ‘61055 ‘36835 ‘12140 ‘235
27 ‘091
26 ‘096433 ‘705
337 ‘856
324 ‘354
304 ‘297
214 ‘240
210 ‘760
176 ‘568
87 ‘34185 ‘675
78 ‘825
74 ‘857
63 ‘369
56 ‘591
44 ‘684
42 ‘59140 ‘983
40 ‘053
38 ‘271
37 ‘352
34 ‘11632 ‘089

7.2
27.1
19.3
9.9
4.6
-19.8
40.7
38.4
70.5
9.2
7.7
-5.2
21.4
102.0
6.1
0.9
-27.7
9.0
-7.2
25.9
23.0

13.4
10.4
10.0
9.4
6.6
6.5
5.4
2.7
2.6
2.4
2.3
2.0
1.7
1.4
1.3
1.3
1.2
1.2
1.2
1.1
1.0

13.4
23.8
33.8
43.2
49.8
56.3
61.7
64.4
67.1
69.5
71.8
73.8
75.5
76.9
78.2
79.5
80.7
81.9
83.0
84.1
85.1

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Organic Imports to the European Union
Rank

Exporting countries

2018
Imports(MT)

2019
Imports(MT)

Change(%)

Share in
total (%,
2019)

Cumulatedshare (%,
2019)

22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40

CanadaThailandPhilippines
Russian Federation
South Africa
Chile
Cote d’Ivoire
Morocco
Ghana
United States
SerbiaNew Zealand
UgandaEthiopia
Costa Rica
Bolivia
Burkina Faso
Sierra Leone
Viet Nam

29 ‘726
31 ‘872
23 ‘869
34 ‘069
23 ‘14533 ‘223
14 ‘392
19 ‘950
14 ‘915170 ‘533
20 ‘989
19 ‘148
23 ‘327
7 ‘26516 ‘477
13 ‘127
12 ‘456
7 ‘965
12 ‘56130 ‘924
30 ‘41526 ‘487
26 ‘313
25 ‘430
24 ‘492
23 ‘50320 ‘74420 ‘318
19 ‘88118 ‘065
17 ‘304
16 ‘616
14 ‘850
14 ‘776
13 ‘964
13 ‘312
11 ‘535
11 ‘466

4.0
-4.6
11.0
-22.8
9.9
-26.3
63.3
4.0
36.2
-88.3
-13.9
-9.6
-28.8
104.4
-10.3
6.4
6.9
44.8
-8.7

1.0
0.9
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.6
0.6
0.6
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4

86.0
87.0
87.8
88.6
89.4
90.1
90.9
91.5
92.1
92.7
93.3
93.8
94.3
94.8
95.3
95.7
96.1
96.5
96.8

41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50

Cambodia
Cuba
Indonesia
Congo, Democratic Republic Of
Lao People S Democratic Republic
Madagascar
Nicaragua
Kenya
SenegalTanzania, United Republic Of

51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80

Japan
Mali
Australia
Guatemala
Sudan
Benin
Albania
Iran, Islamic Republic Of
Bosnia and Herzegovina
São Tomé and Príncipe
Algeria
Papua New Guinea
RwandaAzerbaijan
Mozambique
Uruguay
BelarusUzbekistan
Palestinian Territory, Occupied
Niger
PanamaLesothoChad
KosovoGuyanaGeorgia
North Macedonia
Kyrgyzstan
Cameroon
Nigeria

8 ‘55313 ‘972
7 ‘468
10 ‘788
1 ‘3745 ‘162
3 ‘790
6 ‘6842 ‘637
4 ‘233
2 ‘756
2 ‘5393 ‘375
1 ‘285
2 ‘5791 ‘3281 ‘302
1 ‘873
1 ‘475
1 ‘472
1 ‘198
1 ‘180
1 ‘150966
99
1 ‘378
942
949
461
680
6 ‘278515
1 ‘116
544
433
377
211
49
401
61

9 ‘4808 ‘731
7 ‘8487 ‘4495 ‘9685 ‘4125 ‘182
4 ‘846
4 ‘765
3 ‘5142 ‘9582 ‘937
2 ‘716
2 ‘5482 ‘1872 ‘081
1 ‘881
1 ‘871
1 ‘521
1 ‘508
1 ‘442
1 ‘441
1 ‘366
1 ‘314
1 ‘216
960
943
779
675
640
609
606
580
490
489
445
413
328
304
289

10.8
-37.5
5.1
-30.9
334.3
4.8
36.7
-27.5
80.7
-17.0
7.4
15.7
-19.5
98.2
-15.2
56.6
44.5
-0.1
3.1
2.4
20.4
22.0
18.9
36.0
1129.5
-30.3
0.0
-18.0
46.6
-5.9
-90.3
17.6
-48.0
-10.0
12.9
18.0
95.7
562.7
-24.2
377.1

0.3
0.3
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0

97.1
97.4
97.6
97.8
98.0
98.2
98.4
98.5
98.7
98.8
98.9
98.9
99.0
99.1
99.2
99.2
99.3
99.4
99.4
99.4
99.5
99.5
99.6
99.6
99.7
99.7
99.7
99.7
99.8
99.8
99.8
99.8
99.8
99.8
99.9
99.9
99.9
99.9
99.9
99.9

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

147

Organic Imports to the European Union
Rank

Exporting countries

2018
Imports(MT)

2019
Imports(MT)

Change(%)

Share in
total (%,
2019)

Cumulatedshare (%,
2019)

81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102

Zambia
Haiti
Korea, Republic Of
Maldives
MyanmarZimbabwe
French Polynesia
El Salvador
Nepal
Namibia
BurundiSamoa
Bangladesh
Saudi Arabia
Malaysia
United Arab Emirates
Comoros
Armenia
Somalia
VanuatuTaiwanSuriname

304
222
123
0
201
65
138
95
209
152
3
159
251
107
20
127 ‘806
26
180
66
0
27
18

221
216
214
187
150
143
142
132
130
126
115
115
114
96
69
62
62
54
50
42
37
36

-27.1
-2.9
74.3
N.A.
-25.2
120.3
3.2
38.9
-37.7
-17.1
4088.3
-27.6
-54.5
-10.2
243.9
-100.0
137.0
-69.8
-24.1
N.A.
37.0
105.9

0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0

99.9
99.9
99.9
99.9
99.9
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0

103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123

BelizeSeychelles
JordanMontenegro
Fiji
GuineaLebanonGuinea-Bissau
Botswana
Mauritius
GambiaSingaporeSaint Lucia
New Caledonia
Oman
Afghanistan
East Timor
Netherlands Antilles
Equatorial Guinea
Solomon Islands
Grenada

27
0
31
22
57
0
7
0
0
2
1
66
0
0
0
0
55
54
46
28
3

28
24
24
21
20
18
14
5
3
3
2
2
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

3.9
N.A.
-22.9
-4.0
-65.8
N.A.
98.7
N.A.
N.A.
33.6
194.6
-97.7
N.A.
N.A.
-47.1
-98.9
-100.0-100.0-100.0-100.0-100.0

0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0

100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0

3‘230‘675

3’242’382

0.36

Total

Source: Traces/European Commission 2020

148

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Organic Imports to the European Union
Table 44: Organic import volumes by product category, 2018 and 2019 (MT)
Rank

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52

Product categories

Tropical fruit, fresh or dried, nuts andspices
Oilcakes
Cereals, other than wheat and rice
Beet and cane sugar
Wheat
Oilseeds, other than soybeans
Vegetables, fresh, chilled and dried
Unroasted coffee, tea in bulk & maté
Fruit, fresh or dried, excl. citrus &tropical fruit
Soybeans
Fruit juices
Rice
Cocoa beans
Preparations of vegetables, fruit or nuts
Sugar, other than beet & cane
Palm & palm kernel oils
Olive oil
Citrus fruit
Food preparations, not specified
Wine, vermouth, cider and vinegar
Flours and other products of the millingindustry
Eggs and honeyBulbs, roots and live plants
Vegetable oils other than palm & olive
oils
Miscellaneous seeds and hop cones
Gums, resins and plant extracts
FISH
Soups and sauces
Infant food and other cereals, flour,
starch or milk preparations
Starches, inulin & gluten
Pasta, pastry, biscuits and bread
Pet food
Water and soft drinks
Other feed and feed ingredients
Cocoa paste and powder
NON AGRI
Essential oils
Roasted coffee and tea
Bovine meat, fresh, chilled and frozen
Chocolate, confectionery and ice cream
Sugar alcohols
Ethanol
Coffee and tea extracts
Spirits and liqueurs
Non edible animal products
Fatty acids and waxes
Sheep and goat meat, fresh, chilled andfrozenOdoriferous substances
Cut flowers and plants
CheesePork meat, fresh, chilled and frozen
Butter
Total

2018

2019

Imports(MT)

Imports(MT)

Change
(%)

Share
in
total
(%,
2019)

Cumulated
share
(%,
2019)

Estimatedshare oftotal
import785’162885’930

12.8

27.3

27.3

9

341’663254’197
165’811241’882
192’514
147’471
127’232
146’111385’924233’179
213’797
203’927
160’137
159’155
141’383
133’723

13.0
-8.3
28.9
-15.7
-16.8
7.9
11.1
-8.5

11.9
7.2
6.6
6.3
4.9
4.9
4.4
4.1

39.2
46.4
53.0
59.3
64.2
69.1
73.5
77.6

2
1
8
4
2
3
4
3

105’870
89’008216’01774’10054’84739’40039’64430’12529’042
17’99421’06220’324132‘000
86’51970’50965’751
56’98343’18640’58633’62129’83722’72519’93719’304

24.8
-2.8
-67.4
-11.3
3.9
9.6
2.4
11.6
2.7
26.3
-5.3
-5.0

4.1
2.7
2.2
2.0
1.8
1.3
1.3
1.0
0.9
0.7
0.6
0.6

81.7
84.4
86.5
88.6
90.3
91.7
92.9
94.0
94.9
95.6
96.2
96.8

1
4
3
3
3
2
0
19
1
5
1
10

17’808
12’484
10’15518’032
13’51913’005

1.3
8.3
28.1

0.6
0.4
0.4

97.3
97.8
98.2

8
5
0

7’332
7’060
5’828
5’940
4’483

9’157
8’720
7’098
6’226
4’882

24.9
23.5
21.8
4.8
8.9

0.3
0.3
0.2
0.2
0.2

98.4
98.7
98.9
99.1
99.3

9
3
N.A.
2
2

3’947
2’917
1’844
1’718
2’580
1’812
729
1’170
788
666
382
250
233
253
99
453
74
132

3’823
3’318
3’096
2’585
2’191
2’160
1’525
1’192
894
486
459
450
352
342
261
233
85
71

-3.1
13.7
67.9
50.5
-15.1
19.2
109.1
1.9
13.4
-27.1
20.1
80.0
51.4
35.4
164.4
-48.4
13.7
-46.3

0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0

99.4
99.5
99.6
99.7
99.7
99.8
99.9
99.9
99.9
99.9
99.9
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0

3
0
0
0
0
0
N.A.
3
1
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0

42
1
0
19
0
3’230’675

19
9
1
0
0
3’242‘382

-55.7
542.7
N.A.
-100.0-100.0
0.36

0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0

100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0

2
0
0
0
0
2

(%, 2019)

Source: Traces/European Commission 2020

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Standards andLegislation,
Policy Support

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Standards, Legislation, Policies › Public Standards and Regulations

Organic Agriculture Regulations Worldwide: Current
Situation
CORNELIA KIRCHNER,1 JOELLE KATTO-ANDRIGHETTO2 AND FLÁVIAMOURA E CASTRO3
According to data collected by IFOAM – Organics International and FiBL, 72 countries
had fully implemented organic regulations as of 2020. Twenty-two countries had
regulations, which were not fully implemented, while 14 countries were in the processof drafting legislation (Table 45, Table 46).
Among the countries that passed new organic regulations in 2020 are Madagascar andEgypt. There are also countries that are going through major revisions of their existing
regulations; among these are the European Union and the United States. Countries thathave concluded significant amendments of their existing regulations in 2020 include
the Philippines and Peru.
Table 45: Status of organic agriculture regulation: Number of countries by region 2020
RegionDrafting

AfricaAsia
EuropeLatin America and the Caribbean
North America
Oceania
Total

5
7
2

14

Fully
Implemented

Not fully
Implemented

Total
countries

1
10
39
16
2
4
72

4
11
4
3

10
28
43
21
2
4
108

22

Source: IFOAM – Organics International 2021

In an increasingly regulated world and with a growing global organic market, tradeand equivalence agreements are increasingly relevant and desired in order to lift tradebarriers. In 2020, Taiwan was the most active actor in negotiating equivalenceagreements. Taiwan’s revised organic regulation that came into force in May 2019
included a one-year timeline for converting existing unilateral recognitions by Taiwan
into bilateral equivalency agreements; otherwise, they would expire. By autumn 2020
Taiwan had signed five new bilateral equivalency agreements with Japan, Australia,

1 Cornelia Kirchner, Policy & Guarantee Senior Coordinator, IFOAM – Organics International, 53113 Bonn,

Germany, www.ifoam.bio, c.kirchner@ifoam.bio
2 Joelle Katto-Andrighetto, Senior Manager Policy & Guarantee, IFOAM – Organics International, 53113
Bonn, Germany, www.ifoam.bio, j.katto@ifoam.bio
3 Flávia Moura e Castro, Policy & Guarantee Senior Coordinator at IFOAM – Organics International, 53113
Bonn, Germany, www.ifoam.bio, f.castro@ifoam.bio

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Standards, Legislation, Policies › Public Standards and Regulations
Canada, New Zealand and the United States. With Brexit advancing, the United
Kingdom is a new player entering trade agreement negotiations.1

New organic regulations were adopted in Madagascar, Egypt and Russia
New organic law passed in Madagascar ensures organic integrity withouthindering growth
In May 2020, Madagascar approved its first organic regulation, the law No. 10/2019 of
28 November, 2019. The law was developed in close collaboration with the private
sector, producer organizations, NGOs, certification bodies, research institutions, andcorresponding Ministries. The law establishes the framework to develop a nationalorganic standard for producers wishing to produce for the local market. However, italso recognizes the equivalence of other organic standards, particularly those alreadyused for exports, so that the products certified against those standards will continue tobe marketable as organic on the domestic market. Another strength of this organic law
is that it encourages the participation of small producers in the sector by recognizing
Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) as a valid means of certification for the domestic
market. These are expected to be cheaper and more appropriate than third-party
certification for small farmers aiming to operate in the domestic market. The next steps
will be the development of complementary legislation, including the national organic
standard and the development of the first national organic strategy for organic
agriculture.

New organic law approved in Egypt
In January 2020, the Egyptian Parliament passed its first organic regulation. The law
aims to limit the negative effects of farming methods that depend on synthetic
chemicals in planting and animal feeding. Many details, including the production rules,
control procedures and conditions for import and export still need to be defined.

Organic law came into force in Russia
In Russia, the organic regulation that was passed in July 2018 - Federal Law No. 280 came into force in January 2020. For the first time, the law regulates production, storage,transportation, labelling, and marketing of organic products in the country. The law
also includes the creation of a unified state registry for organic producers.

Important revisions are ongoing or were finalized in the US, the European
Union, the Philippines, Peru and Mexico
Revision of the US Organic Regulation aims to strengthen organic enforcement
In August 2020, the US National Organic Program (NOP) published a proposal to revise
the USDA organic regulation, with a view to strengthen oversight and enforcement inInformation about current equivalence agreements can be accessed at https://www.ifoam.bio/equivalencetracker.

1

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Standards, Legislation, Policies › Public Standards and Regulations
the organic supply chain. Among the main changes proposed in the first public draft
are:
−
−
−
−

Fewer exemptions from organic certification for handlers
Mandatory use of electronic NOP import certificates
Increased traceability and mass-balance/supply chain audits
Revision of grower group requirements to standardize and strengthen oversightThe revision process is expected to continue well into 2021.

Revision process of the European Union (EU) organic regulation continues
The new EU organic regulation 2018/848 was adopted in 2018 when the basic act was
published. Drafting of the secondary legislation – the implementing and delegated acts
– for production, labelling, controls, and trade started in 2018 and will continue in 2021.
The timelines for the new regulation to come into force are as follows:−−−

New EU regulation comes into force: 1. January 2022.
Transition period for certification bodies to apply the EU Standard and movefrom equivalence to compliance: up to three years from the date the regulations
comes into force.
Transition period for negotiation of trade agreements with countries currently
recognized as equivalent: 5 years from the date the regulations comes into force.

Law that recognizes PGS in the Philippines is celebrated as achievement
In 2020 an amendment of the Organic Agriculture Law – the Republic Act 10068 from2010 – was approved by the Senate. The amendment includes official recognition of
PGS as a verification system for organic agriculture alongside third-party certification.
The Philippines is among the world’s leading countries in terms of PGS implementation
with a more than 15-year history. Many local government units actively support PGS.
The system has proven to be a reliable tool to guarantee organic quality on the domestic
market that is also accessible for small producers. This change in the law in favour of
PGS recognition is the result of a decade of intense advocacy efforts by stakeholders
from the organic sector in the Philippines. The rules applicable to the PGS initiatives in
the country have been drafted in close consultation with the sector.

Amendment of organic law in Peru that recognizes PGS is met by criticism
Peru is another country that now officially recognizes PGS. In February 2020, thegovernment approved an amendment to its organic regulation – law 29196 from 2012.
The amendment recognizes PGS initiatives as certification entities for organic
agriculture on the same level as third-party certification bodies. Despite having gained
recognition, the law is viewed critically by many actors involved in PGS and the organic
movement in Peru. They are concerned about the country’s existing PGS laws andstructures being neglected and the heavy bureaucracy proposed. It is expectedthat many existing PGS groups will find it difficult to enter into thegovernment recognition scheme and that barriers are high, especially for smallholders
and remote initiatives.

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Standards, Legislation, Policies › Public Standards and Regulations
Mexico expands the scope of the regulation
Mexico revised its organic regulation that had been published in 2013. The revisions
expanded the scope to beekeeping and aquaculture production and aimed toharmonize the regulation with international regulations to facilitate future equivalenceagreements with its main export markets, the US, Canada and the EU.

Contact
Please send comments or information about countries that are not listed in the tablebelow to Cornelia Kirchner (c.kirchner@ifoam.bio).

Annex: Table on the status of organic agriculture regulations
Table 46: Status of organic agriculture regulations

1

RegionCountry

Status of regulations

AfricaAlgeria
Botswana
Burkina Faso
BurundiCameroon
Cape VerdeCentral African Republic
Comoros
Congo, Dem. Rep.
Congo, Rep.
Djibouti
Egypt
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Eswatini
Ethiopia
Gabon
GambiaGhana
GuineaGuinea-Bissau
Ivory Coast
Kenya
LesothoLiberia
Libya
Madagascar
MalawiMali
Mauritania
Mauritius
MoroccoMozambique
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria
RwandaSão Tomé and Príncipe
Senegal
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
SomaliaSouth Africa
South Sudan
Sudan
Tanzania
Togo
Tunisia
UgandaZambiaDrafting

Relevant Remarks

Regional voluntary standards (EAOPS1)
Drafting

Not fully Implemented

Not fully Implemented

Regional voluntary standards (EAOPS)

Not fully Implemented

PGS recognition.

Drafting
Not fully Implemented

Regional voluntary standards (EAOPS)

Drafting
Drafting
Regional voluntary standards (EAOPS)
Fully Implemented
Regional voluntary standards (EAOPS)EAOPS = East African Organic Standard
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Standards, Legislation, Policies › Public Standards and Regulations
RegionAsia

Europe156

Country
Zimbabwe
Afghanistan
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Bahrain
Bangladesh
BhutanBrunei Darussalam
Cambodia
China
DPR Korea
East Timor
Hong Kong
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
IsraelJapan
JordanKazakhstan
KuwaitKyrgyzstan
Laos
Lebanon
Malaysia
Maldives
Mongolia
Myanmar
Nepal
Oman
Pakistan
Palestine
Philippines
Qatar
Republic of Korea
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Sri Lanka
Syria
TaiwanTajikistan
ThailandTurkmenistan
United Arab Emirates
Uzbekistan
Vietnam
Yemen
Albania
AndorraAustria
BelarusBelgium
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
CyprusCzech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
FinlandFranceGeorgia
Germany
GreeceHungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
KosovoLatviaLiechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxemburg
Malta
Moldova
MonacoMontenegro
Netherlands

Status of regulations

Relevant Remarks

Not fully Implemented
Not fully Implemented
Drafting
Drafting
Drafting
Fully Implemented

Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Not fully Implemented

PGS recognition.

Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Not fully Implemented
Not fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Not fully Implemented
Drafting
Fully Implemented
Not fully implemented

PGS recognition.

Drafting
Not fully Implemented

PGS recognition.

Fully Implemented
Not fully implemented
Drafting
Fully Implemented
Not fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Drafting
Not fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Not fully implemented
Fully Implemented
Not fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented

Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Standards, Legislation, Policies › Public Standards and Regulations
RegionLatin America and the
Caribbean

Oceania

Country

Status of regulations

North Macedonia
NorwayPolandPortugal
Romania
RussiaSan Marino
SerbiaSlovak Republic
Slovenia
Spain
SwedenSwitzerland
TurkeyUkraineUnited Kingdom
Antigua and Barbuda

Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Not fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Not fully Implemented
Fully Implemented

Argentina
BahamasBarbados
BelizeBolivia
BrazilChile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Dominica
Dominican Republic
EcuadorEl Salvador
GrenadaGuatemala
GuyanaGuyanaHaiti
Honduras
Jamaica
MexicoMontserrat
Nicaragua
PanamaParaguay
Peru
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines
St. Kitts and Nevis
St. Lucia
St. Vincent and the
Grenadines
Suriname
Trinidad and Tobago
Uruguay
Venezuela
CanadaUSA
Australia
Fiji
French Polynesia
Kiribati (Micronesia)
Marshall Islands
Micronesia
Nauru
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Niue
Palau
Papua New Guinea
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Tonga
TuvaluVanuatu

Relevant Remarks

Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)Regional compulsory regulation (EU Reg)

Fully Implemented

Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Not fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Not fully Implemented

PGS recognition.
PGS recognition.
PGS recognition.
PGS recognition.

PGS recognition.

Fully Implemented

Fully Implemented
Drafting
Fully Implemented

PGS recognition.

Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented

PGS recognition.
PGS recognition.

Drafting

Fully Implemented
Not Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented

Fully Implemented
Fully Implemented

PGS recognition.

Only for export.
Regional voluntary standards (POS)
Regional voluntary standards (POS); PGS
Recognition.
Regional voluntary standards (POS)
Regional voluntary standards (POS)
Regional voluntary standards (POS)
Regional voluntary standards (POS)
Regional voluntary standards (POS); PGS
recognition.
Only for export.
Regional voluntary standards (POS)
Regional voluntary standards (POS)
Regional voluntary standards (POS)
Regional voluntary standards (POS)
Regional voluntary standards (POS)
Regional voluntary standards (POS)
Regional voluntary standards (POS)
Regional voluntary standards (POS)

Source: IFOAM – Organics International 2021
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Participatory Guarantee Systems in 2020FLÁVIA MOURA E CASTRO,1 SARA ANSELMI,2 CORNELIA KIRCHNER3 AND
FEDERICA VARINI4
Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) are locally focused quality assurance systems.
They certify producers based on the active participation of stakeholders and are built
on a foundation of trust, social networks, and knowledge exchange (IFOAM definition,
20085). Despite the difficulties related to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020,
the number of PGS initiatives and producers involved in and certified by them has been
growing on all regions of the world (for definitions see the end of the article). They
represent today a well-established guarantee system for organic agriculture in many
countries.
In 2020, Peru, the Philippines and Madagascar included PGS as recognised guarantee
systems to ensure the organic quality of products at the national level. India andMongolia are also in the process of implementing recently approved regulations,
including PGS, bringing the total number of countries and territories that recognise PGS
in their legal framework for organic agriculture to 15.6
IFOAM – Organics International is the only organisation collecting data about PGS ona global level. During 2020 many PGS initiatives were affected by the measures
restricting contact and physical interaction, which were adopted worldwide due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. Regular meetings and peer reviews could not be carried out asplanned or not including all their members. This is partly reflected in the data reported
here, as it was not possible to collect recent figures for all countries. Notwithstanding,the overall trend towards an increase in the number of PGS initiatives and producers
certified is maintained and, to date,7 we have recorded in our PGS database 235 PGS
initiatives in 77 countries, with at least 1’153’220 producers involved and 1’110’964

1 Flávia Moura e Castro, Policy & Guarantee Senior Coordinator at IFOAM – Organics International, 53113

Bonn, Germany, www.ifoam.bio, f.castro@ifoam.bio
2 Sara Anselmi, Policy & Guarantee Junior Coordinator at IFOAM – Organics International, 53113 Bonn,
Germany, www.ifoam.bio, s.anselmi@ifoam.bio
3 Cornelia Kirchner, Policy & Guarantee Senior Coordinator at IFOAM – Organics International, 53113 Bonn,
Germany, www.ifoam.bio, c.kirchner@ifoam.bio
4 Federica Varini, Policy & Guarantee Coordinator at IFOAM – Organics International, 53113 Bonn, Germany,
www.ifoam.bio, (f.varini@ifoam.bio)
5 More information about the IFOAM definition of organic agriculture is available on the IFOAM website athttps://www.ifoam.bio/en/organic-landmarks/definition-organic-agriculture. A definition of PGS is available
at https://www.ifoam.bio/en/organic-policy-guarantee/participatory-guarantee-systems-pgs,
6 The 15 countries and territories are: Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, India, Madagascar, Mexico,
Mongolia, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Uruguay, French Polynesia and New Caledonia. Some of these haverecently approved regulations that are not yet fully implemented.
7 Data collection was completed on 10 December 2020.

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Standards, Legislation, Policies > PGS
producers certified (Figure 56). It is estimated that these producers manage over755’000 ha of land1.

Development of PGS-certified producers worldwide
1’110’964

Source: IFOAM – Organics International 2020

1’200’000

496’104

800’000
600’000

76’75076’00046’94517’00025’00011’0000

9’000

200’000

6’000

400’000

142’955

Producers

1’000’000

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Figure 56: Development of PGS certified producers worldwide
Source: IFOAM – Organics International 2020

The absolute majority of PGS certified producers and producers involved in PGS arefound in India, where according to the data from the Indian Ministry of Agriculture
and Farmers Welfare, a total of 1’078’535 PGS certified producers manage 614’504
hectares of agricultural land. These figures represent a significant growth compared to
2019: an increase of over 120 percent in the number of PGS certified producers and a
65% increase in hectares of PGS certified area in India. Alongside the governmental PGS
initiative, the civil society organisations gathered under “PGS Organic Council” inIndia certified a total of 5’553 producers, of which 632 are also included in thegovernmental program. The total of PGS certified producers in India has reached theimpressive figure of 1’083’4562.
Worldwide, there are seven other countries with more than 1’000 producers certified
by PGS: Brazil (7’821), Thailand (2’029), Uganda (2’044), Peru (1’790), Bolivia (1’287),
Vanuatu (1’269) and France (1’147).

1 Unfortunately, data referring to the area under organic management that is PGS certified is not available for

all PGS initiatives and countries.
2

Data collection was carried out until 10 December 2020.
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Standards, Legislation, Policies › PGS
Regional development
AfricaThis region has seen an overall increase in the figures compared to what we reported
in 2019: it is estimated that there are 20’161 producers involved in PGS, 5’345 of whom
are certified in African countries. Eleven PGS initiatives are under development in and
21 are operational in the region. Cameroon is now also included in this overview, where
the PGS initiative Etso Mbong, involving 170 producers, is currently operational andhas granted PGS certification to 22 of them.
Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo and São Tomé and Príncipe, the four countries involved in
the project Organic Market for Development (OM4D),1 all reported increased figures
for the total producers involved in PGS. In Burkina Faso, the total of PGS certified
producers almost doubled since the past year. In Ghana, the first 18 PGS certificateshave been granted.

Asia
Asia counts more PGS producers than any other region, with at least 1’102’198
producers involved, of which 1’088’432 are certified: over 600’000 more than what wasreported in 2019. This development is related to the continuous increase in numbers offarmers joining the governmental initiative “PGS-India” implemented by the National
Center of Organic Farming (NCOF) in the past two years, since the approval of the newlegal framework that recognises PGS alongside third-party certification for organic
certification in the domestic market.2 After India, the highest numbers for producers
involved in PGS in Asia are now found in Kyrgyzstan (3000), which has also seen an
increase in the numbers of producers certified (682 in 2019 to 889 in 2020), Thailand(2’155) and South Korea (2’000). In terms of certified producers, Thailand (2’029)
continues to hold second place in the region, after India. Asia remains the second
region, after Latin and Central America, with the highest number of operational PGS
initiatives (35).

Europe and North America
The situation presented here for Europe and North America3 refers mainly to datacollected in 2019 and updates or new entries reported throughout 2020 via the Global
Map of PGS initiatives4. There has been a minor increase in most indicators in Europe:
2’070 is the total number of producers involved in PGS, of whom 1’667 are certified.
The majority of them are located in France, where 1’147 are certified producers. The

This project is implemented by IFOAM – Organics International and Agro Eco – Louis Bolk Institute,
together with local and regional partners, and it is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs; to learn
more visit: https://www.ifoam.bio/en/OM4D
2 The number of certified producers and the hectares certified organic by PGS-India are constantly updated
on the national PGS platform: https://www.pgsindia-ncof.gov.in/
3 No relevant updates are available for this region.
4 To access the map, please visit: https://pgs.ifoam.bio/
1

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Standards, Legislation, Policies > PGS
number of PGS initiatives under development reported this year is also slightly higher:
14 in 2020, instead of 12 in 2019.

Latin and Central America
Brazil and Chile are the two countries responsible for the increase in overall PGS figuresobserved in this region in 2020. The total number of producers involved in PGS
initiatives has increased by 1’437, reaching 23’584, among which 12’609 are certified
producers (14% increase compared to 2019). The total area that is PGS certified in theregion is likely to have increased, but unfortunately, we do not have access to thisinformation.
Latin and Central America is again the region with the highest number of operational
PGS initiatives, 88 in total. While six of these new PGS initiatives are based in Chile (4)and Brazil (2), one is based in El Salvador and has granted PGS certificates for the firsttime in 2020.
In 2020 Peru, the country in the region with the second-highest number of producers
certified (at least 1’790 producers certified), approved an amendment to the organic
regulation (Law 29196 from 2012) that recognises PGS initiatives as certification entities
for organic agriculture at the same level as third-party certification bodies. Even though
advocacy towards this recognition had been ongoing for over a decade, various
national PGS stakeholders have manifested concern towards what they see as a neglectof the law for the country's existing PGS structures and the heavy bureaucracy
proposed (see contribution by Kirchner et al. on organic regulations, page 152).

Oceania
Oceania saw a decrease of 22 percent in total of PGS certified producers compared to
2019: PGS initiatives in the region reported 2’256 producers and at least 3’447 producers
involved in PGS. The reduction in PGS certified producers in this region is seen mainlyin Fiji (405 less than in 2019) and French Polynesia1. Vanuatu remains the country in theregion with the highest number of PGS certified producers (1’269). A decrease has also
been observed in the total area that is managed by PGS certified producers: 4’531 hacompared to 7’214 hectares in 2019.

General notes on the data
Every two years IFOAM – Organics International conducts a global PGS survey. The
last survey was conducted in 2019; therefore, most PGS figures are from October 2019.
Additional data were collected through bilateral communication with PGS initiatives,competent authorities and PGS experts. If new data is not received, data from theprevious year or older data is used, unless there is no update for several years. In suchcases, initiatives might be considered no longer active and thus excluded from the

1 The decrease observed for French Polynesia is most likely related to the fact that the over 200 producers,

members of 7 local groups, who were considered as individual operators in previous reports. For 2020 only
the 7 groups were included in the overview.

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Standards, Legislation, Policies › PGS
current statistics. When PGS are recognised under national organic regulation, datacollected and published by competent authorities is used, this is the case in Brazil,1Chile,2 Bolivia,3 Costa Rica,4 Mexico,5 and India.6

Definitions used
PGS initiative: Entity or organisation that has defined/chosen/adopted a common setof standards for organic agriculture and a common set of procedures (i.e. they have acommon manual describing those procedures), and that has a coordination body (i.e.
secretary, association) that has the overview of the data coming from theregional/subgroups, local groups or the individual farmers directly. A PGS initiative
will also typically use one common label to identify the products of their farmers asorganic and/or a logo that is used by other PGS initiatives, such as a national/regionalorganic logo.
Explanatory note: A PGS initiative can be composed of one single local group,
especially at the initial stage of development. Even though it is common for PGS
initiatives to be composed of various local groups, it is also possible that the PGS
producers in a PGS initiative work together based on geographic proximity or technicalexpertise, without forming a local group.
PGS status: Setting up a PGS is a long process and requires two or more years before
the producers involved can be fully certified. In our data collection, we distinguishbetween two situations:(a) Operational PGS: a PGS that is implementing a functional certification system tocertify their producers and has emitted at least one certificate to one farmer.
(b) PGS under development: a PGS that is in the process of developing a functional
certification system to certify their producers and has not yet emitted any
certificates.
Number of producers within a PGS: There are two categories of producers considered
for a PGS initiative:

1 Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento, Brasil: Cadastro Nacional de Produtores Orgânicos.

Available at http://www.agricultura.gov.br/assuntos/sustentabilidade/organicos/cadastro-nacionalprodutores-organicos
2 Servicio Agrícola y Ganadero, Chile: Certificación de Productos orgánicos. Available at

http://www.sag.cl/ambitos-de-accion/certificacion-de-productos-organicos/132/registros
3 Consejo Nacional de Producción Ecológica (UC-CNAPE), email communication, data for 2016.
4 Servicio Fitosanitario del Estado, MAG, Costa Rica: Registrados en Arao - Certificación Participativa.

Available at https://www.sfe.go.cr/SitePages/ARAO/InicioARAO.aspx
5 Servicio Nacional de Sanidad, Inocuidad y Calidad Agroalimentaria, Mexico: Padrón de Organismos deCertificación Participativa de productos orgánicos a pequeños productores y producción familiar.
6 Department of Agriculture & Cooperation, India: Participatory Guarantee System for India. Available at

http://pgsindia-ncof.gov.in

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Standards, Legislation, Policies > PGS(a) Producers involved: Farmers and processors that are involved in a PGS either as
certified or as not having yet received certification, including those that are in theprocess of conversion and that are expecting/intending to get a PGS certificate in
the near future.
(b) Producers certified: Farmers and processors that have been verified through a
PGS and that have received a PGS certificate or a proof of certification if they areapproved as part of a group within a PGS initiative.
Table 47: PGS statistics 2020
Row Labels
AfricaBenin
Burkina Faso
BurundiCameroon
Ethiopia
Ghana
Kenya
Mali
Mauritius
MoroccoMozambique
Namibia
Nigeria
RwandaSão Tomé and
Príncipe
SenegalSouth Africa
Tanzania
Togo
UgandaZimbabwe
Asia
Bangladesh
BhutanCambodia
China
India
Indonesia
Japan
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Mongolia
Myanmar
Nepal
Pakistan
Philippines
South Korea
Sri Lanka
TaiwanThailand
Vietnam

Producers
certified

Producers
involved

Operational PGS

Developing PGS

Total PGS
certified land [ha]5’345

20’161

21

11

1’314

228
549

1
1

18
178
50

586
968
4’820
170
30
280
1’337
150

27
18
4
706
0

27
90
11
706
315

0

40

291
331
864
0
2’044
15
1’088’432
00112
1’083’456
295
5
889
310
2
304
39

497
613
1’764
518
7’224
15
1’102’198
123
100
249
1’129
1’088’535
425
8
3’000
495
26
304
373

222
250
155
60
2’029
304

1’980
2’000
756
60
2’155
480

22

164
146
1

1
1
1
1
1

68

1
1
1
1
1

352
0
23
45
1
1

1
7
1

2

370
140

4
1
1
35

4
2
1
1
1
2
1
1
3
6
1
1
1
6
4

24
1
1
5
3

1

6
727’530023620’946
83’3232
17’997
773
379
66

1
1
7

318

1

222

1
2

3’367
114

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Standards, Legislation, Policies › PGS
Row Labels
EuropeBelgium
BosniaCzech Republic
FranceGermany
GreeceHungary
Italy
Spain
TurkeyLatin America
Argentina
BelizeBolivia
BrazilChile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
EcuadorEl Salvador
GuatemalaMexicoParaguay
Peru
UruguayNorth
America
Puerto Rico
USA
Oceania
Australia
Cook Islands
Fiji
French Polynesia
Kiribati
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Vanuatu
Total

Producers
certified

Producers
involved

Operational PGS

Developing PGS

Total PGS
certified land [ha]

1’667
80

2’070
191
5
2
1’217
38

17
1

14
1
1
1
2
1
1
2
2
2
1
8
1
1

4’590

1’147
38

206
196
0
12’609
20
1’287
7’821
264
373
32
0
637
8
25
139
78
1’790
135

10
255
327
25
23’584
40
5
3’395
8’601
259
649
50
3’712
1’877

3

3
10
88
1
4
28
18
6
6

400
2’670

1’428
92
9’142
170
190
2’564
908
335
176
0
80

3

1
4

50
288
211
3’947
500

1
7
2
10
1

655

1’760

1

655
2’256
14
11
706
21
0
95
140

10
1’750
3’447
25
10
1’092
295
120
179
150

0
1’269
1’110’964

76
1’500
1’153’220

1
683
235
3’250
550

2

1

8’440

1
1
12
1
1
5
1

8’440
4’531
2’200
6
0
97

3
1

1
1
1

1’287
1

1
1
174

61

50
891
755’547

Source: IFOAM – Organics International

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Standards, Legislation, Policies > Demeter Statistics

Demeter International – Current Statistics
CHRISTOPH SIMPFENDÖRFER1 AND SARAH FISCHER2Demeter is the only ecological association that has built up a worldwide network ofindividual certification organisations. In 1997 Demeter International was founded for
closer cooperation in the legal, economic and spiritual spheres. The joint organisation,
which is now the Biodynamic Federation – Demeter International, has 45 member
organisations in 36 countries working biodynamically. Of these, 19 are certifying
organisations. In all other countries, the International Certification Office (ICO) is
certifying. There are currently 6’400 Demeter farmers with more than 220’000 hectares
in 62 countries (Table 48, Table 49).
The Biodynamic Federation is a non-profit organisation, and its member organisations
work together in the spirit of an international confederation with democratic principles.
Membership requires a functioning Demeter certification programme. Associations
which support the objectives of Biodynamic Federation - Demeter International can beelected as associated members. Its basis is the Biodynamic agriculture method,originated by Rudolf Steiner in his “Agriculture Course” given in Koberwitz in 1924,
and developed further in practice and research.
The main tasks of Biodynamic Federation - Demeter International are:
•

•
•
•
•
•

Development and approval of International Demeter Standards for production
and processing as minimum requirements for the worldwide trade of Demeterproducts,
International registration and protection of the Demeter trademark,Certification of single farms/operations in countries without their own Demeterorganisation,
Harmonisation of the Demeter certification program - worldwide,
Commitment to advancing the public understanding and acceptance of the
Biodynamic method in relevant international institutions,Support for the establishment of autonomous Biodynamic associations and
Demeter organisations where none exist.

Demeter has seen continuous growth in certified farms over the past decades. Since theturn of the millennium, the number of Demeter farms worldwide has increased byaround 3’500 to almost 6’500 (Figure 57, Figure 58). The latest developments show astrong interest in Demeter certification. As a result of the growth in recent years, today,
more than 220’000 hectares of agricultural land is cultivated biodynamically. Demeterbananas, for example, are currently a very dynamic sector. Due to the great interest in

Christoph Simpfendörfer, Demeter-International e.V., Office Echterdingen, Hauptstraße 82, 70771
Echterdingen, Germany, www.demeter.net
2 Sarah Fischer, Demeter-International e.V., Office Echterdingen, Hauptstraße 82, 70771 Echterdingen,Germany, www.demeter.net
1

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Standards, Legislation, Policies > Demeter Statistics
the conversion and the newly created distribution channels, large areas have been
converted to biodynamic cultivation.

Development of Demeter-certified farms
7’000
6’000

Farms

5’000
4’000
3’000

2’785
2’827
2’813
2’931
2’988
3’016
3’223
3’303
3’282
4’052
4’068
4’215
4’386
4’583
4’637
4’742
4’800
4’920
4’950
5’091
5’279
5’387
5’998
6’429

Source: Demeter International 2020

2’000

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

0

1997

1’000

Figure 57: Development of the number of Demeter-certified farms
Source: Demeter International

Development of the Demeter-certified area
250’000

Hectares200’000
150’000
100’000

87’10188’53992’97796’837
98’533
100’588
106’970
101’992
104’994
118’709
121’239
128’391
142’373
140’352
144’335
147’009
153’246
156’400
161’074
170’833
180’706
187’549
191’230
220’725

Source: Demeter International 2020

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

0

1997

50’000Figure 58: Development of the Demeter-certified area
Source: Demeter International

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Standards, Legislation, Policies > Demeter Statistics
Biodynamic viticulture is also becoming increasingly important. At present, there areabout 1’012 wineries worldwide that are Demeter-certified, led by France with 438
wineries. Outside the European Union, most of the wineries are located in Switzerland,
the US, Chile and Argentina. In total, around 15’000 hectares of the Demeter-certified
area are biodynamic vineyards.
Table 48: Certified Demeter operations in member countries with a certifying
organisation (July 2020)
Hectares

Farms

Processors

Distributors

Austria

6’905

214

44

0

Brazil

3’349

24

28

5

Denmark

3’418

44

9

8

Egypt

2’838

86

8

0

Finland

391

13

5

5

France16’754

668

90

69

Germany

91’583

1’678

410

146

Great Britain

3’811

90

44

9

India

9’029

35

8

2

Italy

10’895

389

90

60

543

13

2

0
47

Luxembourg

7’852

143

44

New Zealand

The Netherlands

815

13

0

0

Norway

521

21

7

10

Slovenia

255

32

3

0

Spain

9’397

209

41

9

Sweden

853

13

6

8

Switzerland

5’612

319

82

55

USA

17’352

143

111

55

Total

192’173

4’147

1032

488

Source: Biodynamic Federation - Demeter International e.V.

Table 49: ICO-certified1 Demeter operations in other countries
Hectares

Farms

Processors

Distributors

1’106

35

6

1

Belgium

299

12

6

1

Bulgaria

308

1

0

1

Chile

1’361

21

0

3

China

53

4

2

1

Colombia

137

2

0

0

Croatia

68

1

0

0

Argentina

1 ICO is the International Certification Office of Biodynamic Federation – Demeter International

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Standards, Legislation, Policies > Demeter Statistics
Hectares

Farms

Processors

Czech Republic

2’339

5

0

Distributors
1

Dominican Rep.

1’869

50

1

1

Ecuador

475

88

3

1

Ethiopia

32

1

0

0

Georgia

5

2

0

0

Greece

466

45

5

3

Guinea Bissao

780

1

0

1

Honduras

72

8

0

0

Hungary

6’284

27

2

2

Iran

67

1

1

0

Ireland

224

6

2

0
0

Israel

127

1

1

Japan

0

0

0

2

Kuwait0010Liechtenstein

45

2

0

0
1

Lithuania

1’338

9

0

Malaysia

0

0

3

0

Mexico

304

5

1

0

Morocco

27

1

0

0

Nepal

110

90

0

0

Paraguay

926

54

0

0

Peru

305

18

2

0

Poland

3’935

19

0

0

Portugal

798

15

1

1

Romania

200

2

0

0

Russia0001Serbia

45

1

1

0

Sicily

426

25

2

2

0

0

1

0
0

Singapore
Slovakia

157

1

0

South Africa

245

24

0

1

Sri Lanka

1’493

1’422

4

0

Tanzania

31

1

0

0
0

Tunisia

714

133

3

Turkey

904

147

1

2

Uganda

477

2

0

0

Ukraine

0

0

0

1

United Arab Emirates

0

0

1

0

Uruguay
Total
Total Table 48 and Table 49

0

0

1

1

28’55229’4095128

220’725

6’429

1083

516

Source: Biodynamic Federation - Demeter International e.V.

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Standards, Legislation, Policies > Demeter Statistics
Table 50: Demeter certified vintners and grape area worldwide*
Farms*

Cellars**

Area (ha) with certified grapes
for wine***Austria

67

4

786

Denmark

1

1

France438

7’201

Country
Certified by BFDI members:

Germany

92

Italy

157

781
7

1’948

Liechtenstein

1

2

New Zealand

6

108

Slovenia

12

Spain

60

114
1

2’390

Switzerland

65

United Kingdom

10

2

410
57

United States

58

21

1’533

Argentina

11

1

Chile

15

1’141

Czech Republic

1

53

Georgia12

Greece516

Hungary

430

Mexico1

6Portugal

43South Africa

275Turkey

1

1

Total

1’012

17’079Certified by ICO/BFD1
423* Number of farms with grapes for wine** Number of certified cellars without own land*** Area (ha) with certified grapes for wine
Demeter and "in conversion" certified
Source: Biodynamic Federation - Demeter International e.V.

1 ICO is the International Certification Office of Biodynamic Federation – Demeter International

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Standards, Legislation, Policies > Public Food Procurement

The Power of Public Food Procurement: Fostering
Organic Production and Consumption
FEDERICA VARINI1 AND XHONA HYSA2
Public food procurement as a lever for sustainable food systems
Governments are estimated to spend around 15 to 20 percent of their Gross domestic
product (GDP) on the procurement of goods, work and services, representing asignificant part of the global economy (World Bank, 2017). Considering theenvironmental and societal challenges we are facing today, we can´t afford to miss theopportunity to couple environmental and social conditionality criteria to public sector
spending.
Of particular interest to the organic sector is the adoption of sustainability-oriented
Public Food Procurement (PFP) policies and standards applied to food and catering
services serving public institutions. Such measures can shift buying power to support
environmental, health and socio-economic objectives in line with the principles oforganic agriculture3. As illustrated in the continental cases reported in this chapter, PFP
can help create new and stable markets for organic products, stimulate changes in food
habits and foster conversion to organic agriculture.
PFP can be implemented at different scales, ranging from single canteens to local,
national or regional schemes. The examples reported below represent policies mainly
addressing school meals. However, PFP concerns many more institutions purchasing
food such as hospitals, correction facilities, and military and governmental apparatuses.
These cases illustrate the importance of coupling PFP guidelines and policies with othersupport measures such as capacity building for kitchen staff to strategically plan andgradually increase the amount of organic ingredients in the meals while improving
nutritional value and reducing meat and food waste. Wholesalers and local supply
chains, in which producers are organised, also play a crucial role in ensuring reliablesupplies. In addition to fostering organic production, PFP guidelines should also
address other dimensions such as fair work conditions, local purchasing and energy
consumption. Thus, PFP can be regarded as a concrete policy pathway towards theachievements of multiple Sustainable Development Goals, striving to transform ourfood systems towards more sustainability.

1 Federica Varini, IFOAM – Organics International, 53113 Bonn, Germany, f.varini@ifoam.bio,

www.ifoam.bio
2 Xhona Hysa, IFOAM – Organics International, 53113 Bonn, Germany, x.hysa@ifoam.bio, www.ifoam.bio
3

Health, Ecology, Fairness, and Care.

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Standards, Legislation, Policies > Public Food Procurement
Continental examples
Asia
According to our knowledge, the most well-established public food procurement
program in Asia that includes ecological criteria was implemented in South Korea in
2011. A recent article (Gaddis & Jeon, 2020) highlights the main steps taken to establishof the Universal Free, Eco-Friendly (UFEF) school lunch program, which today
provides free meals to students from kindergarten to high school across the wholecountry. In the wake of a long tradition of school feeding programs that started in the
country in the 1950s with the aim to distribute food aid, the UFEF finally moved awayfrom a system prioritising lower prices. Today the program supports small-scale
producers by directly awarding contracts for services under a certain threshold (i.e., up
to 16’000 euros in Seoul). It offers meals based on traditional recipes made with
unprocessed ingredients and encourages the adoption of eco-friendly1 and organic
products with the highest food safety standards. Since its launch, the program hasreached out to an increasing number of students, reaching over 4 million students in2017 (Gaddis and Jeon, 2020). The UFEF has a total annual budget of over two billion
euros, partially financed by the Korean government and partly by the districts andcities, which resulted in non-homogeneous implementation across the country due tobudget constraints.
The capital, Seoul, is a leading example. In 2018, the city announced its intention to
double the budget earmarked to the program by 2021 in order to extend it to the entire
compulsory education system, which has almost one million students and 1300
institutions. The higher budget resulted in a 70 percent increase in certified eco-friendly
and organic food ingredients used for high school meals2. The program is therefore
fostering the transition to more sustainable agricultural practices, encouraging Korean
conventional producers to decrease the use of synthetic inputs, such as antibiotics andpesticides, or to convert to organic agriculture in order to obtain the certifications
necessary to be included in the school feeding program. However, there are no studies
assessing the direct correlation between the establishment of the program and thepositive trends visible in the South Korean organic sector in the last five years. Thanks
to the wide public support, a replication of this program to other public institutions,such as hospitals and correctional facilities, is now in the pipeline. This upscaling will
result in a consistent increase of public demand for eco-friendly products.
Another interesting public food scheme in South Korea is dedicated to pregnant
women. This started in January 2020 with the aim of providing eco-friendly food to
45’000 pregnant women and new mothers. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,

1 In South Korea, eco-friendly agricultural or livestock products are classified by law into organic agricultural

products, organic livestock products, pesticide free products and antibiotic-free livestock products, according
to production methods and materials used.
https://www.naqs.go.kr/eng/contents/contents.do?menuId=MN20568
2 http://english.seoul.go.kr/seoul-provides-eco-friendly-school-meals/

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Standards, Legislation, Policies > Public Food Procurement
the program was doubled to reach 80’000 women. According to the scheme, thebeneficiaries must place orders online on specific websites set up by the local
government authorities. The women can order food for up to 360 euros annually, of
which 20 percent is self-financed while the central and local governments cover the
rest1.
Information in English regarding other public food procurement programs supportingorganic production and consumptions in Asia is rather limited. In order to get a better
insight of what governments across the Asian countries are doing to promote thesetypes of policy frameworks, the Asian Local Governments in Organic Agriculture(ALGOA) will launch the ALGOA Center for Public Procurement in New Taipei Cityin 2021. In the first three years, the center will concentrate on research on organic school
meal programs. It will focus on three Asian countries (South Korea, Taiwan and Japan)
and link up with some European countries with similar initiatives.

AfricaIn Africa, agriculture sustains a significant portion of most African economies, andsmallholder farmers can be regarded as the backbones of this sector since they accountfor over 80% of the continent’s food production. Therefore, it isn´t surprising thatseveral African countries started to implement public food procurement initiatives withthe aim to generate positive impacts on smallholder livelihoods and promote market
creation for locally grown food. In 2003, the African Union, under the food security
pillar of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)
within the New Partnership for Africa´s Development (NEPAD), started to promote theHome Grown School Feeding (HGSF) programme: “a school feeding model that isdesigned to provide children in schools with safe, diverse and nutritious food, sourced
locally from smallholders”. According to Fernandes et al. (2016), by 2014, at least 47 outof 54 countries were realising school feeding programs in Africa, and of these, at least
20 countries2 were adopting the HGSF programme. The aim of HGSF is to decentraliseprocurement of foods for school meals and to source food locally from smallholders. It
addresses food and nutrition security through the promotion of local food production,
simultaneously promoting school enrolment. The HGSF introduced the School Meals
Planner Tool, which supports the creation of menus linking culturally appropriate
agricultural production and nutrition objectives. In the future, the inclusion ofenvironmental criteria, such as promoting climate-resilient production and particularlyorganic farming, could – coupled with other support measures – contribute to theconversion to organic practices of smallholders in many African countries.
The Ghana School Feeding Program (GSFP) is an example of a decentralised
procurement policy created to comply with the African Union’s HGSF programme. It

1 More information about the “Pregnant Women Food Scheme” in South Korea can be found on the IFOAM
website at https://www.ifoam.bio/news/launch-pregnant-women-food-scheme-south-korea
2 NEPAD launched home-grown school feeding pilots in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, theUnited Republic of Tanzania, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Uganda and Zambia (FAO & WFP,
2018)

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Standards, Legislation, Policies > Public Food Procurement
was launched in 2005 to improve food security while reducing malnutrition, increasing
school enrolment levels and boosting domestic food production (Fernandes et al., 2016).
In Ghana, the issue of market development for smallholders is crucial. Thus, one of theobjectives of the GSFP is to link the increased demand for agricultural products that
could be created by the school feeding program to smallholder farmers’ production.
The program was also coupled with an intense campaign of awareness-raising andtraining for caterers, cooks and school directors, to not only teach them how to use the
School Meal Planner Tool but also to provide general education on nutrition and foodsafety issues. The GSFP meal plans, designed by dedicated nutrition departments at the
district level, foresee one hot meal per school, per day, made up of local seasonal
ingredients. The meals are prepared and served by private caterers, who are also tasked
with procuring the raw ingredients from the local market. In accordance with theguidelines of the GSPF, the caterers must procure 80 per cent of raw ingredients fromlocal smallholder farmers (FAO & WFP, 2018). The government compensates thepurchase of the ingredients and the work of the caterers through bi-weekly allowances.
As of 2016, the program reached over 1.7 million primary school children in over 2000
districts (Mensah, 2018).

EuropeSupport through public procurement for organic production and consumption has
increased in Europe in the last decade. The importance of this policy measure is
expected to grow in Europe; thanks to the newly launched Farm to Fork Strategy (May2020). The strategy sets a target of “reaching at least 25 percent of the EU agricultural land
under organic farming by 2030” and anticipates that the Commission will define“mandatory criteria for sustainable food procurement […] to boost sustainable farming systems,
such as organic farming” (European Commission, 2020). There is, therefore, theexpectation that this strategy will create pressure to develop a more uniform andbinding system since the current legal framework is still rather patchy and differs acrosscountries.
The vision of the Farm to Fork strategy for public food procurement is embedded in theEuropean Union’s (EU) Green Public Procurement (GPP) policy. It is an EU voluntary
framework through which public purchasing power is directed towards choosing
environmentally friendly goods, services and works, thus investing public money
towards sustainable consumption and production. In 2014, a series of Directives1 were
issued to increase flexibility and adoption of Green Public Procurement procedures toobtain “better value for public money, to deliver better outcomes for societal and other public
policy objectives while increasing efficiency of public spending “, thus taking a step awayfrom the lower price criteria (European Commission, 2017). In October 2019, theCommission published new voluntary EU GPP guidelines for food, catering services andvending machines. Among the core criteria to limit the food and catering sector’s

Directive 2014/23/EU (concessions), Directive 2014/24/EU (general) and Directive 2014/25/EU(utilities)
1

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Standards, Legislation, Policies > Public Food Procurement
environmental impact, organic product sourcing appears as pivotal (European
Commission, 2019).
Currently, several public initiatives promoting organic ingredients in school meals exist
across Europe. Generally, they have procedures that include adopting a certain
percentage of organic products in the meals provided. However, there is nocomprehensive database that shows to which extent green criteria, including the use oforganic ingredients, are applied across Europe. Yet, across Europe, there are many
examples at the national, regional and local level, including those in Austria, Belgium,
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Malta, The
Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden (EPHA & HCWH Europe, 2019; Neto & Gama
Caldas, 2018; IFOAM - Organics International, 2017).
One of the most famous examples is in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. In 2018,
organic ingredients accounted for 88 percent of the ingredients in the meals served by
the city’s 1000 public schools1. A key success factor was the effort dedicated to capacity
building for kitchen employees, which focused on creating meals with better nutritional
value and improved climate and environmental performance. Concretely, this meansthat the amount of unprocessed ingredients has increased while meat consumption andfood waste has decreased, in order to reduce the higher price of meals due to the use of
more organic products2. It was also crucial to work with national wholesalers to provide
more fresh organic products. Public tenders were issued that specifically requested theavailability of a wide assortment of fresh organic products, such as meat. Recently,
Denmark issued one of the most ambitious climate plans worldwide, aiming to reducegreenhouse gas emissions by 70 percent by 2030. In May 2020, a broad coalition ofDanish stakeholders representing thousands of farmers, restaurants and foodcompanies launched a joint proposal for the Danish Climate Plan suggesting using
public and private catering services as the driving force to achieve the 70 percent
reduction target3. One of the strategies proposed is to set as a national policy target,
adopting 90 percent organic ingredients in meals provided by all public and private
catering services across Denmark by 20304 (the current national average for public
kitchens is 60 percent).
Italy represents another remarkable example. Here, organic ingredients have been
included in school meals since 1986. The first legislation to promote organic products

1 The City of Copenhagen website: Copenhagen welcomes the UN SDG’S. Available athttps://international.kk.dk/artikel/copenhagen-welcomes-un-sdgs
2 On average it is estimated that the conversion to 100 percent organic ingredients of a school meal
implies an increase of 20-30 percent on the final price. It is nevertheless important to highlight that thecosts of the basic ingredients often represent only a small portion of the final cost of a meal.
3 Organic in Public Danish Kitchens and Private Eateries. Organic without boundaries website. Available athttps://www.organicwithoutboundaries.bio/2020/06/18/organic-in-public-danish-kitchens-and-privateeateries/
4 https://paulholmbeck.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Klimavirkemiddel_Klima-ogpercentC3percentB8kologiomstilling-i-de-professionelle-kpercentC3percentB8kkener_sendt.pdf

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Standards, Legislation, Policies > Public Food Procurementin school canteens was issued in the early 2000s. Furthermore, since 2015, a nationallaw1 established a requirement for school canteens to source at least 15 percent of meatand 40 percent of other ingredients, such as fruits and vegetables, from certified organic
producers. According to the census of Italian organic school canteens performed by
BioBank in 2018, the total food catering sector was worth 80.3 billion euros in 2016.
Organic catering reached 377 million euros; an increase of 135 percent compared to theprevious decade (Bertino et al., 2018). In 2018, more than 1300 institutions were usingorganic ingredients in their meals. Of these institutions, 25 percent reached 70 to 100
percent organic, accounting for a total of 1.3 million meals served daily. In order tofurther support this system, Italy issued a ministerial decree2 in 2018, which awards agold certificate to canteens that use over 90 percent organic ingredients. The canteensusing 70 percent are awarded a silver certification. This award scheme also aims todecrease food waste, increase the use of products from local producers (150 kilometres
distance) and introduce educational activities in the schools. Certified organic canteens
can request public support from a dedicated budget of 44 million euros for 2018 to 2021.
This fund also helps decrease the costs of meals borne by Italian families. The BioBank
census concludes that the policy measures positively impacted the adoption of organic
ingredients in public kitchens. In 2004 to 2017, the quantity of certified organic raw
ingredients increased by 26.4 percent, reaching almost 50 percent at the national level.
A recent article assessing the case of Sweden shows that the adoption of policy
measures supporting public organic food procurement since 2006 have had a positive
impact on the development of organic farmland in Sweden (Lindström et al., 2020). In
2006, a first GPP policy laid down the framework for increasing public sector
investments in the food and catering service, targeting 25 percent organic food servedin public canteens by 2010. This policy goal was meant to contribute to another politicalcommitment to reach 20 percent organic farmland by the same year. Ten years later, theobjective concerning organic food consumption in public institutions was exceeded,reaching 33 percent; however, the organic land area was lagging behind the target,
reaching only 15.6 percent.
For this reason, the government decided in 2017 to adopt a more ambitious policy
target: to increase the use of organic produce in school canteens to up to 60 percent by
2030, while the organic farmland target was increased to 30 percent. In Sweden, public
institutions represent only 4 percent of the demand for organic products. However, thestatistical analysis performed by Lindström et al. (2020) showed that public institutions
acting together exert sufficient buying power to influence national wholesalers’purchasing choices. This has a positive impact on organic farmland. The research also
highlights that PFP should be coupled with direct subsidies since the greatest impact
on organic farmland was associated with the significant positive effects of direct
payments for conversion to organic production, as provided under the Common
Agriculture Policy.

12

Law 28th December 2015, n. 221
Law 18th December 2017, n. 14771
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Latin America
The most famous and well-studied program promoting organic and agroecologicalproduction in Latin America through public procurement is, without a doubt, theBrazilian National School Feeding Program (PNAE), implemented in Brazil in 2009.
This legal framework stands out among other policy frameworks of this kind for its
holistic vision and its ability to combine the supply of healthy and nutritious foods withthe strengthening of family farming, the promotion of environmentally friendly
products and the enforcement of the right to food. Although PNAE has existed since
the early 1950s, its current framework is regulated by (Law 11.947 / 2009, and in
Resolution n. 26 de 2013). These laws introduced a series of changes compared to thepast program. Emphasis is now on purchasing food not only from local producers but
specifically from family farmers, and priority is given to organic or agroecologicalproducts. According to the new law, 30 percent of the financial resources for school
meals earmarked by the National Fund for Education Development (FNDE) should bespent to purchase food produced by family farmers (Drake et al., 2016). The law also
requires that organic products purchased from farmers include a 30 percent pricepremium. The new legislation also introduced a set of guidelines to improve thenutritional value of the meals. PNAE is one of the few national school feeding programs
worldwide to be universal and free, reaching almost all municipalities of Brazil (morethan 5300 in 2016). It provides quality meals to more than 40 million students frompublic education institutions.
Schneider et al. (2016) concluded that the share of products produced by family farmers
relative to the total volume of resources allocated to the program has increased since2011. However, they also emphasised several challenges in including family farmers,
for instance, related to logistical issues and incapacity to provide constant supply andmeet the demand of large municipalities. Over the years, the experience of PNAE has
been acknowledged at an international level by several multilateral organisations, suchas the World Food Program and FAO (FAO & WFP, 2018). Recent reports, however,indicate that PNAE is at risk due to substantial budget cuts; first under the Temer
government and now under Bolsonaro´s. The policy has also been weakened by thedismantlement of some key bodies, such, as the National System of Food and Nutrition
Security (Sisan), the National Board of Food and Nutrition Security (Consea) and theInterministerial Chamber of Food and Nutrition Security (Caisan) (de Amorim et al.,2020). These bodies were the program’s vital organs and had the mandate to create
formal spaces for social participation through the Food and Nutrition Security Councils(Consea) in order to ensure the implementation of the program at an inter-ministerial
level through the adoption of guidelines, planning and budgeting.

North America
In the USA, there are currently no uniform public food procurement policies andstandards applied at the federal or state level. However, the potential of redirecting
public expenditures for catering services towards green procurement practices isenormous. One needs only to look at the National School Lunch Program implemented
by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) which alone allocates more than 9 billion
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Standards, Legislation, Policies > Public Food Procurement
EUR in public funds to provide meals annually for over 30 million children. Such funds
are currently allocated to food and catering services almost indiscriminately without
applying environmental or social precautionary principles (Farnsworth et al., 2018).
In this context, the Good Food Purchasing Programme (GFPP) stands out. The GFPP
started in 2012 when the Los Angeles Food Policy Council Procurement working groupdeveloped the Good Food Purchasing Guidelines for Food Service Institutions. These
were adopted by the City of Los Angeles and by the Los Angeles Unified School District
through a municipal decree, impacting the serving of approximately 750’000 meals aday. In 2015, in response to the interest from other cities and institutions across thecountry, the Center for Good Food Purchasing1 was created. Today, the Center houses
the national initiative with the aim to transfer, scale and network the Good Food
Purchasing Program across the country. Since then, many institutions have joined theprogramme; striving to “create a transparent and equitable food system, which prioritises thehealth and well-being of people, animals, and the environment”. Today the Center is working
with 43 institutions and local coalitions in 16 cities across the country, including Los
Angeles, Buffalo, Boston, Austin, Chicago, New York, Oakland, San Diego, San
Francisco and Washington DC. Together, these institutions spend nearly 1 billion euros
on food each year, following purchasing guidelines that are grounded on five values:
local economies, nutrition, valued workforce, environmental sustainability and animal
welfare. Through its program, the Center is helping public bodies to institutionalise fairand sustainable food purchasing. Several of the participating cities have not only
adopted voluntary guidelines, but they have also succeeded in implementing foodpolicies that mandate the adoption of GFPP for all institutions providing public foodservices under their jurisdiction.
Additionally, the GFPP established a strategic planning framework for local food policy
directors and staff. This planning framework aims to inform, support better choices andimprove transparency in sourcing raw materials while accounting for the economic andsocial sustainability dimension of the food purchased. Finally, the program provides atool to stimulate food businesses, such as wholesalers, to develop new products andnew sourcing practices in accordance with the values of the programme (Farnsworth etal., 2018). GFPP transcends “organic” but gives rightful credit to organic production
through its point system for tracking progress, described in the Good Food Purchasing
Standards. –In this system, organic is considered a best practice in two categories:
environment sustainability and animal welfare.

ReferencesAU. (2018). Sustainable School Feeding across The African Union. Addis Ababa: The African Union.
Bertino R. M., Mingozzi A., & Mingozzi E. (2018). Focus Bio Bank: il Bio nelle mense scolastiche in Italia:
evoluzione e trend storico secondo i censimenti Bio Bank.
De Amorim, A. L. B., Ribeiro Junior, J. R. S., & Bandoni, D. H. (2020). National school feeding program:
Strategies to overcome food insecurities during and after the covid-19 pandemic. Revista deAdministracao Publica, 54(4), 1134–1145. https://doi.org/10.1590/0034-761220200349x

1 The website of the Center for Good Food Purchasing: https://goodfoodpurchasing.org/

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Drake, L., Woolnough, A., Burbano, C., & Bundy, D. (2016). Global School Feeding Sourcebook. In Global
School Feeding Sourcebook. Imperial College Press. https://doi.org/10.1142/p1070
European Commission. (2017). COM (2017) 572 final, Making Public Procurement work in and for Europe
Making Public Procurement work in and for Europe.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/priorities/jobs-growth-and-investment/investment-plan_en
European Commission. (2019). EU GPP Criteria for food, catering services and vending machines.
European Commission. (2020) Farm to Fork Strategy.
European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), & Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) Europe. (2019). Public
Food Procurement for sustainable food systems. How can the EU Farm to Fork Strategy contribute?
FAO & WFP. (2018). Home-Grown School Feeding - Resource Framework. Rome: FAO.
Farnsworth, L. D., Delwiche, A., & McKinney, C. (2018). The good food purchasing program: A policy tool
for promoting supply chain transparency and food system change. In Institutions as Conscious Food
Consumers: Leveraging Purchasing Power to Drive Systems Change (pp. 103–126). Elsevier.
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-813617-1.00005-8
Fernandes, M., Rae, G., Gelli, A., Mumuni, D., Hamdani, S., & Kiamba, J. (2016). Enhancing Linkages
Between Healthy Diets, Local Agriculture, and Sustainable Food Systems: The School Meals Planner
Package in Ghana. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, 571-584.
Gaddis, J. E., & Jeon, J. (2020). Sustainability transitions in agri-food systems: insights from South Korea’s
universal free, eco-friendly school lunch program. Agriculture and Human Values, 37(4), 1055–1071.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-020-10137-2
IFOAM - Organics International. (2017). Guidelines for public support to organic agriculture.
Lindström, H., Lundberg, S., & Marklund, P. O. (2020). How Green Public Procurement can drive conversionof farmland: An empirical analysis of an organic food policy. Ecological Economics, 172.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106622
Mensah, C. (2018). Incentivising smallholder farmer livelihoods and constructing food security throughhome-grown school feeding: evidence from Northern Ghana. Revista de direito internacional
Brazilian journal of international law, v. 15, n. 3.
Neto, B., & Gama Caldas, M. (2018). The use of green criteria in the public procurement of food products andcatering services: a review of EU schemes. In Environment, Development and Sustainability (Vol. 20,
Issue 5, pp. 1905–1933). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-017-9992-y
Sakho-Jimbira, S., & Hathie, I. (2020). The future of agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa. Southern Voice - Policy
Brief No. 2.
Schneider S., Thies V. F., Grisa C., & Belik W. (2016). Potential of Public Purchases as Markets for Family
Farming: An Analysis of the Brazilian School Feeding Program Between 2011 and 2014 (Barling D.,Ed.). Elsevier.
World Bank. (2017). Assessing public procurement regulatory systems in 180 economies. Benchmarking
Public Procurement. www.worldbank.org

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Africa

Map 2: Organic agricultural land in the countries of Africa 2019 (in hectares)
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, governments, and for North Africa,
the Mediterranean Organic Agricultural Network (MOAN)
For detailed data sources see annex, page 317

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Africa › Overview

Latest Developments in Organic Agriculture in Africa
DAVID M. AMUDAVI,1 VENANCIA WAMBUA,2 ALEX MUTUNG,3 MOSES
AISU4 AND OLUGBENGA O. ADEOLUWA5
The potential of organic agriculture in Africa (now increasingly referred to as ecologicalorganic agriculture, EOA) continues to receive attention among farmers, practitioners,
policymakers and other stakeholders to address food insecurity, land degradation,
poverty, climate change and resilience to shocks, among other benefits. Despite
challenges including the latest COVID-19 pandemic, efforts continue to be made inmainstreaming organic agriculture into policy, national extension systems, marketingand value chain development, curricula of academic institutions and African-led
research activities in the continent.

The Ecological Organic Agriculture (EOA) Initiative
Key achievements
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative (EOAI) realised several achievements during 2020. The Swiss Agency for Development andCooperation (SDC) approved the 2nd Phase of the initiative for the period 2019-2023
with the support of 6.3 million US dollars. Geographical coverage expanded to include
Rwanda as the ninth country. The value chain and market development approach was
adopted. Participating partners in all nine countries in Eastern and West Africa selected
key value chains under a network of teams approach, which focuses on concentration,
coordination and targeting specific groups. The selected value chains included
livestock, fruits (bananas, avocado, mangoes, and pineapples), vegetables (tomatoes,
potatoes, indigenous vegetables and onions), herbs, legumes (beans, soybean, nuts,
sesame and nuts), and cereals (rice, maize, millet and sorghum). The value chainscontributed to improved food security, nutrition and income to farmers.
The initiative’s databases continued to be strengthened to make research findings andknowledge on EOA available and accessible by various users6. About 24 EOA-I
practices were promoted during this period. Key practices included the incorporation offarm residues, mulching, cover crops, use of farmyard manure, crop rotation,intercropping, green manure, green fallow, animal manure, nitrogen-fixing plants,

Dr. David Amudavi, Biovision Africa Trust, Nairobi, Kenya
Venancia Wambua, AfroNet, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
3 Alex Mutung, AfroNet, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
4 Moses Aisu, Network of Organic Agriculture Research in Africa (NOARA), C/O NOAN, University of
Ibadan, Nigeria
5 Olugbenga O. Adeoluwa, Network of Organic Agriculture Research in Africa (NOARA), C/O NOAN,
University of Ibadan, Nigeria
6 For more information, see the EOA website http://eoai-africa.org/research
1
2

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Africa › Overview
water conservation, correction of soil pH, soil testing, compost, push-pull management
strategy, zero tillage, bio-slurry, liming, cover crops, certification and processing.
At the national level, the EOA-I governance structure brought key ministry officials on
board to help govern the EOA and chair the National Steering Committees. In Uganda,
the National Organic Agriculture Policy was launched in October 2020. EOA-I partners
were among the actors that collaborated with relevant ministries to support the newpolicy development and approval. At the continental level, focus was put on getting a
picture of the status of policy and legislation in support of EOA in Africa, building on
the 2019 assessment.
Two studies commissioned by the Africa Union Commission (AUC) and the Biovision
Africa Trust in 2019 showed that of 55 African countries:•

Three countries (Morocco, Tunisia and Uganda) have an Ecological Organic
Agriculture (EOA) policy, organic production standards, strong government
support for EOA and a well-developed National Organic Agriculture
Movement (NOAM).

•

Fourteen have some government support with policy development underway
and strong National Organic Movements (NOAMs)1.

•

Another ten have strong civil society organisations, significant EOA
production, including some export, but little government support.

•

A further 11 have some civil society capacity, no organic guidelines, little or no
export and not much government support.

•

Finally, there are 17 countries with minimal institutional capacity, no
government support and no exports.

Much of Africa’s development budget is spent on food safety nets and Farm Input
Support Programmes (FISP). FISP focus on cheap fertilisers, hybrid seeds andagrochemical inputs, which are largely unsustainable and ineffective, leading towasteful resource use. However, with a long-term vision, some elements of a FISP
approach can contribute to sustainable development. Mauritius is the only Africancountry to have focused on the positive elements of FISP to support compost making,leading to long-term soil fertility improvement and elongating the soil’s production
capacity, while at the same time empowering farmers to produce their own low-cost
fertiliser. Lessons can be learned from long-term research in Britain, Denmark,
Switzerland and the United States, which shows that after a few years of organic1

Two studies were commissioned by the African Union Commission (AUC) to assess the status of policy
towards EOA development in North, Central, West and Southern Africa (Auerbach 2013) and by the
Biovision Africa Trus progress in East Africa in 2019 undertaken by Dr. Edith Kareko-Munene (CITE). Tthe
two studies were integrated in 2020 and supplemented with country (Eastern Africa) and regional policy
briefs being prepared.
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Africa › Overview
management, the soil’s productivity can be increased in a robust way, improving soil
water- and nutrient-holding capacity.
The challenges facing the realisation of favourable policy and legislation for EOA
include:••••limited material capacity (e.g. financial and technological constraints) and humanresources,
limited knowledge and technical expertise in Eastern Africa of best practices andmanagement for organic practices (soil fertility, weed control, pest or disease
control);poor policy coherence (no policy or EOA guidelines are available, lack ofadequate incentives, poor/insufficient cross-sectoral coordination, incentives andsubsidies available for conventional farmers, e.g. fertilisers, hybrid seed);weak integration of by smallholder farmers and youth (top-down policymaking,one-way extension services, gender imbalances).

The Knowledge Center for Organic Agriculture in Africa
The Knowledge Center for Organic Agriculture in Africa (KCOA) is part of the BMZ1
Special Initiative ONE WORLD - no Hunger with a project implementation period from
01/2019 – 06/2024 and a budget of 16 million euros (23 million US dollars). It iscoordinated by GIZ, the German Corporation for International Cooperation. KCOA
aims to develop knowledge hubs in West, East, North and South Africa, and later inCentral Africa. These hubs are introduced as an innovative strategy for promoting
organic agriculture with actors in Africa. This will be achieved through three main
strategies:
Integrated Knowledge Management Systems Strategy: This involves collecting,
adapting, and validating knowledge and ensuring that it is made widely available inuser-friendly formats for different target groups in the region. The knowledge assembly
draws on evidence (research findings), experiential and indigenous knowledge andvalues that farmers, researchers, policymakers and service providers use in theirpractice and decision making. This further involves validation of knowledge ofavailable research and practical findings on EOA. The hubs generate content on
important thematic areas including nutrition and food security, climate change, water
management, resilience and sustainability of farming systems, markets and market
development and technology transfer and learning. The communication tools include
knowledge databases/websites, publications, videos, Information and communications
technology (ICT) applications and social media (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr andYouTube).

BMZ is the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (Bundesministerium fürwirtschaftliche zusammenabreit und Entwicklung). More information is available on
https://www.bmz.de/en/index.html .

1

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Africa › Overview
Dissemination and Capacity Building Strategy: This involves developing a holistic,
context-specific and gender-sensitive extension system for knowledge sharing withvarious target groups along the value chain, based on the target groups’ needs andconstraints. It is intended to have a multiplier effect throughout the value chain.
Regional and country training programmes (Training of Teams of Trainers/Facilitators willlead to multipliers (i.e. innovators, entrepreneurs, model farmers, extensionists), who
can show others how to access and use knowledge in the repositories, how to use thevarious tools to disseminate the knowledge to diverse target groups and how tocatalyse and strengthen local markets supported by local affordable certification
systems.
Market Systems Development and Networking Strategy: This involves networking andfacilitating market linkages to create incomes, provide services, and improve
livelihoods for farm households and other community members. To promotecomplementary and shared learning, the strategy is linked to other existent initiatives,
such as the EOA-I and its country organisations, the Network of Organic Agriculture
Researchers in Africa (NOARA), the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA),
the FARA eRails network on knowledge exchange for agriculture in Africa and the
GIZ Green Innovation Centers.
This strategy aims to build the capacity and resilience of local systems, leveraging the
incentives and resources of the private sector, ensuring the beneficial inclusion ofsmallholder farmers and stimulating change and innovation that will grow beyond thisproject’s life.
The strategy involves:•••

A Business Development Services approach to link target groups to service
providers (for inputs, marketing, training, information, technology development
and transfer) and making markets work for the poor;
Certification and standards within context-adapted Participatory Guarantee
Systems (PGS) and third-party certification; andA value chain approach focusing on strategic value chains and taking into
account the specific needs of the value chain actors.

The countries currently involved are:
•
•
•
•
•

West Africa: Senegal, Benin, Gambia, Mali, Nigeria;
Eastern Africa: Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania;
Southern Africa: Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, Malawi;
Northern Africa: Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia; andCentral Africa: Cameroon and others to be confirmed.

Various partners are involved including regional and country partners (e.g. Biovision
Africa Trust and PELUM Uganda for Eastern Africa, the Sustainability Institute forSouth Africa, ENDA ProNat, FENAB & Agrecol Afrique for West Africa) andinternational partners (IFOAM - Organics International, Access Agriculture, theResearch Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL and the International Centre of Insect
Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE)).
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Africa › Overview
Institutional Developments
The Continental Steering Committee (CSC) of the African Union (AU)-led EOAInitiative1 has continued to provide strategic guidance and patronage for the
implementation of EOA in Africa, despite the challenges brought about by the COVID19 pandemic in Africa from March 2020. Several key achievements were realised.
In 2020, the CSC, at its 13th and 14th meetings, commissioned the secretariat, which ishosted by the Biovision Africa trust, to develop EOA indicators. A technical working
group, which was established for this purpose, has since produced a concept note.
The 14th CSC further endorsed the decision to investigate the possibility of having acontinental EOA certification system and see how stakeholders can benefit from therecently launched Africa Continental Free Trade Area. The secretariat will mobilise
stakeholders and implementing partners to meet with the African Organization forStandardisation to discuss the opportunities available for certification and how best to
facilitate the certification process. Further, in elaborating principles and practices of the
EOA-I, the secretariat should develop a strategy paper on how to adapt the ten FAO
principles on agroecology into EOA activities.
The CSC further requested its secretariat to draft terms of reference for a rapid
assessment of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on organic and conventionalfarming systems. It will look at how responsive and resilient farmers are in coping withthe pandemic to inform measures for mitigation and policy actions. This study will be
undertaken in the first quarter of 2021, and results will be shared widely. The CSC also
agreed to strengthen the CSC Secretariat in terms of knowledge management, policy
and advocacy
The African Union’s Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture (DREA) organiseda virtual workshop of key stakeholders in seed sector development in Africa on
September 4, 2020, under the umbrella of the African Seed and Biotechnology Platform.
The general objective of the meeting was to hold sector-wide consultations with key
seed stakeholders in Africa on the operationalisation of the governance structure of theAfrican Seed and Biotechnology Programme. Following spirited negotiation of the CSC
technical working group on seed systems, the EOA-I was endorsed to be part of theSteering Committee of the African Seed and Biotechnology Platform to contribute tothe overall governance of programs on seed systems and capacity development in
Africa. The EOA-I will also contribute to other technical areas such as seed legislation,
seed regulations or biosafety regulations. This development marks another milestone
for the EOA-I seed policy development in Africa. Through this, the EOA-I finds itself
inside important seed discussions in the continent, giving it the opportunity tochampion organic seed policies and programmes.

1

Secretariat: Biovision Africa Trust-https://biovisionafricatrust.org

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Africa › Overview
Data on the status of organic agriculture
Data on organic agriculture in Africa remains scanty and perhaps not precise. The
survey tool developed by the EOA CSC in collaboration with IFOAM – Organics
International, to support the gathering of relevant data1 on programmes and initiatives
was not applied. The tool was expected to be regularly used with other strategies,
bringing Ministries of Agriculture and National Bureaus of Statistics on board toprovide relevant data on organic agriculture and identify gaps and opportunities forfurther actions. An important step in this direction was taken with the development ofsome relevant indicators to monitor the performance of EOA in the continent, which
was reported on in CAADP’s biennial review reporting process. This has been further
elaborated by a complementary framework addressing key priority area 5 of the Policy
and Programme Development of EOA, utilising six criteria:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

The extent to which a national policy is in place and supported by a budgetary
allocation.
The extent to which organic regulations have been promulgated andimplemented.
The extent to which national standards and certification are in place.
The extent of government support to the organic sector.
The degree to which civil society is involved in the development of the EOA
sector.
The performance of the domestic and export EOA market.

These criteria will be used to locate and track a country’s development on EOA andassess and report the multiple components of a country’s development pathway.
Processes and outcomes need to be monitored systematically in order to support thetransition towards sustainable food production as part of sustainable development in
Africa. Monitoring and evaluation indicators shall be linked to government and African
Union budgets so that there are financial incentives associated with environmentally
responsible production. The criteria, desired outcomes and process indicators should
help both governments and EOA stakeholders keep track of progress within the sector
and allow the African Union and the EOA-I Continental Steering Committee toevaluate the overall progress towards sustainable development.

Achievements by the African Organic Network (AfrONet)
The African Organic Network (AfrONet) is a custodian of the African organic
movements and organic sector development, which aims to strengthen and support
national, regional and continental networks, overseeing the development and growthof the Ecological Organic Agriculture (EOA) Initiative for Africa. It is a member of the
EOA’s Continental Steering Committee and Regional/Cluster Steering Committees.2

The Survey on EOA initiatives in Africa is available at https://www.surveymonkey.de/r/C7JQ537
The EOA initiative in Africa is a response to support and implement the African Union Council Decision on
Organic Farming passed during the Eighteenth Ordinary Session, 24-28 January 2011, EX.CL/Dec.621 (XVIII).

1
2

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Africa › Overview
AfrONet has been bringing together all the networks, partners, and other stakeholders
under the platform of the African Organic Conference (AOC). Morocco shall be hosting
the 5th AOC at Marrakesh in November 2021.
The year 2020 saw AfrONet take on efforts to promote greener agriculture in Africa
through the inauguration of the ‘Innovative Institutions for Ecological Organic
Agriculture in Africa’ (IIABA) financed by the French Development Agency (AFD). The
project aims to support the strengthening of National Organic Agriculture Movements.
AFD has allocated a 1.5 million euro grant to AfrONet and its partners to scale up
ecological and organic agriculture in Tanzania, Uganda, and Morocco. The partners
will implement institutional innovations and consolidate the capacities of AfrONet andits members. Main areas of action will involve building innovative markets,
Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) and public policy analysis. The action ‘building
innovative markets’ aims to establish conducive and accommodative opportunities forfarmers of all levels to have platforms to sell their products to willing buyers throughformal and informal markets. The project partners include the Moroccan
Interprofessional Federation for Organic Agriculture (FIMABio), the National Organic
Agriculture Movement of Uganda (NOGAMU), the Moroccan Network of Agroecology
Initiatives (RIAM), Tanzania Organic Agriculture Movement (TOAM), the French
Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) and the French
National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE).
AfrONet has taken steps to strengthen its human resources by recruiting more
personnel to improve its capacities to execute duties across the continent. This has been
made possible by the grant to AfrONet by the French Development Agency (AFD).
NOGAMU and other actors in Uganda participated in the launch of the National
Organic Agriculture Policy in September 2020 courtesy of financial support from the‘Innovative Institutions for Ecological Organic Agriculture in Africa’ (IIABA)
project. NOGAMU has disseminated the National Organic Agriculture Policy in four
major regions of Uganda (Western, Eastern, Northern and Central) in preparation forthe development of the Organic Agriculture Bill to be presented to the Ugandanparliament.
AfrONet has reached out to the organic movement of the Democratic Republic of theCongo, and activities have been planned for 2021, which include linking the partner in
the Congo to the EOA-Initiative.
AfrONet’s regional affiliates also achieved various milestones in 2020. Planning for the
6th West African Organic Conference (WAOC) to be held in Burkina Faso from October
13 to 16, 2021, kick-started under the leadership of the ECOWAS Commission-led

The overall goal of the initiative is to mainstream Ecological Organic Agriculture into national agricultural
production systems by 2025 to improve agricultural productivity, food security, access to markets andsustainable development in Africa. This is to be realized through scaling up ecologically and organicallysound strategies and practices through institutional capacity development, scientific innovations, market
participation, public policies and programs, outreach and communication, efficient coordination, networking
and partnerships in Africa.

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Africa › Overview
Regional Planning Committee. The committee includes significant organisations
working in the region. The Local Organizing Committee in Burkina Faso is anchoredby CNABio with the Ministry of Agriculture's support.
The initial draft of a harmonised organic agriculture standard by Participatory
Guarantee System (PGS) in West Africa to facilitate trade across the region wasachieved and is ready for validation and approval by stakeholders in 2021. Also, work
is in progress on BioWest Africa Fair - an annual regional organic agriculture
exhibition/ trade fair to be mainstreamed into the regional agricultural exhibition by
the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, the West
African Center for Agricultural Research and Development (Centre Africain pour la
Recherche et le Développement Agricoles/West) and the Central African Council for
Agricultural Research and Development.
Preparations started for the 5th African Organic Conference in Morocco, and FIMABIO,
the Organic Federation of Morocco, an important actor coordinating producers,
processors and distributors of organic products, will take a key role of coordination.
This will strengthen INRA Morocco’s planned four-year research program on Organic
and Ecological Agriculture (2021-2024), to be funded by the Moroccan government
along with FIMABIO.

The Network of Organic Agriculture Researchers in Africa (NOARA)
NOARA is a network established by African organic agriculture researchers. The
network is officially registered and hosted in Nigeria with a Board of Trustees. The
vision of NOARA is Africa with zero hunger, poverty eradicated, improved livelihoods
and a sustained ecosystem through innovative organic and ecological agriculture
research.1
The roles of NOARA include: spearheading organic agriculture research, extension,
training and value chains and market development; undertaking lobbying andadvocacy on organic and ecological agriculture research at high levels; supporting
capacity building for key players in organic and ecological agriculture across thecontinent; mobilising resources for NOARA’s endeavours in promoting organic
agriculture on the continent; providing management and administrative consultancy tolike-minded programmes and partners on organic agriculture research; andundertaking any other functions as deemed necessary to address NOARA’s objectives.
In the reporting year, NOARA published the Proceedings the 5th West Africa Organic
Conference hosted by Ghana and worked on Volumes 3 and 4 of the African Journal of
Organic Agriculture and Ecology (AJOAE). NOARA also published the maiden editionof its bulletin – African Organic Agriculture focusing on organic, ecological, andbotanical solutions to COVID-19 and 5G issues. NOARA also had its first and second
biannual meetings virtually in June and December 2020, respectively and marked the1

For more information see www.noara.bio
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Africa › Overview
2020 World Food Day with a key presentation by Prof. Dr Gerold Rahmann (thePresident of the International Society of Organic Agriculture Research (ISOFAR)).
The development of the demand-driven Organic Agriculture Research Agenda for
Africa 2030 with a multi-stakeholder approach, is yet to be fully achieved due tofunding limitations. However, 60 percent of the project has been achieved throughsupport by NOARA members and some partners. NOARA hopes to complete theproject in 2021 for uptake by researchers, policymakers and development partners in
the area of organic and ecological agriculture in Africa.

Outlook
Increased research and development activities targeted towards organic production
hope to unlock the sector's potential for millions of smallholder farmers and theirfamilies. Drawing on growing evidence and implementing innovations provide
opportunities for organic agriculture to enhance productivity, resilience, andprofitability of smallholder farming in Africa. Making investments to research anddevelopment of ecologically sustainable systems and working on markets for organic
produce would guarantee sustainable food systems in Africa. Therefore, the necessary
intensification of agricultural production in Africa should be ecological, maintainecosystem services, and restore, build, and maintain the natural resource base,particularly soil, water, and biodiversity. A better future for the organic sector requires
African governments and their relevant institutions, farmers and farmer organisations,development partners and the private sector to invest resources in research, policy andprogrammes and establish platforms for experience sharing, learning andcollaboration, thereby building the basis for sustainable, long-term food and nutrition
security and poverty reduction.

References
African Union, Executive Council (2011). Decision on organic farming. Doc. EX.CL/631 (XVIII). Eighteenth
Ordinary Session. 24 - 28 January 2011, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Available at
http://www.au.int/en/sites/default/files/decisions/9646
council_en_24_28_january_2011_executive_council_eighteenth_ordinary_session.pdf
Auerbach, (2013), Chapter 2: Transforming African Agriculture, p.30.
Ecological Organic Agriculture (EOA) Initiative, Continental Steering Committee (2015). The EcologicalOrganic Agriculture (EOA)-Initiative. 2015-2025 Strategic Plan. EOA Continental Steering
Committee, African Union Commission.

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Africa › Statistics

Africa: Current Statistics
CLAUDIA MEIER,1 BERNHARD SCHLATTER,2 OLIVIA KELLER3 AND JAN
TRÁVNÍČEK4
There were more than 2.0 million hectares of organic agricultural land in Africa in 2019,representing 0.2 percent of the continent’s total agricultural area and 2.8 percent of the
global organic agricultural area. The organic agricultural land in Africa has increasedby more than 176’000 hectares or 9.5 percent compared to 2018, and it increased byalmost 2 million hectares since 2000. In 2019, 42 African countries reported data onorganic activities. Since 2017, Tunisia has been the country with the largest organic area,with almost 287’000 hectares. Uganda remained the country with the highest numberof organic producers, with over 210’000 producers in 2019, followed by Ethiopia withnearly 204’000 producers and Tanzania with nearly 149’000 producers. For at least thelast ten years, the island state of São Tomé and Príncipe has been the country with thehighest organic share of the total agricultural land, reaching a share of 24.9 percent in2019. For the first time in 2019, Sierra Leone and Réunion (France) were among the top
three countries with the highest organic share, reaching 4 percent and 3.1 percent,respectively. Egypt was right below with an organic share of 3.0 percent. So was Tunisia
with an organic share of 2.9 percent.

Land use
In 2019, land use information was available for more than 91 percent of the organic
agricultural area in Africa. Almost two-thirds of all organic agricultural land was used
for permanent crops (almost 1.3 million hectares). Almost 30 percent was used forarable crops (nearly 536’000 hectares), and only 1.3 percent (nearly 27’000 hectares) was
grassland/grazing area.
Tunisia (nearly 260’000 hectares, mainly olives), Ethiopia (over 160’000 hectares, mainly
coffee), Sierra Leone (nearly 158’000 hectares, mainly cocoa), Kenya (nearly 110’000
hectares, mainly nuts), and Tanzania (nearly 107’000 hectares, mainly coffee) had thelargest organic permanent crop areas.
As in previous years, coffee was the key organic permanent crop in Africa in 2019, withover 330’000 hectares reported, representing 12.5 percent of the total coffee area of thecontinent and 47 percent of the world’s organic coffee area. In 2019, the largest organic
coffee areas were in Ethiopia (over 160’000 hectares) and Tanzania (almost 82’000
hectares). Since 2010, the organic coffee area in Africa has almost doubled. The otherkey organic permanent crops in the continent in 2019 were olives (nearly 244’000
hectares), cocoa (more than 217’000 hectares), and nuts (nearly 187’000 hectares; mainly

Claudia Meier, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
Bernhard Schlatter, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
3 Olivia Keller, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
4 Jan Trávníček, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
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Africa › Statistics
cashew nuts). Organic olives were grown on nearly 244’000 hectares, representing 7.3
percent of the continent’s olives area and 28 percent of the world’s organic olives area.
Nearly all of the organic olives areas were in Tunisia (over 241’000 hectares). Since 2010,
the organic olive area in Africa has doubled. Organic cocoa was grown on more than217’000 hectares, representing 2.7 percent of the continent’s cocoa area and 60 percentof the world’s organic cocoa area. The largest organic cocoa areas were in Sierra Leone(nearly 80’000 hectares) and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (nearly 72’000
hectares). Since 2010, the organic cocoa area grew more than 7-fold. Organic nuts weregrown on nearly 187’000 hectares (mainly cashew nuts), representing 3.8 percent of thecontinent’s nuts area and 31 percent of the world’s organic nuts area. The largest
organic nuts areas were in Kenya (nearly 70’000 hectares), Côte d’Ivoire (over 51’000
hectares), and Burkina Faso (nearly 36’000 hectares). Since 2010, the organic nuts area
in Africa grew more than 9-fold.
The largest organic arable crop areas in 2019 were in Tanzania (over 171’000 hectares,
mainly textile crops), Egypt (over 97’000 hectares, mainly medicinal and aromaticplants), and Uganda (nearly 69’000 hectares, mainly oilseeds).
As in previous years, the key organic arable crop in 2019 was oilseeds (mainly sesame),grown in 19 different countries of Africa, covering an area of almost 184’000 hectares,
representing 0.6 percent of the total oilseeds area of the continent and 12 percent of theworld’s organic oilseeds area. The largest organic oilseeds areas were in Uganda (nearly
45’000 hectares; mainly sesame), Burkina Faso (over 34’000 hectares; mainly sesame),and Ethiopia (over 33’000 hectares; only sesame). Since 2010, the organic oilseeds area
in Africa has grown nearly 5-fold. Other key organic arable crops in Africa in 2019 were
textile crops (almost exclusively cotton) and cereals (including millet, wheat, and chia).
Organic textile crops covered an area of almost 86’000 hectares, representing 1.8 percentof the total textile crops area in the continent and 47 percent of the world’s organic
textile crops area. The largest organic textile crop areas were in Tanzania (over 68’000
hectares). Since 2010, the organic textile crop area in Africa almost tripled. Organic
cereals covered an area of more than 74’000 hectares, representing 0.1 percent of thetotal cereals area in the continent and 1.4 percent of the world’s organic cereal area. The
key producing country of organic cereals was also Tanzania (nearly 51’000 hectares; nofurther crop details). Since 2010, the organic cereal area in Africa multiplied by a factorof 21.

Producers
In 2019, there were more than 850’000 organic producers in Africa. The countries withthe highest number of organic producers were Uganda (over 210’000), Ethiopia (nearly
204’000), and Tanzania (nearly 149’000). It can be assumed that the total number of
producers is higher because some countries only report the number of farm
enterprises/companies, excluding the number of farmers/ smallholders.

Wild collection
Wild collection has an important role in Africa, with more than 16.3 million hectares
certified as organic in 2019. Zambia was the country with the largest area (3.2 million
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Africa › Statistics
hectares, mainly beekeeping), followed by Namibia (over 2.6 million hectares, mainly
devil’s claw), Tanzania (over 2.4 million hectares, exclusively beekeeping), South Africa(nearly 1.8 million hectares, mainly rose hips and medicinal and aromatic plants),
Lesotho (nearly 1.7 million hectares, mainly rose hips), and Mozambique (nearly 1.3
million hectares, exclusively baobab fruit). Medicinal and aromatic plants, such asdevil’s claw (Harpagophytum procumbens), were the commodities that had the largest
area (nearly 3.6 million hectares), followed by rose hips (nearly 2.7 million hectares).
For beekeeping 5.3 million hectares were reported. Zambia is the country with thelargest wild collection area used for organic beekeeping with 2.5 million hectares,
representing 50 percent of the total beekeeping area.
For more information about the African figures, see data tables for Africa, page 194.

Organic Agriculture in Africa: Graphs
Africa: The ten countries with the largest organic area
2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021

Tunisia (2018)286'623

Tanzania (2017)278'467

Ethiopia

221'189

Uganda (2016)

183'598

Sierra Leone

157'531

Kenya (2018)

154'488

Egypt

116'000

Congo, D.R.

88'727

Burkina Faso

87'490Madagascar

76'530050'000100'000 150'000 200'000 250'000 300'000 350'000
Hectares

Figure 59: Africa: The ten countries with the largest organic agricultural area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

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191

Africa › Statistics › Graphs
Africa: The countries with the highest organic share of
total agricultural land 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021

Sao Tome and Principe

24.9%

Sierra Leone

4.0%

Réunion (France)

3.1%

Egypt

3.0%

Tunisia

2.9%

Uganda

1.3%

Togo

1.0%

Comoros

0.9%

Burkina Faso

0.7%

Tanzania

0.7%
0%

5%

10%
15%
20%
Share of total agricultural land

25%

30%

Figure 60: Africa: The countries with the highest organic share of total agriculturalland 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

Africa: Development of organic agricultural land 1999-2019
Source: FiBL-IFOAM-SOEL-Surveys 2001-2021

2.03
2019

1.92

1.85
2018

1.72

2017

1.25
2014

2016

1.20
2013

1.69
1.15

2011

2012

1.07

1.07

2010

1.00

0.89
2008

2009

0.86
2007

2006

0.51

0.49
2005

0.36

2004

0.32

2003

0.05

0.23

0.02

2000

0.0

1999

0.5

2002

1.0

0.68

1.5

2001

Million hectares

2.0

2015

2.5

Figure 61: Africa: Development of organic agricultural land 1999-2019
Source: FiBL-IFOAM-SOEL-surveys 2001-2021

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Africa › Statistics › Graphs

Figure 62: Africa: Use of organic agricultural land 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

Africa: The ten countries with the most organic producers
2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021

Uganda210'353

Ethiopia

203'602

Tanzania

148'609

Madagascar

69'505Togo

48'443Kenya

37'295Congo, D.R.

34'613Burkina Faso

29'214Senegal

18'375Mali

12'272050'000100'000
150'000
Producers

200'000

250'000

Figure 63: Africa: The ten countries with the largest number of organic producers
2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

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193

Africa › Statistics › Tables
Organic Agriculture in Africa: Tables
Table 51: Africa: Organic agricultural land, organic share of total agricultural land andnumber of organic producers 2019
Country
Algeria
Benin
Burkina Faso
BurundiCameroon
Cape Verde
Chad
Comoros
Côte d'Ivoire
Congo, D.R.
Egypt
Eswatini
Ethiopia
GambiaGhana
GuineaGuinea-Bissau
Kenya
Liberia
Madagascar
MalawiMali
Mauritius
MayotteMoroccoMozambique
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria
Réunion (France)
RwandaSão Tomé and Príncipe
SenegalSierra Leone
South Africa
Sudan
Tanzania
Togo
Tunisia
UgandaZambiaZimbabwe
Total*

Area [ha]Share of total
agri. land [%]772
15'16487'490
84
204
495
1'113
1'164
66'72888'727116'000
843
221'18968
31'199
1'000
781
154'4882
76'530
12'29411'300
6
41
9'917
7'762
112
254
55'047
1'474
1'265
10'934
6'486
157'531
30'21473'903278'467
38'506
286'623
183'598
207
848

0.002%
0.4%
0.7%
0.004%
0.002%
0.6%
0.002%
0.9%
0.3%
0.3%
3.0%
0.1%
0.6%
0.01%
0.2%
0.007%
0.1%
0.6%
0.0001%
0.2%
0.2%
0.03%
0.007%
0.2%
0.03%
0.02%
0.0003%0.001%
0.1%
3.1%
0.07%
24.9%
0.1%
4.0%
0.03%
0.1%
0.7%
1.0%
2.9%
1.3%
0.001%
0.01%

2'030'830

0.2%

Producers [no.]64
5'170
29'214
25
499
1
851
2'905
34'613970
2203'602
1
3'199
1
37'295
1
69'5055
12'272
19
11
277
149
13
2
319
38
6'990
3'563
18'3755'502
154
5148'609
48'443
7'456
210'3535
8
850'490

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 316*Total number includes data for countries with less than three operators.

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Africa › Statistics › Tables
Table 52: Africa: All organic areas 2019
Country
Algeria
Benin
Botswana
Burkina Faso
BurundiCameroon
Cape Verde
Chad
Comoros
Côte d'Ivoire
Congo, D.R.
Egypt
Eswatini
Ethiopia
GambiaGhana
GuineaGuinea-Bissau
Kenya
LesothoLiberia
Madagascar
MalawiMali
Mauritania
Mauritius
MayotteMoroccoMozambique
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria
Réunion (France)
RwandaSão Tomé and Príncipe
SenegalSierra Leone
SomaliaSouth Africa
Sudan
Tanzania
Togo
Tunisia
UgandaZambiaZimbabwe
Total

Agriculture[ha]772
15'164

Forest[ha]Grazednon agri.
land [ha]112'000
5'800

564
7'629
51'7201'075
703'886
1'667'028

2
76'530
12'29411'300

12'195
9'254
2'800

6
41
9'917
7'762
112
254
55'047
1'474
1'265
10'934
6'486
157'5312'030'830

Other nonagri. land[ha]2
265'582

87'490
84
204
495
1'113
1'164
66'72888'727116'000
843
221'18968
31'199
1'000
781
154'488

30'21573'903278'467
38'506
286'623
183'598
207
848

Wild
collection
[ha]
628

268'129
1'287'690
2'609'108

42'37741'064887
451

48'956

22'59550'29522'595822'300
1'778'702
604'718
2'403'700
6'470
48'95878'6843'200'000
309'037
16'341'099

3'028

3'028

Total
[ha]
1'400
15'1642353'07284
112'204
495
6'913
1'164
66'72888'727116'000
1'406
228'81868
82'9192'075
781
858'374
1'667'028
2
88'725
12'29420'5542'800
641278'046
1'295'452
2'609'220
254
55'047
1'474
43'642
10'93447'549157'531822'300
1'812'833
679'073
2'682'167
44'976407'132
262'282
3'200'207
309'885
18'447'847

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

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195

Africa › Statistics › Tables
Table 53: Africa: Land use in organic agriculture 2019Land use

Crop group

Agricultural land and crops, no details
Arable land crops

Area [ha]Permanent crops total
Permanent grassland

133'046
74'34451'84619'87440'05592
45'832
183'884
7'472
22'5487679
2'622
85'603
1'096
535'953
31'112
3'885
307
10'378217'169
25'245330'253
8'738
15'09147'484
3'401
52'222
3
186'833
243'552
2'906
156'282
1'299'865
26'968Total

2'030'830

Arable land crops total
Cropland, no details
Other agricultural land
Permanent crops

Cereals
Dry pulses
Fallow land, crop rotation
Fresh vegetables and melons
Industrial crops
Medicinal and aromatic plants
Oilseeds
Plants harvested green
Root crops
Seeds and seedlings
Strawberries
Sugarcane
Textile crops
Arable crops, other

Berries
Citrus fruit
Cocoa
Coconut
CoffeeFruit
Fruit, temperate
Fruit, tropical and subtropical
GrapesMedicinal and aromatic plants, permanent
Nurseries
Nuts
Olives
Tea/mate, etc.
Permanent crops, other

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

Table 54: Africa: Use of wild collection areas 2019Land use

Area [ha]Apiculture
Coffee, wild
Forest honey
Forest products
Fruit, wild
Medicinal and aromatic plants, wildMushrooms, wild
Nuts, wild collection
Oil plants, wild
Rose hips, wild
SeaweedWild collection, no details

2'525'325
8'666
2'500'000
685
2'367'589
3'552'647
11341'020
31'6922'692'203
22'321'260

Total

16'341'099

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 316

196

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Map 3: Organic agricultural land in the countries of Asia 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021 based on information from the private sector, certifiers, governments, and, the Mediterranean
Organic Agricultural Network (MOAN) for the Mediterranean countries
For detailed data sources see annex, page 317.

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197

Asia › Overview

Developments in the Organic Sector in Asia in 2020SHAIKH TANVEER HOSSAIN,1 JENNIFER CHANG2 AND VIC ANTHONYJOSEPH FABRE TAGUPA3
Together with the rest of the world, Asia has suffered a lot due to the effects of COVID19. As traditional markets, schools, offices and other establishments were shut down,
every stakeholder across the supply chain was affected in some way. However, theresiliency of many countries in Asia was highlighted, as they searched for ways tomitigate the effects of the pandemic. In South Korea, school closures meant thecessation of school meals, which was a significant income source for many organic
farmers. In response, a Countermeasures Committee for COVID-19 was established,providing thousands of food packages of environmentally-friendly farm products tomore than 6’000 self-quarantined people.
There have been major policy developments related to the organic sector in some Asian
countries. In Japan, there was a major development in the Basic Plan for Agricultureand Management, aiming to triple the number of organic farmers and organic land by2030. In Indonesia, The National Medium-Term Development Plan IV (2020-2024) will
increase the policies related to organic agriculture - under the ‘1000 organic villages’
program through the continuous collaboration of various government ministries.
Finally, the Philippines had one of the most significant milestones in organic agriculture
with the amendment of the Organic Act of 2010, including Participatory Guarantee
Systems (PGS) under the country’s national organic standards.
The pandemic has highlighted the importance of healthy food, and consumers arechanging their lifestyles towards healthy and responsible consumption. According to a
study by Singapore-based startup Ai Palette, Indonesia and the Philippines saw asignificant increase in the demand for fresh produce, with the latter registering a 444
percent year-on-year growth for fresh produce over frozen and canned varieties4. In
China, a commerce giant predicted a rise in healthy food options as a result of thepandemic. The organic sector became a hotspot for investment, and up to 89
certification bodies were established in China in 2020 alone.

Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, some products have gained importance in the organic sector, includingorganic jute, cotton, and livestock, among others. The Bangladesh Jute ResearchInstitute (BJRI) and the Jute Diversification Promotion Center (JDPC) have developeda herbal drink technology made from organic jute leaf and has marketed the product asJute Green Tea.’

Ambassador, IFOAM Organics International and Former Vice-President, IFOAM Asia
Executive Director, IFOAM Asia
3 Chief Operations Officer, IFOAM Asia
4 WARC (6 December, 2020). COVID-19 shifts food trends in Southeast Asia. Available athttps://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/news/covid-19-shifts-food-trends-in-southeast-asia/43717
1
2

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A project has been launched in collaboration with Intertrop, a German-based juteproduct manufacturing company with 7.5 hectares of land and 41 cooperative farmers
in Lemubari, Manikgonj, to produce jute organically and to certify it under theEuropean regulations. In 2018-19, around 2.5 metric tons of organic jute tea were
exported to Germany.1 A product with excellent potential is a jute bag called ‘Sonali(golden) Bag,’ a biodegradable and environment-friendly product.
According to the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) latest 2019 report,
Bangladesh is now leading the global organic textile production and topped the list oforganic textile-producing countries in terms of total numbers of GOTS-certified
facilities. In 2019, 505 Bangladeshi factories received the GOTS-certification, followedby India (438) and Europe (396). Currently, Bangladesh has 1’194 organic textile
facilities, and the growth rate of GOTS certification was more than 73 percent, which is
the highest globally, simultaneously with the Netherlands2. Bangladesh has also
imported nearly eight million bales of cotton annually, including six percent organic
cotton imported from India and the United States3. The Cotton Development Board(CDB) recently launched a program to produce organic cotton to fulfil Bangladesh’sorganic cotton demand.
Organic livestock is an emerging sector in Bangladesh. Government, non-governmentalorganisations (NGOs) and new entrepreneurs have developed livestock enterprisesthat follow organic practices in the last two years. Supermarkets in big cities havestarted an ‘Organic corner’ to sell organic products. Many young entrepreneurs werealso observed to have started online businesses to sell high-valued organic fruits,
vegetables and even livestock products to health-conscious consumers.

Cambodia
Cambodia has been a focus for international development interventions since the early
1990s. After thirty years of civil war, agricultural production was primarily subsistence
farming until recent years, with rice as the main crop for self-consumption. When“value-chain” became the trend word in the development sector in 2010, international
development actors’ interest turned to organic products. With no equivalent word for“organic” in the local language, the concept of “organic” itself was not comprehensible
for many Cambodians. In most cases, it was understood as farming without chemical
input.
The Cambodian Organic Agriculture Association (COrAA), the only current domesticorganic certification body, was established through an international development

Daily Sun: Bangladesh to export 5 metric tons tea produced from jute leaves this year, September 9, 2019.
Available at https://www.daily-sun.com/post/422234/Bangladesh-to-export-5-metric-tons-tea-produced-fromjute-leaves-this-year
2 The Business Strandard (March 12, 2020): Bangladesh leads global organic textile production. The TBSNews
website. Available at https://tbsnews.net/economy/bangladesh-leads-global-organic-textile-production-55339
3 Mirdha, Refayet Ullah (2019): Organic push earns global praise. In: The Daily Star, March 21, 2019 Available
at https://www.thedailystar.net/business/organic-textile-manufacturing-earns-global-praise-1718191
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initiative in 2006. The organisation still struggles to create a ‘localised’ and ‘selfsustaining’ certification model. In 2019, 34 operators in Cambodia were certified under
the US NOP1. The year 2020 saw the expansion of exports of organic products throughcontract farming with smallholder farmers. Rice remained the main crop, with cassava
and cashew nuts in the pilot stage.
The Cambodian Government introduced an organic agriculture policy in April 2020 toboost production and exports. This policy is expected to launch the rules and a uniquelogo to identify locally produced certified organic food.

China
The COVID-19 pandemic created big challenges for China’s economy and created asignificant change in its people’s lifestyle in 2020. E-commerce, especially livestreaming, played an important role in stimulating the economy. COVID-19 raised theissue of healthy food consumption, and the organic sector became a hotspot forinvestment. As a result, in 2020, 89 certification bodies were established.
The central government has geared its efforts towards developing rural areas bypromoting organic agriculture. According to the ‘Two mountains’ theory highlighted
by the President Xi Jinping, the annual ‘No 1 central government policy’ and the 2020
‘Agriculture and Rural Green Development Key Points’ of the Ministry of Agriculture
and Rural Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, both emphasise enhancing certified
organic management. On September 21st, 2020, the State Administration for Market
Regulation launched the Organic Product Certification Promotion Week with theslogan ‘Guard the Green Water and Mountain, Share the Green Life’. 2020 was the firsttime that one of the provincial governments - Jiangxi Province – stated that organic
vegetable certification should be stimulated by their policy ‘developing vegetableproduction in a high-quality way’.
China is seeking more international cooperation in the organic sector, based on the ‘One
Road and One Belt’ national policy. Many organic products were shown in the 3rd
China International Import Expo in Shanghai in 2020. The State Administration forMarket Regulation launched a project to compare China’s organic regulation andmanagement system with the IFOAM Norms2 and the U.S. National Organic
Programme (NOP) standards.

India
The COVID-19 crisis darkened whatever dreams remained for Indian farmers. Even
though the agriculture sector witnessed a 3.4 percent growth in GDP due to better than
average rainfall in most parts of the country, the small-scale and peasant farmers were

US NOP is the United States National Organic Programme. Information is available athttps://www.ams.usda.gov/about-ams/programs-offices/national-organic-program
2 IFOAM – Organic s International (2021 –Online): The IFOAM Norms form the basis of the Organic
Guarantee System of IFOAM - Organics International. The IFOAM website., available athttps://www.ifoam.bio/our-work/how/standards-certification/organic-guarantee-system/coros
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not part of this growth story. They were unable to access organic markets due to theincessant lockdowns and subsequent limitations of movement.
Meanwhile, India has enacted three major ordinances1 that will have an impact on
agriculture:− The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation)
Ordinance, 2020: Allowing liberal trade, increasing competition amongst buyers,
removing barriers in interstate trade and offering more options to sell and buy.
− The Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance andFarm Services Ordinance, 2020: Facilitating visibility and assurance of price tofarmers at the time of sowing, minimising market risks, solving issues of erratic
food pricing and encouraging contract farming.
− The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance 2020: Boosting private
investments in agriculture supply chains, food processing industries, and export
infrastructure.
The specific impact of these ordinances on organic farming and organic markets is yet
to be assessed.
The country has witnessed a surge in certification, even though there were challenges
with inspections and appraisals during the lockdown. The number of Participatory
Guarantee System (PGS) certified farmers under the government-administered PGS
system has risen to almost one million farmers2 in five years, while about 1.3 million
farmers are certified under third party systems.
‘Northeast India can become a huge hub of organic farming and the capital for organic
products with its own identity in the world’ Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in oneof his recent inaugural addresses. With more than 75 percent of the area under forestsin the Northeast region and most farmers practising organic farming by default, there
is vast potential for including these farmers within the ambit of certified organic
markets. The government policies and interventions are following in Sikkim's footsteps– the first organic state in the country.

Indonesia
In 2020, the National Medium-Term Development Plan IV (2020-2024) was launched toincrease organic agriculture programs and policies throughout the country. The plan
aims to increase organic agriculture through the ‘1000 organic villages’ program, which
is implemented through the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Villages,
Development of Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration and the Ministry ofTrade.

Krishi, Atmanirbhar and Aatmanirbhar Bharat (2020): A Step towards Transformation of Agriculture into
Sustainable Enterprises. The website of the Government of India mygov.in. Available athttps://blog.mygov.in/atmanirbhar-krishi-aatmanirbhar-bharat/
2 Department of Agriculture & Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government ofIndia (2020): Participatory Guarantee System for India. The PGS-India website. Available at https://pgsindiancof.gov.in/
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There was an increase in organic products, mostly driven by demand for organic herbs,
essential oils, ingredients for cosmetics, and organic coconuts. During the COVID-19
pandemic, domestic and international demand for organic products increased,
particularly for organic spices and herbs.1
At the farm level, there are more and more initiatives to promote PGS. The Indonesia
Organic Alliance initiated the foundation PAMOR (Indonesia PGS) in several places in
Sumatra and Java. The number of communities or farmer groups under PGS is also
increasing.
At the government level, more districts are promoting organic programs through thedevelopment of specialty products such as rice, coconuts, coffee, herbs and spices,which are certified organic according to national or international standards. There isalso a growing interest among local government to be part of the Asian Local
Governments for Organic Agriculture (ALGOA).2 The central government, through the
Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Cooperatives andSmall and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), are also more actively supporting farmergroups. For example, SMEs and companies have participated in regional andinternational trade fairs, such as Biofach.

Japan3The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) in Japan revised ‘The Basic
Plan for Agricultural Production and Management’ in March 2020, which includes
promoting organic agriculture. The Basic Plan acknowledges that organic agriculture
contributes to biodiversity enhancement and climate change mitigation and complies
with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Basic Plan aims to triple thenumber of organic farmers and organic land in the country by 2030. It also seeks toincrease the organic food market to 328 billion yen by 20304, from 185 billion yen in
20175.
Local governments have started responding to demands to support organic agriculture
and sustainable food systems, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. A concrete
example is the establishment of the Local Organic SATO Association Chiba (LOSAC).
This alliance of local governments, farmer groups, consumer groups, retailers and otherbusinesses and institutions was established in February 2020. The LOSAC aims to build
sustainable local and organic food systems, such as the procurement of organic school
meals and micro-distribution system for local consumption.

Firman, AR and David W. (2020) Statistik Pertanian Organik Indonesia.Indonesia. Organic Alliancehttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/342945242_Statistik_Pertanian_Organik_Indonesia_2019
2 A daughter organization of IFOAM Asia, which was set up in 2015 to promote cooperation among local
governments promoting organic agriculture. Currently, there are more than 250 members in 16 countries in
Asia.
3 Sources: http://www.maff.go.jp/e/ - the website of the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture MAFF andhttp://www.env.go.jp/en/index.html - the website of the Japanese Ministry of the Environment.
4 Approximatly 2.6 billion euros
5 Approximatly 1.4 billion euros
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Mongolia
The Mongolian Parliament approved the Law on Organic Food in April 2016. Its Action
Plan for 2016-2020 sets a goal of ‘creating a legal environment for organic foodproduction and implementing financial, investment and tax policies to develop this
sector’. To ensure the implementation of the Law on Organic Food, the Ministry ofFood, Agriculture and Light Industry approved several regulations, including the‘Order No. A-09 and A-180’ in 2018. With the approval of all the procedures,
methodology and the list that accompanied the Law on Organic Food, the legal
environment for organic food and agricultural production in Mongolia was
successfully implemented.
The organic food registration and information database (www.organic.gov.mn) was
launched in 2018 and was funded by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Mongolia office. Currently, 16 participatory guarantee systems initiatives and one
third-party certification body conduct organic food verification and certification in the
country. Consumers can easily contact the manufacturer for information on certified,organic, and in-conversion organic products. In the database, 291 local organic and inconversion products and 71 imported organic food products were registered as of 2020.

Pakistan
The Directorate of Organic Farming was established in 2008 with the aim to help small
farmers. Innovative organic farming techniques were introduced, like bio-fertilisers,
bio-herbicides and bio-pesticides. The program was a success, prompting thegovernment to upgrade the Directorate of Organic Farming to the National Institute ofOrganic Agriculture.
The Government of Pakistan has also developed the Network of Organic Agriculture
in Pakistan (NEOAP) to register organic farmers and traders. Private firms can registerand be verified as organic farming entities. These organic farms have to be certified
according to the EU regulation on organic farming (EC 834/2007) or the U.S. National
Organic Program. Farmers sell produce to specified locations or may sell to certified
firms. But the certification costs for farmers remain high.
In 2017, the State Government of Punjab proposed the “Punjab Organic Farming Act”.
Currently, it is still in draft form, but it covers all aspects of organic farming andestablishes accreditation bodies within the province of Punjab's jurisdiction to
standardise organic farming in the area.

Philippines
The Organic Act of 2010 outlines the development and promotion of organic agriculturein the Philippines and the establishment of comprehensive organic agriculture
programs in the country. It also established the National Organic Agriculture Board(NOAB), which is responsible for the implementation of the policies and programs.
In 2020, the Philippines saw one of its most significant milestones with the amendmentof the Organic Act of 2010, under which the resolution for the inclusion of PGS in thenational organic standards was approved. Finally, smallholder farmers, which

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comprise most of the country's farmers, will now have the chance to be certified organic
through PGS.
The Province of Negros Occidental, with the assistance of the Negros Island Sustainable
Agriculture and Rural Development Foundation, Inc. (NISARDFI), has been a pioneer
in promoting and driving the organic agricultural movement in the Negros Islands.
They have expanded smallholder farmers’ capacities to grow healthy crops and sustain
their lives and livelihoods in harmony with the earth and its natural resources.
As of 2019, the cumulative land of all the organic farmers participating in the annual
Negros Island Organic Farmers Festival was 20’000 hectares of land planted withdifferent organic crops and more than 10’000 smallholders.
In 2019, 143 scholars graduated from the Agriculture, Forestry, and Agri Engineering
track of the Central Philippine State University (CPSU) and the Fisheries track from theCarlos Hilado Memorial College. This results from a joint project between NISARD, thePhilippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Foundation, Inc (PRRCFI) and theDepartment of Agriculture (DA). As part of the continuing advocacy of NISARD tocreate a holistic and sustainable organic agriculture ecosystem, some of NISARD
trustees along with other private individuals established a social enterprise,
FamilyFarms Inc. and set up an organic certified rice mill in Bago City, Negros
Occidental, to provide an opportunity for more than 250 organic rice farmers (42percent women) from all over the island to mill their crops.

South Korea
In 2019, South Korea was affected by unprecedented climatic changes seriously
affecting farm harvest, especially fruits, such as pears and oranges. Drastic government
measures were set up to develop and implement policies to address climate
emergencies and the raging COVID-19 pandemic. The policies aim to stabilise foodsupply and achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050. A Special Presidential Committee
on Farming, Fishery, and Rural Affairs was established to prepare measures for thetransformation into a decarbonised-ecological (organic) agriculture.
From 2019, the consumption of environmentally-friendly food1 in the public sector
increased as government support was expanded from school meals to the ‘future
generations’ under the concept that safe and nutritious food should be served from theearly stages of conception to birth. More than 88’000 pregnant women and new mothers
received support packages which contained environmentally-friendly food.
Furthermore, 5700 tons of environmentally-friendly rice were also provided to militarybases nation-wide in 2020.
To increase public awareness, June 2nd (same phonetic sound as ‘organic’ in Korean) has
been designated as ‘Organic Day’2. Also, Fridays were designated as ‘Save the Planet
Day’, and public cafeterias in government agencies have begun serving meals with at

Pesticide-free and organic food.
In 2019, more than 2´500 shops recorded sales of over 30 million US dollars during the celebrations. In 2020,
environmentally-friendly food worth over 2 million US dollars was donated to lower-income families.

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least one ingredient from environmentally-friendly production. The ‘Eco-Friday
Campaign’ increased consumers’ awareness of the benefits of environmentally-friendly
agriculture for the common good.
In 2020, the onset of COVID-19 led to school closures and the cessation of school meals,
seriously affecting the local farmers, and the ‘Committee for Environmentally-Friendly
Agriculture COVID-19 Countermeasure’ was established to overcome the crisis. The
central and local governments supplied 18’000 food packages and provided 6’861
people under self-quarantine with environmentally-friendly produce. Organic
cooperatives and more than 11 large scale retail food outlets assisted in selling theseproducts worth over 2.8 million U.S. dollars1. Furthermore, over 5.77 million
households with school children received home deliveries of environmentally-friendly
food packages. Finally, in August 2020, the certification system for processing wasintroduced to promote food processing in the organic sector. It uses pesticide-free
produce, 70 percent of which is organic produce.

Sri Lanka
The country is considered a pioneer in the Asian region, introducing organic-certified
tea and cinnamon to the world market. Currently, Sri Lanka has boosted Ceylon
Organic Green Tea production. Sri Lankan coconut farmers have also turned theirattention towards organic coconut plantations to meet the growing demand for organic
coconut products worldwide. Sri Lankan organic products include tea, coconut-based
products, spices such as pepper, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger,
tubers and vegetables, coffee, cocoa, fruits such as pineapple, papaya, banana, lime andmango, juices, rice, cashew, processed products, and products such as kitul treacle,
jaggery and bee products.
Today, organic farmers receive higher returns than their conventional counterparts.
Consumers are ready to pay a premium of 30 percent for food products free of chemicaland genetically modified material.
The Centre of Excellence for Organic Agriculture, which was involved in organic
agriculture research, extension and development was merged with the Sustainable
Agriculture Research and Development Centre, aiming to develop more technologies,
high-quality organic fertiliser and other inputs, PGS and organic certification.
Organic villages were established and promoted, targeting female farmers, initiating
village-level markets, and developing a few markets with large-scale market chains via
PGS certification. The Sri Lanka Export Development Board and the Sri Lanka Standard
Institute are two major institutes involved in promoting organic agriculture, providing
export market facilities and training, as well as setting up quality standards for organic
products, composts, and liquid fertilisers. Another initiative is the public-private

1

Approximately 2.3 million euros.

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partnership program to commence organic farming on 3’600 hectares in the unpolluted
area of Moragahakanda-Kaluganga situated in the Mahaweli F1 Zone.

VietnamSeveral policies were issued in the past several years that paved the way for thecontinuous development of organic agriculture in Vietnam, including the National
Organic Standards TCVN 11041 in 2017, the Organic Decree 109 in 2018, the Circular
16 Guiding Decree in 2019, and most recently the National Organic Development
Program for 2020-2030, which was signed in June 2020 by the national government.
Despite the development of policies to support organic, many challenges remain due
to the lack of specific organic farming guidelines. Even though already acknowledged
as an effective quality assurance system, PGS has not yet been officially recognised asa certification system.
Despite some challenges, 2019-2020 is considered a milestone in the history of organic
agriculture development in Vietnam due to the series of policies, which have beenlaunched and implemented, boosting the overall development of organic agriculture in
the country.

IFOAM Asia in 2020
In 2020, IFOAM Asia concentrated on strengthening its internal structures and sectors
and expanding the networking activities of the Asian Local Governments for Organic
Agriculture (ALGOA).
The IFOAM Asia offices in China and the Philippines have been legally consolidated
and are in full operation. The Asian Organic Youth Forum, an active sector under
IFOAM Asia, carried out two very successful Forums in New Taipei City and Nagalandand took the initiative to expand its organic youth network globally by launching theYoung Organics-Global Network2 in September 2020.
The Asian Local Governments for Organic Agriculture ALGOA celebrated its 5th
anniversary. The ALGOA events were held in two virtual live conferences attended bymore than a thousand people from 46 countries. Three ALGOA Centers hosted bydifferent local governments and partners were set up to facilitate its work – the ALGOA
Center for Organic Leadership (Goesan County), the ALGOA Center for Public
Procurement (New Taipei City) and the ALGOA Center for Organic Governance(LOAMCP-Ph3).
The 6th ALGOA Summit was a historic occasion as ALGOA took the initiative in linking
with the International Network of eco-regions and other European partners, to launch
the Global Alliance of Organic Districts (GAOD)4 – a global alliance of organic districts

The Mahaweli Development program is known as the largest multipurpose national development programin the history of Sri Lanka and is also considered as the keystone of the government's development programthat was initiated in 1961
2 www.yoglobalnetwork.com – the website of the the Young Organics-Global Network.
3 League of Organic Municipalities, Cities and Provinces of the Philippines
4 www.gaod.online – website of the Global Alliance of Organic Districts (GAOD)
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from all continents. High-level speakers from the United Nation’s Environment
Programme (UNEP) and the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation(FAO) also participated in the events.

Contributors
Bangladesh› Dr. Md. Khurshid Alam, Principal Scientific Officer, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI),
Bangladesh› Dr Shaikh Tanveer Hossain, Ambassador IFOAM - Organics International, Former Vice-President, IFOAM
Asia
Cambodia› Ayuumi Matsuura, Director, IVY Cambodia
China› Li Feng, Country Director, IFOAM Asia China OfficeJapan› Miyoshi Satoko, Vice President, IFOAM Asia, Ambassador Asian Local Governments
for Organic Agriculture ALGOA
India› Joy Daniel, Director, Lipok Social Foundation
Indonesia› Dr. agr. Wahyudi David, Faculty Member, Food Science and Technology Program; Universitas Bakrie;
Associate Editor at Journal Organic Agriculture, Editor in Chief at Asia Pacific Journal of Agriculture Foodand Energy
Mongolia› Tungalag Davaa, Senior officer, Department of Coordination for Food Production Policy
Implementation, Ministry of Food Agriculture and Light Industry of Mongolia
Pakistan› Dr Zuhair Hasnain, Assistant Professor, PMAS Arid Agriculture University
Philippines› Edgardo Uychiat, President, Negros Island Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development Foundation,
Inc. (NISARD)› Victoriano Ihong Tagupa, Executive Director, League of Organic Agriculture Municipalities, Cities andProvinces in the Philippines (LOAMCP-Ph)
South Korea› Dong-Geun Choi, Executive Director, Korea Organic Checkoff Board, Namyangju City, Gyeonggi
Province, Republic of Korea› Manchul Jung, Director, Korea Institute for Local Governance and Rural Affairs, Chungnam Province,
Republic of Korea
Sri Lanka› Priyanga S. Dissanayake, Soil Scientist, Assistant Director of Agriculture Research, Sustainable Agriculture
Research and Development Centre, Department of Agriculture, Sri Lanka,› Dr. P.I. Yapa, Professor in Crop Science, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, Belihuloya, Sri Lanka› R.P.N. Gunaratne, Agriculture Instructor, Sustainable Agriculture Research and Development Centre,
Department of Agriculture, Makandura, Sri Lanka
Vietnam› Dang Thi Bich Huong, Deputy Chief, Vietnam Organic Agriculture Association

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Asia: Current statistics
CLAUDIA MEIER,1 BERNHARD SCHLATTER,2 OLIVIA KELLER3 AND JAN
TRÁVNÍČEK4
Overview
In 2019, the area of organic agricultural land in Asia was more than 5.9 million hectares,
representing 0.4 percent of the total agricultural area in the region. Eight percent of the
global organic agricultural land was in Asia. Since 2001, the organic land in the region
has grown over fourteen-fold. Between 2018 and 2019, however, there was a decreasein the organic area of 7 percent, mainly due to a decrease of temporary grassland in
China (over 663’000 hectares). As in previous years, China and India were the countries
with the largest organic agricultural area in Asia in 2019. In 2019, India for the first time
surpassed China with a total organic agricultural area of 2.3 million hectares. China’sorganic agricultural area was 2.2 million hectares, over 919’000 million hectares lessthan in 2018, representing a loss of 29 percent. The country with the highest number oforganic producers was India, with nearly 1.4 million producers. For more than ten
years, the country with the highest organic share of total agricultural land has been
Timor-Leste (8.5 percent in 2019).

Land use
In 2019, 49 percent of all organic farmland in Asia was used for arable crops (over 2.9
million hectares), 14 percent (over 795’000 hectares) for permanent crops and 1 percent
for grassland/grazing areas (nearly 65´000 hectares). For 36 percent of the organic
agricultural land, no land use information was available.
Since 2013, cereals have been the key organic arable crop group (mainly wheat, rice,and maize), with almost 1.3 million hectares in 2019, representing 0.4 percent of thetotal cereal area in Asia and 25 percent of the world’s organic cereal area. In 2019, mostorganic cereals were grown in China (810’000 hectares), Thailand (over 169’000
hectares) and Kazakhstan (more than 146’000 hectares). The key organic cereals wererice, wheat, and maize. Organic rice represented 47 percent of the total organic cereal
area and, together with wheat (25 percent) and grain maize (17 percent), represented 89
percent of the total organic cereal area in Asia. Organic rice was mainly grown in China(298’000 hectares), constituting 51 percent of the total organic rice in the region. The
largest organic wheat areas were also in China (178’000 hectares), followed by
Kazakhstan (over 133’000 hectares), together representing almost all of the total organic
wheat area in Asia. Oilseeds (mainly soybeans) have also been an important arable cropgroup in Asia for many years, grown on over 640’000 hectares in 2019 (mainly in China

Claudia Meier, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
Bernhard Schlatter, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
3 Olivia Keller, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
4 Jan Trávníček, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
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and India), representing 1.1 percent of the total oilseed area in Asia and 38 percent of
the world’s organic oilseeds area. The key organic oilseeds were soybeans, with almost
436’000 hectares in 2019, representing 68 percent of the total organic oilseeds area.
Organic soybeans were mainly grown in China (291’000 hectares) and India (130’000
hectares), together constituting 97 percent of the total organic soybeans in the region.
Other important organic arable crop groups in Asia area were textile crops (almost
339’000 hectares, mainly cotton, mainly in India), green fodder (nearly 303’000 hectares,
mainly in China), and medicinal and aromatic plants (over 128’000 hectares, mainly in
China).
Most of the organic permanent cropland was used for coconuts (nearly 216’000
hectares, 2.2 percent of the total coconut area in the region and 72 percent of the world’sorganic coconut area), tea (nearly 128’000 hectares, 3.5 percent of the total tea area inthe region and 70 percent of the world’s organic tea area), temperate fruits (over 118’000
hectares, 1.5 percent of the total temperate fruits area in the region and 38 percent of
the world’s organic temperate fruits area), coffee (over 99’000 hectares, 3.7 percent of
the total coffee area in the region and 14 percent of the world’s organic coffee area), andtropical and subtropical fruits (nearly 70´000 hectares, 0.4 percent of the total tropicaland subtropical fruit area in the region and 30 percent of the world’s organic tropicaland subtropical fruit area). The Philippines had the largest organic coconut area, withover 132’000 hectares, representing 61 percent of the total organic coconut area of theregion. The country with the largest area used to grow organic tea was China. In 2019,
China reported 106’000 hectares of organic tea, representing 83 percent of the totalorganic tea grown in Asia. The largest organic temperate fruit area was also in China,
with 116’000 hectares, representing almost the total area of organic temperate fruits in
Asia. Most of the organic coffee in Asia was grown in Indonesia, where over 60’000
hectares were reported, followed by Timor-Leste (over 32’000 hectares); both countries
represented 93 percent of the organic coffee area in Asia. Most of the organic tropicaland subtropical fruits in Asia were grown in China, where 34’000 hectares werereported, representing 49 percent of the organic tropical and subtropical fruit area in
Asia.

Producers
In 2019, nearly 1.6 million organic producers were reported in Asia. India remained thecountry with the highest organic producers (almost 1.4 million), followed by Thailand(nearly 119’000). Unfortunately, many countries do not report the number of producers
or only report the number of companies; thus, it can be assumed that the number of
producers is higher. Since 2004, when there were 100’000 organic producers, thenumber has increased almost sixteen-fold.

Wild collection
In 2019, over 3.2 million hectares of organic wild collection were reported in Asia.
Unfortunately, detailed data was available for only 4 percent of the reported area. From
the details available, wild nuts (over 55’000 hectares) and wild fruit (3’750 hectares)
were the key commodities. Furthermore, bee pastures (over 56’000 hectares) played an
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important role. China was the country in the region with the largest organic wildcollection area, with over 1.5 million hectares, followed by India (nearly 1.4 million
hectares), and Thailand (nearly 91´000 hectares).

MarketIn Asia, organic market data is still not available for most of the countries, but it can beassumed that the market is continually growing. Nine countries (more than 20 percentof the countries with organic data) provided organic retail sales values (Table 13, page67). From the data available, we can assume that over 10.8 billion euros of organic
products were sold in Asia. For China, over 8.5 billion euros were reported for 2019,and it is the country the world’s fourth-largest market for organic products.
Furthermore, Japan has a large organic domestic market valued at 1.4 billion euros(2018), and South Korea reported a market of 357 million euros. More information about
the Asian market is available in the chapter about the global market from Amarjit
Sahota (page 136).
For more information about the Asian figures, see data tables for Asia, page 211.
.

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Asia › Statistics › Graphs

Organic Agriculture in Asia: Graphs
Asia: The ten countries with the largest organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021

India

2'299'222

China

2'216'000

Kazakhstan

294'289

Indonesia

251'619

Thailand

188'451

Philippines

168'352

Sri Lanka

70'436

Pakistan

64'885

Viet Nam

61'901

Azerbaijan

37'6300500'000

1'000'000
1'500'000
Hectares

2'000'000

2'500'000

Figure 64: Asia: The ten countries with the largest organic agricultural area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

Asia: The countries with the highest organic share of total
agricultural land 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021

Timor-Leste

8.5%

Sri Lanka

2.5%Singapore

2.2%

Republic of Korea

1.8%

Philippines

1.4%

Bhutan

1.3%

India

1.3%

United Arab Emirates

1.2%

Taiwan1.2%

Palestine

1.2%
0%

2%

4%
6%
8%
Share of total agricultural land

10%

Figure 65: Asia: The countries with the highest organic share of total agricultural land
2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

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211

Asia › Statistics › Graphs
Asia: Development of organic agricultural land
1999- 2019

4.87
3.39

3.52

2013

2014

3.85

3.21
2012

3.69

3.58
2.46

3.36

3.00

2.90

3.0

2007

4.0

2006

3.78

5.0

2.68

Million hectares

6.0

6.36

6.00

7.0

5.91

Source: FiBL-IFOAM-SOEL-Surveys 2001-2021

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2011

2010

2009

2008

0.49
2003

2005

0.43

2004

0.42

2002

0.06

2001

2000

0.0

0.02

1.0

1999

2.0

;
Figure 66: Asia: Development of organic agricultural land 1999 to 2019
Source: FiBL-IFOAM-SOEL surveys 2001-2021; based on information from the private sector, certifiers, andgovernments. For detailed data sources see annex, page 317

Figure 67: Asia: Use of organic agricultural land 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

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Asia › Statistics › Tables

Organic Agriculture in Asia: Tables
Table 55: Asia: Organic agricultural land, organic share of farmland, producers 2019
Country

Area [ha]Organic share [%]Producers [no.]Afghanistan
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Bangladesh
BhutanCambodia
China
Georgia
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
IsraelJapan
JordanKazakhstan
KuwaitKyrgyzstan
Lao P.D.R.
Lebanon
Malaysia
Mongolia
Myanmar
Nepal
Oman
Pakistan
Palestine
Philippines
Republic of Korea
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Sri Lanka
Syrian Arab Republic
TaiwanTajikistan
Thailand
Timor-Leste
United Arab Emirates
Uzbekistan
Viet Nam
Total*

786
594
37'630
2'249
6'632
25'757
2'216'000
1'452
2'299'222
251'619
11'91663
6'307
10'792
1'446
294'28933
19'054
8'952
1'574
1'276
61
12'9489'361
43
64'8855'388
168'352
29'71124'51715
70'43619'987
9'536
10'340188'451
32'472
4'642
932
61'9015'911'622

0.002%
0.04%
0.8%
0.02%
1.3%
0.5%
0.4%
0.06%
1.3%
0.4%
0.03%
0.001%
1.0%
0.2%
0.1%
0.1%
0.02%
0.2%
0.4%
0.2%
0.01%
0.0001%0.1%
0.2%
0.003%
0.2%
1.2%
1.4%
1.8%
0.01%
2.2%
2.5%
0.1%
1.2%
0.2%
0.9%
8.5%
1.2%
0.004%
0.5%
0.4%

1
29
305
2
4'354
6'350
6'308
1'075
1'366'226
18'162
24
350
3'678
23
41
1
1'051
2'165
122
31
112
48
983
5
415
1'449
12'037
18'199
244
2'338
2'458
3'761
949
118'985
4102
2
17'174
1'589'255

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317*Total number includes data for countries with less than three operators.

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Asia › Statistics › Tables
Table 56: Asia: All organic areas 2019
Agriculture[ha]Country
Afghanistan
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Bangladesh
BhutanCambodia
China
Georgia
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
IsraelJapan
JordanKazakhstan
KuwaitKyrgyzstan
Lao P.D.R.
Lebanon
Malaysia
Mongolia
Myanmar
Nepal
Oman
Pakistan
Palestine
Philippines
Republic of Korea
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Sri Lanka
Syrian Arab Republic
TaiwanTajikistan
Thailand
Timor-Leste
United Arab Emirates
Uzbekistan
Viet Nam
Total

786
594
37'630
2'249
6'632
25'757
2'216'000
1'452
2'299'222
251'619
11'91663
6'307
10'792
1'446
294'28933
19'054
8'952
1'574
1'276
61
12'9489'361
43
64'8855'388
168'352
29'71124'51715
70'43619'987
9'536
10'340188'451
32'472
4'642
932
61'9015'911'622

Aquaculture
[ha]

123
5'781

Forest
[ha]

123

Wild
collection[ha]

Other nonagri. land
[ha]

8'570
1'063
7'746
1'549'800
215
1'370'579
18'41250'21920'0002

13'47917'068259

20
24'42244'620

8'000
2
269

90'716

5'156

100'000
106'195

5'000
12'4503'222'620

25'156

123

Total
[ha]
786
9'164
38'9398'030
14'37825'757
3'765'800
1'667
3'669'801
270'031
102'135
63
6'309
10'792
1'446
294'28933
32'53326'020
1'833
1'276
61
12'96833'78343
109'505
5'388
168'352
29'71124'51715
70'43627'987
9'538
10'340284'592
32'472
4'642
5'932
174'351
9'285'716

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

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Asia › Statistics › Tables
Table 57: Asia: Land use in organic agriculture 2019Land use
Agricultural land and crops, no details
Arable land crops

Arable land crops total
Cropland, no details
Other agricultural land
Permanent crops

Crop group
Cereals
Dry pulses
Fallow land, crop rotation
Flowers and ornamental plants
Fresh vegetables and melons
Medicinal and aromatic plants
Mushrooms and truffles
Oilseeds
Green fodder
Root crops
Seeds and seedlings
Strawberries
Sugarcane
Textile crops
TobaccoArable crops, no details
Arable crops, other

Berries
Citrus fruit
Cocoa
Coconut
CoffeeFlowers and ornamental plants, permanent
Fruit
Fruit, temperate
Fruit, tropical and subtropicalFruit/nuts/berries
GrapesMedicinal and aromatic plants, permanent
Nuts
Olives
Tea/mate, etc.
Permanent crops, other

Permanent crops total
Permanent grassland
Total

Area [ha]2'078'387
1'253'310
83'89630'397
12'40066'833128'27445
640'235
302'529
1'988
68
33
8'557
338'802
4
5'158
33'8252'906'354
60'877
5'809
121
12'787423
215'917
99'47820
15'852
118'124
69'957
3'999
17'14131'34961'101
6'512
127'554
15'047795'381
64'8155'911'622

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

Table 58: Asia: Use of wild collection areas 2019Land use

Area [ha]Apiculture
Berries, wild
Fruit, wild
Medicinal and aromatic plants, wild
Nuts, wild collection
Oil plants, wild
Palm sugar
SeaweedWild collection, no details
Total

56'267163
3'750
56
55'329303
916
136
3'105'700
3'222'620

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

215

216

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and BonnEurope

Map 4: Organic agricultural land in the countries of Europe 2019 (in hectares)
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021; based on information from the private sector, certifiers, governments, Eurostat and theMediterranean Organic Agriculture Network. For detailed information on sources, please check annex.

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn217

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021

Infographic 5: Organic agriculture in Europe: Key indicators 2019218

Europe › Overview

Organic in Europe: Recent Developments
HELGA WILLER,1 BRAM MOESKOPS,2 EMANUELE BUSACCA,3 LÉNABRISSET,4 MARIA GERNERT5 AND SILVIA SCHMIDT6
The year 2020 with the COVID-19 crisis was a special year for the organic sector. Whilethe consolidated data for 2019 show a continued growth trend for both organic
production and market, in 2020 the market grew considerably faster than in theprevious years as consumers turned to health and wellness products and paid more
attention to disease prevention.
For the UK, for instance, where annual growth rates had been at around 5 percent inrecent years, growth was far higher in 2020. Should this trend continue through thepost-pandemic times, it is bound to impact organic farmland growth, making it more
likely that the European Commission's aim of achieving an organic area share of 25
percent by 2030 will be reached. Apart from strong consumer interest, political support
measures including a good regulatory framework, adequate support under the CAP,
action plans and support for research and knowledge building will be crucial toachieving this goal.
The latest data for Europe show that organic farmland has reached about 16.5 million
hectares (EU: 14.6 million hectares) or a share of around 3.3 percent (EU: 8.1 percent).
The European Union's organic farmland share is far higher than in most countries andregions of the world; globally, about 1.5 percent of the farmland is organic (72.3 million
hectares in 2019).
The European Commission aims to reach 25 percent organic area share by 2030. Austria
already reached this benchmark in 2019 (more than 26.1 percent of the farmland wasorganic) and two other Member States are very close to it: Estonia (22.3 percent) and
Sweden (20.4 percent).

Dr. Helga Willer, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
Dr. Bram Moeskops, Research and Innovation Manager, IFOAM Organics Europe, Brussels, Belgium,www.organicseurope.bio
3 Emanuele Busacca, IFOAM Organics Europe, Brussels, Belgium, www.organicseurope.bio
4 Léna Brisset, IFOAM Organics Europe, Brussels, Belgium, www.organicseurope.bio
5 Maria Gernert, TP Organics Coordinator, IFOAM Organics Europe, Brussels, Belgium,www.organicseurope.bio
6 Silvia Schmidt, IFOAM Organics Europe, Brussels, Belgium, www.organicseurope.bio
1
2

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Europe › Overview
EU: Growth of organic area and retails sales
2000-2019
Source: FiBL-AMI surveys 2009-2021

800

Cumulative growth in %

700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0

Organic Area

Organic retail sales

Figure 68: European Union: Growth of organic farmland and retail sales 2000-2019
compared
Source: FiBL-AMI surveys

In 2019, the organic market again grew faster than the organic area (Figure 68). Datashows that the EU organic food market increased to more than 41 billion euros or by 8
percent, whereas the farmland grew by 6 percent. While it is good to see strong market
growth, the organic farmland area needs to continue to grow strongly as well to reachthe 25 percent organic area share goal as set out by the European Commission (2020) in
its Farm to Fork strategy.

New EU organic rules to be applied in 2022
In June 2018, the new European Union (EU) Regulation 2018/8481 on production andlabelling of organic products was published. The new EU organic regulation was
initially set to apply from 01 January 2021. However, due to many reasons, including
the COVID-19 pandemic, its application was postponed by one year to 01 January 20222.
The text that has been adopted in 2018 represents the "Basic Act". This means that many
details of the text are being developed and adopted in the form of delegated andimplementing acts. The development of secondary legislation started in June 2018 andshould be concluded at the latest by June 2021, six months before the actual applicationof the new organic regulation. The final set of regulations will be composed of the Basic
Act integrated by 15-18 delegated and implementing acts.

1
2

Regulation (EU) 2018/848
Regulation (EU) 2020/1693

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Proposal for the Common Agricultural Policy post-2020 launched
In June 2018, the European Commission launched its proposal for the Common
Agricultural Policy (CAP) for 2021 to 2027. As negotiations between the three European
institutions got delayed, the new CAP will only enter into force in 2023, preceded by a
two-year transition period.
The new CAP presents a New Delivery Model founded on a results-based approach,which gives more flexibility to Member States in the implementation of the policy
objectives.
Organic farming can make a decisive contribution towards a sustainable food andfarming sector while satisfying citizens' preferences. However, large-scale conversion
to organic is only possible if the CAP's ambition is raised, allowing more farmers tomake the necessary additional efforts and investments. With the right incentives in bothpillars, many more farmers could make an even larger contribution to the environment,
climate, and rural communities beyond 2020 (IFOAM EU, 2019).
The organic movement is concerned about the significant cuts foreseen to the second
pillar, Rural Development, which so far has been providing crucial support to farmers
for the conversion to organic and has helped them with maintenance payments. The
second pillar should be strengthened, and more than 30 percent of its budget should be
dedicated to the climate and environmental CAP objectives (IFOAM EU 2019).
As part of the new green architecture, the newly proposed eco-schemes offer a good
opportunity to compensate farmers who want to do more for the climate and theenvironment. The schemes are 100 percent funded under the first pillar, whichconstitutes over three-quarters of the total CAP budget. However, essential elements
are still missing: eco-schemes should be better defined to favour farming systems that
contribute to multiple objectives, including organic farming. Moreover, a minimum of
30 percent of the first pillar should be dedicated to newly proposed eco-schemes.
Finally, the CAP's increased flexibility must be counterbalanced with strong common
safeguards and a shared level of ambition. The organic movement defended ringfencing of at least 70 percent of the entire CAP budget across both pillars, to ensure alevel playing field and to avoid a race to the bottom for the climate and environment.
With the Green Deal (European Commission 2019c) and the publication of the Farm to
Fork (European Commission 2020a) and Biodiversity strategies (European Commission
2020b) in May 2020, the Commission has put forward clear objectives for transitioning
to sustainable food systems by 2030. But since the CAP will play a critical role inproviding the means to reach these objectives, it is essential that the CAP – and its
implementation at the national level through the National Strategic Plans – explicitly
and fully contributes to the Green Deal's implementation and related strategies, which
include the 'Farm to Fork strategy' and the ten priorities for the new EU Organic Action
Plan to reach 25% organic land in Europe by 2030 (see subsequent chapter).

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Europe › Overview
The European Green Deal & the Farm to Fork strategy: shaping a moresustainable EU agenda
The European Green Deal: A vision to climate neutrality for the EU by 2050
The European Green Deal (EGD, European Commission 2019c) is a new growthstrategy unveiled by the European Commission in December 2019. The European
Green Deal, one of the priorities of the Von der Leyen Commission (2019-2024), aims
for Europe to be the first climate-neutral continent by becoming a modern, resourceefficient economy. Specifically, the EGD aims "to transform the EU into a fair andprosperous society, with a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy where
there are no net emissions of greenhouse gases in 2050 and where economic growth isdecoupled from resource use". Moreover, the EGD stresses that "the EU has thecollective ability to transform its economy and society to put it on a more sustainable
path".
The EGD covers several sectors in which the EU can do better in terms of sustainability,
including the energy, the transport and the agri-food sector. For this publication, thefocus is on the latter sector. The Farm to Fork (F2F) and the EU biodiversity strategies,
both a part of the EGD, unveiled in May 2020, aim at achieving the EGD goals for the
agri-food sector. The EU biodiversity strategy aims at "bringing nature back into ourlives" with many initiatives including the proposal of EU nature restoration targets, thereview and possible revision of the Environmental Crime Directive and building an EU
Business for Biodiversity movement.
Some initiatives within the Farm to Fork and the EU biodiversity strategies overlap,
e.g., the initiatives aim to boost organic and more sustainable practices. As the Farm to
Fork strategy includes those initiatives and ambitions relevant to the whole (organic)
food supply chain, this chapter will focus on this strategy.

Overview of the Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy
The F2F strategy, at the heart of the European Green Deal, "addresses comprehensively
the challenges of sustainable food systems and recognises the inextricable links
between healthy people, healthy societies and a healthy planet".
The F2F strategy is composed of a main communication and an annex, the latter serving
as an action plan for the strategy. The strategy recognises that food systems are
responsible for approximately 29 percent of the world's greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions and that nearly 70 percent of all agricultural GHG emissions come from theanimal sector. It explicitly states that "there is an urgent need to reduce dependency on
pesticides and antimicrobials, reduce the use of fertilisers, increase organic farming,
improve animal welfare, and reverse biodiversity loss". The F2F is meant to lead a
global transition towards competitive sustainability from farm to fork.
The goals of the F2F strategy are to:− Ensure that food production, transport, distribution, marketing, and consumption
have a neutral or positive environmental impact,− Preserve and restore the land and sea-based resources,− Mitigate climate change,
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FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and BonnEurope › Overview− Reverse the loss of biodiversity,− Ensure food security, nutrition, and public health.
Notably, the F2F strategy is not legally binding, which means that adequate policies
must support initiatives and targets contained therein. In the following section is an
overview of how this would work for initiatives that directly impact organic. For thesake of succinctness, only those initiatives that directly impact organic are consideredin this publication. Still, many more initiatives are included in the F2F strategy than
only the ones hereafter.

Farm to Fork strategy & organic
Organic farming has a prominent place in the Farm to Fork strategy. Perhaps the mostsignificant achievement for the organic sector is the recognition that organic can be partof the solution in addressing the environmental challenges we currently face, as the F2F
strategy includes a target which aims at achieving at least 25 percent of the EU's
agricultural land under organic farming by 2030 and a significant increase in organic
aquaculture. This 25 percent target will not be reached with a business as usualapproach, or with only a few favourable policies here and there. To reach the 25 percent
target, comprehensive policy support for organic is needed across the EU, aiming toincrease the supply and demand for organic products.
As part of the F2F strategy, the Commission pledged to review the EU promotion
programme for agricultural and food products to enhance its contribution tosustainable production and consumption. At the end of 2020, the Commission pledged
a total of 182.9 million euros to promote European agri-food products, for example via
campaigns in the internal market or third countries, with a focus on sustainableagriculture. The budget for campaigns about organic farming, EU sustainableagriculture, and the agri-food sector's role in terms of climate action and theenvironment accounts for about half of the total budget, i.e. 86 million euros.
Other F2F strategy initiatives that directly impact organic and that are yet to be carriedout at the time of writing these lines are:
− The Commission will put forward an Action Plan on organic farming, expected at
the beginning of 2021. In this context, push and pull measures that boost bothorganic production and demand are crucial.
− Determine the best modalities for setting minimum mandatory criteria forsustainable food procurement to promote healthy and sustainable diets, includingorganic products, in schools and public institutions (indicative timetable: Q3 2021).
− The Commission will take measures to facilitate the registration of seed varieties,
including for organic farming, and to ensure easier market access for traditional
and locally adapted varieties.

Research
Organic farming research is funded under national research programs or nationalorganic action plans and European programmes. Since the mid-1990s, several organic
farming research projects have been financed by the EU framework programmes. So
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Europe › Overview
far, the following projects focussing on organic agriculture have been funded by thecurrent framework programme Horizon 2020:1 OK-Net Arable, OK-Net EcoFeed,LIVESEED, ECOBREED, BRESOV (three projects on organic seed and plant breeding).
RELACS and Organic-PLUS, which investigate alternatives for contentious inputs usedin organic farming, started in spring 2018. In 2019, PPilow started as a new projectaddressing animal welfare in organic farming and a thematic network on organic fruit
production, BioFruitNet.
In 2020, the CORE Organic network, which joins forces of the EU Member States to fundtransnational research projects, released its 15-year activity report (2004-2019) (CORE
Organic 2021), after celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2019. The current CORE Organic
Cofund consortium2 consists of 27 partners from 19 countries. In 2016, 12 projects wereselected to run until 2021, distributed across four thematic areas: Plant production
systems, animal feed, livestock systems, and organic food processing3. The reportshows that CORE Organic has primarily achieved its mission to enhance the European
research area on organic agriculture: The number of projects funded on topics identified
as common priorities while ensuring the participation of SMEs and facilitating the
integration of new forms of knowledge generation, innovation and dissemination has
allowed the sector to better meet the demand for organic food and products and todevelop practices per the organic principles and regulations. Collaboration with theEuropean Technology Platform TP Organics and other relevant sector players hashelped ensure that the voice of transnational organisations representing farmers,
industry and civil society have been taken into account. With the Organic Eprints open
access repository, a shared knowledge reservoir for effective dissemination of researchoutcomes has been created. The CORE Organic projects' outcomes are archived in
Organic Eprints, which today has more than 24'000 entries (Willer/Rasmussen 2019).

Organic Farm Knowledge for farmers and advisers to exchange knowledge
In December 2018, the Horizon 2020-funded project OK-Net Ecofeed launched theextended knowledge platform Organic Farm Knowledge (https://organicfarmknowledge.org/), initially set up in the framework of OK-Net Arable. The platform
aims to promote the exchange of information and share practical solutions among
farmers across Europe. The platform is available in 14 languages. In 2019, the platform
started to be expanded to cover tools and solutions related to organic feed for pigs andpoultry and seed, breeding, and many other topics. In 2020, a concept note wasdeveloped as an overarching framework for further developing Organic Farm
Knowledge, including an Action Plan outlining the main tasks, which is now being

https://ok-net-ecofeed.eu; www.liveseed.eu; http://ecobreed.eu; https://bresov.eu; https://relacs-project.eu;
https://organic-plus.net; www.ppilow.eu; https://biofruitnet.eu/
2 CORE Organic was initiated as a part of the Commission’s ERA-NET Scheme in 2004. It intends to step up
cooperation between national research activities and aims to enhance the quality, relevance, and utilisation ofEuropean research resources through coordination and collaboration.
3 http://projects.au.dk/coreorganiccofund
1

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FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and BonnEurope › Overview
implemented by the newly established Executive and Editorial Boards composed of 14
partners from across Europe. The goal is for the platform to become the European
reference hub for practical knowledge on organic farming.

Science Day 2020 at BiofachOn 14 February, TP Organics' Science Day1 took place at Biofach 2020 in Nuremberg,
Germany on innovation opportunities for organic companies in the new research
programme of the EU, Horizon Europe. TP Organics2 is the European Technology
Platform for Organic Food and Farming. Science Day was dedicated to the urgent needto address food and packaging waste, particularly plastic waste, to increase thesustainability of the (organic) food sector. The European Commission highlighted that
support for organic and agroecology is seen as an important element to future-proof
food and farming systems. Within the European Green Deal, the European Commission
aims to address EU food systems' challenges along the whole value chain – from farm
to fork. Improving packaging, reducing food loss and waste, and empowering
consumers are on the agenda, among others. At least 35% of the funding under Horizon
Europe will be dedicated to climate solutions, and €10 billion are expected to beavailable for Cluster 6, 'Food, bioeconomy, natural resources, agriculture andenvironment'.
TP Organics' new Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda for Organics & Agroecology(TP Organics 2019a) was presented, which identifies 29 research needs in four priority
areas: (1) Moving organic further; (2) Redesigning food and agricultural policies; (3)Climate-resilient and diversified farming systems; and (4) Sustainable value chains forbetter food systems. The importance of meeting consumer demand for minimal
processing and supporting innovations to reduce food and packaging waste was
highlighted. The companies Bio4Pack and FUTAMURA presented their solutions forsustainable packaging. Closing the loop to a circular economy, bioplastics based on
cellulose or organic waste are suitable for composting or recycling. The organic biscuitcompany SOMMER gave insights into its experience with bioplastic. While bioplastics
display good barrier properties and do not reduce the products' shelf life, costs formaterials and waste disposal are higher. For widespread use of bioplastic, consumers
need to be educated on the right disposal; public waste management needs to adapt to
the new material, and the real costs of fossil fuel-based packaging should be reflected
in its price.

Organic Innovation Days
The first-ever online edition of the Organic Innovation Days3, TP Organics' annual
event that brings together the organic sector and policymakers at an EU level, took placeon 24-25 November 2020, in cooperation with the EU H2020 project LIVESEED, whichis coordinated by IFOAM Organics Europe. Through interactive functionalities, thewww.tporganics.eu/science-day-2020
www.tporganics.eu
3 www.tporganics.eu/organic-innovation-days
1
2

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Europe › Overview
Organic Innovation Days once again provided a unique opportunity to discuss researchneeds and innovations within and outside the organic sector to transform our foodsystems together with a broad range of stakeholders – including companies andresearchers, farmers and farmer organisations, and policymakers across Europe.
While LIVESEED held its final conference for stakeholders and policymakers and aEuropean workshop presenting key project outcomes, innovations and results, TP
Organics sessions focused on how the new EU research programme Horizon Europe
can support the transformation towards sustainable food and farming systems byleveraging the potential of organic and agroecology. The European Commission
showed that organic and agroecology already play a key role in many different
European policies, including the Farm to Fork strategy. Horizon Europe will be a vital
enabler of the European Green Deal. Still, instruments beyond research and innovation
are needed to support the uptake of organic in a more holistic approach.

Horizon Europe
Horizon Europe, the EU's 9th Framework Programme for research and innovation, will
provide a proposed budget of €100 billion for the period 2021-2027. The briefing
published by TP Organics in 2019 (TP Organics 2019b) provides an overview of the
programme, its structure and content, the policy process, and TP Organics position. The
European Parliament and the EU Council reached a provisional agreement on Horizon
Europe in Spring 2019. Following this agreement, the European Commission has begun
the preparation of the first Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan will identify missions andEuropean Partnerships and serve to prepare the work programmes' content and calls
for proposals for the first four years of Horizon Europe. The first work programme isexpected by April 2021. €10 billion are to be allocated to Cluster 6, 'Food, Bioeconomy,Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment'. Thanks to TP Organics, the legal
texts of Horizon Europe state that Horizon Europe should support organic farming andagroecology, and the latest version of the draft Work Programme (from 21 December2020) includes three calls that specifically address organic research needs: 'Fosteringresearch in organic crop breeding', 'Innovative solutions to prevent adulteration offood-bearing quality labels: focus on organic food and geographical indication' and'Reaching the Farm to Fork target: R&I scenarios for boosting organic farming andaquaculture in the EU'. In addition, 18 calls mention 'organic'.
TP Organics welcomes the planned Mission for Soil health and food as well as thepartnership for 'Accelerating farming systems transition: agroecology living labs andresearch infrastructures', which will be crucial instruments to support the upscaling oforganic farming and agroecology. However, TP Organics is concerned that theinclusion of the 'Innovation Principle' in Horizon Europe could be used to undermine

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the Precautionary Principle, and hence social and environmental protections in the EU1.
Innovation is only useful if it does not harm public and environmental health.

20th Organic World Congress
Every three years, the organic sector comes together to host the world's largest organic
gathering, the Organic World Congress (OWC). In 2021 initially planned for 2020, the20th OWC will be held in Europe for the first time since 2008, and it will take place from
6 to 10 September in Rennes, France. Drawing from the motto, "From its Roots, Organic
Inspires Life", OWC 2021 will aim to provide organic and likeminded stakeholders
working toward sustainable agriculture, value chains, and consumption with anopportunity to exchange their knowledge, innovations, and experiences. In the days
leading up to the congress, delegates have the opportunity to participate in one of eight,
topic-specific pre-conferences, one of which will focus on organic farming statistics.

References and further reading
CORE Organic (2021) CORE Organic 15-year activity report (2004-2019). CORE Organic, c/o ICROFS, Tjele. Available
at https://projects.au.dk/fileadmin/ingen_mappe_valgt/CO_2020_15_Year_Activity_Report_Final.pdf
European Parliament and the Council (2018): Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of theCouncil of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products and repealing Council
Regulation (EC) No 834/2007. OJ L 150, 14.6.2018, p. 1–92. Available at https://eurlex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2018/848/oj
European Commission (2019a), EU agricultural outlook for markets and income, 2019-2030. European Commission,
DG Agriculture and Rural Development, Brussels. https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farmingfisheries/farming/facts-and-figures/markets/outlook/medium-term_en
European Commission (2019b): CAP and development. The Europa Website. European Commission, Brussels.
Available at https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farming-fisheries/farming/international-cooperation/cap-anddevelopment_en
European Commission (2019c): The European Green Deal. European Commission, Brussels. Available athttps://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/european-green-deal-communication_en.pdf
European Commission (2020a): A Farm to Fork Strategy for a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly foodsystem. European Commission, Brussels. Available at https://eurlex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:ea0f9f73-9ab2-11ea-9d2d01aa75ed71a1.0001.02/DOC_1&format=PDF
European Commission (2020b): EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. European Commission, Brussels. Available athttps://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52020DC0380&from=EN
IFOAM EU (2018): Towards a post-2020 CAP that supports farmers and delivers public goods to Europeans.
Avoiding a race to the bottom - An ambitious and better targeted. IFOAM EU, Brussels. Available athttps://www.ifoam-eu.org/sites/default/files/ifoameu_policy_cap_position_20181009_2.pdf
TP Organics (2019a): Strategic research & innovation agenda for organics and agroecology leading the transition tosustainable food and farming in Europe. IFOAM EU, Brussels. Available at https://tporganics.eu/wpcontent/uploads/2019/12/ifoam-sria-full-final.pdf
TP Organics (2019b): TP Organics Briefing Horizon Europe – The next EU research & innovation frameworkprogramme (2021-2027): IFOAM EU, Brussels. Available at tporganics-horizon-europe-briefing.pdf
Willer, Helga and Rasmussen, Ilse A. (2019) International Online Archive Organic Eprints – Current Status. ResearchInstitute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick. https://orgprints.org/37003/

1 This tool was created by industry lobbyists to block and delay important social, health and environmental

regulations. Despite several efforts by civil society organisations including TP Organics to remove theInnovation Principle from Horizon Europe, it is still part of the recitals. More information about thisdangerous principle making its way into EU law is available at https://tporganics.eu/innovation-principle/
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Europe › Statistics › Key Indicators
Europe and the European Union: Key indicators 2019
Indicator

EuropeEuropean Union

Organic farmland

16.5 million ha

14.6 million ha

Organic shareof total farmland

3.3 %

8.1 %

Increase inorganic farmland
2018-20190.92 million ha

0.82 million ha

Relative increasein organic
farmland 20182019

5.9%

5.9%

Land use

Arable crops: 7.8 million ha
Permanent crops: 1.8 million ha
Permanent grassland: 6.5 million
haArable crops: 6.6 million ha
Permanent crops 1.6 million ha
Permanent grassland: 6.4 millionha

Top arable cropgroupsGreen fodder: 2.6 million ha
Cereals: 3.0 million ha
Dry pulses: 0.7 million ha

Green fodder: 2.5 million ha
Cereals: 2.4 million ha
Dry pulses: 0.5 million ha

Top permanent
crop groups

Olives: 0.6 million ha
Grapes: 0.4 million ha
Nuts: 0.3 million ha

Olives: 0.5 million ha
Grapes: 0.4 million ha
Nuts: 0.3 million ha

Wild collectionarea

10.5 million ha

7.1 million ha

Producers

430'794343'858

Processors

81'71978'240

Importers

6'508

5'747

Retail sales

45.0 billion euros

41.4 billion euros

Growth of retailsales 2018-2019

8.0%

8.0%

Organic share of
total market

No data

No data

Per capita
consumption

56 euros

84 eurosTop 3 countries
EuropeSpain (2.4 million ha)
France (2.2 million ha)
Italy (2.0 million ha)
Liechtenstein (41.0%)
Austria (26.1%)
Estonia (22.3%)
France (+205'775 ha)
Ukraine (+158'880 ha)
Spain (+108'441 ha)
Kosovo: (+548 %)Bosnia and Herzegovina:(+89 %)
Moldova: (+62 %)Largest arable areas:
France (1.3 million ha)
Italy (1.0 million ha)Germany (0.7 million ha)
Largest permanent cropareas:
Spain (0.6 million ha)
Italy (0.5 million ha)
Turkey (0.2 million ha)
Finland (4.6 million ha)
Romania (1.8 million ha;
2014)
Belarus (1.5 million ha)
Turkey: (74'545)
Italy (70'561)
France (47'196)
Italy (21'940)
France (19'311)
Germany (16'162)
Germany (1'831)
France (662)
Switzerland (548)Germany (11'970 million
euros)
France (11'295 million
euros)
Italy (3'625 million euros)
France (13.4%)
Estonia (13.2%)
Belgium (11.7%)
Denmark (12.1 %)Switzerland (10.4 %)Austria (9.3 %)Denmark (344 euros);
Switzerland (338 euros)
Luxembourg (265 euros)

Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021.
For detailed data sources, see annex

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Organic Farming and Market Development in Europe
and the European Union
JAN TRÁVNÍČEK,1 HELGA WILLER2 AND DIANA SCHAACK3
In 2019, the development of the organic sector in the European Union was characterisedby continued growth in all key indicators. In 2019, the organic market grew more thanthe organic area, thus continuing the trend of the past several years. Only in 2018 did
the organic farmland grow at a faster rate than the market. While it is good to see strong
market growth, the organic farmland area needs to continue to grow, as growth will beneeded to reach the 25 percent organic area share goal set out by the European
Commission (2020) in its Farm to Fork strategy.

1 Key facts and figures: Production and market highlights
More than 16.5 million hectares of farmland were organic in Europe in 2019 –Spain had the largest area
In Europe, 16.5 million hectares were managed organically in 2019 (European Union:
14.6 million hectares). With almost 2.4 million hectares, Spain continued to be thecountry with the largest organic area in Europe (more than 14 percent of the European
organic farmland), followed by France (2.2 million hectares), and Italy (2.0 million
hectares).

European organic farmland increased by almost one million hectares
The organic land increased by more than 0.9 million hectares in Europe (with a major
increase in farmland in the France and Ukraine) and by more than 0.8 million hectaresin the European Union, representing an increase of 5.9 percent in Europe and in theEuropean Union. Growth was a bit lower than in 2018 but higher than in the first yearsof the current decade. From 2010 to 2019, the organic agricultural land increased bymore than two thirds.

Liechtenstein is the country with the highest organic area share in the world
Organic farmland in Europe constitutes 3.3 percent of the total agricultural land and 8.1
percent in the European Union. In Europe (and globally), Liechtenstein has the highest
organic share of all farmland (41.0 percent) followed by Austria, the country in theEuropean Union with the highest organic share of agricultural land (26.1 percent).

Organic producers, processors and importers on the rise
There were almost 430’000 organic producers in Europe (European Union: more than343’000), with the largest numbers in Turkey (74’545) and Italy (70’561). While in 2019the number of producers grew by 2.8 percent in Europe (5.0 percent in the European

Jan Trávníček, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
Dr. Helga Willer, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
3 Diana Schaack, Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft mbH, Bonn, Germany, www.ami-informiert.de
1
2

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Europe › Statistics › Summary
Union), growth was 58 percent in Europe and 56 percent in the European Union from2010-2019.
There were more than 81'719 organic processors in Europe (+8.5 percent compared to2018) and almost 78’240 in the European Union (+9.1 percent). The country with thelargest number of processors was Italy (21'940).
The number of importers grew faster than the number of producers and processors:More than 6’500 importers (+12.1 percent) were counted in Europe and more than 5’747
in the European Union (+13.9 percent). Germany had the most importers (1'831).

Retail sales reached the 45 billion euro mark - Market continues to grow
Organic retail sales in Europe were valued at 45.0 billion euros (41.4 billion euros in theEuropean Union). The European Union represents the second largest single market fororganic products after the United States. With 11.97 billion euros of retail sales,
Germany is the biggest market in Europe and the world's second-largest.
The European organic market recorded a growth rate of 8.0 percent (European Union:
8.0 percent). The highest growth was observed in France (13.4 percent). In the decade
2010-2019, the European and European Union organic market values more thandoubled.

Organic imports – China is the largest supplier
Data on organic imports to the European Union in 2019 show that a total of 3.2 million
metric tons of organic products were imported to the European Union. The largest
supplier was China; the key product group was tropical fruit. The largest importer was
The Netherlands.

European consumers spend more on organic food
European consumers spent 56 euros on organic food per person in 2019 (European
Union: 84 euros). Per capita, consumer spending on organic food has doubled in thelast decade. Danish and Swiss consumers spent the most on organic food per capita(344 and 338 euros, respectively).

Highest organic market shares are in Europe
Globally, EU countries account for the highest organic food sales shares as percentagesof their respective food markets. Denmark had the highest organic market shareglobally (12.1 percent) and was the first to pass the 10 percent mark. Austria with 9.3
percent, is expected to reach the 10 percent mark soon.

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2. Organic agricultural land: Area, organic shares, growth
Table 59: Europe: Organic agricultural land in Europe and the European Union 2019

European
Union
EuropeOrganic
area[million ha]

Organic
share[%]

Change2018-2019[%]

Change2018-2019[million ha]

Change2010-2019[%]

Change2010-2019[million ha]

14.6

8.1%

5.9%

0.8

61%

5.5

16.5

3.3%

5.9%

0.9

65%

6.5

Source: FiBL-AMI survey based on Eurostat and national data sources. For country details, see Table 66.

2.1 Organic agricultural land
In 2019, 16.5 million hectares were farmed organically in Europe and almost 14.6 million
hectares in the European Union (Table 59). Almost 90 percent of Europe’s organic
farmland was in the European Union. The countries with the largest organic land areas
were Spain (14 percent of Europe’s organic farmland), France, Italy, and Germany.
Slightly more than half of Europe’s organic farmland was in these countries (Figure 69).
A bit more than one-fifth of the world’s organic farmland was in Europe. While informer years this share amounted to one-quarter of the world’s organic farmland, itwent down due to an impressive area increase in Australia in 2017.

Figure 69: Europe: Distribution of organic farmland by country 2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on national data sources and Eurostat
For detailed data sources, see annex

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn231

Europe › Statistics › Organic Agricultural Land
Europe: Organic agricultural land by country 2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021
Spain
France
Italy
Germany
Russian Federation
Austria
SwedenCzech Republic
GreeceTurkeyPolandUkraineUnited Kingdom
Romania
Finland
Hungary
Portugal
LatviaDenmark
Lithuania
Estonia
Slovakia
Switzerland
Bulgaria
Croatia
Belgium
IrelandNetherlands
Slovenia
NorwayMoldova
SerbiaCyprusLuxembourg
IcelandMontenegro
North Macedonia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Liechtenstein
Belarus
KosovoAlbania
Faroe Islands
Channel Islands
Malta
Andorra2’354’916
2’240’797
1’993’225
1’613’785
674’370669’921613’964
540’986528’752
518’435
507’637
467’980459’275
395’228306’484
303’190
293’213289’796285’526
242’118
220’737
197’565
172’713
117’779
108’127
93’11973’952
68’06849’63845’312
27’833
21’266
6’240
5’814
5’740
4’751
3’711
1’692
1’470
1’375
1’036
653
251
180
55
2

0

500’000

1’000’000 1’500’000
Hectares2’000’000

2’500’000

Figure 70: Europe: Organic agricultural land by country 2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on Eurostat national data sources.
For detailed data sources see annex.

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2.2 Organic shares of total agricultural land
In Europe, 3.3 percent of the agricultural land is organic, and in the European Union,
8.1 percent (Table 59). In twelve countries (European Union: ten), 10 percent or moreagricultural land is managed organically (Figure 71). The countries with the highest
organic shares are Liechtenstein (41.0 percent), Austria (26.1 percent), Estonia (22.3
percent), and Sweden (20.4 percent). Liechtenstein is the country with the highest
organic farmland share in the world.

2.3 Growth of organic agricultural land
In 2019, the organic agricultural land in Europe increased by 0.92 million hectares (EU:
0.82 million hectares) or 5.9 percent (EU: 5.9 percent). In Europe, the absolute growth
was higher than in the European Union, due to a major increase in organic farmland in
Ukraine (+158’880 hectares).
The countries that contributed the most to the growth were France, Ukraine, Spain,
Hungary, Germany, and Portugal, contributing almost 740’000 additional hectares(Figure 74). The highest relative increases were in Kosovo (+548 percent), Bosnia andHerzegovina (+88 percent), Moldova (+62 percent) and Ukraine (+51 percent). However,some countries showed a decrease in organic land, such as Turkey, Ireland, Iceland,
and Bulgaria (Table 66).

2.4 Conversion status of organic farmland
Most countries provided data on their fully converted and under-conversion areas, butsuch details are not available for all countries, such as Austria, Germany and
Switzerland (Table 67).
In Europe, of the 16.5 million hectares of organic agricultural land, 11.1 million hectares
were fully converted1 (10.0 million out of 14.6 million hectares in the European Union).
At least 2.6 million hectares were under conversion (2.3 million in the European Union).
The conversion area suggests that, in the near future, an increase in the supply oforganic products can be expected (Figure 75).
By country, the largest in-conversion areas are in Western and Southern European
countries, notably France (565’571 hectares), Italy (383’127 hectares), Spain (346’622
hectares), and Romania (183’741 hectares) (Table 67).

1

Excluding Austria, Germany and Switzerland
FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn233

Europe › Statistics › Organic Agricultural Land
Europe: Organic share of total agricultural land bycountry and country group 2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021
Liechtenstein
Austria
Estonia
SwedenSwitzerland
Czech Republic
Italy
LatviaFinlandDenmark
Slovenia
Slovakia
Spain
Germany
EU 15
GreecePortugal
Faroe Islands
Lithuania
European Union
FranceCroatia
Belgium
EFTA
Hungary
EU 13
CyprusNorwayLuxembourg
Netherlands
PolandEuropeRomania
United Kingdom
Bulgaria
Channel Islands
Montenegro
IrelandTurkeyEU candidates
Moldova
UkraineSerbiaMalta
Other European Countries
Iceland
North Macedonia
Russian Federation
KosovoBosnia and Herzegovina
Albania
BelarusAndorra

26.1%
22.3%
20.4%
16.5%
15.4%
15.2%
14.8%
13.5%
10.9%
10.3%
10.3%
9.7%
9.7%
9.0%
8.7%
8.4%
8.4%
8.1%
8.1%
7.7%
7.2%
6.9%
6.3%
5.7%
5.8%
5.0%
4.6%
4.4%
3.7%
3.5%
3.3%
2.9%
2.6%
2.3%
2.0%
1.8%
1.6%
1.4%
1.3%
1.2%
1.1%
0.6%
0.5%
0.4%
0.4%
0.3%
0.3%
0.25%
0.09%
0.1%
0.04%
0.01%
0%

10%

20%
30%
40%
Organic share of total agricultural land

41.0%

50%

Figure 71: Europe: Organic shares of total agricultural land 2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on national data sources and Eurostat. For detailed data sources, see annex of thisbook.
EU Candidates = Candidates and Potential Candidate countries of the European Union; EFTA = European Free Trade
Association; EU = European Union; EU-13 = countries, which became members of the European Union in or after May
2004; EU-15 = countries, which were member countries of the European Union before May 2004.

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Europe and European Union: Development of organic
agricultural land 1985-2019
Source: Nic Lampkin, FiBL-AMI survey 2021, based on national data sources and Eurostat

17.5

Million hectares

15.0

EuropeEuropean Union

16.5

12.5

14.6

10.0
7.5
5.0
2.5
0.0

Figure 72: Europe and the European Union: Development of organic agricultural land
1985-2019
Source: FiBL-AMI Surveys 2006-2021 based on national data sources and Eurostat. Data from before 2000 based on
surveys from Nic Lampkin. The data for the European Union covers all countries that were members of the European
Union in 2019.

Figure 73: Europe: Growth rates for organic agricultural land in Europe and theEuropean Union 1985-2019
Source: FiBL-AMI Surveys 2006-2021 based on national data sources and Eurostat. Data from before 2000 based on
surveys from Nic Lampkin. For detailed data sources see annex.

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235

Europe › Statistics › Organic Agricultural Land
Europe: The 10 countries withthe highest growth in organic
farmland in 2019 (hectares)
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021based on Eurostat andnational data sources
France205’773

Ukraine158’880

Europe: The 10 countries with thehighest relative growth in organic
agricultural land in 2019 (%)
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on Eurostat andnational data sources

548

Kosovo89

Bosnia and Herzegovina
Moldova62

93’808

Ukraine51

Germany

92’471

Hungary

45

Portugal

80’095

Portugal38

Romania

68’968

Romania

21

Russian Federation

67’395

Malta

17

Spain

108’441

Hungary

Greece36’125

Denmark

11

Italy

35’180Russian Federation

110

200’000
Area increase in hectares

0

100 200 300 400 500 600
Area increase in percent

Figure 74: Europe: The ten countries with the highest growth in organic agriculturalland in hectares and percentage in 2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on national data sources and Eurostat
For detailed data sources see annex.

Figure 75: Europe and the European Union: Conversion status of organic land inEurope and the European Union 2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on national data sources and Eurostat
For detailed data sources see annex.

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3 Land use and crops grown in organic agriculture
3.1 Land use
For all countries in Europe, land use and crop details are available. In this respect,
Europe differs substantially from other parts of the world, for which such data is often
not available. The area for all land use types1 has grown steadily since 2004.2
Table 60: Europe and the European Union: Land use 2019
Crop group
Arable land
Permanent
grassland
Permanent crops
Total

Europe[Million hectares](Share of total)

European Union[Million hectares](Share of total)

Change2018-2019
Europe/EU [%]Change2015-2019
Europe/EU [%]

7.8 (3.6%)

6.6 (7.2%)

4.5%/7.5%

38%/39%6.5 (3.5%)

6.4 (10.0%)

4.6%/4.4%

22%/23%

1.8 (10.5%)
16.5 (3.3%)

1.6 (13.4%)
14.6 (8.1%)

4.6%/7.5%
5.9%/5.9%

28%/29%31%/31%

Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on national data sources Eurostat.
Note: Total includes other agricultural land and correction values for double-cropped areas.

Figure 76: Europe and European Union: Distribution of land use in organic agriculture
2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on Eurostat and national data sources

The main land use types are:Arable land crops (mainly cereals, fresh vegetables, green fodder and dry pulses and oilseeds),
Permanent grassland (pastures and meadows), andPermanent crops (fruit trees and berries, olive groves and vineyards).
2 In 2004, FiBL started its data collection on organic crop and land use data.
1

›
›
›

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Europe › Statistics › Organic Agricultural Land Use and Crops
Table 60 and Figure 76 show that arable land constitutes a large part of the organic
farmland, with almost 7.8 million hectares in Europe and 6.6 million hectares in theEuropean Union (47 and 45 percent of the organic farmland, respectively). The arable
land share is higher in Europe, as the Russian Federation and Ukraine have large areasfor producing cereals, oilseed, and dry pulses. Permanent grassland accounted for 6.5
million hectares in Europe and 6.4 million hectares in the European Union. Permanent
crops constituted 11 percent of the organic farmland with 1.8 and 1.6 million hectares
in Europe and the European Union, respectively.
Compared to total agriculture (based on FAO land use data and not strictly
comparable), organic arable land constitutes 3.6 percent of the total arable land inEurope and 7.2 percent in the European Union. Whereas the organic share of total
permanent grazing area is as high as 13.4 percent in the European Union, it is lower inEurope (3.5 percent). Permanent crops have the highest organic shares: 13.4 percent in
the European Union and 10.5 percent in Europe.
The largest increase in 2018-2019 was in arable crops (4.5 percent in Europe), mainly
because additional organic arable area was reported for Germany and France. In theEuropean Union, arable land increased by 7.5 percent. Grassland increased by 4.6
percent in Europe and 7.5 percent in the European Union (Table 60, Figure 78, Figure79.) Arable land grew by almost 40 percent in the 2015-2019 period, and thus showed agreater increase than the permanent crops, which grew by about 30 percent, andpermanent grassland, which grew by more than 20 percent (Table 60, Figure 78, Figure79). It also shows the intensification of organic agriculture, as the share of extensive
grassland is decreasing. By country, the largest permanent grassland or grazing area isin Spain with almost 1.3 million hectares, followed by Germany and France (Figure 77).
The largest cropland area (i.e., arable and permanent crops together) are in Italy (1.5
million hectares), France (1.5 million hectares) and Spain (1.1 million hectares) (Figure
77).
Europe: Land use in organic agriculture 2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021

Arable crops

Permanent grassland

Spain

1.3

Germany
France
Italy

Permanent crops

France

1.3

Spain

0.6

Italy

0.5

0.8

Italy

0.8

Germany

0.7

Turkey0.2

Russia0.6

France

0.2

0.6

1.0

Czech Republic

0.4

Spain

0.5

Greece0.1

Austria

0.4

Sweden0.5

Portugal

0.06

United Kingdom

0.3

Poland0.4

Poland0.03

Greece0.3

Turkey0.3

Bulgaria

0.03
0.02

Hungary

0.2

Finland0.3

Germany

Portugal

0.2

Austria

0.3

Romania

0.0

0.5

1.0

Million hectares

1.5

0.0

0.4

0.8

1.2

1.6

0.02
0.0

Million hectares

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

Million hectares

Figure 77: Europe: Land use in organic agriculture by top 10 countries 2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on Eurostat and national data sources

238

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and BonnEurope › Statistics › Organic Agricultural Land Use and Crops
Europe: Growth area by land use type 2004-2019
Source: FiBL-AMI surveys 2006-2021

8

7.5

7

Million hectares

6
5
4 3.0

3.0

3
2
1

3.0
2.3
0.5

0.7

3.3
3.1
0.7

3.9
3.3
3.4
0.7

0.7

4.0
4.1
3.4
1.0

4.3
4.5

1.0

5.4

4.9

5.0

4.8

4.9

4.7

4.9

1.0

1.1

1.3

1.4

4.6

5.7
5.4

1.4

6.2
5.6

1.5

7.8

6.7

5.9

1.6

6.2

1.7

6.5

1.8

0

Arable crops

Permanent crops

Permanent grassland

Figure 78: Europe: Growth in organic agricultural land by land use type 2004-2019
Source: FiBL-AMI Surveys 2006-2021 based on national data sources and Eurostat

European Union: Growth area by land use type 2004-2019
Source: FiBL-AMI surveys 2006-2021

7

Million hectares

6
5
3.8

4
3
2
1

2.9

2.9
2.7

3.1
2.8

4.0

3.2
3.1

3.0

3.4

4.3
3.7

3.9

0.9

1.0

2.3
0.5

0.7

0.6

0.6

0.7

0.8

4.5

4.7

4.5

4.7

4.1

4.3

4.4

1.0

1.2

1.2

5.2

5.5
5.2

5.7

6.0

6.6

6.1

6.4

5.5

4.7

1.2

1.3

1.4

1.5

1.6

0

Arable crops

Permanent crops

Permanent grassland

Figure 79: European Union: Growth in organic agricultural land by land use type 20042019
Source: FiBL-AMI Surveys 2006-2021 based on national data sources and Eurostat

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239

Europe › Statistics › Organic Agricultural Land Use and Crops
3.2 Crops grown in organic agriculture
In 2019, all key arable and permanent crop groups showed growth in the European
Union (Table 61).
Table 61: Europe and the European Union: Key crops/crop group 2019

Arable crops

Cereals
Dry pulses
Green fodder
Oilseeds
Root crops
Vegetables

Permanent crops

Crop group

Berries
Citrus fruit
GrapesNuts
OlivesTemperate fruit(Sub)Tropical fruit

Organic share (%)

Change 2018-2019

Change 2015-2019

EuropeArea (ha)EU

EuropeEU

EuropeEU

EuropeEU

2’958’165
548’275
2’568’805
653’600
58’126201’071

2’417’003
467’449
2’511’938
345’071
50’320186’480

2.3%
8.4%
10.5%
1.8%
0.7%
4.4%

4.3%
21.6%
11.1%
3.1%
1.4%
8.7%

12.9%
7.1%
5.9%
29.3%
5.3%
8.6%

11.9%
3.8%
10.7%
8.8%
20.6%
8.6%

72.5%
134.9%
61.0%
247.3%
41.9%
84.9%

70.7%
125.0%
73.8%
139.3%
63.2%
90.0%

45’30857’472398’659336’560624’260
147’926
38’87440’83356’738381’560
291’653541’776
121’267
18’798

14.5%
8.7%
10.2%
14.6%
10.5%
5.3%
17.8%

25.5%
11.1%
12.1%
23.5%
10.7%
9.7%
12.9%

13.0%
8.3%
8.8%
-1.8%
3.5%
5.7%
7.9%

11.6%
8.4%
9.2%
4.6%
4.8%
7.7%
15.9%

73.7%
121.7%
106.8%
79.9%
69.9%
56.0%
124.6%

63.1%
125.7%
109.7%
72.6%
56.8%
59.0%
211.4%

Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on national data sources and Eurostat. Totals for arable and permanent crops
include further crop groups
Note: For crop details by country, please check crop chapter in this book from page 90 and statistics.fibl.org

Arable crops
A large proportion of the organic arable land (7.9 million hectares in Europe and 6.6
million in the European Union) is used to produce cereals and green fodder from arable
land, which account for about two-thirds of the organic arable land. Regarding theorganic share, dry pulses are the most successful crop; in the European Union, theyaccount for almost one-fifth of the total dry pulses area. In organic farming, they areimportant for crop rotation and animal feeding. In contrast, they have disappeared inconventional farming, as protein crops for animal feed are imported and fertility
provided by crop rotations is replaced by fertiliser. Of the major groups, oilseeds andcereals showed the highest increase in land area. Over the 2015-2019 period, the largest
growth was noted for oilseeds, which more than doubled. For more information aboutcrop groups by country, see the crop chapters in this book (page 90) and our online
database at statistics.fibl.org.
− Cereals were the largest crop group in Europe, accounting for 3.0 million hectares
or 2.3 percent of the cereal area in Europe. In the European Union, they were thesecond-largest group, accounting for 2.4 million hectares or 4.3 percent of the total
cereal area. Wheat is the most important cereal (1.1 million hectares). The countries
with the largest cereal areas are Germany and France (approx. 348´000 hectares),and Italy (including large areas of durum wheat). The highest organic shares of thetotal cereals area are in Austria (17.5 percent), Estonia (14.8 percent) and Sweden(13.1 percent). Outside the European Union, the Russian Federation, Turkey andUkraine are major cereal producers.

240

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and BonnEurope › Statistics › Organic Agricultural Land Use and Crops− In the European Union, the arable crop group with the largest area was for plants
harvested green (green fodder from arable land) with 2.6 million hectares (Europe:
2.5 million hectares). Clover, green maize, and grass on arable land were the main
crop types.
− In 2019, organic vegetables1 were grown on almost 201’000 hectares of land inEurope, and more than 186’000 hectares in the European Union, covering 4.4
percent and 8.7 percent of the vegetable area, respectively. The largest areas werein Italy (64'762 hectares), France (30'690 hectares), and Spain (22'022 hectares).
High organic shares of all vegetables are found in Luxembourg (50 percent),
Iceland (44.8 percent) and Denmark (33.5 percent).
− With 548’000 hectares in Europe and 467´000 hectares in the European Union,
organic dry pulses accounted for a large share of all dry pulses (8.4 percent inEurope; 21.6 percent in the European Union). One reason is that the conventional
crop area has been decreasing for many years due to the availability of cheap
protein like soybeans on the world market for both animal feed and humanconsumption. The strong growth of dry pulses and their high organic shares also
reflects European organic farmers' efforts to improve soil fertility and become lessdependent on imports of protein crops. The countries with the largest areas of dry
pulses were France (131’070 hectares), Germany (52’000 hectares), Italy (47’523)
and Poland (47'101 hectares). The highest organic shares were found in Austria (70percent), Finland (65 percent), and Denmark (48 percent).

Permanent crops
A large part of the permanent cropland (1.8 million hectares in Europe and 1.6 million
hectares in the European Union) is used to grow olives, grapes, and nuts. Olives cover
one-third of the permanent crop area, and grapes one fifth. Over the 2015-2019 period,
the largest growth was noted for tropical and subtropical fruit, which more thandoubled. In Europe, olives (0.62 million hectares) and grapes (0.4 million hectares)
cover two-thirds of the permanent cropland (Table 61). Both reach an organic share ofmore than ten percent of their respective totals.
The organic shares for most permanent crops were higher than those for the arable
crops. However, it should be noted that the Eurostat data, with which the organic data
are compared, do not include all berries or nut types grown in organic agriculture.
Thus, a direct comparison is not possible in all cases. For more information about cropgroups by country, see the crop chapters in this book (page 90) and our online databaseat statistics.fibl.org.
− Spain, France, and Italy had an organic grape area of more than 100’000 hectares
each. Together with Austria (13.5 percent), they had the highest organic shares ofgrapes (except some minor organic grape producers that reach even higher shares,
such as Poland or Belgium). In Italy, 15.7 percent of the grape area is organic, inFrance 14.8 percent, and in Spain 12.9 percent.

1

It should be noted that for some countries, potatoes are included in the vegetable category.
FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

241

Europe › Statistics › Organic Agricultural Land Use and Crops− For olives, Italy and Spain also have the lead (242'708 hectares and 209'708
hectares, respectively). France (33 percent) and Italy (21 percent) have the highest
organic shares. The largest growth occurred in Spain, where the organic olive area
increased by more than 9’000 hectares in 2019.
− Temperate fruits were grown on 147'926 hectares (European Union 121'267
hectares), and they covered 5.3 percent of the total temperate fruit area (9.7 percent
in the European Union). Several countries in the European Union had aconsiderable amount of land dedicated to temperate fruit (e.g., apples in Poland
and berries in the Baltic countries, both for processing rather than for the freshmarket). The most important fruits were apples (66’657 hectares), cherries (17’627
hectares), plums (17’602 hectares) and apricots (16’382 hectares). The largest
temperate fruit producers were Italy (26'499 hectares), France (23'450 hectares) andTurkey (20'244 hectares).

3.3 Further organic areas
In addition to the agricultural land, there are further organic areas. Large parts of these
are wild collection areas constituting 10.6 million hectares (European Union: 7.2 million
hectares). The largest wild collection area in Europe (and in the world) is in Finlandwith 4.6 million hectares (mainly berries). For country details on wild collection areas,
see Table 21.

242

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and BonnEurope › Statistics › Organic Livestock
4 Organic livestock
Statistics on the number of organic animals are incomplete and do not currently allow
for a complete picture of the sector. However, considering all currently available
information, the organic animal sector is developing rapidly in European countries.
Table 62 provides an overview of European organic livestock in 2019. In many
countries, organic animal husbandry began with beef, lamb, and milk production. In
Europe, lmost 5.1 million bovine animals, more than 5.4 million sheep, almost 1.6
million pigs, and more than 62.3 million poultry were kept. For European Union data,
see Table 62.
Table 62: Europe and the European Union: Organic livestock 2019
EuropeBovine animals
Sheep
Pigs*
Poultry**

European Union

Animals[head]

Organic
share oftotal [%]

Change2018-2019[%]

Change2010-2019[%]

Animals[head]

Organic
share oftotal [%]

5’079’962
5’413’520
1’586’702
62’317’071

4.0%
3.5%
0.9%
2.5%

4.1%
-9.7%
13.7%
8.0%

80.9%
55.3%
109.6%
110.0%

4’852’303
5’214’634
1’544’573
59’666’753

6.0%
5.3%
1.1%
4.2%

Source: FiBL survey 2021 based on Eurostat and national data sources.
Notes: Data for the calculation of organic shares are based on Eurostat and FAOSTAT. The numbers for the organic
shares of all livestock are based on FAOSTAT data. FAOSTAT only provides totals for bovine animals, sheep, pigs, andpoultry, without further specifications. Please note that growth rates from 2010-2019 were similar for Europe and theEuropean Union and are not included in the table.
* Please note there is no consistent reporting in the official statistics, no clear distinction is made between the number ofanimals slaughtered, the places or average numbers of stock. Therefore, the data should be treated with caution.1
According to the Agricultural Market Information Company AMI, the average stock of fattening pigs was 621’000 in
Europe, and 584’000 in the European Union.
** Also for poultry, there is no consistent reporting. According to the Agricultural Market Information Company (AMI),
broilers' average stock was 15.1 million Europe and 14.6 million in the European Union. The average stock of laying
hens was 27.3 million in Europe and 25.4 million in the European Union.

The organic share of all livestock remains small compared to some crop groups,
depending on the animal species between 0.9 percent and 4.0 percent in Europe (Table
62). Monogastric animals (pigs and poultry) account for the lowest shares. The low
shares are due to different reasons. Among these are the insufficient local supply oforganic feed, the difficulties in providing traceable certified feed imports, the highinvestment in pig and poultry barns and pens compared to conventional barns andpens and the high price premiums consumers have to pay. The highest organic shareswere for sheep and cattle as the conversion of these rather extensive production

In the case of pigs and poultry, in the official statistics, no clear distinction is made between the number ofanimals slaughtered and the stable places or average numbers of stock over the year, and it is not always
clear which of these is given when “livestock numbers” are quoted. Adding up the data for pigs and poultry
over all countries, therefore, is not completely reliable and country data are not necessarily comparable. The
data presented here should, therefore, be treated with caution and are only an approximation of the overall
picture.
1

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn243

Europe › Statistics › Organic Livestock
schemes is easier. Simultaneously, not all of the organic animal products are sold on theorganic market at a premium price.
Between 2010 and 2019, the greatest increase was in poultry (110 percent), partly
attributed to the high demand for eggs (see the section on the organic market in Europe;
Table 65). However, beef and dairy cattle also grew substantially in that decade (+81
percent), as did sheep (+55 percent) and pigs (+110 percent) (Table 62).
For bovine animals (over 5 million head in Europe), the largest numbers are in
Germany, France, and Austria (Table 70). The highest organic shares are in Latvia,
Liechtenstein, Sweden, Austria, and Greece (all more than 20 percent). For sheep (5.4
million head in total), the largest numbers are in Greece, the United Kingdom, andFrance. The highest organic shares are in Latvia, Estonia, and the Czech Republic (allwith more than 40 percent).
Looking at the available data for pig stocks, Germany Denmark, France and theNetherlands have the highest numbers (each with more than 100’000 heads). It should
be noted that Denmark and France provide the number of slaughtered animals and not
the average stock per year; meaning that their numbers are double as high comparedto Germany and the Netherlands. Liechtenstein, Denmark and France have the highest
shares. For poultry, we assume that – like for pigs – country-level data is notcomparable, due to different definitions (Table 70).

Organic cow’s milk
Organic cow’s milk production is one of the production-related indicators with goodcoverage across all European countries. Organic cow’s milk has almost doubled since2007 to meet the rising demand for milk and dairy products. Production now stands at
6.35 million metric tons (European Union: 6.04 million), constituting 3.4 percent of theEuropean Union’s milk production from dairy cows in 2019 (Figure 80).
Europe and European Union: Development of organic
cow’s milk production, 2007-2019
Source: FiBL-AMI surveys 2009-2021

6.0

5.59

Million metric tons

5.0
4.0
3.0
2.0

2.49
2.44

2.73

2.91

2.49

2.67

3.11
2.85

3.34
3.06

3.74
3.45

4.02

4.10

4.10

3.70

3.81

3.80

4.40
4.09

4.71

5.01

5.52

4.93
4.41

1.0
0.0
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

EuropeEuropean Union

Figure 80: Europe and the European Union: Development of organic cow’s milk
production 2008-2019
Source: FiBL survey 2009-2021

244

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and BonnEurope › Statistics › Organic Operators
5 Producers, processors, importers, and exporters
While data on organic producers are available for almost all countries, this is not thecase for processors and importers and even less for exporters. Although data
availability is improving, it is still not possible to draw a clear picture of the lattergroups over the years. Hence, in the table below, a ten-year development is not shownfor the number of exporters.
Table 63: Europe: Organic operators by country group 2019
EuropeNo.

European Union

Growth 1
year

Growth 10
years

No.

Growth 1
year

Growth 10
years

Producers

430’742

2.8%

57.6%

343’858

5.0%

56.0%

Processors

81’7198.5%

113.3%

78’2409.1%

109.0%

Importers

6’508

12.1%

120.6%

5’747

13.9%

101.2%

Exporters

3’508

4.7%

N/A

3’127

0.1%

N/A

Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on national data sources and Eurostat. For a breakdown by country, see Table 71.
For detailed data sources, see annex.

5.1 Organic producers
In 2019, there were more than 430’000 organic producers in Europe and almost 344’000
in the European Union (Table 63 and Table 71). In the European Union, the country
with the largest number of producers was Italy (more than 70’000); in Europe, it was
Turkey (more than 74’500) (Figure 83). Growth in the European Union (+5.0 percent),
was stronger than in Europe as a whole (+2.8 percent), mainly due to a significant
increase in France, Germany, and Spain. Over the decade 2010-2019, the number of
producers in Europe increased by 58 percent (EU: +56 percent). Almost one-sixth of theworld’s organic farmers are in Europe (Figure 81).

5.2 Organic processors and importers
There were more than 81’719 organic processors in Europe (+8.5 percent compared to2018) and more than 78’000 in the European Union (+9.1 percent). The country with thelargest number of processors was Italy (21'940). More than 6’500 importers (+12.1
percent growth) were counted in Europe and more than 5’700 in the European Union(+13.9 percent). Germany was the country with the most importers (1’831) (Table 63,
Table 71, Figure 82).

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245

Europe › Statistics › Organic Operators
Europe and European Union: Development of organic
producers 2000-2019
Source: FiBL-AMI surveys 2006-2021 based on national data sources and Eurostat

500

In thousands of producers

450
400
350
300
250
200

157

171 167

166 165

150
100

148 147 143 143
136

188
164

204 212180 186

223
197

255

273

210 220

290

236

337
320 331253 256 256

349

269

373

392

295 306

419

328

431

344

50
0

European Union

EuropeFigure 81: Europe and the European Union: Development of the number of organic
producers in 2000-2019
Source: FiBL-AMI surveys 2006-2021 based on national data sources and Eurostat

Figure 82: Europe: Distribution of organic producers and processors by country 2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021, based on national data sources and Eurostat.

246

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and BonnEurope › Statistics › Organic Operators

Europe: Organic producers by country 2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021
TurkeyItaly
FranceSpain
Germany
GreeceAustria
PolandRomania
Switzerland
Bulgaria
SwedenPortugal
Croatia
Hungary
FinlandCzech Republic
LatviaDenmark
Slovenia
United Kingdom
Lithuania
Belgium
Estonia
NorwayNetherlands
Ireland
CyprusNorth Macedonia
Slovakia
UkraineMontenegro
SerbiaBosnia and Herzegovina
Moldova
KosovoLuxembourg
Albania
Russian Federation
Liechtenstein
Belarus
Iceland
Malta
Faroe Islands

9’277
7’284
6’213
5’730
5’637
5’153
5’136
5’129
4’694
4’178
4’109
3’823
3’581
2’417
2’394
2’060
1’976
1’867
1’725
1’252
817
802
470
393
373
337
241
200
105
86
57
47
31
26
24
1
0

47’19641’83834’13630’12426’042
18’65520’00040’00060’000
Number of producers

74’54570’56180’000Figure 83: Europe: Number of organic producers by country 2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on national data sources and Eurostat. For detailed data sources see annex.

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

247

Europe › Statistics › Organic Retail Sales

6 Organic retail sales
In 2019, the organic market in Europe grew to 45.0 billion euros (European Union:
41.4 billion euros). Unfortunately, not all countries provide data on their domestic
markets on a regular basis (Table 72), and it may be assumed that the market is larger
than indicated by the figures in Table 64 and Table 72.
Table 64: Europe and the European Union: Organic retail sales 2019: Key data

EuropeEuropean Union

Retail sales[Million €]Per capita
consumption [€]Growth2018-2019 [%]Growth2010-2019 [%]45'04941'453

84.0
55.8

8.0%
8.0%

129.9%
131.6%

Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on national data sources. For country details, see annex.

6.1 Size of the organic market
Germany continues to be the largest market in Europe (12.0 billion euros) (Figure 85),
and, after the United States, it is the second biggest organic market in the world. France
holds second place in Europe with 11.3 billion euros. Comparing organic markets bysingle market, the United States has the lead. 43 percent of global retail sales of organic
products are in the United States (44.7 billion euros), followed by the European Union(41.4 billion euros; 39 percent of organic global retail sales, Figure 84). Comparing retailsales by continent, North America, with 45.5 percent of the world's organic retail sales,is the largest market (48.2 billion euros).

Figure 84: Europe: Distribution of retail sales by country and by single market
worldwide 2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on national data sources

248

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and BonnEurope › Statistics › Organic Retail Sales

Europe: Organic retail sales value by country 2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021
Germany
France
Italy
Switzerland
United Kingdom
SwedenSpain
Denmark
Austria
Netherlands
Belgium
NorwayFinland
PolandIrelandCzech Republic
Russian Federation
Luxembourg
Croatia
GreeceEstonia
LatviaLithuania
Slovenia
TurkeyRomania
UkraineBulgaria
Hungary
Portugal
Slovakia
CyprusBosnia and Herzegovina
Montenegro

11’970
11’295
3’625
2’912
2’679
2’144
2’133
1’983
1’920
1’211
779
442
368
314
206
164
160
160
99
66
55
51
51
49
46
41
36
30
30
21
4
2
0
0
0.0

5’000.0
10’000.0
Million euros

15’000.0

Figure 85: Europe: Retail sales by country 2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on national data sources (only countries with a turnover of more than one million
euros). Please note that 2019 data were not available for all countries. For detailed data sources, see annex.

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249

Europe › Statistics › Organic Retail Sales
6.2 Growth of the organic market
The organic market grew in Europe and the EU by 8.0 percent. From 2010 to 2019, theorganic market more than doubled in size (Figure 86).
All countries for which new data were available showed growth, some in the doubledigits (Figure 87). With 13.4 percent, France showed the highest increase, followed by
Estonia and Belgium (Figure 87, Table 72).
In the United Kingdom, where retail sales decreased for a couple of years in theprevious decade, growth was noted again (4.8 percent increase in 2019). It should be
noted that UK sales in euros show a drop for 2015-2017 due to the British pound's
exchange rate loss after the Brexit vote.

Europe and European Union: Development of retail sales
2000-2019
Source: FiBL-AMI Surveys 2006-2021, OrganicDataNetwork Surveys 2013-2015

50
45

41.7
37.7

Europe

34.6

2019

27.4

41.4

30.8

2018

23.9

2015

22.1

26.2

2014

19.620.9

2013

2010

15.2

18.0
16.316.9

2009

13.1

18.119.4

2008

13.9

16.117.4

2007

2005

6.5 7.60

11.0
8.6 9.4 10.2
2004

5

9.3

11.8
10.111.0

2003

7.0 8.2

2001

10

2002

15

2006

20

2012

25

24.2
21.322.7

2011

30

38.4

2017

30.1

2000

Billion euros

35

33.7

2016

40

45.0

European Union

Figure 86: Europe: Growth of organic retail sales in Europe and the European Union,
2000-2019
Source: FiBL-AMI surveys 2004-2021, and OrganicDataNetwork Surveys 2013-2015

250

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and BonnEurope › Statistics › Organic Retail Sales
Europe: The countries with the highest growth of theorganic market 2018-2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021

France13.4%

Estonia

13.2%

Belgium

11.7%

Denmark

9.7%

Germany

9.7%

Finland

9.5%

Austria

6.1%

Switzerland

5.6%

UK

4.8%

Norway

4.5%
0%

5%

10%

15%

Market growth in %Figure 87: Europe: The countries with the highest organic market growth 2019
Source: FiBL-AMI surveys 2021. For detailed data sources, see annex.

6.3 Per capita consumption of organic foodLike in the previous years, the highest per capita consumption of organic food was in
Denmark (344 euros) and Switzerland (338 euros). Seven countries had a per capita
consumption of more than 100 euros in 2019 (Figure 88, Table 72).
The continual growth in consumer interest is well documented by the development of
per capita consumption, with specific notable increase in 2019 (Figure 89). The percapita consumption in Europe rose to 56 euros and to 84 euros in the European Union.
In Central Eastern European countries, consumer spending is still low (Table 72). There
are indications that markets are currently developing fast, especially in the Baltic
countries.1 However, retail sales data are scarce for some countries and not regularly
updated. Whereas the availability and accessibility of area and operator data is good,
the Czech Republic is the only country with a permanent collection system for retailsales data.

1

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn251

Europe › Statistics › Organic Retail Sales
Europe: The countries with the highest per capita
consumption of organic food 2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021

Denmark

344

Switzerland

338

Luxembourg

265

Austria216

Sweden215

France174

Germany

144

Norway83

Netherlands

71

Belgium

68
0

100

200

300

400

Per capita consumption in euros

Figure 88: Europe: The countries with the highest per capita consumption 2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on national data sources. For detailed data sources see annex.

European Union: Growth of the per capita consumption
2009-2019
Source: FiBL-AMI surveys 2006-2021, OrganicDataNetwork Surveys 2013-2015

90

79.1

80
68.0
60.5

60

53.8

50
33.5

38.5

38.7

41.3

25.8

26.3

28.1

29.9

23.3

2011

2012

2013

20

2010

30

43.8

2009

Euros/person

70

40

84.2

47.1

32.5

37.9

42.4

47.4

52.1

55.8

10

EU-28

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

0

EuropeFigure 89: Europe: Growth of the per capita consumption 2010-2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on national data sources. Calculation based on Eurostat population data. For
detailed data sources see annex.

252

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and BonnEurope › Statistics › Organic Retail Sales
6.4 Organic market shares
The organic share of overall retail sales shows the importance of the organic market ina given country. As in the past, the highest market shares were reached in Denmark(12.1 percent, highest organic market share in the world), Switzerland (10.4 percent)and Austria (9.3 percent) (Figure 90, Table 72).
In many countries, the total food market is not growing, and, in many cases, food prices
are decreasing, which make organic shares grow even faster. Market shares ofindividual products and product groups can be far higher; these data are provided inTable 65.

Figure 90: Europe: The countries with the highest shares of the total retail sales 2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on national data sources. For detailed data sources see annex.

6.5 Comparison of organic products and product groups with the total
marketWhile the organic share of the total market is an important indicator, it is also important
to look at the organic market shares that individual products can have.
In many countries, organic eggs are one of the success stories within the total retailmarket, and they reach impressive proportions of the entire egg market. Table 65 showsthat, in Denmark and France, eggs reach organic market shares of approximately 30
percent (in value).

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

253

Austria
11.2
10.3
21.8
23.7

- Butter- Cheese- Milk- Yoghurt
10.1

3.3

4.7

0.6

1.4

0.2

1.3

Denmark
32.3

6.8

16.8

8.0
(beef)

29.6

14.4(juice)Finland
4.5

7.5

4.5

18.0

23.0

France
9.1

15.7

2.6

7.4

5.8

3.2

8.2

8.8

7.6

3.1

37.2

5.3

5.5

26.9

7.4

8.2

12.4

4.7

4.5

8.5

2.9

7.5

9.8

20.6

Italy
6.1

8.1

1.0

2.8

3.6

2.9

7.7

6.6

4.7

19.8

4.0

3.0

4.8

2.6

Netherlands(2018)
5.6

4.7

5.8

1.3

15.9

Norway (2018)
0.7

4.4

0.7

3.1

2.1

0.5

2.2

4.2

1.5

9.5

2.1

0.5

33.1

Spain (2017)
1.1

1.2

1.7

3.3

0.6

2.9

Sweden (2017)
10.4

2.9

18.4

12.2

12.9

3.5

5.6

24.9

7.6

11.0

6.2

20.3

17.5

23.1

28.7

26.1

4.0

Switzerland

7.8

5.5

1.1

3.5

1.5

0.5

2.8

4.3

1.1

8.8

0.3

55.4

254

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Sources: FiBL-AMI survey 2021, based on data from Austria: RollAMA based on GfK, Belgium: LV based on GFK; Czech Republic: UZEI; Denmark: GfK ConsumerScan, provided by LF, Finland: Pro
Luomu; France: Agence Bio, for some products supermarket sale ; Germany: Agricultural Market Information Company AMI based on GfK; Italy: supermarkets and discounters only, data provided
by tMarche Polytechnic University; Netherlands: Bionext; Norway: Nielsen Norway; Sweden: Statistics Sweden (excludes alcoholic beverages); Switzerland: Bio Suisse based on Nielsen; UK: Soil
Association. Note: Due to classifications and nomenclatures differing from country to country, it is not possible to supply data for all product groups, even if data for individual products may beavailable. Not all countries have data on the market shares of organic products.

3.8
12.4

13.6

Vegetables and fruit

Milk and dairy products

11.0

Fruit

Meat and meat products

16.0

Fresh vegetables

Fish and fish products

0.4

4.5
18.2

0.4

22.1

Belgium (2018)

Bread & bakery
products
Eggs

Czech Republic(2018)

Beverages

Baby food

Germany

Table 65: Organic shares for retail sales values (euros) for selected products 2019

Europe › Statistics › Organic Retail Sales

UKEurope › Statistics › Organic Retail Sales
Organic fruit and vegetables continue to be highly popular purchases among European
organic consumers. Organic vegetables have the highest market shares after eggs,
representing 10 percent or more of the sales value of all vegetables sold in countries
such as Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, and Sweden. For example, fresh carrots or fresh
pumpkins alone have a nearly 30 percent market share in Germany. In Sweden and
Switzerland, organic dairy products are reaching organic market shares of 10 percent
or higher. In Denmark, organic milk has a market share of 30 percent. Individual
products can reach even higher market shares. Organic oatmeal (over 52 percent in
Denmark) or organic milk substitutes (61 percent in Germany) are good examples. On
the other hand, products like organic beverages (except wine) and meat (especiallypoultry), have low market shares in many countries. These products are often highly
processed and very cheap on the conventional market. Another factor is that manyorganic consumers tend to eat little or no meat.

6.6 Marketing channels in organic agriculture
Some countries are in a position to break down their retail sales data by marketing
channel. Wherever possible, the figure for catering sales was deducted from the figure
for the total organic market (Table 72). Figure 91 shows that the importance of thevarious retail marketing channels (excluding food service/catering) differs fromcountry to country. In the past, countries with strong involvement by general retailers
showed steady organic market growth (e.g., Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland,
and the United Kingdom). France and Italy are good examples of countries with strong
market growth, where specialised retailers play a significant role, even though theirimportance is decreasing, as shown in Figure 92.
In Germany, supermarkets have become the driving force in the market, whereas
specialised retailers face more and more competition. While in 2014, 33 percent of allorganic products were sold in organic food shops, this number decreased to 26.6
percent in 2019. Supermarket chains have founded partnerships with organic
associations and sell products with their brands. Best examples are the Bioland-Lidl,
the Naturland-Rewe, or the Demeter-Kaufland partnerships. These partnerships open
possibilities for farmers and processors to market domestic products.
Austria and Switzerland have once again developed very dynamically. In bothcountries, food retail chains have been heavily involved in organic market developmentfrom the very beginning - both countries have shares of approximately 80 percent.
There is close cooperation between the retail chains and the respective organic
associations, Bio Austria and Bio Suisse, and the supermarket chains have helped
develop the trademarks. Coop and Migros in Switzerland have been promoting anddeveloping projects for years, for example on biodiversity, seasonality and hornbearing cows.

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn255

Europe › Statistics › Organic Imports

Figure 91: Europe: Marketing channels for organic products in selected countries 2019
Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on national data sources.
For detailed data sources see annex.

Figure 92: Europe: Growth of marketing channels for organic products 2017-2019 inselected countries
Source: Austria: AMA Marketing, Denmark: Organic Denmark/LV, France: Agence Bio, Germany: Arbeitskreis Biomarkt,
Italy: AssoBio/Nomisma, Switzerland: Bio Suisse.

6.7 Organic imports
The European Union, which is the second-biggest organic market, provided data on its
organic imports, showing, for the second time, the key import products and key
256

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and BonnEurope › Statistics › COVID-19
importing countries (based on volume in metric tons). In 2019, the EU imported a totalof 3.2 million tonnes of organic agri-food products. Imports of tropical fruit (fresh ordried), nuts and spices represented the single biggest category, totalling 885’930 tonnes
or 27.3 percent of total imports, followed by oilcakes, cereals other than wheat, as wellas rice, and wheat. China is the biggest supplier of organic agri-food products to theEU, with 433’705 tonnes; that is 13.4 percent of the total organic import volume. For
more information, see the contribution about EU organic imports on page 140.

6.8 Impact of COVID-19 on the organic market
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a tremendous impact on most people's purchasing
behaviour and thus has given the organic market an unprecedented upturn in many
countries. People stay at home to eat most of the time, and out-of-home meals are
reduced to a minimum. On the other hand, in general, food sales in supermarkets haveincreased rapidly, for example in Germany, an increase of more than ten percent has
been observed since the beginning of the pandemic. Organic food sales have accelerated
even faster. When consumers have the choice, which they don’t have in canteens andrestaurants, they reach more often for organic products, for example, the organic
market in Germany in 2020 growth was double as strong as the general food market.
Health, environment, and climate change have become big issues among the
population – even more in the pandemic. Consuming organic food is a possibility toafford something good, at times, when travelling, restaurant and theatre visits are notpossible. And supermarkets, as well as natural food stores and direct marketers, fulfil
consumers desire for healthier, more regional, and organic products.
Many shops have become inventive in selling food, adapting to the consumers'
preference to not leave the home, or not go too far for shopping. Online-sales such as
subscription boxes for organic have grown tremendously and other forms of contactless
shopping such as ‘Click and Collect’.
Will this development in the organic sector continue once the pandemic is over? Most
experts see at least a similar sales level, as people’s awareness of organic andenvironmental and health issues will remain. Decreasing incomes in some populationgroups can reduce retail sales, but this was not observed until now.
On the agricultural side: with the growing market, organic production and processing
need grow at the same level, like the market. Up to now, small and medium-sizedenterprises have dominated the organic processing. They will need to grow, or new
enterprises have to enter the market. Especially intensive crop production and animal
production and the processing of these products are needed. The European Union’s
Farm to Fork-strategy can support this development with several measures.

7 Conclusion
Available data on organic farming in the global and European market shows that, in aninternational context, the European organic sector is well developed. Relatively highshares of agricultural land, continual growth in the area and number of operators and

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

257

Europe › Statistics › Conclusion/Referencesa fast-growing market, show the exceptional dynamics that the European organic
market and sector has.
In the past years, in many countries, the organic market was growing faster than
production, and domestic supply can still not meet demand. Therefore, many organicorganisations or market actors are calling for more farmers to convert to organic – andthe effects of these efforts are now visible, with production growing at the same paceas the market. Now more processing, storing and distribution facilities are needed toprocess larger amounts of raw products.
While the COVID19 pandemic has shown that there is a potential for the organic market
to expand faster, recent calculations by FiBL, based on past trends, indicate that data
availability and quality remain an issue when it come to forecasting trends.
International trade data remain scarce. Therefore, a major development is the newEuropean import statistics, which show the products and the major exporting countries
targeting the European Union for the second time (European Commission 2019 and2020). The availability of these statistics is an important step towards making it possible
to compare production data on organic agriculture worldwide with international tradedata, which could give important hints on potential fraud cases.
Furthermore, while domestic market data availability is improving, it is collected witha wide range of methods and, strictly speaking, is not accurately comparable. Diverging
methods and availability remain as challenges. For many countries, particularly inCentral and Eastern Europe, retail sales data are not collected on a continual basis. Thus,
little is known about the importance of organic product sales. Therefore, we
recommend that data availability and accessibility increase, that classifications,nomenclature, and definitions, particularly for organic market data, are harmonised,and data quality is improved.

8 Acknowledgements
The data compiled for this article builds on the collection activities of theOrganicDataNetwork project, which was funded by the European Union (EU) under
its seventh framework programme for research, demonstration, and technologicaldevelopment, which ended in 2014.1 The authors would like to thank all of those whohave provided data and information for this report, particularly theOrganicDataNetwork project partners.
Data collection was expanded in the framework of a project by IFOAM Organics
Europe, which allowed us to further develop our interactive infographics and makeprogress on forecasting the development of the organic area and market.

The project “Data network for better European organic market information” (OrganicDataNetwork) has
received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research, Technological
Development and Demonstration under grant agreement no 289376.
1

258

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and BonnEurope › Statistics › Table
References and further reading
European Commission (2020): EU imports of organic agri-food products. Key developments in 2019. EU
Agricultural Market Briefs, No 17, June 2020. https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/food-farmingfisheries/farming/documents/market-brief-organic-imports-june2020_en.pdf
Eurostat (2020): Data tables organic agriculture. The Eurostat website eurostat.ec.europa.eu Eurostat,
Luxembourg. Available at http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database
Meredith, S. and Willer, H. (Eds.) (2016): Organic in Europe 2016. IFOAM EU, Brussels
Willer, H. and Schaack, D. (2014) Final report on the compilation of key organic market data. ResearchInstitute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Frick, Switzerland.

Note on data collection and countries covered
Like in the rest of the world, data collection in Europe is carried out using multiple information sources.
However, we would like to point out that Eurostat, the European Union's statistical office, is constantly
expanding its data collection effort in the field of organic agriculture, and most of the data on organic areas,
livestock, and operators was taken from Eurostat.
This article focusses on organic farming and market statistics in Europe and includes:› the 28 Member States of the European Union, which consist of the EU-13 countries that became membersof the European Union in or after May 2004, and the EU-15 countries, who were member countries of theEuropean Union before the accession of ten candidate countries on May 1, 2004. The United Kingdom isstill counted as an EU member for 2019 data.
› The EU Candidate and Potential Candidate countries (CPC): Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, North
Macedonia; Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey),› the members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA): Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein,
Switzerland,› Other European countries: Andorra, Belarus, Moldova, Russian Federation, San Marino and Ukraine.

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

259

Europe › Statistics › Tables
Organic Agriculture in Europe: Tables
Table 66: Europe: Organic agricultural land by country 2019
Country

Organic area[ha]

Organic share[%]

Change 2018-19[%]

Change 2010-19[%]

Change 2018-19
[ha]

653
2
669’921
1’375
93’119

0.1%
0.0%
26.1%
0.0%
6.9%

-12.5%
0.0%
5.0%
1.0%
4.6%

129.9%
0.0%
17.9%
N/A
57.2%

-94
0
32’11614
4’094

Albania
AndorraAustria
BelarusBelgium
Bosnia andHerzegovina
Bulgaria
Channel Islands
Croatia
CyprusCzech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Faroe Islands
FinlandFranceGermany
GreeceHungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
KosovoLatviaLiechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Moldova
Montenegro
Netherlands
North Macedonia
NorwayPolandPortugal
Romania
Russian Federation
SerbiaSlovakia
Slovenia
Spain
SwedenSwitzerland
Turkey

1’692

0.1%

88.8%

191.7%

796

117’779180
108’127
6’240
540’986285’526
220’737251
306’484
2’240’797
1’613’785
528’752
303’190
5’740
73’952
1’993’225
1’036
289’796
1’470
242’118
5’814
55
27’833
4’751
68’0683’711
45’312507’637
293’213395’228674’370
21’266
197’565
49’6382’354’916
613’964
172’713518’435

2.3%
2.0%
7.2%
5.0%
15.4%
10.9%
22.3%
8.4%
13.5%
7.7%
9.7%
8.7%
5.7%
0.4%
1.6%
15.2%
0.2%
14.8%
41.0%
8.1%
4.4%
0.5%
1.2%
1.8%
3.7%
0.3%
4.6%
3.5%
8.2%
2.9%
0.3%
0.6%
10.3%
10.3%
9.7%
20.4%
16.5%
1.4%

-8.6%
0.0%
4.8%
3.6%
0.4%
11.2%
6.8%
0.0%
3.0%
10.1%
7.7%
7.3%
44.8%
-76.9%-37.7%
1.8%
547.5%
3.4%
4.0%
1.0%
0.6%
16.5%
62.3%
6.7%
6.7%
-15.8%
-2.3%
4.7%
37.6%
21.1%
11.1%
10.4%
4.5%
3.7%
4.8%
0.9%
7.3%
-19.8%

359.2%-50.0%
363.0%
74.5%
20.7%
75.3%
95.4%
-0.7%
81.2%
165.0%
62.9%
70.7%
137.6%
-1.1%
54.5%
79.0%
N/A
74.2%
44.1%
68.6%
56.3%
129.2%-13.3%
33.4%
47.2%-89.4%-20.8%-2.7%
45.8%
116.3%
1432.1%146.3%
13.2%
61.7%
61.7%
40.0%
54.9%
35.1%

-11’074
0
4’961
218
2’093
28’81514’1470
9’042
205’773
92’47136’12593’808-19’115-44’747
35’180
876
9’413
57
2’427
32
8
10’682
297
4’259
-698
-1’06522’96180’09568’96867’395
2’011
8’579
1’790
108’441
5’206
11’721-127’812

UkraineUnited Kingdom467’980459’275

1.1%
2.6%

51.4%
0.4%

73.2%
-34.4%

158’880
1’898

16’528’677
14’579’907

3.3%
8.1%

5.9%
5.9%

64.8%
60.7%

921’042817’097

EuropeEuropean Union

Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on Eurostat and national data sources. For data sources, see annex.

260

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and BonnEurope › Statistics › Tables
Table 67: Europe: Conversion status of organic agricultural land 2019
Country

Area [ha]Fully converted [ha]Conversion area [ha]Albania
AndorraAustria
BelarusBelgium
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Channel Islands
Croatia
CyprusCzech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Faroe Islands
FinlandFranceGermany
GreeceHungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
KosovoLatviaLiechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Moldova
Montenegro
Netherlands
North Macedonia
NorwayPolandPortugal
Romania
Russian Federation
SerbiaSlovakia
Slovenia
Spain
SwedenSwitzerland
TurkeyUkraineUnited Kingdom653
2669’921
1’375
93’1191’692
117’779180
108’127
6’240
540’986285’526
220’737251
306’484
2’240’797
1’613’785
528’752
303’190
5’740
73’952
1’993’225
1’036
289’796
1’470
242’118
5’814
55
27’833
4’751
68’0683’711
45’312507’637
293’213395’228674’370
21’266
197’565
49’6382’354’916
613’964
172’713518’435
467’980459’275528
2

92

78’323
1’279
95’555180
77’4695’382
485’174
211’685
192’976251257’317
1’675’226

14’796413
22’22549’167565’571385’782
185’227
5’725

142’970
117’96315

1’610’099
1’002
262’105
227’349
5’180
40
20’736
4’049
63’200
2’904
82’838390’274273’158
211’487308’595
13’726
177’92144’4552’008’294
555’788383’12734
27’69160
14’769
634
15
7’097
703
4’868
1’801
4’160
117’363
20’055183’741
13’2687’539
19’6445’183
346’62258’176358’647384’529432’766

159’787
83’45126’50911’097’224
9’912’232

2’581’867
2’303’448

EuropeEuropean Union

16’528’677
14’579’907

30’658858
49’24173’841
27’761

Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on Eurostat and national data sources. For data sources, see annex.

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

261

Europe › Statistics › Tables
Table 68: Europe: Land use in organic agriculture by country 2019
Country
Albania
AndorraAustria
BelarusBelgium
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
CyprusCzech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Faroe Islands
FinlandFranceGermany
GreeceHungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
KosovoLatviaLiechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Moldova
Montenegro
Netherlands
North Macedonia
NorwayPolandPortugal
Romania
Russian Federation
SerbiaSlovakia
Slovenia
Spain
SwedenSwitzerland
TurkeyUkraineUnited Kingdom
EuropeEuropean Union

Arable land
crops [ha]Permanent
crops [ha]

566

87
2
11’39147
1’418
159
26’48614’893
3’027
5’654
3’252
2’549

270’786
1’084
31’789
1’532
63’94052’586
3’041
87’717235’178
120’4671
303’882
1’255’369
700’000
179’003
103’887629
4’319
961’692
1’002
150’567244
150’816
2’630
28
23’256319
27’306
3’051
36’504375’740
55’675257’665
573’872
10’64768’022
6’521
494’213476’981
41’075321’166
194’631
148’629
7’797’978
6’588’400

678
167’041
23’00070’200
14’5202
64
480’459
34
3’003
8
5’387
201
27
4’577
508
825
657
335
31’92461’19622’143
36
5’268
1’797
3’089
606’406610
3’108
182’473
4’302
5’161
1’768’035
1’566’432

Permanent
grassland [ha]387’74480
58’12327’33940’648172
441’044
47’096
97’721
250
1’924
818’387
830’000279’549
184’783
5’110
69’323551’074
136’226
1’136
85’9152’983

3’925
39’937
8’473
99’973
176’342
115’420
11’071
5’350
127’746
40’0281’254’296
136’372
125’452
14’7964’164
305’472
6’535’444
6’355’637

Total [ha]6532669’921
1’210
91’331
1’691
117’765
108’1276’240
534’414285’526
220’737251
306’484
2’240’797
1’613’785
528’752
303’190
5’741
73’706
1’993’225
1’036
289’796
1’388
242’118
5’814
55
27’833
4’752
68’0683’708
45’312507’637
293’213395’228584’978
21’265
197’565
49’6382’354’915
613’963
169’636518’435
467’980459’262
16’528’677
14’579’907

Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on Eurostat and national data sources. For data sources, see annex. Total includes
other agricultural areas for which no land use details were available.

262

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Table 69: Europe: Organic agricultural land and wild collection areas by country 2019
Country
Albania
AndorraAustria
BelarusBelgium
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Channel Islands
Croatia
CyprusCzech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Faroe Islands
FinlandFranceGermany
GreeceHungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
KosovoLatviaLiechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Moldova
Montenegro
Netherlands
North Macedonia
NorwayPolandPortugal
Romania
Russian Federation
SerbiaSlovakia
Slovenia
Spain
SwedenSwitzerland
TurkeyUkraineUnited Kingdom
EuropeEuropean Union

Agricultural land [ha]Wild collection [ha]Total [ha]6532669’921
1’360
93’1191’692
117’779180
108’127
6’240
540’986285’526
220’737251
306’484
2’240’797
1’613’785
528’752
303’190
5’741
73’952
1’993’225
1’036
289’796
1’470
242’118
5’814
55
27’833
4’752
68’0683’708
45’312507’637
293’213395’228673’689
21’265
197’565
49’6382’354’916
613’964
172’573518’435
467’980459’275645’042645’6952
669’921948’259
93’121
13’271424’799180
108’127
6’240
540’986288’174
325’042251
4’906’484
2’240’797
1’613’785
845’805
303’190
5’741
73’952
1’993’225
180’616289’796
1’470
242’118
5’814
55
29’678148’161
68’068560’308
45’312507’637352’746
2’182’776
833’676
21’265
197’565
62’876
2’393’100
613’964
172’573698’771
1’047’798
459’275

16’528’677
14’579’907

946’8973
11’579307’0202’648
104’30504’600’000

317’053

179’580

1’845
143’410556’600

40’0001’787’548
158’052

13’23838’184180’336580’000
10’613’341
7’209’999

27’162’468
21’789’906

Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on Eurostat and national data sources. For data sources, see annex.

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

263

Europe › Statistics › Tables
Table 70: Europe: Organic livestock by country 2019
Country

Bovine animals

107’690
9’402
21’558731
262’910224’348
42’29076’173830’921894’460
142’609
54’014284
61’819375’414
99’041

Share
(%)
21.3%
0.0%
4.3%
1.7%
4.8%
1.3%
19.4%
14.0%
17.2%
8.4%
4.4%
18.3%
20.8%
7.7%
0.4%
0.9%
6.0%
26.0%

No
Austria
BelarusBelgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
CyprusCzech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
FinlandFranceGermany
GreeceHungary
Iceland
IrelandItaly
LatviaLiechtenstein

420’693

Pigs

Poultry642
59’623
1’925

Share
(%)
2.5%
0.0%
0.3%
0.0%
0.2%
0.0%
0.2%
4.0%
0.2%
0.4%
3.2%
0.9%
0.8%
0.4%
0.0%
0.0%
0.6%
0.5%

No
74’60317’081
91
2’873
2’707
490’924683
5’156
437’950
183’850
8’782
10’972No
2’840’750
4’592’154
2’260
1’523
21’233
54’174
3’349’215
36’315335’538
22’713’723
10’209’000
252’280
131’367
161’816
3’482’435
45’296

1’618

25.7%

70

4.0%

3’414

58’356
4’814
578
71’8176’390
7’932
30’18695’30619’3581’874
3’594
61’43237’126215’802
333’245
205’389
N/A
300’788

7.8%
2.6%
0.7%
1.9%
2.5%
0.9%
0.5%
6.4%
1.0%
0.0%
0.4%
13.3%
8.0%
3.7%
22.2%
13.5%
N/A
3.0%

131
1’026

10’10833’982160
3’926’491

284
642
3’252
32’34336’64938’955
N/A
55’255

0.0%
1.1%
0.0%
0.9%
0.0%
0.3%
0.0%
0.3%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.1%
0.9%
0.1%
2.7%
2.9%
N/A
1.2%

Europe5’079’962

4.0%

1’586’702

European Union

4’852’303

6.0%

1’544’573

Lithuania
Luxembourg
Montenegro
Netherlands
North Macedonia
NorwayPolandPortugal
Romania
RussiaSerbiaSlovakia
Slovenia
Spain
SwedenSwitzerland
UkraineUnited Kingdom

106’458
2’820
4’189
6’757
9

Sheep
Share
(%)
16.8%
0.0%
12.7%
0.0%
0.0%
0.7%
0.3%
22.8%
1.7%
5.3%
10.6%
7.8%
0.8%
0.3%
0.0%
1.0%
2.1%
1.0%

27’34922’78065’632971
87’863
11’43532’50432’883737’091
159’000
1’299’677
11’801
1’241
83’302680’369
37’759

Share
(%)
34.2%
0.0%
22.9%
1.6%
9.7%
0.3%
39.8%
7.4%
42.3%
25.3%
9.9%
12.2%
13.6%
1.1%
0.3%
1.6%
8.6%
47.2%

1’230

32.4%

23’076837
1’787
15’129101’317

No
123’541

6’735
5’863
96’641
1’826’581
1’395’620
1’184’263
N/A
3’465’009

0.1%
30.1%
0.0%
4.1%
0.0%
13.1%
0.4%
0.1%
0.1%
0.0%
0.0%
0.1%
4.3%
1.3%
16.6%
9.9%
N/A
2.2%

22’757
94’11719’3671’332
5’138
93’87535’225594’875
119’166
86’679N/A
782’253

38.2%
10.2%
0.9%
1.5%
13.8%
0.0%
8.5%
4.5%
0.2%
0.0%
0.3%
23.8%
29.4%
3.6%
19.5%
25.2%
N/A
2.4%

0.9%

62’317’071

2.5%

5’413’520

3.5%

1.1%

59’666’753

4.2%

5’214’634

5.3%

611’427484’153
64’630128’596

Source: FiBL survey 2021 based on Eurostat and national data sources. For data sources, see annex.
Note: In the case of pigs and poultry, in the official statistics, no clear distinction is made between the number ofanimals slaughtered and the places or average numbers of stock over the years, and it is not always clear which of theseis given when “livestock numbers” are quoted. Therefore, adding up the data for pigs and poultry over all countries is notcompletely reliable, and country data are not necessarily comparable. Therefore, the data presented here should betreated with caution and only approximate the overall picture.

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Table 71: Europe: Organic producers, processors, and importers by country 2019
Country
Albania
AndorraAustria
BelarusBelgium
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
CyprusCzech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Faroe Islands
FinlandFranceGermany
GreeceHungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
KosovoLatviaLiechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Moldova
MonacoMontenegro
Netherlands
North Macedonia
NorwayPolandPortugal
Romania
Russian Federation
San Marino
SerbiaSlovakia
Slovenia
Spain
SwedenSwitzerland
TurkeyUkraineUnited Kingdom
EuropeEuropean Union

Producers

Processors

86

8
3
1’691
24
1’585
74
234
395
61
802
1’092
173
1
399
19’311
16’162
1’642
523
20
26
21’94035
51

26’042
31
2’394
337
6’213
5’153
1’252
4’694
4’109
2’060
1
5’129
47’19634’13630’124
5’136
26
1’725
70’561
200
4’178
47
2’417
105
24
241

373
802
3’823
41’8385’730
7’284
74’545
470
3’581

124
101
7
21
2
11
1’021
23
428
636
933
191
39
2
123
85
142
5’230
1’117
1’289
1’356
20
2’566

430’742343’858

81’71978’240

393
1’867
817
1’976
18’655
5’637
9’277
57

Importers

Exporters
25

58
304
26
22
14
311
94
38
63
662
1’831
44
44
2
24
527

4
7
153
20
4
3
163
99
16
20
1’288
52

10

2
741
8
0

3
7
14
3

52

462
5
94
238
41
24

51
22
27
364
257
548
58

120
7
256
34
15
14
3
1
137
19
18
209
18

216
6’508
5’747

3’508
3’127

Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021 based on Eurostat and national data sources. For data sources see annex.
*Total number includes data for countries with less than three operators.

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn265

Europe › Statistics › Tables
Table 72: Europe: The organic food market 2019
Country

Austria
Belgium
Bosnia andHerzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
CyprusCzechia
Denmark
Estonia
FinlandFranceFranceGermany
GreeceHungary
IrelandItaly
LatviaLithuania
Luxembourg
Montenegro
Netherlands
NorwayNorwayPolandPortugal
Romania
RussiaSerbiaSlovakia
Slovenia
Spain
SwedenSwitzerland
TurkeyUkraineUK
EuropeEuropean Union

Data
year

Retail sales[Million €]€/person[€]Organic
share [%]One year
growth [%]

2019
2019

1'920
779

216
68

9.3%
3.1%

6.1%
11.7%

2017

0

0

2018
2019
2018
2006
2018
2015
2019
2019
2019
2013
2019
2009
2019
2017
2015
2017
2019
2017
2017
2018
2019
2010
2019

30

2016
2019
2019
2011
2016
2012
2018
2015
2010
2009
2013
2017
2018
2018
2019
2019
2014
2019
2019

Foodservice[Million €]
140

4
24
2
16

0.4%
2.2%
0.1%
1.6%

1'979
62
368

344

9.7%
13.2%
9.5%

349

67

12.1%
3.7%
2.6%

11'295

174

6.1%

13.4%

639
300

11'970
66
30
206
3'625
51
51

144
6
3
43
60
6
18

5.7%
0.3%
0.3%
2.5%
3.7%
1.5%
1.0%

9.7%

160
0
1'211

265
0
71

8.6%

99
2
164

Exports[Million €]

8
266
17
93

4.9%

4.0%

667
5
6

4.1%

330

4.5%

30

1.7%
442
314
21
41

83
8
2
2

160

1

4

1

0.2%

49

/27

1.8%
2.8%

2'133

47

2'144
2'912
46
36
2'679

215
338
1
1
40

45'04941'453

55.8
84.4

0.6%
0.2%
0.2%
4
20
0
59
12.1%
117
9.0%
10.4%

-3.8
5.6%

519

1.8%

4.8%

112

3.2%

8%
8%

3'175
3'145

516
493

Source: FiBL-AMI survey 2021. For details on data sources, see annex.
Note on table: Where no published data exists, best estimates from experts have been used, but new data were notavailable for all countries. Therefore, in some cases, earlier estimates are shown. Values published in national currencies
were converted to euros using the 2019 average annual exchange rates according to the Central European Bank. Please
note that due to fluctuating exchange rates, it is not possible to make a year-to-year comparison for countries that do
not have the Euro as their currency.

266

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Latin America and the
Caribbean

Map 5: Organic agricultural land in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean
2019 (in hectares)
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317.

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

267

Latin America and the Caribbean › Overview

Latin America: An Insight into the Latest
Developments in Organic Agriculture
PATRICIA FLORES 1
Latin America is a vast region with more than 20 countries covering over 20 million
km2, populated by 650 million inhabitants. It is characterised by a high biological andcultural diversity, being the centre of origin of important species for the world's foodsupply. The diverse bio-cultural assets of the region, from ecosystems, languages, toclimates and soils, have generated the various agricultural production systems present
across the region, making it an important resource for resilient food systems.
In 2019, Latin America had more than 220’000 organic producers and an organic
agricultural area of more than eight million hectares (Re stats chapter), approximately
11 percent of the world's organic area. Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil represent
approximately 85 percent of the organic area in the region with 7.1 million hectares; alarge part of this area is pasture for organic livestock.
In the last 20 years, the organic agriculture sector has developed especially organised
export-oriented family farmers focused on international trade to supply markets in theEuropean Union (EU), United States, Canada and Japan. In the last decade, organic
production of coffee, cocoa, tropical fruits (banana, mango), ginger, turmeric andAndean grains stand out, adding value to the raw products. This is especially
noteworthy in the industry of fine aroma cacao and chocolate – here the cacao value
chain has been developed based on native genetic resources and the organisation of
cacao growers giving special attention to the quality of the final product. To the sameaccord, organic and biodynamic products in the region have seen substantial growth,
driven by the demand for these fine products like the Chilean and Argentinian wines,
chocolates from Ecuador and bananas from the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Peru.
The ten largest export countries of organic products to the EU represented 70 percent
of EU imports in 2019 (based on import quantity/volume in metric tons). This group ofcountries includes five Latin American countries: Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru,
Colombia and Brazil, representing 31 percent of the total imports to the EU, with apositive trend compared with 2018 (European Commission 2020, see page 140).

A focus on Brazil
Brazil is a country with a dynamic organic sector that is very different from the rest of
the countries, characterised by a robust domestic organic market, highly developedorganic value chains and supportive, conscious consumers.
In June 2019, the Brazilian organic agriculture competent authority COAGRE reported
during Biofach Latin America 2019 nearly 69'000 organic producers (including non-1

Patricia Flores, IFOAM Latin America Office Coordinator, Lima, Peru

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Latin America and the Caribbean › Overview
certified producers) and the historical evolution of the three organic quality control
mechanisms according to their organic regulation:•••

third party certification,
participatory guarantee systems, andsocial control organisms.1

In the six years since introducing organic regulation in Brazil, including Participatory
Guarantee Systems (PGS) as a compliance system for organic production, PGS havebeen the most preferred system by organic producers to supply their markets. PGS haveseen a fourfold increase in less than six years, as shown in Table 73.
Table 73: Brazil: Organic producers in Brazil according to the certification system
Guarantee system

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

Third-party certification
Participatory Guarantee System
Social Control Organism
Total

3'276
1'456
2'379
9'124

3'031
1'451
2'393
8'889

4'706
3'273
3'499
13'493

6'542
3'698
2'560
14'816

7'967
4'866
4'618
19'468

7'042
4'893
5'538
19'491

8'279
6'241
4'777
21'316

Source: Virginia Lira, COAGRE. Biofach Latin America, 2019

Brazil has a very comprehensive organic regulation, which includes promotion andcontrol programs. The National Plan for organic production control in Brazil includes
social control promoted by the CPOrg-UF (the control unit of the organic productcommission), the monitoring program for not-allowed substances in organic
production, trade control and the control of production units - among other control
mechanisms and audits.
The National Plan for Agroecology and Organic Production (PNAPO) was constructed
through major, bottom-up civil society efforts and adopted on August 20, 2012. The
plan has a multisectoral and transdisciplinary approach, impressive achievements andrespect for the Future Just Lawmaking Principles, and includes elements ofagroecology. Brazil's PNAPO was recognised with the 2018 Future Policy Silver Award,
which the World Future Council awarded in partnership with the Food and Agriculture
Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and IFOAM – Organics International. Only
PNAE, the National Program of Food Meals, continues to prioritise public procurement

Social control in direct selling is a simpler system of control over organic compliance that allows sales only
direct sales of goods to the consumer. Sales are usually at fairs, markets, or from the production unit, via
direct basket delivery, consumer groups, such as CSAs, and from Public Procurement Programmes, such as
the National School Meals Programme (PNAE) or the Food Purchase Programme (PAA). Only family
farmers linked to Social Control Organisations duly registered at the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock andFood Suppy (MAPA) can directly sell organic products without certification. The Social Control
Organisations generate credibility in society through interactions with people or organisations, based ontrust, participation, commitment, transparency and joint responsibility. The farming families linked to theSocial Control Organisations are identified through the Declaration of Registration provided by MAPA. This
Declaration must be available in a visible place at the point of marketing or be presented at the time of thesale of products to public programmes and/or the delivery of baskets.
1

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn269

Latin America and the Caribbean › Overview
of organic production from family agriculture and provides a better price for organic
products. Unfortunately, in the last years, due to a shift in the government agenda,
organic public policies to foster and strengthen organic production and agroecology inBrazil, such as PNAPO and the Nuclei of Studies1, have been seriously affected,
diminishing their possibility to continue. The organic movement expects the Brazilian
best practice policies to be transformed for more sustainable food systems and a healthyplanet.

Memorandum of understanding between Brazil and Chile on organic
products
A Memorandum of Understanding signed in September 2018, ratified by high-level
national authorities in January 2019, was signed between Brazil and Chile to promoteinternational trade of organic products between the two countries.
The objective of these negotiations is to promote trade between the countries andfacilitate access to markets while protecting the organic integrity of the products.
Beyond international trade, it seeks to maintain fluid communication and collaboration
between the parties, collaborate on control and monitoring and promote the exchange
of initiatives and policies to develop organic production.
Chile and Brazil mutually recognise their respective organic product certification
systems. Therefore, the products certified with the certification system of the countryof origin can be traded. This is the first time in international trade that two Latin
America countries established an agreement including PGS (PGS in Brazil and selfcertification in Chile). With this agreement, the trade of organic products between thetwo countries is expected to increase having a significant social impact that could bringeconomic benefits to organised family farmers.

The Inter-American Commission on Organic Agriculture (CIAO)The Inter-American Commission for Organic Agriculture (CIAO, acronym in Spanish)
is a technical body created in July 2008 by the Ministers of Agriculture through IICA's
Executive Committee, to develop the organic sector in the countries of the Americas
and facilitate the trade of organic products. CIAO is comprised of the competentauthorities for control of organic agriculture. They are responsible for regulating andcontrolling organic production and guaranteeing the organic integrity of the products.
In the last years, CIAO has also included competent authorities for the promotion oforganic production. This Commission is the first and only official regional bodyworking on organic, with IICA, the Inter-American Institute for Agricultural
Cooperation, which also hosts the Executive Secretariat.
CIAO has 19 member countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica,
Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua,
Panama, Paraguay, Peru, United States, Uruguay and Venezuela. Spain and Portugal

Nuclei of studies are multi-stakeholder study groups “Núcleo de Estudos em Agroecologia e Produção
Orgânica “organised per each federal state with universities and research institutes.

1

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Latin America and the Caribbean › Overview
participate in the Commission as permanent observers. Currently, the Board of
Directors has representatives from Ecuador (chair), Mexico, Bolivia, Brazil and IICA.
On May 12, 2020, the Inter-American Commission on Organic Agriculture (CIAO) andIFOAM - Organics International signed a Memorandum of Understanding tostrengthen the collaboration among the parties, especially addressing: a) promotion oforganic agriculture, b) improve knowledge and dissemination of organic agriculture, c)
encourage activities to foster sustainable development, environmental conservationand organic consumption.

Mexico: News on the national organic regulation
To boost the production of certified organic foods, diversify their supply and encourage
more medium and small producers to join the value chain, the Mexican Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Development updated the Guidelines for Organic Operations.
This was the result of a very demanding process involving diverse Mexican organic
stakeholders, with representatives from farmers' organisations, operators and industry.
The modified regulation published in the Official Journal of the Federation (DOF) on
June 8, 2020, establishes standards that were lacking in production systems such as
melipona honey, which comes from stingless bees, and aquaculture production. The
competent Mexican authority SENASICA is also developing equivalence agreementswith its main trade partners, the United States of America, Canada and the EU. The
equivalence will allow the free flow of Mexican organic products that hold the National
Organic Seal to the world's most competitive markets. Likewise, with the new
guidelines, Mexico joins Argentina and Ecuador, as the first three countries of the InterAmerican Commission on Organic Agriculture (CIAO), to have regulations for organic
aquaculture.

Outlook
The pandemic has put into perspective what is important for human life and health at
all levels. Organic farmers in the region have incorporated the Principles of Organic
Agriculture: Health, Ecology, Care, and Fairness in their daily practice and systems'
innovations. This crisis leads us to reflect on how we interact with the environment andnatural resources, how we can address problems, and where organic agriculture could
provide options to transform the crisis into something better, with benefits for humanhealth. These include slowing down the destruction of habitats that cause the spread of
diseases, reducing vulnerability in future food supply and trade disruptions,reconnecting people to food production and transforming our food systems.

References
European Commission (2020): EU imports of organic agri-food products – Key developments in 2019. No 17.
June 2020.
Willer, H. et al. (Eds.) (2020) The World of Organic Agriculture – Statistics and Emerging Trends 2020.
Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, and IFOAM - Organics International, Bonn

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn271

Latin America and the Caribbean › CIAOThe Inter-American Commission for Organic
Agriculture (CIAO)GRACIELA LACAZE1 & JUAN MANUEL GÁMEZ2
The Inter-American Commission for Organic Agriculture CIAO3 is a technical entity
created in July 2008 by the Ministers of Agriculture of the Americas via the Executive
Committee of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), withthe aim of contributing to the development of organic agriculture and organic trade incountries in the Americas.
CIAO comprises the Competent Authorities for Control of Organic Agriculture in themember countries. The authorities are the entities responsible for regulating andcontrolling activities in the field of organic agriculture and guaranteeing the organic
status of products. Their responsibilities include registering and auditing producers,
processors, traders, input suppliers, inspectors, and organic certification agencies aswell as keeping statistical records for the activities and proposing modifications toorganic production standards. The Competent Authorities for the Development ofOrganic Production are also part of CIAO; they focus on the development andpromotion of the organic sector in the member countries.
Currently consisting of 19 member countries4, CIAO is the first official regional entity
to conduct work on organics. It was established by the Inter-American Board of
Agriculture, IICA’s highest-level governing body. The IICA serves as the Executive
Secretariat of CIAO.
The Ministries of Agriculture of the Americas established the following objectives of
the CIAO:−−

To contribute to the development of organic agriculture in the countries of theAmericas and trade in its products as well as serve as a technical body forknowledge management and the sharing and dissemination of appropriate
information in a timely manner;
To contribute to the strengthening of the institutional structures of the Competent
Authorities in Organic Agriculture in the countries of the Americas;

Graciela Lacaze, Inter-American Commission for Organic Agriculture CIAO, CIAO Executive Secretariat,
Buenos Aires, Argentina, www.ciaorganico.net and www.iica.int
2 Juan Manuel Gámez, Inter-American Commission for Organic Agriculture CIAO, CIAO Executive
Secretariat, Buenos Aires, Argentina, www.ciaorganico.net and www.iica.int
3 CIAO is the acronym of the Inter-American Commission for Organic Agriculture .in Spanish.
4 Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, United State, Honduras,
Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, the UnitedStates and Venezuela. Spain and Portugal participate in the Commission as permanent Observer Members.
The countries that comprise the Board of Directors of CIAO are Ecuador (president), Mexico, Bolivia, Brazil
and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).
1

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Latin America and the Caribbean › CIAO−−−

To coordinate and promote the development and harmonization of standards andprocedures with the aim to stimulate and regulate the production and control ofand trade in organic foods in the countries of the Americas;
To serve as a mechanism for consultation, liaison and reciprocal cooperation withthe competent governmental bodies that promote and establish standards for thedevelopment and control of organic agriculture in each country of the Americas;
Within the framework of other functions that contribute to the development oforganic agriculture, to sponsor, insofar as possible, the development of organic
agriculture and its institutional framework.

CIAO’s work focuses on four strategic areas, through which it provides technicalcooperation to contribute to the comprehensive development of organic production:
Facilitation of trade in organic products and the development of organic markets,
including harmonizing standards among countries; creating standards for organic
production matters that are not yet standardized; assisting countries in processes toenable their standards and control systems to be recognized and validated by theircommercial partners and assisting countries in defining strategies to develop sociallyinclusive organic markets that include producers and consumers.
Establishment and strengthening of National Control Systems (NCS) for Organic
Production, which includes developing methodological instruments to strengthen the
NCS, including: creating proposals to strengthen the NCS in the countries andmonitoring their implementation and supporting the establishment of institutionalframeworks for organic production in countries where they do not exist.
Promotion of organic agriculture, which includes developing methodologicalinstruments to promote organic production; creating proposals for policies andagendas that promote organic production; and supporting the establishment ofinstitutional frameworks needed to promote organic production in the countries of theAmericas.
Knowledge management, covering stakeholder access to information of interest, tosupport and improve decision-making processes and disseminating relevant
information among stakeholders involved in organic production.
Since 2019, CIAO and the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL have beenworking together on the collection of statistical data on organic production. Both CIAO
and FiBL carry out regular data collection on area, land use and operators on organic
agriculture, operating in different but complementary contexts. CIAO recognizes that
there are many benefits to open and transparent collaboration, which has made it
possible to improve data collection, increase information flows and arrive at higher
quality results on organic production in the Americas and the world.

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Latin America and Caribbean › Statistics

Latin America and the Caribbean: Current statistics
CLAUDIA MEIER,1 BERNHARD SCHLATTER,2 OLIVIA KELLER3 AND JAN
TRÁVNÍČEK4
Overview
In 2019, nearly 8.3 million hectares were reported as being under organic production in
Latin America and the Caribbean (a total of 44 countries). This corresponded to 1.2
percent of the total agricultural land in that region (Table 74). Hence, of the organic
agricultural land worldwide, 11 percent were recorded in Latin America and the
Caribbean. Compared to 2018, the organic agricultural area in that region grew bynearly 284’000 hectares. Since 2000 the area more than doubled (an increase of almost
4.4 million hectares) (Figure 95). Since 2001, the countries with the largest organic
agricultural area are Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. From 2018 to 2019 the organic
agricultural area in Argentina grew by 1 percent, reaching nearly 3.7 million hectares,in Uruguay, it decreased by 0.2 percent but remained at over 2.1 million hectares, andin Brazil it increased by 8 percent, reaching nearly 1.3 million hectares (Figure 93). The
countries with the highest organic share in 2019 were Uruguay with 15.3 percent(highest share since 2014), French Guiana with 11.3 percent, and the Dominican
Republic with 5.5 percent (Figure 94).

Land use
In 2019, land use details were available for 84 percent of the organic agricultural landin Latin America and the Caribbean. Only 5 percent of all organic farmland was utilized
for arable crops (almost 441’000 hectares); while 71 percent was used for permanent
grassland/grazing areas (nearly 5.9 million hectares). Permanent crops were grown on
more than 643’000 hectares (8 percent of the organic area in the region), and for 16
percent of the reported area, no details were available (over 1.3 million hectares) (Figure
96, Table 76). The countries with the largest organic permanent grassland/grazing areas
were Argentina (nearly 3.4 million hectares) and Uruguay (over 2.1 million hectares).
The largest area of organic arable crops was in Bolivia (nearly 135’000 hectares),followed by Peru (over 96’000 hectares), and Mexico (over 72’000 hectares). The largest
area of organic permanent crops was in Peru (over 138’000 hectares), followed by the
Dominican Republic (over 115’000 hectares), and Mexico (nearly 107’000 hectares).
Since 2010, cereals are the key organic arable crops in Latin America and the Caribbean
with nearly 164’000 hectares in 2019 (37 percent of organic arable land). Sugarcane isamong the three most important organic arable crops since 2005 (except for 2012),
reaching over 77’000 hectares in 2019 (18 percent of organic arable land). Organic

Claudia Meier, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
Bernhard Schlatter, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
3 Olivia Keller, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
4 Jan Trávníček, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
1
2

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Latin America and Caribbean › Statistics
oilseeds have been gaining importance, reaching nearly 61’000 hectares in 2019 (14percent of organic arable land) (Figure 96, Table 76). In 2019, organic cereals represented
0.3 percent of the total cereal area in the region and 3 percent of the world’s organic
cereal area. The key organic cereal in the region was quinoa (over 117’000 hectares)
representing 66 percent of all the quinoa grown in the region and close to 100 percentof the world’s organic quinoa area. The key country producing quinoa was Bolivia withover 106’000 hectares. Organic sugarcane represented 0.6 percent of the total sugarcanearea in the region and 87 percent of the world’s organic sugarcane area. Key producing
countries were Paraguay (over 32’000 hectares) and Argentina (almost 20’000 hectares).
Organic oilseeds represented 0.1 percent of the total oilseeds area in the region and 4
percent of the world’s organic oilseeds area. The key organic oilseed in the region was
sesame (over 16’000 hectares) representing 6 percent of all the sesame grown in theregion and 11 percent of the world’s organic sesame area. The key country producing
organic sesame was Bolivia with nearly 4’000 hectares.
As in previous years, coffee, cocoa, and tropical fruit were the three most importantorganic permanent crops in the region in 2019. Organic coffee reached over 268’000
hectares (42 percent of organic permanent crop area), organic cocoa over 146’000
hectares (23 percent of organic permanent crop area), and organic tropical fruit nearly
76’000 hectares (12 percent of organic permanent crop area) (Figure 96, Table 76).
Organic coffee represented 5 percent of the total coffee area in the region and 38 percentof the world’s organic coffee area. The countries with the largest organic coffee areas
were Peru (nearly 103’000 hectares), Mexico (nearly 73’000 hectares), and Nicaragua(over 31’000 hectares). Organic cocoa represented 8 percent of the total cocoa area in theregion and 40 percent of the world’s organic cocoa area. The countries with the largest
organic cocoa areas were the Dominican Republic (almost 90’000 hectares) and Peru
(over 25’000 hectares). Organic tropical fruit represented 2 percent of the total tropicalfruit area in the region and 35 percent of the world’s organic tropical fruit area. The key
tropical fruit in Latin America and the Caribbean are bananas (nearly 57’000 hectares
in 2019). In 2019, organic bananas represented 3 percent of the total bananas area in theregion and 90 percent of the world’s organic bananas area. The countries with thelargest bananas area are the Dominican Republic (over 25’000 hectares) and Ecuador(nearly 17’000 hectares); these two countries represent 74 percent of the regional organic
banana area.

Producers
Over 224’000 organic producers were recorded in Latin America and the Caribbean in
2019. The countries with the most organic producers were Peru (nearly 81’000), Mexico(nearly 37’000), and Brazil (over 22’000) (Table 74). However, it is important to note thatthe number of producers largely depends on the type of operators reported by thecountry. Some countries only report the number of farm enterprises/companies,
whereas others also report the number of smallholders.

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Latin America and Caribbean › Statistics
Wild collection
In Latin America and the Caribbean, organic wild collection plays an important role. In
2019, there were nearly 4.6 million hectares of organic wild collection areas. They aremainly used for the collection of wild nuts (over 3.2 million hectares), wild berries (over161’000 hectares), and palmito (more than 60´000 hectares) (Table 77). The countries
with the largest organic wild collection areas were Brazil (over 1.7 million hectares,
mainly wild brazil nuts), Bolivia (almost 1.5 million hectares, mainly wild brazil nuts),
Mexico (almost 953’000 hectares, no details available), and Peru (almost 159’000
hectares, of wild collection areas, mainly brazil nuts). Information on wild collection is
not available for many countries, so it can be assumed that the total organic wildcollection area is higher than that presented here.
For more information about the Latin American and the Caribbean figures, see datatables for the region, page 279.

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Latin America and Caribbean › Statistics › Graphs

Organic Agriculture in Latin America and Caribbean:
GraphsLatin America and Caribbean: The ten countries with thelargest organic area 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021

Argentina

3'672'350

Uruguay

2'143'640

Brazil

1'283'054

Mexico301'891Peru

235'592

Bolivia144'231

Dominican Republic134'375

Guatemala88'178Paraguay

57'566

Ecuador47'8360

1'000'000

2'000'000
Hectares3'000'000

4'000'000

Figure 93: Latin America and Caribbean: The ten countries with the largest areas oforganic agricultural land 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

Latin America and Caribbean: The countries with thehighest organic share of total agricultural land 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021

Uruguay

15.3%

French Guiana (France)

11.3%

Dominican Republic

5.5%

Falkland Islands (Malvinas)

2.8%

Argentina

2.5%

Guatemala

2.3%

Martinique (France)

2.0%

Grenada

1.1%

Peru

1.0%

Dominica

1.0%
0%

5%
10%
15%
Share of total agricultural land

20%

Figure 94: Latin America and Caribbean: The ten countries with the highest organic
share of total agricultural land 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn277

Latin America and Caribbean › Statistics › Graphs
Latin America and Caribbean: Development of organic
agricultural land 1999 to 2019
Source: FiBL-IFOAM-SOEL-Surveys 2002-2021

8.01

8.29

8.00

6.94

2015

2018

6.83

2014

7.49

6.71

2013

2017

6.97

6.95

2012

2010

2011

7.66

7.54

7.24

2006

5.59

5.06

4.95

2005

5.96

5.22

2004

5.75

2003

4.54

2002

2.5

3.92

5.0

1.25

Million hectares

7.5

2009

10.0

2019

2016

2008

2007

2001

2000

1999

0.0

Figure 95: Latin America and Caribbean: Development of organic agricultural land
1999-2019
Source: FiBL-IFOAM-SOEL surveys 2001-2021

Figure 96: Latin America and Caribbean: Use of agricultural organic land 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

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Latin America and Caribbean › Statistics › Tables

Organic Agriculture in Latin America and Caribbean:
TablesTable 74: Latin America: Organic agricultural land, organic share of total agriculturalland, and number of producers 2019
Country
Argentina
Bahamas
BelizeBolivia
BrazilChile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Dominica
Dominican Republic
EcuadorEl Salvador
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
French Guiana (France)
GrenadaGuadeloupe (France)
GuatemalaHaiti
Honduras
Jamaica
Martinique (France)
MexicoNicaragua
PanamaParaguay
Peru
Puerto Rico
Suriname
US Virgin Islands
Uruguay
Total*

Area [ha]Organic share [%]Producers [no.]3'672'350
49
77
144'231
1'283'054
20'89730'447
8'832
2'373
240
134'375
47'836
1'708
31'937
3'667
84
492
88'178
3'333
29'274374
612
301'891
42'952
5'929
57'566
235'592
14
109
26
2'143'640
8'292'138

2.5%
0.3%
0.0%
0.4%
0.5%
0.1%
0.1%
0.5%
0.0%
1.0%
5.5%
0.9%
0.1%
2.8%
11.3%
1.1%
1.0%
2.3%
0.2%
0.9%
0.1%
2.0%
0.3%
0.8%
0.3%
0.3%
1.0%
0.0%
0.1%
0.7%
15.3%
1.2%

1'269
1
157
14'161
22'191
781
4'155
54
9
16'31113'744
380
3
84
23
103
6'346
4'633
6'023
127
80
36'587
10'44818
5'122
80'7855
39748
224'387

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317*Total number includes data for countries with less than three operators.

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn279

Latin America and Caribbean › Statistics › Tables
Table 75: Latin America: All organic areas 2019
Country

Agriculture[ha]

Argentina
Bahamas
BelizeBolivia
BrazilChile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Dominica
Dominican
Republic
EcuadorEl Salvador
Falkland Islands(Malvinas)
French Guiana(France)
GrenadaGuadeloupe(France)
Guatemala
GuyanaHaiti
Honduras
Jamaica
Martinique(France)
MexicoNicaragua
PanamaParaguay
Peru
Puerto Rico
Suriname
US Virgin Islands
Uruguay
Total

3'672'350
49
77
144'231
1'283'054
20'89730'447
8'832
2'373
240

Aquaculture[ha]

Forest[ha]

Other nonagri. land
[ha]

489
23'090Wildcollection
[ha]

Total
[ha]

20'9003'693'250
49
77
1'600'066
2'984'492
114'465
60'858
8'832
2'373
240

1'455'835
1'701'438
93'0797'320

134'375
47'836
1'708

134'37579

40'007

1'000

88'921
1'708

31'93731'937

3'667

3'667

84

84

492

492

88'178147'234
55'4493'333
29'274374

36

235'41255'4493'333
29'274410

612
301'891
42'952
5'929
57'565
235'592
14
109
26
2'143'640
8'292'138

612
952'75593

568

40'007

2'750

158'560

25'8404'593'699

1'254'646
43'0455'929
57'565396'902
14
109
26
2'143'640
12'952'253

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

280

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Latin America and Caribbean › Statistics › Tables
Table 76: Latin America: Land use in organic agriculture 2019Land use
Agricultural land and crops, no details
Arable land crops

Arable land crops total
Cropland, no details
Other agricultural land
Permanent crops

Crop group
Cereals
Dry pulses
Fallow land, crop rotation
Fresh vegetables and melons
Industrial crops
Medicinal and aromatic plants
Oilseeds
Plants harvested green
Root crops
Strawberries
Sugarcane
Textile crops
TobaccoArable crops, other

Berries
Citrus fruit
Cocoa
Coconut
CoffeeFruit, temperate
Fruit, tropical and subtropicalFruit/nuts/berries
GrapesMedicinal and aromatic plants, permanent
Nuts
Olives
Tea/mate, etc.
Permanent crops, other

Permanent crops total
Permanent grassland

Total

Area [ha]1'306'770
163'769
18'01641'88741'0502'628,95'403
60'805
6'619
4'188
107
77'3991'643
47
17'127
440'691
4'649
7'299
12'15316'857146'114552
268'418
8'284
75'5132
13'61213'859
6'058
6'591
51'66223'454643'129
5'889'601

8'292'138

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

Table 77: Latin America: Use of wild collection areas 2019Land use

Area [ha]Berries, wild
Forest products
Fruit, wild
Medicinal and aromatic plants, wild
Nuts, wild
Palmito, wild
SeaweedWild collection, no details
Total

161'352
2'000
7'581
94
3'239'151
60'249800
1'122'472
4'593'699

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

281

282

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

North America

Map 6: Organic agricultural land in Canada and the United States 2019
Source: Canada Organic Trade Association (COTA) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). For detailed
data sources see annex, page 317.

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283

North America › United States

US Organic Sales Break Through 55 Billion Dollar
Mark
BARBARA FITCH HAUMANN1
The US organic sector posted another banner year in 2019, with sales reaching 55.1
billion US dollars,2 up five percent from 2018. According to the Organic Trade
Association’s 2020 Organic Industry Survey, both organic food and non-food markets
shattered major benchmarks.
Organic food sales hit 50.1 billion US dollars,3 up 4.6 percent. Organic non-food sales
totalled just over 5 billion US dollars,4 up 9.2 percent. Both easily outpaced the generalmarket growth rate of around 2 percent for total food sales and 3 percent for total nonfood sales.
Organic fruit and vegetable sales in 2019 were up nearly five percent, hitting 18 billion
US dollars5, as the category continued to be the star of the sector. Organic produce madeup almost a third of all organic food sales, and organic fruits and vegetables, including
fresh, frozen, canned, and dried, captured 15 percent of the fruit and vegetable market
in the US.
Although 2020 numbers are not yet available, the COVID-19 pandemic has had
dramatic consequences for the organic sector. As shoppers searched for healthy, clean
food to feed their families, organic proved to be the food of choice for homeconsumption. Demand for organic fresh produce grew substantially from March
onward as consumers continued at-home eating in the face of restaurant closures. In
fact, the Organic Produce Network predicted double-digit growth of fresh produce
sales in its analysis during the year. Fresh fruit and vegetable sales averaged 18 percent
year-over-year growth in each of the first three quarters.
Slower growth categories suddenly experienced outrageous demand. Sales of organic
shelf-stable baking mixes and flours were up 46 percent during the summer months,
according to SPINS, while organic frozen foods were up 24 percent. For context, organic
baking needs grew at 6.9 percent during 2019, while organic frozen food had beennearly stagnant at 7 percent growth.

Barbara Fitch Haumann is Senior Writer/Editor for the Organic Trade Association headquartered in
Washington, D.C., USA.
2 55.1 billion US dollars corresponded to 49.2 billion euros (based on 2019 average exchange rate according to
the European Central Bank).
3 50.1 billion US dollars corresponded to 49.2 billion euros (based on 2019 average exchange rate according to
the European Central Bank).
4 5 billion US dollars corresponded 4.5 billion euros (based on 2019 average exchange rate according to theEuropean Central Bank).
5 18 billion US dollars corresponded 16.1 billion euros (based on 2019 average exchange rate according to theEuropean Central Bank).
1

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North America › United States
Despite challenging conditions, those in the organic supply chain adapted theirpractices to keep pantries and refrigerators stocked, and supported their communities
through donations, shifting business models to produce essential supplies, retoolingwork processes to protect employees, enhancing employee benefits, and taking creative
measures to meet demand.

More farmers growing organic
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) National Agricultural
Statistics Service (NASS) in October released its 2019 Organic Survey, counting 16'585
certified organic farms, up 17 percent from 14´271 in 2016. These operations represented
5.50 million certified acres (2.2 million hectares), an increase of 9 percent over 2016
figures.
Total U.S. farm gate sales reached 9.93 billion U.S. dollars1 in organic products, anincrease of 2.37 billion U.S. dollars, or 31 percent, over those in the 2016 NASS survey.
California continued to lead the nation in certified organic farm gate sales, followed by
Washington, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Texas.
Nearly 3´000 organic farms reported they directly market to consumers via suchmethods as farm stands and farmers’ markets. Meanwhile, approximately 3´200 farms
sell directly to retail markets, while over 1´300 sell value-added products such as wine,
jams and cheeses.
In addition, 1´857 farms are transitioning 255´060 acres (103´263 hectares) to certified
organic production, while 710 farms say they are not yet certified but are transitioning
approximately 60´600 acres (24´534 hectares).

Global trade
The U.S. international organic program overseen by the Organic Trade Association andfunded through USDA yielded 16.7 million U.S. dollars2 in projected sales in 2020 fromtwo trade shows and included Natural Products Expo West meetings and virtual trade
events. There were 31 companies participating across activities taking place in Europe,Asia, and the UAE. In addition, the program undertook new consumer promotion
efforts in Japan, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Pre-pandemic, 14 companies exhibited in the program’s booth at Biofach in Germany,
featuring grains and flours, to functional beverages, nuts, and baby food. The Organic
Trade Association also participated in the Biofach Congress, presenting in six panels
and seminars and furthering ties with European partners. The program also exhibitedat Gulfood, Dubai, UAE, for the first time, with food ingredients and organic snack
foods demonstrating strong market potential. As the world began shutting down due
to COVID-19, the program’s Expo West effort was able to arrange a few meetings

9.93 billion US dollars corresponded 8.9 billion euros (based on 2019 average exchange rate according to theEuropean Central Bank).
2 16.7 million US dollars corresponded 14.9 billion euros (based on 2019 average exchange rate according to
the European Central Bank).
1

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285

North America › United States
between buyers and local suppliers to generate overseas business for organic exporters
in Asia.
During the pandemic, the program held two virtual trade missions in September: oneon produce with buyers from across Asia, and a second for processed productcompanies with buyers from Asia, Europe, and the UAE. More than 100 one-on-one
virtual meetings took place, with over 2.1 million U.S. dollars1 in projected sales – ahuge success for a first-time virtual event, with 17 U.S. supplier companies and 15
foreign buyers.

Organic fraud prevention
During 2020, U.S. organic businesses gained access to the Organic Trade Association’s
ground-breaking Organic Fraud Prevention Solutions and a fraud-fighting training
package from USDA.
Designed to meet the unique needs of the organic supply chain, Organic Fraud
Prevention Solutions is based on buyer responsibility and supplier verification.
Participating companies receive a comprehensive Organic Fraud Prevention Guide andtake an online training course, ‘Developing and Implementing an Organic Fraud
Prevention Plan.’
USDA has added two free online courses: ‘Preventing the Organic Fraud Opportunity’and ‘Organic Fraud and the Criminal Mind.’ Both are offered through its Organic
Integrity Learning Center and are designed for organic inspectors and certifiers tocomplement the trade association’s fraud-fighting program. The courses were madepossible by a cooperative agreement between the trade association and USDA.

Strengthening enforcement
In 2020, USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP) published its Strengthening Organic
Enforcement and Oversight proposed rule to support the continued growth of theorganic market and improve oversight at critical links in the supply chain. It is designed
to close gaps in current regulations to build consistent certification practices to deterand detect organic fraud, improve transparency and traceability of organic products
throughout the supply chain, and protect organic integrity.
It’s the largest single piece of rulemaking since the U.S. organic standards went into
effect in 2002. The 2018 Farm Bill authorized spending for this work, including money
for NOP to invest in technology systems to modernize and improve internationalorganic trade tracking, and prevent fraud, and to require electronic organic importcertificates to ensure full traceability.
Among other provisions, certified operators would be required to maintain a fraud
prevention plan. The Organic Trade Association’s Organic Fraud Prevention Solutions
is a private sector initiative that addresses this need.

2.1 million US dollars corresponded 1.9 billion euros (based on 2019 average exchange rate according to theEuropean Central Bank).

1

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USDA estimates that at least 1´922 U.S. handlers will need to get certified, and the rule
will impact 26´408 certified operations in the U.S, 18´352 in foreign countries and 2.6
million growers. The focus now is to move swiftly to a final rule--hopefully in the firsthalf of 2021--and provide support and resources to ensure successful implementation.
Meanwhile, the sector continues to push for animal welfare standards via a lawsuit led
by the Organic Trade Association and through advocacy for a final rule on Origin ofLivestock.
Animal welfare: Prompting this legal battle was USDA’s repeated refusal to act on ‒and subsequent withdrawal of ‒ a thoroughly vetted Organic Livestock and Poultry
Practices final rule to improve livestock living conditions and care. In doing so, USDA
failed to follow the public/private rulemaking process established by the Organic Foods
Production Act of 1990 that Congress created. The lawsuit against USDA was filed in2017. This case has importance to all organic stakeholders because USDA’s refusal tofollow the process by which organic regulations are set could reverberate adversely for
years if not corrected by the federal judiciary. At the end of 2020, the court granted thetrade association’s request to issue a stay to revise the timetable for future filings until
the Biden administration was in place. The new timetable allows for filings to resume
between February and May 2021.
Origin of Livestock: Meanwhile, the U.S. organic community has long advocated for a
final rulemaking on Origin of Livestock to clarify and narrow the allowance totransition dairy animals into organic milk production as a one-time event. In 2015, a
proposed Origin of Livestock rule was released clarifying that producers may transition
non-organic dairy animals to organic milk production only when converting a
conventional herd to organic. Once the transition is complete, the producer is notallowed to transition any additional animals to organic production. All dairy animals
added to the operation must be under organic management from the last third ofgestation, or transitioned dairy animals sourced from another certified organic dairy
farm.
USDA in October 2019 re-opened comments on the proposal. Despite overwhelming
consensus and support for the proposed rule, USDA still has not released a final rule
despite the congressional Fiscal Year 2020 Appropriations Bill mandating that theagency release a final rule by June 30, 2020.
More recently, NOP announced in October 2020 that it intends to rewrite and publish
another proposed rule instead of moving to a final rule. This is opposed by the Organic
Trade Association, which points out that USDA’s inaction to resolve the long-standing
inconsistency in certifier enforcement of origin of livestock regulations is exacerbating
the economic disadvantage of dairy farmers on an uneven playing field and threatening
the integrity of the organic sector.

Looking ahead
The U.S. organic sector has numerous priorities going forward. At the top is for organic
to have a seat at the table in climate change discussions.

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North America › United States
During 2020, the Organic Trade Association’s Board of Directors established a climate
task force to develop principles to guide organic’s engagement in climate policy
discussions. At the trade association’s annual meeting in June, its Board unanimously
endorsed ten principles for climate policy.
On the regulatory front, organic stakeholders are eager for the resolution of reinstating
the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices rule (OLPP), and still seek the publicationof a final rule on Origin of Livestock.
The organic sector also is asking for an interim final rule that encompasses the backlogof standards that have been recommended yet not acted on by USDA during more thana decade. In addition, it is awaiting a new framework for standards development
through the advancement of the Strengthening Organic Enforcement and Enforcement
rule.
Moreover, with the change in governmental administrations, it is calling for the
restoration of an Organic and Sustainable Agriculture Policy Advisor role within
USDA, along with steps to promote organic agriculture within USDA research
programs and integrate organic into federal nutrition and procurement programs.
Another priority is to restore full governmental funding for organic certification costshare.
Meanwhile, the trade association is undertaking an Organic for All: Diversity and
Entrepreneurship goal to foster diversity and inclusion. This campaign will encourageorganic entrepreneurs and businesses owned by Black, Indigenous and People of Color,and assess the value of establishing an industry foundation focusing on diversity andentrepreneurship within the organic movement.
In U.S. grocery stores, it is possible to purchase organic food products in nearly every
category, while organic products are in the kitchens of more than 82% of Americanhouseholds. But this trust comes as a result of consumers’ belief in the veracity of the
USDA Organic seal. Strong standards reinforce trust that products bearing the USDA
Organic label are held to a high quality, definable, measurable set of standards withrobust oversight and enforcement. The integrity of the organic certification processfrom farm to table is the lifeblood of the organic industry. This will remain the priority
for the U.S. organic sector as it continues its advocacy for organic agriculture.

References
Organic Trade Association’s 2020 Organic Industry Survey
Organic Trade Association, Organic Fraud Prevention Solutions (https://ota.com/OrganicFraudPrevention
USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service 2019 Organic Survey, October 2020(www.nass.usda.gov/organics)
USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/strengtheningorganic-enforcement-proposed-rule)

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CanadaTIA LOFTSGARD1
Ramping up global trade2019 was a successful year for international organic programs overseen by the Canada
Organic Trade Association and funded through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada,with ten international activities in six countries. Overall, 45 US companies participatedin international trade shows and trade missions. In 2019 alone, projected organic export
sales from international activities with the trade association were over 15 million
Canadian dollars (approx. 10 million euros). These activities are crucial to opening andmaintaining market access for Canadian organic products across the globe. Activities
took place in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America, with an increase indemand for organic crops and cereals, snacks, nuts, and pre-packed meals.

Significant increase in certified organic farms and processors
The Canadian organic sector continues to attract an important number of new farms
each year, despite a stiff decline in the number of non-organic farms between 2011 and2016 (2016 Census of Agriculture). In 2019, there were 7432 certified operations, anincrease of 5 percent from the previous year and 48 percent growth since 2015. This
continuous year-to-year growth is an indicator of increased consumer demand fororganics. In 2019, the total of certified organic producers reached 5677, an increase of 4
percent from 2018 and 43 percent since 2015. Organic acreage increased from 3.3 to 3.4
million acres (1.3 to 1.4 million hectares, including wild collection) between 2018 and2019, achieving an organic share of 2.2 percent of total agricultural land in Canada.
According to the data, the number of organic food processors/handlers andmanufacturing companies in Canada slightly decreased from 1717 to 1710 between 2018and 2019. However, it increased by 11 percent between 2015 and 2019. The estimatedsales value of organic processed food and beverage was 3.21 billion Canadian dollars
in 2020, an increase of 9 percent since 2019. In line with this impressive growth indemand for organic processed products, COTA published in September 2019 its reporton Organic Food Processing in Canada based on data collected in 2018 and previous
years. According to this research report, the number of processed organic food andbeverage products introduced to the Canadian market has been escalating in recent
years, with 93 percent of surveyed respondents reporting year-over-year sales growthover 5 percent, while 13 percent reported growth over 50 percent.

Market Growth
New records were made in both the organic food market and organic non-food market.
Canada’s food and non-food organic market is estimated to have reached 6.93 billion
Canadian dollars (approx. 4.7 billion euros) in 2020, with a compound annual growth

Tia Loftsgard, Executive Director, Canada Organic Trade Association (COTA), Ottawa, Canada,
https://www.canada-organic.ca/

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North America › Canada
rate of 8.7 percent. The market share of organic food and beverages sold throughmainstream retailers has grown from 2.6 percent to 3.2 percent in 2019. While thetracking of international trade is limited to Canada’s Harmonized Sales codes and has
a limited scope, trade continues to increase. Canadian exports of certified organic
products reached 460.9 million Canadian dollars (310 million euros) in 2019, while
imports reached 789 million Canadian dollars (approximately 531million euros) in thesame year.

Canadian Organic Labour
According to the 2016 Census of Agriculture, 2.35 percent of the total labour force works
in organic, compared to 2 percent in 2011. Thirty-one percent of the organic labour force
was female, a decrease compared to 34 percent in 2011. The 2016 census identified
important labour needs, mainly that organic farmers rely a lot on family labour (58percent compared to 41 percent in conventional farming), while still needing twice theamount of external labour sources (3.09 employees per farm versus 1 in conventionalfarming). 2016 data also shows that organic farms earn 11 percent more than the
average income, a significant increase from 4 percent in 2011.

State of Organic Performance Report
In 2019, COTA published its third State of Organic Performance Report that outlines
the most current forms of support for the organic sector from Federal, Provincial andTerritorial jurisdictions and provides a broad set of summary recommendations to eachlevel of government. According to the report, there has been little progress in terms of
support from provincial, territorial and Federal governments. While there is great
consumer confidence in the Canada Organic Regime, and recognition is growing for
the Canadian Organic Logo, the lack of comprehensive programming assistance at theprovincial/territorial level leaves a patchwork of provincial responses in the applicationof a standard for intra-provincial trade. There is also a need for the federal government
to provide more robust and comprehensive data on production, imports, exports andconsumption, which are paramount for good decision making on government
objectives related to climate change. The Canada Organic Trade Association willcontinue its efforts to work with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s 2020 Organic
Industry Engagement strategy to move the needle on a federal strategy thatincorporates organic agriculture and trade.

References− Canada Organic Trade Association publications: https://canadaorganic.myshopify.com/collections− Statistics Canada: https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/start

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North America › Statistics

North America: Current statistics
CLAUDIA MEIER,1 BERNHARD SCHLATTER,2 OLIVIA KELLER3 AND JAN
TRÁVNÍČEK4
Overview
North America’s organic agricultural land was 3.6 million hectares in 2019, which is 0.8
percent of the total agricultural area in the region. The area under organic cultivation
has more than tripled from the million hectares in 2000, and now represents 5 percentof the global organic agricultural land. Between 2018 and 2019, the area increased byalmost 305’000 hectares or 9 percent. In 2019, over 2.0 percent of the farmland in Canada
was organic, and the proportion in the United States is 0.6 percent. There was a total of
22’153 producers in North America; most of them in the United States (74 percent).

Land use
Land use details were available for 84 percent of the organic agricultural land. In 2019,
only 2 percent of all organic farmland was utilized for permanent crops (over 84’000
hectares) while 36 percent was used to grow arable crops (over 1.3 million hectares),and 46 percent (nearly 1.7 million hectares) was grassland/grazing area. The UnitedStates had over 812’000 hectares of organic grassland/grazing area, and Canada
reported almost 858’000 hectares.
The key organic arable crop group was cereals, with more than 582’000 hectares,
representing 0.8 percent of the total organic cereal area in the region, and 11 percent of
the world’s organic cereal area. In the United States, over 290’000 hectares of organic
cereals were grown, and Canada reported 292´000 hectares. The key organic cereal in
the region was wheat (more than 219´000 hectares), this represented 0.8 percent of thetotal wheat grown in the region. Other important organic arable crops in North
America were green fodder, with over 353’000 hectares, oilseeds, with almost 138’000
hectares, and dry pulses, with almost 105’000 hectares.
The main organic permanent crops were grapes (over 27’000 hectares), temperate fruits(over 19’000 hectares), and berries (almost 17´000 hectares). Organic temperate fruits
represented 7 percent of the total temperate fruit area in the region. The key organic
temperate fruits were apples, pears, and peaches. The key organic berries were
blueberries (almost 13’000 hectares, 16.8 percent of the total blueberries grown in theregion), and cranberries (over 2’000 hectares, 9.6 percent of the region’s cranberries).

Claudia Meier, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
Bernhard Schlatter, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
3 Olivia Keller, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
4 Jan Trávníček, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org
1
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Producers
In 2019, 22’153 organic producers were reported in North America. The United States
was the country with the most organic producers, over 16'000, and Canada reported
almost 5´700 organic producers. Since 2004, when there were over 11’000 organic
producers, the number almost doubled.

Wild collection
In 2019, the United States reported almost 600 hectares of organic wild blueberries.
Unfortunately, there was no more data on organic wild collection for the United States.
Canada reported over 24’000 hectares of organic wild collection in 2019, with no details.

MarketIn 2019, the organic market continued to grow in North America, reaching over 48.2
billion euros. Since 2018, Canada’s organic market grew by almost 12 percent, and theorganic market of the United States grew by 10 percent. The United States is the largest
single organic market in the world, and North America continues to be the region withthe largest organic market. In the United States, people spent 136 euros per capita onorganic products in 2019, while in Canada, the per capita consumption was almost 93
euros. For 2019, Canada reported an organic share of the total retail sales of 3 percent,and in the United States, an organic share 6 percent was noted.
For more information about the North American figures, see data tables, page 291.

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North America › Statistics › Graphs

Organic Agriculture in North America: Graphs
North America: Organic agriculture area 2019
Source: COTA and USDA, 2021

United States ofAmerica

2'326'551

Canada1'321'0720

500'000

1'000'000 1'500'000
Hectares

2'000'000

2'500'000

Figure 97: North America: Organic agricultural land in Canada and the United States
2019
Source: Canada Organic Trade Association and United States Department of Agriculture.

North America: Organic share of total agricultural land
2019
Source: COTA and USDA, 2021

United States of America

0.6%

Canada

0.0%

2.3%

0.5%

1.0%
1.5%
Share of total agricultural land

2.0%

2.5%

Figure 98: North America: Organic share of total agricultural land in Canada and theUnited States 2019
Source: Canada Organic Trade Association and United States Department of Agriculture.

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293

North America › Statistics › Graphs
North America: Development of organic agricultural land
1999-2019

3.34

3.22

2017

2.46

3.13

3.05

2013

2.97

3.01

2012

2016

3.02
2.65

2009

2.47

2.58

2.29
1.79

2.22
1.41

1.28

1.26

2002

1.0

2001

1.5

1.06

2.0

1.72

2.5

2008

3.0

0.73

Million hectares

3.5

2011

4.0

3.65

Source: COG-COTA and USDA, 2000-2021

0.5

2019

2018

2015

2014

2010

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2000

1999

0.0

Figure 99: North America: Development of organic agricultural land 1999-2019
Source: Canada Organic Trade Association and United States Department of Agriculture1

Figure 100: North America: Land use in organic agriculture 2019
Source: Canada Organic Trade Association and United States Department of Agriculture

Due to methodological differences, the United States shows a drop of its area in 2014. A reason could bethat the wild collection might have been included in the past.

1

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North America › Statistics › Tables

Organic Agriculture in North America: Tables
Table 78: North America: Organic agricultural land, organic share of total agriculturalland, and number of producers 2019
Country

Area [ha]Share of total agri. land [%]Producer [no.]BermudaCanadaUnited States of America

1'321'072
2'326'551

Processing
2.3%
0.6%

5'677
16'476

Total

3'647'623

0.8%

22'153

Source: Canada Organic Trade Association and United States Department of Agriculture; FiBL survey 2021

Table 79: North America: All organic areas 2019
Country
BermudaCanadaUnited States ofAmerica
Total

Agriculture [ha]Forest [ha]Wild collection[ha]Total [ha]Processing
1'321'072

24'1191'345'191

2'326'551

205'196596

2'532'342

3'647'623

205'196

24'7143'877'533

Source: Canada Organic Trade Association and United States Department of Agriculture; FiBL survey 2021

Table 80: North America: Land use in organic agriculture 2019Land use
Arable land crops

Crop group
Cereals
Dry pulses and protein crops for the production of grain
Flowers and ornamental plants
Fresh vegetables and melons
Hops
Medicinal and aromatic plants
Mushrooms and truffles
Oilseeds
Plants harvested green
Root crops
Seeds and seedlings
Strawberries
Textile crops
Arable crops, other

Area [ha]582'255
104'82954
80'120

Permanent crops total
Permanent grassland

1'648
11'418137'978353'115
14'82559
2'149
16'601
6'847
1'311'899
581'488
16'782
5'403
115
19'117
5'122
27'44477
9'776
628
84'464
1'669'772

Total

3'647'623

Arable land crops total
Cropland, no details
Permanent crops

Berries
Citrus fruit
CoffeeFruit, temperate
Fruit, tropical and subtropical
GrapesNurseries
Nuts
Olives

Source: Canada Organic Trade Association and United States Department of Agriculture; FiBL survey 2021

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Oceania

Map 7: Organic agricultural land in the countries of Oceania 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers and governments.

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Oceania › Australia

Australia
NICOLE FORD1 AND OWEN GWILLIAM2
Introduction
Australia continues to hold the world’s largest area of agricultural land under certified
organic management. The vast majority of Australia’s organic farmland is pastoral
operations focused particularly on beef cattle. While most of the Australian producers
are active in the production of livestock fodder, fruit, vegetables and lamb/sheep meat,
the Australian processing and manufacturing sectors are dominated by fruit, vegetables
and dairy products.
Certified organic producers and processors are found in all Australian states andterritories, each with their particular niches. Due to the drought, shortages of available
feed for many livestock producers (particularly in New South Wales (NSW) andQueensland), the year 2020 has seen the largest demand for organic hay and grain for
at least a decade with livestock fodder transported from Western Australia, South
Australia and Victoria, north to New South Wales and Queensland.
Estimated to be worth 2.6 billion Australian dollars3 (2018), the Australian organic
industry (exports and retail sales) has continued to grow despite continuing harshenvironmental conditions. The southern and eastern regions of Australia were
devastated by extensive damage from multiple bushfires during what is now called The
Black Summer.

The Black Summer
It is suggested a significant lightning strike in October 2019 detonated what would
become the most devastating fire season in Australia’s living history. Fuelled by yearsof drought, hot summer temperatures and an abundance of fuel load such as dry leaf
litter, over ten million hectares of bushland were incinerated. It is estimated that morethan a billion animals were lost, over 3000 homes were burnt, and 33 people lost theirlives.
For the first time in the Australian organic industry history, organic operators wererepresented during key discussions with Australian Organic Limited (AOL), the newly
established peak body, who were invited to have a seat at the Parliamentary roundtable
alongside all other peak body representatives.
With a commitment to provide swift support, AOL convened an industry advisorycommittee that provided detailed information and advice for affected operators.
Australian communities are still reeling over this disaster, with many operators still

Nicole Ford, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Organic Ltd, Nundah, Australia, www.austorganic.com
Owen Gwilliam, Chief Technical Officer, Australian Organic Ltd, Nundah, Australia,
www.austorganic.com
3 This corresponded to approximately 1.65 billion euros.
1
2

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Oceania › Australia
living in difficult conditions. For some of the hardest-hit regions, re-establishing theirfarming operations will take much time; regions such as the South West Slopes andNorthern Rivers regions of New South Wales have lost entire orchards and native tea
tree plantations. Many of these operators will be without production for years.
Table 81: Australia: Fire extent area during 2019–20 summer bushfire season insouthern and eastern Australia
Data as at 28 April 2020, and the area of forest in this extent, by jurisdiction
Fire area(thousandhectares)

Forest area in fire area
(thousand hectares)

Proportion of fire areathat is forested (%)

90

83

93

New South Wales

5’682

5’123

90

Northern Territory

0

0

0

Queensland

574

514

90

South Australia

313

137

44

Tasmania

45

30

65

Victoria

1’583

1’457

92

Western Australia

2’044

1’143

56

10’331

8’486

82

Jurisdiction
Australian Capital Territory

Total

Sources:- Fire extent derived from the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment National Indicative AggregatedFire Extent Dataset (v20200428) current to 28 April 2020
- Preliminary Area for Environmental Analysis – 2019/20 Fires1- Forest area derived from the National Forest Inventory Forests of Australia (2018) spatial dataset.
Notes: Refer the National Indicative Aggregated Fire Extent Dataset metadata statement2 for information on
the purpose, lineage, known issues and data limitations of the fire extent dataset.
Totals may not tally due to rounding.

Production & manufacturing
Organics now represents 1.8 billion Australian dollars3 or 3 percent of the total
production value of all agricultural commodities produced in Australia.
Fruit, vegetables, nuts, meat, grains, eggs, and poultry meat constitute 82 percent of the
production value with continued significant growth of fruit, vegetables and nuts byaround 17 percent since 2017.

Preliminary Area for Environmental Analysis – 2019/20 Fires is available on the website of the AustralianGovernment at environment.gov.au/system/files/pages/a8d10ce5-6a49-4fc2-b94d575d6d11c547/files/preliminary-analysis-area-19-jan-2020.pdf
2 The National Indicative Aggregated Fire Extent Datasets are available on the website of the Australian
government at environment.gov.au/fed/catalog/search/resource/details.page?uuid=%7B9ACDCB09-03644FE8-9459-2A56C792C743%7D
3 This corresponded to approximately 1.09 billion euros (2020).
1

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Oceania › Australia
There has been substantial growth across all the sectors, with an estimated Compound
Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 15 percent since 2014. However, there has been aslowing in meat, dairy, grains, eggs and poultry meat, wine, honey and animal
feedstuffs, which is indicative of the impacts of drought on commodities. Given theimpacts of the drought, overall farm-gate production, processing and export continue
to be strong, reflected by the substantial gains since 2012 even though the growth rate
has fallen slightly since 2017 across the sectors.
As the major supermarket retailers expand their private label range, an increase inavailability is driving more mainstream consumption. Large beverage businesses havealso developed new products as demand grows with Australia’s first mainstream
organic beer and cider launched in October 2019 and showcased at a large sporting
event.
The beverage category grew 7 percent in 2019, while organic food sales have increasedby five percent.
According to an IBISWorld report, the Australian organic farming industry’s revenue
is forecast to grow at an annualised 15.1 percent over the five years through 2024-25,
to 3.7 billion Australian dollars.

Regulatory Framework
By law, Australian-produced products that are labelled as organic and exported from
Australia must be certified as organic by one of the six government-accredited
certifying organisations: AUS-QUAL, ACO Certification Limited (ACOCL) (formerly
known as Australian Certified Organic), BioDynamic Research Institute (BDRI),NASAA Certified Organic (NCO), Organic Food Chain (OFC) and Southern Cross
Certified Australia (SXC).
The certifiers must certify to the National Standard for Organic and Bio-Dynamic
Produce (National Standard) or another standard deemed equivalent to the National
Standard. ACOCL, BDRI and NCO certify operators to their own standards (which
incorporate the minimum requirements of the National Standard) for additional market
access or branding purposes. OFC, AUSQUAL and SXC certify directly to the National
Standard. The National Standard was last updated in 2016 (Edition 3.7) and ismaintained by the industry-owned and funded Organic Industry Standards andCertification Council (OISCC) on behalf of the Australian Government’s Department ofAgriculture, Water and the Environment (DAWE).
Through 2018 – 2020, the Australian Government conducted a review of Australia’sorganic export regulation, the Export Control (Organic Produce Certification) Orders
under the Export Control Act 1982. The review considered whether the regulation ofexported organic products should continue, and if so, how and to which standard. AOL
made various submissions and contributed to the review on behalf of our industry, ina collaborative effort with the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment.
The outcome of the review is the publishing of a new Export Control (Organic) Rules
document that will come into effect in March 2021. The new rules include sensible andpractical improvements, including directly referencing the National Standard and the300

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Oceania › Australia
exclusion of cosmetics products from the scope of the Rules. These new rules provide
clarity and certainty to allow our industry to move forward with ongoing andimproving export market access.
Following on from the improvements to the regulatory system for exports, on 18
December 2020, after two years of AOL lobbying Government and industry, theAustralian Minister for Agriculture, Water and the Environment has requested his
Department appoint an Organics Industry Advisory Group to investigate the creationof a nationwide regulatory framework for the production and sale of organic products
domestically. The group will review whether the current domestic regulatory
framework is fit for purpose and to better understand the potential of improving
current regulations to facilitate the development and growth of the organic industry.
References
ABARES (2020) - Forest fire area data for the 2019–20 summer bushfire season in southern and eastern
Australia
ABS (2018) 7121.0 - Agricultural Commodities, Australia, 2016-17. Available athttps://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/allprimarymainfeatures/97B95C93A7FD9B75CA2573F
E-00162CAF?opendocument
Australian Organic Ltd (2019): Australian Organic Market Report 2019. Australian Organic Ltd, Nundah,
QLD, Australia www.austorganic.com
https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/forestsaustralia/forest-data-maps-and-tools/fire-data
IBIS World (2019): Organic Farming in Australia. Organic growth: Rising demand for organic produce
supports industry revenue and profit. Matthew Reeves
Willer, Helga et al. (Eds) (2020): The World of Organic Agriculture - Statistics and Emerging Trends 2020.
Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL and IFOAM - Organics International, 2020.
https://www.organic-world.net/yearbook/yearbook-20192.html

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Oceania › Pacific Islands

The Pacific Islands
KAREN MAPUSUA1Recent developments
While generally, certification continues to expand across the Pacific, some countries arereflecting a drop in certified land in recent years. This can be attributed to natural
disasters affecting perennial crops, such as coconuts, causing the licensees to suspend
or leave certification programs until their crops produce again. Governments are
becoming increasingly interested in creating a supportive policy environment. A
significant development is regional and national agencies and development partners
increasingly recognising the value of organic agriculture as a development tool for the
Pacific islands context.

Market, trade and certification
Most of the Pacific's organically certified products are for export; however, there areindications of growing local markets through basket (box) schemes, unverified organic
claims on labels, PGS development, organic stalls at farmers markets and increased
awareness. In Table 82, the main products that are currently organically certified in the
Pacific are listed.
Table 82: Pacific Islands: Main certified organic products
Products

Countries

Vanilla, ginger & other spices
Cocoa
Virgin Coconut Oil
Coconut meal
Nonu /noni (Morinda Citrifolia)
Honey
Bananas (including processed)
CoffeeLivestock( Beef, Goats and Sheep)
Fruit & Vegetables ( including processed)

Fiji, Vanuatu, Niue, Samoa
Vanuatu, Samoa, PNG
Samoa, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu
Vanuatu
Cook Islands, Samoa, Fiji, Niue, French Polynesia
Niue, Fiji
PNG, Samoa
PNG, Samoa, Vanuatu
Vanuatu, Fiji
Fiji, New Caledonia, Samoa, French Polynesia, Cook Islands, Republicof the Marshall Islands
French Polynesia
Solomon Islands

Rum
Forest nuts

While POETCom has systems in place for collating third part and PGS certification data,
until now, there are no mechanisms for collecting local organic market data. Growth
can be inferred from the increase in PGS certified farms and the number of organic
value chains and market opportunities.
PGS models in the Pacific include wild harvest, 'whole island', as well as more
traditional grower groups. Respect for traditional authorities (chiefs) is strong in the

Karen Mapusua, Operations Manager Land Resources Division, Pacific Community (SPC), Private Mail
Bag, Suva, Fiji, www.spc.int/

1

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Oceania › Pacific Islands
Pacific Islands, and in some cases, traditional governance systems have been embraced
to provide support to the guarantee system. Processing and value-adding operations
are also certified through the PGS process, creating a need to upskill those PGS that
include processing to manage the more complex inspection requirements.
In 2019 there were ten PGS approved to use the Organic Pasifika Mark. The number
and variety of PGS certified products on local markets and export are expanding, and2019 saw the range grow to include organic manioc flour, peanuts and coffee from
Vanuatu, with over 1000 farmers involved in the PGS. The growth of PGS and
improved recognition of organics' value has also contributed to a rise in farmers'
markets and supply agreements. Samoa, Niue, Cook Islands and Fiji now have certified
produce sold through farmers' markets. The Republic of the Marshall Islands has small
amounts of certified fresh produce available in selected supermarkets. Fiji has 135 PGS
certified farmers supplying vegetables to the country's only organic restaurant Tukuni,
established by the Foundation for Rural Enterprises and Development (FRIEND).
Third-party organic certification continues to grow slowly. Each year shows somewithdrawals from certification and some new licences. For some growers of permanent
crops, such as coconuts, tropical cyclones' devastation makes maintaining certification
through the recovery period uneconomical. These issues are likely to be exacerbatedunder climate change scenarios with more frequent and stronger climate events.
It remains challenging to obtain export data, but the Central Banks' published export
data combined with other market intelligence can provide insights in a few instances.
For example, the Central Bank of Samoa published data in 2019 that showed a 3600
percent increase in coconut oil exports within 12 months and a 400 percent increase incoconuts' farm gate price. Cross-referenced with other intelligence, this growth can be
attributed to the rapid growth in exports from new players in the coconut industry who
exported organic and fair-trade coconut oil in the previous 12 months. Such rapid
expansion of organic exports cannot be claimed as regionally widespread, but it does
show the potential for some organic value chains.

Legislation
New Caledonia and French Polynesia remain the only Territories to regulate organics.
Independent countries of the region have not yet passed organic regulations; however,Samoa has commenced drafting an organic bill. The Government of Vanuatu has
endorsed its first national organic policy. The Government of Fiji is now consulting on
a draft policy developed by the country's organic sector and presented to Government– a unique bottom-up approach to policy development.

Government and international support
A regional intergovernmental organisation, The Pacific Community, continues toprovide support for organics development and houses the secretariat of POETCom, thePacific Organic & Ethical Trade Community. POETCom remains predominantly
funded through development projects.

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303

Oceania › Pacific Islands
POETCom national affiliates continue to receive assistance from international NGOs
and through bilateral development assistance. In a few cases, national governments
provide financial support for organic certification costs, as in Samoa and Niue, where
the national governments cover certification fees for national grower groups.
The growing interest of development partners in organics as a solution for climate
resilience and livelihoods development is demonstrated through the Building
Prosperity for Women Producers through Organic Value Chains (BWBP) project,launched in 2018. It is a four-year project implemented in partnership with the PacificCommunity (SPC), POETCom and the Australian Department of Foreign Aﬀairs andTrade (DFAT) through the Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development programme(Pacific Women). Pacific Women recognises the potential for organic value chains andmechanisms such as Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) to empower women
economically and socially. The organisation worked with POETCom to design the
project to work with organic producers, processors, vendors and organic associations
and focus on niche organic products that women can develop.
Another example is the PROTÉGÉ project in the Pacific French Territories, funded by
the European Union. PROTÉGÉ stands for the 'Projet régional océanien des territoires
pour la gestion durable des écosystèmes' (Pacific Territories Regional Project for
Sustainable Ecosystem Management). It aims to strengthen the sustainability, climatechange adaptation and autonomy of key sectors and enhance ecosystem-services byprotecting water resources and biodiversity. Agroecology and organic agriculture form
the basis of the agriculture component of the programme.

Outlook
Development partners’ support has been secured to review POETCom's structure anddesign a sustainable funding mechanism to support the organic movement and thePacific Organic Guarantee Scheme. Opportunities for scaling organics as a response to
climate change are growing with development partners interested in funding
programmes of this nature. There is also an expectation that the local market for organic
products will continue to expand as the tourism and hospitality industries in the PacificIslands develop their brand for organic and sustainability.

Links/Further reading› Pacific Organic and Ethical Trade Community www.organicpasifika.com› Pacific Organic Standard http://www.organicpasifika.com/poetcom/wpcontent/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/POS.pdf› Growing Our Future POETCom Strategic Plan 2013 – 2017 http://www.organicpasifika.com/poetcom/wpcontent/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/POETCom-Strategic-Plan.pdf› POETCom Annual Reports http://www.organicpasifika.com/poetcom/who-are-we/annual-reports/› Pacific Organic Policy Toolkit http://www.organicpasifika.com/pasifikapolicytoolkit/

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Oceania › Statistics

Oceania: Current statistics
CLAUDIA MEIER, BERNHARD SCHLATTER, OLIVIA KELLER AND JAN
TRÁVNÍČEK
In 2019, the organic agricultural land in Oceania was almost 35.9 million hectares,
which constituted 9.6 percent of the total agricultural area in the region. Half of theworld’s organic agricultural land was in Oceania. The area under organic production
has increased almost seven-fold since 2000 (5.3 million hectares). Between 2018 and2019, the area in Oceania decreased by 118´000 hectares – 0.3 percent less - due to a dropin the organic agricultural area in Samoa (almost 57´000 hectares, 58 percent loss),
Papua New Guinea (nearly 25’000 hectares, 50 percent loss), Fiji (almost 19´000 hectares,
45 percent loss), and Vanuatu (over 17’000 hectares, 67 percent loss). The country withthe biggest organic agricultural area is Australia with 35.7 million hectares, and thehighest organic share of total agricultural land was in Samoa, with 14.5 percent of all
farmland under organic cultivation, followed by Australia with 9.9 percent.
In 2019, 97 percent of all organic farmland in Oceania was grassland/grazing areas (34.7
million hectares). Almost all of the organic grassland/grazing areas were in Australia(34.6 million hectares), with a very small share in New Zealand (over 64’000 hectares).
Of the almost 103’000 hectares of organic permanent crops, the largest share was used
for coconuts (over 59’000 hectares; mainly in Samoa), coffee (almost 11’000 hectares;
only Papua New Guinea), and grapes (almost 8’000 hectares; mainly in Australia).
Organic permanent crops played an important role in the region. For coconuts, theorganic share in the region was 12 percent, for coffee it was 20 percent, for grapes it was
4 percent, and for tea (487 hectares) it was 12 percent. In 2019, almost 20 percent of theworld’s organic coconuts area was in Oceania. Organic arable crops were grown onover 45’000 hectares. The key arable crop was cereals, with over 41’000 hectares (onlyAustralia), representing 0.2 percent of the total cereals area in the region and 0.8 percentof the world’s organic cereals area.
There were over 18’000 organic producers in the region, with the largest number of
producers in Papua New Guinea (over 12’000 producers), Samoa (almost 2´000
producers), and Australia (almost 2’000 producers). Since 2006, when data for most of
the countries became available, their number more than doubled.
In 2018, the total organic market was almost 1.4 billion euros for the region (new data
were not available at the time of writing). Australia reported an organic market of 1.2
billion euros and New Zealand a retail sales value of 155 million euros. For the othercountries in the region, no data is available. The annual organic consumption was 49
euros per person in Australia and 33 euros per person in New Zealand. For more
information, see the data tables on page 298.

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Oceania › Statistics › Graphs and Tables

Organic Agriculture in Oceania: Graphs
Oceania: Organic agricultural land by country 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021

Australia

35'687'799

New Zealand

88'871

Samoa

41'083

Papua New Guinea

24'696Fiji

22'612

Vanuatu

8'368

Solomon Islands

4'086

French Polynesia

1'562

Tonga

1'119

New Caledonia

800

Niue

43

Cook Islands

15
0

10'000'000

20'000'000
Hectares

30'000'000

40'000'000

Figure 101: Oceania: Organic agricultural land by country 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

Oceania: Organic share of total agricultural land by country
2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021

Samoa

14.5%

Australia

9.9%

Fiji

5.3%

Vanuatu

4.5%

Solomon Islands

3.5%

French Polynesia

3.4%

Tonga

3.2%

Papua New Guinea

2.1%

Niue

0.9%

New Zealand

0.8%

New Caledonia

0.4%
0%

5%

10%
15%
Share of total agricultural land

20%

Figure 102: Oceania: Organic share of total agricultural land by country 2019
Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

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Oceania › Statistics › Graphs and Tables
Oceania: Development of organic agricultural land
1999-2019
Source: FiBL-IFOAM-SOEL-Surveys 2001-2021

35.89

36.00

35.88
2019

27.35
2016

22.88

22.26

17.32
2013

11.36

2009

2012

12.15

2008

12.15

12.11

2007

11.38

12.07

2006

2011

12.43

2005

2010

12.18

11.81

2004

6.25
2002

2001 5.34

02000 5.31

51999 5.31

10

11.30

15

2015

20

2014

25

2003

Million hectares

30

2018

35

2017

40

Figure 103: Oceania: Development of organic agricultural land 1999-2019
Source: FiBL-IFOAM-SOEL 2001-2021; based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For
detailed data sources see annex, page 317

Organic Agriculture in Oceania: Tables
Table 83: Oceania: Organic agricultural land, organic share of total agricultural land,and number of producers 2019
Country

Area [ha]Share of total agri. land[%]

Australia
Cook Islands
Fiji
French Polynesia
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Niue
Papua New Guinea
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Tonga
Vanuatu
Total

35'687'799
15
22'612
1'562
800
88'87143
24'69641'083
4'086
1'119
8'368
35'881'053

9.9%
1.0%
5.3%
3.4%
0.4%
0.8%
0.9%
2.1%
14.5%
3.5%
3.2%
4.5%
9.6%

Producer [no.]
1'829
58
13
59
876
12'458
1'875
1'127
81
40
18'416

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

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307

Oceania › Statistics › Graphs and Tables
Table 84: Oceania: All organic areas 2019
Country

Agriculture [ha]Australia
Cook Islands
Fiji
French Polynesia
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Niue
Papua New Guinea
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Tonga
Vanuatu
Total

Wild collection [ha]Total [ha]112

35'687'799
15
22'612
1'562
800
88'871
155
24'69641'083
4'086
1'119
8'368
35'881'165

35'687'799
15
22'612
1'562
800
88'87143
24'69641'083
4'086
1'119
8'368
35'881'053

112

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

Table 85: Oceania: Land use in organic agriculture 2019Land use
Agricultural land and crops, no details
Arable land crops

Arable land crops total
Cropland, no details
Other agricultural land
Permanent crops

Permanent crops total
Permanent grassland
Total

Crop group
Cereals
Fresh vegetables and melons
Sugarcane

Coconut
CoffeeFruit
Fruit, tropical and subtropical
Grapes
Tea/mate, etc.
Permanent crops, other

Area [ha]23'41241'2934'035
745'33441'659986'408
59'246
10'855
4'567
76
7'503
487
20'063102'797
34'681'443
35'881'053

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on information from the private sector, certifiers, and governments. For detailed data
sources see annex, page 317

308

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Outlook

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn309

Outlook › Building Resilience

Building Resilience
LOUISE LUTTIKHOLT1
The year 2020 will undoubtedly be remembered for the global COVID-19 pandemic,
which will not have ended when this book is published at the beginning of 2021. Its
impact is likely to be felt for a much longer time. The crisis has provided us with amoment for reflection and revealed the vulnerability of global food systems.2 We needto conclude that industrial agriculture drives habitat loss and helps create theconditions for viruses to emerge and spread in the first place. And this in a world where
millions of people are already living with hunger, malnutrition and extreme poverty.
There can be only one conclusion here: we need to transition to sustainable and resilient
food systems, now and not in the distant future.
The transformation of agriculture and food systems is something which the organic
sector has been shaping and practising for decades. We are happy to build on all theseexperiences and also share them with others. We have the Principles of Health, Ecology,
Fairness and Care to guide and shape our vision for a truly sustainable world. Organic
farmers are applying good and best practices that are already contributing to ourplanet's sustainable future. There are legally protected standards on what can be called‘organic’ and formal and informal ways of verification. The positive impact of organic
goes way beyond formal regulations: organic inspires, also beyond our sector. Organic
and agroecological practices are studied and shared widely, even if applied in single
measures – all contributions count.
There is increasing awareness of the need to value our shared environment,
biodiversity and earth. In short, the role of agriculture in achieving the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) is obvious. We do observe increasing interest fromgovernments transforming food systems to making them contribute to the common
good. And only if governments ensure that policies are coherently aligned with theSDGs will agriculture become part of the solution instead of being part of the problem.3
As a membership-based organisation, IFOAM – Organics International has the task andtakes every opportunity to influence government policies and regulations around theworld directly. We also work to inform and coach high-level decision-makers bybringing them together in the Food Policy Forum for Change. We are heartened to see
more and more citizen-driven food councils influence their municipalities on a local
level, ensuring their local food systems become more resilient.

Louise Luttikholt, Exceutive Director IFOAM – Organics International, 53113 Bonn, Germany,
www.ifoam.org
2 IPES FOOD (010): COVID-19 and the Crisis in Food Systems. Communiqué by IPES-Food, April 14, 2020.
Available at http://www.ipes-food.org/_img/upload/files/COVID-19%20Press%20Release%20EN.pdf
3 Eyhorn, F., Muller, A., Reganold, J. P., Frison, E., Herren, H. R., Luttikholt, L., Mueller, A., Sanders, J.,
Scialabba, N., Seufert, V., & Smith, P. (2019). Sustainability in global agriculture driven by organic
farming. Nature Sustainability, 2, 253-255. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0266-6
1

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Outlook › Building Resilience
Indeed, COVID has shown how all living beings are connected. The notion of ‘One
Health’ expresses the interdependencies and vulnerable balances in our ‘One Earth
System’. We know that good, nutritious food increases our individual resilience; in
COVID times, it almost looked as if food was regarded as medicine. Organic agriculture
has a lot to offer for systemic, positive health by reducing pesticide levels, contributing
to a healthy environment and focussing on seasonality and proximity. We will learn in
2021 whether the Food Systems Summit, which is conceived as high level, inclusive
event ‘to launch bold and new actions to transform the way the world produces andconsumes food’1 takes these signals seriously.
IFOAM – Organics International will keep up the public pressure, as we know thatpersistency pays off: our global campaign #IGrowYourFood2 culminating in an action
day will run for the third time in 2021. We invite all organic and agroecological farmers
to share their motivation, practices and messages on growing organic food. We would
like to hear and learn from them and pay them the respect they deserve. We are happy
to do so together with our Network, especially the organic farmers gathered in theInternational Network of Organic Farmers’ Organisations (INOFO), which has gained
strength and momentum over the past years.
Many events have been postponed and replanned due to COVID. The Organic World
Congress is no exception to this and will now take place from September 7-9, 2021. The
venue stays the same: Rennes in France. I sincerely hope that we can reconvene inperson by that time. Meanwhile, I wish for us all to stay safe and healthy

12

https://www.un.org/en/food-systems-summit: Website of the United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021
https://campaigns.ifoam.bio/igrowyourfood/2020: Website of the IFOAM Campaign #IGrowYourFood
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Annex › Statistics › Key indicators

Annex: Key Indicators by Country and Region
Table 86: Key indicators by region 2019
Organic
area [ha]Shares of
the globalorganic
farmlandarea [%]

Africa*2’030’830

Asia

5’911’622

Europe16’528’677

23%

3.3%

Latin America

8’292’139

11%

1.2%

North America

3’647’623

5%

0.8%

+9.1

RegionOrganic
share of total
farmlandarea [%]

Growth2018-2019
[%]

2.8%

0.2%

+10.2

850’490

17

8%

0.4%

-10.3

1’589’563

10’949+5.9

430’74245’049+3.5

224’388810

22’15348’201

Organic
producers [no.]Organic
retail sales[Million €]Oceania

35’881’053

50%

9.6%

-0.3

18’416

1’378

World**

72’285’656

100%

1.5%

+1.2

3’135’129

106’404

Source: FiBL survey 2021. Note: Agricultural land includes in-conversion areas and excludes wild collection, aquaculture,
forest, and non-agricultural grazing areas.
*Data from Ethiopia and Kenya. **Includes correction value for French overseas departments.

Table 87: Key indicators by country 2019
Country
Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
AndorraArgentina
Armenia
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
BahamasBangladesh
BelarusBelgium
BelizeBenin
BermudaBhutanBolivia (Plurinational State of)Bosnia and Herzegovina
BrazilBrunei Darussalam
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
BurundiCambodia
Cameroon
CanadaCape Verde
Chad
Channel Islands
Chile
China
Colombia
Comoros

Organic
area [ha]Organic
share [%]

Organic
producers[no.]*

786
653
772
2
3’672’350
594
35’687’799
669’92137’630
49
2’249
1’375
93’11977
15’1640.002%
0.1%
0.002%
0.01%
2.5%
0.04%
9.9%
26.1%
0.8%
0.3%
0.02%
0.02%
6.9%
0.04%
0.4%

1
86
64
1’269
29
1’829
26’042
305
1
2
31
2’394
157
5’170

6’632
144’231
1’692
1’283’054

1.3%
0.4%
0.1%
0.5%

4’354
14’161337
22’191117’779
87’49084
25’757204
1’321’072
495
1’113
180
20’897
2’216’000
30’447
1’164

2.3%
0.7%
0.004%
0.5%
0.002%
2.3%
0.6%
0.002%
2.0%
0.1%
0.4%
0.1%
0.9%

6’213
29’214
25
6’350
499
5’677
1

Organic retail sales[Million €]

781
6’308
4’155
851

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

1’224
1’920
3

779
0
Processing
00778
Aquaculture
30

3’480

2
8’504

313

Annex › Statistics › Key indicators
Country
Cook Islands
Costa Rica
Côte d'Ivoire
Croatia
Cuba
CyprusCzech Republic
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Denmark
Dominica
Dominican Republic
EcuadorEgypt
El Salvador
Estonia
Eswatini
Ethiopia
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
Faroe Islands
Fiji
FinlandFranceFrench Guiana (France)
French Polynesia
GambiaGeorgia
Germany
Ghana
GreeceGrenadaGuadeloupe (France)
Guam
GuatemalaGuineaGuinea-Bissau
GuyanaHaiti
HondurasHong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Iraq
IrelandIsraelItaly
JamaicaJapan
JordanKazakhstan
Kenya
KosovoKuwaitKyrgyzstan
Lao People's Democratic Republic
LatviaLebanonLesotho314

Organic
area [ha]Organic
share [%]

Organic
producers[no.]*

15
8’832
66’728108’1272’373
6’240
540’986
88’727285’526240
134’375
47’836116’000
1’708
220’737843
221’189
31’937251
22’612306’484
2’240’797
3’667
1’562
68
1’452
1’613’785
31’199528’752
84
492

58
54
2’905
5’153
9
1’252
4’694
34’613
4’109

88’178
1’000
781

1.0%
0.5%
0.3%
7.2%
0.04%
5.0%
15.4%
0.3%
10.9%
1.0%
5.5%
0.9%
3.0%
0.1%
22.3%
0.1%
0.6%
2.8%
8.4%
5.3%
13.5%
7.7%
11.3%
3.4%
0.01%
0.1%
9.7%
0.2%
8.7%
1.1%
1.0%
0.0%
2.3%
0.01%
0.1%

3’333
29’274

0.2%
0.9%

4’633
6’023

303’190
5’740
2’299’222
251’619
11’91663
73’952
6’307
1’993’225
374
10’792
1’446
294’289
154’488
1’036
33
19’054
8’952
289’796
1’574

5.7%
0.4%
1.3%
0.4%
0.03%
0.001%
1.6%
1.0%
15.2%
0.1%
0.2%
0.1%
0.1%
0.6%
0.2%
0.02%
0.2%
0.4%
14.8%
0.2%
0.0%

5’136
26
1’366’226
18’162
24

Organic retail sales[Million €]

1
99
2
164
1’979

16’31113’744
970
380
2’060
2
203’602
3
1
13
5’129
47’196
84
59
1
1’075
34’136
3’199
30’124
23
103

55
13

368
11’295

11’97066

6’346
1Wild collection

Processing
30

1’725
350
70’561
127
3’678
23
41
37’295
200
1
1’051
2’165
4’178
122
3

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

61

206
3’625
1
1’419

4

51

Annex › Statistics › Key indicators
Country
Liberia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Madagascar
MalawiMalaysia
Mali
Malta
Martinique (France)
Mauritania
Mauritius
MayotteMexicoMoldova
MonacoMongolia
Montenegro
MoroccoMozambique
MyanmarNamibia
Nepal
Netherlands
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Niue
North Macedonia
NorwayOman
Pakistan
Palestine
PanamaPapua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
PolandPortugal
Puerto Rico
Republic of Korea
Réunion (France)
Romania
Russian Federation
RwandaSamoa
San Marino
São Tomé and Príncipe
Saudi Arabia
SenegalSerbiaSierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
Somalia

Organic
area [ha]Organic
share [%]

Organic
producers[no.]*

2
1’470
242’118
5’814
76’530
12’294
1’276
11’30055613

0.0001%
41.0%
8.1%
4.4%
0.2%
0.2%
0.01%
0.03%
0.5%
2.0%

1
47
2’417
105
69’505531
12’2722480

6
41
301’891
27’833

0.01%
0.2%
0.3%
1.2%

19
11
36’587
241

61
4’751
9’917
7’762
12’948112
9’361
68’068800
88’87142’952254
55’04743
3’711
45’31243
64’8855’388
5’929
24’696
57’566
235’592
168’352507’637
293’21314
29’711
1’474
395’228674’370
1’265
41’0830.0001%
1.8%
0.03%
0.02%
0.1%
0.0003%
0.2%
3.7%
0.4%
0.8%
0.8%
0.001%
0.1%
0.9%
0.3%
4.6%
0.003%
0.2%
1.2%
0.3%
2.1%
0.3%
1.0%
1.4%
3.5%
8.2%
0.01%
1.8%
3.1%
2.9%
0.3%
0.1%
14.5%

112
393
277
149
48
13
983
1’867

10’93424’517
6’486
21’266
157’53115
197’565
49’638
4’086

24.9%
0.01%
0.1%
0.6%
4.0%
2.2%
10.3%
10.3%
3.5%

Organic retail sales[Million €]51
160

Wild collection

14
Processing

876
10’448
2
319
817
1’976
5
415
1’449
18
12’4585’122
80’78512’03718’6555’637
518’199
38
9’277
57
6’990
1’875

0

1’211
155

442

14
314
21
357
41
160

Processing
3’563
244
18’375
373
5’502
802
3’823
1’127

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

296

16
4
49
Wild collection

315Annex › Statistics › Key indicators
CountrySouth Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Suriname
SwedenSwitzerland
Syrian Arab Republic
TaiwanTajikistan
Tanzania’ United Republic ofThailand
Timor-Leste
Togo
Tonga
Tunisia
TurkeyUgandaUkraineUnited Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States of America
United States Virgin Islands
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)Viet Nam
ZambiaZimbabwe
World

Organic
area [ha]Organic
share [%]

Organic
producers[no.]*

30’2142’354’916
70’43673’903
109613’964
172’713
19’987
9’536
10’340278’467
188’451
32’47238’506
1’119
286’623518’435
183’598467’980
4’642
459’275
2’326’551
26
2’143’640
932
8’368

0.03%
9.7%
2.5%
0.1%
0.1%
20.4%
16.5%
0.1%
1.2%
0.2%
0.7%
0.9%
8.5%
1.0%
3.2%
2.9%
1.4%
1.3%
1.1%
1.2%
2.6%
0.6%
0.7%
15.3%
0.004%
4.5%

154
41’838
2’338
5
39
5’730
7’284
2’458
3’761
949
148’609
118’9854
48’44381
7’456
74’545210’353
470
102
3’581
16’47661’901
207
848

0.5%
0.001%
0.01%

17’1745
8

72’285’656

1.5%

3’135’129

Organic retail sales[Million €]

2’133

2’144
2’912

12

46
36
2’679
44’721748
240Processing
157

106’404

Source: FiBL survey 2021, based on data from governments, the private sector, and certifiers. For retail sales data: FiBLAMI- survey 2021, based on data from government bodies, the private sector, and market research companies. For
detailed data sources see annex, page 317*Total number includes data for countries with less than three operators.

316

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Annex › Sources

Annex: Data Providers
and Data Sources
Afghanistan
Certifier data.

Albania
Source› Mediterranean Organic Agriculture Network(MOAN), MOAN Secretariat, Istituto
Agronomico Mediterraneo di Bari (CHEAM
Bari), Bari, Italy

Algeria
Source› Mediterranean Organic Agriculture Network(MOAN), MOAN Secretariat, Istituto
Agronomico Mediterraneo di Bari (CIHEAM
Bari), Bari, Italy. The data is from 2017.

AndorraSource› Ecocert Iberica, Sevilla, Spain
Contact› Celia Carave Blanco, Ecocert Iberica, Sevilla,
Spain

Argentina
Source› Area, operator, production, export, retail sales(MT) data: provided by SENASA,www.senasa.gov.ar
Contact› Juan Carlos Ramirez and Diego Pinasco,
SENASA, Buenos Aires, Argentina,
www.senasa.gob.ar› Facundo Soria, Ministerio de Agricultura
Ganadería y Pesca (MAGYP), Buenos Aires,
Argentina,
http://www.alimentosargentinos.gob.ar/Home
Alimentos/Organicos/

Armenia
Source› Survey of Ecoglobe - Organic control andcertification body, Yerevan, Republic of
Armenia, www.ecoglobe.am

Contact› Nune Darbinyan and Eliza Petrosyan,
Ecoglobe - Organic control and certification
body, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia,
www.ecoglobe.am

Australia
Source› Australian Organic (2019): Market Report 2019.
Australian Organic, Nundah› Land use and crop data from 2017. Source:
Australian Bureau of Statistics ABS, provided
by Els Wynen.1
Contact› Niki Ford, Australian Organic, Nundah,
Australia

Austria
Sources› Area, land use and farms: Bundesministerium
für Nachhaltigkeit und Tourismus, Vienna,
Austria› Operators: Eurostat database, Eurostat,
Luxembourg› Retail sales: RollAMA based on GfK, AMAMarketing, Agrarmarkt Austria Marketing
GesmbH, Vienna, Austria› Import data: European Commission/Traces
Contact› Otto Hofer, Federal Ministry of Agriculture,
Forestry, Environment and Water Management(AT), Vienna, Austria› Barbara Köcher-Schulz, AMA-Marketing
GesmbH AMA, Vienna, Austria› Pia Reindl, AMA-Marketing GesmbH AMA,
Vienna, Austria

Azerbaijan
Source› Experimental and Resource Center affiliated to
the Azerbaijan Botanic Center, Ganja,
Azerbaijan, www.etkt.az. The data is from2015.
Contact› Dr. Vugar Babayev, Ganja Agribusiness
Association (GABA), Ganja, Azerbaijan,
www.etkt.az.

Bahamas› Certifier data.

1 See Wynen, Els (2019): Organic Australia in
2010/11 and 2015/16. In: Willer, Helga and Julia
Lernoud (Eds.) (2019): The World of Organic
Agriculture. Research Institute of Organic
Agriculture FiBL, Frick, and IFOAM – Organics

International, Bonn. Available athttps://www.organic-world.net/yearbook/yearbook2019.html

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

317

Annex › Sources
Bangladesh
Source› For 2019, no new data were received.
› For 2018, data were provided by a local source.
All certifiers active in the country werecovered. The certified organic area was 6284.9
hectares. Aquaculture (shrimp) accounted forthe major share (5781 hectares) of the certifiedarea, while the rest (503.9 hectares) was used to
grow organic tea. According to the source, anadditional 152’240 hectares were under noncertified organic production. No producer
numbers were supplied.
› Revisions: Some of the data used previously
were removed from the database for all years.
› History: For the years 2008-2016, the data on
the agricultural land from one international
certifier were used (using 2012 data for up to2016). For the aquaculture area, the data froman other international certifier were used. 850
smallholders active in aquaculture werereported. After 2016, the aquaculture data
came from a third international certifier; the2018 aquaculture data are from a local source,
based on data from certifiers (see above). No
numbers on the smallholders were provided
for 2018.
› Please note that for Bangladesh the number ofsmallholder farmers is not included.
› Please note that due to the multiple andchanging data sources, a direct year-to-yearcomparison is not possible for Bangladesh.
Contact› Retail sales: Landbouw en Visserij, Brussels,
Belgium› Import data: European Commission/Traces
Contact› Ilse Timmermans, Landbouw en Visserij,
Brussels, Belgium

BelizeSource› Area and producers: Certifier data.
› Export value and volume data is from 2015 andprovided by the previous data source.
Note› Please note that the data source changed in2018 and that therefore a direct year-to-yearcomparison is not possible.

Benin
Source› CERTISYS, 1150 Bruxelles, Belgium,www.certisys.eu.
› Control Union, Zwolle, The Netherlands,
www.controlunion.org› Ecocert Burkina Faso, Ouaga, Burkina Faso,
www.ecocert.com› Kiwa BCS, Nürnberg, Germany, www.bcsoeko.deContact› Dr. Shaikh Tanveer Hossain, IFOAM Asia
› Dr. Khurshid Alam, BARI, Bangladesh› Ditta Fetekene, Control Union, Zwolle, The
Netherlands, www.controlunion.org› Tobias Fischer, Kiwa BCS, Nürnberg,
Germany, www.bcs-oeko.de› Emmeline Foubert, CERTISYS, 1150 Bruxelles,
Belgium, www.certisys.eu.
› Sisigué Arsène Sanou, Ecocert Burkina Faso,
Ouaga, Burkina Faso, www.ecocert.com

Belarus

BermudaSource› Certifier data (Processing)› Certifier data
Contact

Bhutan› Lyubomyr Klepach, Center for Environmental
Solutions (CES), 220029 Minsk, Belarus
Note
The data were collected by FiBL amonginternational certifiers active in the countries. For2017 and 2018, the Center for Environmental
Solutions provided the data.

Belgium

Source› Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), National
Organic Programme DOA, Thimphu, Bhutan,
www.moa.gov.bt
Contact› Kesang Tshomo, Ministry of Agriculture MOA,
National Organic Programme DOA, Thimphu,
Bhutan, www.moa.gov.bt

Sources

Bolivia› Area and operator data: Landbouw en Visserij,
Brussels, Belgium› Livestock data: Eurostat database, Eurostat,
Luxembourg and Landbouw en Visserij,
Brussels, Belgium› Area, operator, production, export data fromSENASAG, provided via Comisión
Interamericana de Agricultura Orgánica
(CIAO), Buenos Aires, Argentina.

318

SourceFiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Annex › Sources› Area and production data for cocoa andsesame are from AOPEB (Bolivian Associationof Organic Producers Organisations). This data
is from 2014.
Note› For 2019 data, the data source has changed: For
2014 and preceding years, data were based ona survey of the Bolivian Association of Organic
Producers Organisations (AOPEP). This data
was used up to 2018. For 2019, data were from
National Service of Agricultural Health andFood Safety (SENASAG) (except for cocoa andsesame area and production data). Please notethat therefore a direct year-to-year comparison
is not possible.
› The 2019 data may partly include PGS data.
Contact› Claudia Rocabado, SENASAG (Servicio
Nacional de Sanidad Agropecuaria e Inocuidad
Alimentaria), Trinidad, Bolivia

Bosnia Herzegovina
Source› Mediterranean Organic Agriculture Network(MOAN), MOAN Secretariat Istituto
Agronomico Mediterraneo di Bari (CIHEAM
Bari), Bari, Italy

BrazilSources

Bulgaria
Sources› Land area, operators: Eurostat and data fromthe Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture provided
by FOA Bioselena, Karlovo, Bulgaria.
www.bioselena.com› Retail sales (from 2018): Boshnakova, Mila
(2020): Organic Market Annual Report
Bulgaria: GAIN Report Number BU2020-0006,
USDA, Foreign Agricultural Service,
Washington› Import data: European Commission/Traces
Contact› Dr. Stoilko Apostolov, FOA Bioselena, Karlovo,
Bulgaria. www.bioselena.com

Burkina Faso
Sources› CERTISYS, Bruxelles, Belgium,www.certisys.eu.
› Ecocert West Africa, Ouagadougou, Burkina
Faso› LACON GmbH, Offenburg, Germany (2017data)
Contact› Emmeline Foubert, CERTISYS, 1150 Bruxelles,
Belgium, www.certisys.eu› Sisigué Arsène Sanou, Ecocert Burkina Faso,
Ouaga, Burkina Faso, www.ecocert.com› Area and operator data: Ministério da
Agricultura, Pecuária e
Abastecimento/Ministry of Agriculture,
Livestock and Food (MAPA). To this data, thearea and operator data of two international
certifiers were added by FiBL. The data ofthese certifiers are currently not registeredunder the system of the MAPA. For MAPA
data see Table 88, page 336 .
› Please note that area and operator data from
MAPA may include PGS data.
› Please note that land use and crop details wereavailable only from the international certifiers
but do not cover the total organic farmland.
› Export value and retail sales data: Organic
Brazil (2016 data)› Production value data: Organics Brazil (2007)
Contact

Burundi› Virgínia Mendes Cipriano Lira, Ministério da
Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento(DTEC/SDA/MAPA), Coordenadora deProdução Orgânica, Brasilia, Brazil

SourceBrunei Darussalam› Ecocert East Africa, Antananarivo, Madagascar
Contact› Brayene Ramanantsoa, Ecocert East Africa,
Antananarivo, Madagascar

Cambodia
Source› Certifier data.

Cameroon
Source› Ecocert West Africa, Ouagadougou, Burkina
Faso, www.ecocert.com
Contact› Sisigué Arsène Sanou, Ecocert Burkina Faso,
Ouaga, Burkina Faso, www.ecocert.com

Canada› Land area, producers and other operator types,
market data: Survey of the Canada Organic
Trade Association (COTA), Ottawa, Canada,
based on information from certifiers.

› For Brunei Darussalam, no data was provided
for 2019. Updates should be sent tohelga.willer@fibl.org
FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn319

Annex › Sources
Contact› Diana Zeidan, Special Projects Coordinator,
Canada Organic Trade Association, Ottawa,
Canada, http://ota.com/otacanada.html
Note
See also the article about organic farming in
Canada in this and in previous editions of “TheWorld of Organic Agriculture.”

Cape Verde
Certifier data.

Chad
Certifier data. Not for all indicators updated data
were provided.

Channel Islands
Source› FAOSTAT (2016) Organic area data Channel
Islands. The FAOSTAT website, FAOSTAT,
Rome, Italy, FAOSTAT > Agri-Environmental
Indicators> Inputs. The data is from 2018.

Chile
Source› Area data, producers/ smallholders, livestockand export/import data: Servicio Agrícola yGanadero (SAG), Santiago, Chile,www.sag.gob.cl, provided via Comisión
Interamericana de Agricultura Orgánica
(CIAO), Buenos Aires, Argentina› Retail sales data (2009) according to USDA:
Organic Products Report Chile. GAIN Report
Number CI0031. November 30, 2010
Contact› Pilar M. Eguillor Recabarren, Oficina deEstudios y Políticas Agrarias (ODEPA),
Ministerio de Agricultura, Teatinos 40,
Santiago, Chile, www.odepa.gob.cl› Claudio Cárdenas Catalán, Servicio Agrícola yGandero (SAG), Ministerio de Agricultura,
Santiago, Chile, http://www.sag.cl

China› Carlos Escobar, ECONEXOS - Desarrollo en
Movimiento, Cali, República de Colombia,
www.econexos.com.
Note› The data collection official system from the
Ministry of Agriculture only shows
information about the area, products, etc.
certified according to the national standard.
This means that if an operator has, e.g. EU
certification only and is not certified according
to the national system, this data is notincluded. If an operator has EU certification +national certification, the data is included. It
might therefore be that the organic area in
Colombia is higher.

Comoros
Source› Ecocert East Africa, Antananarivo, Madagascar
Contact› Brayene Ramanantsoa, Ecocert East Africa,
Antananarivo, Madagascar

Congo, Democratic Republic ofCertifier data.

Cook Islands
SourceSources› Land area, operators, market and export data;
Chinese Agricultural University, Beijing, China
Contact› Yuhui Qiao, Chinese Agricultural University,
Beijing, China› Zejiang Zhou, President, Board of IFOAM
Asia, China

Colombia
Source› Area, operator, production, and export data
2019: from five international certifiers.

320› Area and operator data before 2019: Ministryof Agriculture and Rural Development(Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural),Bogotá, Columbia, to which details fromseveral international certifiers were added.
Please note that based on the data from theministry, the 2017 data for the total area(published in “The World of Organic
Agriculture 2019”) were revised.
› Land use and crop data before 2019 were
provided by ECONEXOS, Conexion Ecologica,
Cali, Colombia, www.econexos.com, based ona survey among the certifiers. The land use andcrop data are from 2014.
Contact› Pacific Organic and Ethical Trade Community(POETCom), Suva Fiji, www.spc.int.
Contact› Karen Mapusua, Secretariat of the PacificCommunity (SPC), Suva Fiji, www.spc.int

Costa Rica
Source› Land area, operators and export volume data:
Servicio Fitosanitario del Estado (SFE), M.A.G
Costa Rica, San José
› Export value (2009 data) PROMOCER (2011):
Costa Rica: exportaciones de Productos
orgánicos según destino

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Annex › Sources› Domestic market data (2008) were provided by
the organic sector organization MAOCO

Côte d’Ivoire

Contact› Andreas Selearis, Department of Agriculture,
Nicosia, Cyprus

SourcesCzech Republic

The data were compiled by FiBL based on thedata of the following international certifiers:› CERTISYS, B-1150 Bruxelles, Belgium› Control Union, Zwolle, The Netherlands,
www.controlunion.org› Ecocert West Africa, Ouagadougou, Burkina
Faso, www.ecocert.com› Kiwa BCS, Nürnberg, Germany, www.bcsoeko.de
Not all certifiers provided updated data.
Contact

Source› Ditta Fetekene, Control Union, Zwolle, The
Netherlands, www.controlunion.org› Tobias Fischer, Kiwa BCS, Nürnberg,
Germany, www.bcs-oeko.de› Emmeline Foubert, CERTISYS, 1150 Bruxelles,
Belgium, www.certisys.eu.
› Sisigué Arsène Sanou, Ecocert Burkina Faso,
Ouaga, Burkina Faso, www.ecocert.com

Croatia
Sources› Area and operators: Eurostat database organic
farming, Eurostat, Luxembourg andMediterranean Organic Agriculture Network
MOAN, Bari, Italy› Market (from 2014) & export data (from 2011):
Darko Znaor, Independent Consultant, 10000
Zagreb, Croatia› Import data: Import data: European
Commission/Traces
Contact› Area, operators, market and international trade
data: Institute of Agricultural Economics andInformation (UZEI), Department of Agrienvironmental Policy, 602 00 Brno, Czech
Republic. The market and international trade
data are from 2018.
› Import data: Import data: European
Commission/Traces
Contact› Hana Šejnohová, Institute of Agricultural
Economics and Information (UZEI),
Department of Agri-environmental Policy,
Brno, Czech Republic› Andrea Hrabalová, Brno, Czech Republic

Denmark
Sources› Land area, land use, Operators: Eurostat
database, Eurostat, Luxembourg› Retail sales: Landbrug & Fødevarer. Based ondata from Statistics Denmark (general retailsales) and Organic Denmark (for othermarketing channels)› Foodservice and exports: Statistics Denmark› Import and export values: Statistics Denmark› Import quantity data: European
Commission/Traces
Contact› Darko Znaor, Independent Consultant, 10000
Zagreb, Croatia› Martin Lundoe, Statistics Denmark,Copenhagen, www.statbank.dk› Ejvind Pedersen, Danish Agriculture & Food
Council, Agro Food Park 13, 8200 Aarhus N,
Denmark

Cuba

Dominica› Area, operators, and production data from twointernational certifiers.

SourceCyprus
Source› Land area and producer data: Department ofAgriculture, Nicosia, Cyprus, and Eurostat
database, Eurostat, Luxembourg› Production data: Eurostat database, Eurostat,
Luxembourg› Market data (from 2006): Organic Retailers
Association, Ecozept and Biovista (eds.) (2008):
Specialised Organic Retail Report 2008.
Freising and Vienna 2008
› Import data: Import data: European
Commission/Traces› Division of Agriculture provided by Dominica
Organic Agriculture Movement (DOAM) Inc.,
PO Box 1953 - Roseau, Commonwealth ofDominica.
› The data is from 2011.

Dominican Republic
Source› Area, operators, production, and export datafrom Secretaria de Estado de Agricultura,
Oficina de Control Orgánico, Santa Domingo,
Dominican Republic, www.agricultura.gob.do.
Data were provided via Comisión
Interamericana de Agricultura Orgánica
(CIAO), Buenos Aires, Argentina

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321

Annex › Sources
Contact

Contact› Leandro Duarte Nina Fortuna, Director Oficina
de Control de la Agricultura Orgánica,
ViceMinisterio de Extensión y Capacitación
Agropecuarias, Ministerio de Agricultura,Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic,
www.agricultura.gob.do.

› Merit Mikk, Centre of Ecological Engineering,Tartu, Estonia

Ecuador
Source› Area, operators, production, and export data:
Agrocalidad, Quito, Ecuador,
www.agrocalidad.gob.ec› Retail sales and export value data from 2017.
Contact› Rommel Aníbal Betancourt Herrera,
Agrocalidad, Quito, Ecuador

Egypt
Source› Mediterranean Organic Agriculture Network(MOAN), MOAN Secretariat Istituto
Agronomico Mediterraneo di Bari (CIHEAM
Bari), Bari, Italy

El Salvador
Source› Area, operators, production, export, retail sales
data from the Ministerio de Agricultura yGanadería (MAG), Final 1a. Avenida Norte, 13
Calle Poniente y Avenida Manuel, Gallardo,
Santa Tecla, El Salvador
Contact› Jose Fernando Maldonado Cestona,
Coordinador Area de Inocuidad de Alimentos
y Agricultura Orgánica Ministerio de
Agricultura y Ganadería Dirección General de
Sanidad Vegetal, El Salvador

Estonia
Sources› Land area, land use, operators: Organic
Farming in Estonia 2019. Compiled by the
Estonian Organic Farming Foundation basedon Ministry of Agriculture, Republic ofEstonia, Tallin, and Eurostat database,Eurostat, Luxembourg› Retail sales data: Estonian Institute of
Economic Research, Estonia› Export data: Estonian Ministry of Agriculture› Import quantity data: European
Commission/Traces› A detailed report about organic farming in
Estonia can be found at
http://www.maheklubi.ee/mison/eestis/322

Equatorial Guinea› For this country only export data are available(European Commission/Traces). Information
on area and producers should be sent tohelga.willer@fibl.org

Eswatini
Certifier data

Ethiopia
Sources
Area data› Ceres, Happburg, Germany, www.cerescert.com› Control Union, Zwolle, The Netherlands› Ecocert South Africa, Stellenbosch, South
Africa› FiBL estimate for coffee area based on 2015
data from the Ethiopian Institute ofAgricultural Research, Akaki, Ethiopia› Onecert, Mansarovar, Jaipur, India,
www.onecert.com› Textile Exchange, London, UK (for Cotton
data)
Producers› As the data from the international certifiers do
not always include the smallholder farmers,
the number of producers that was provided by
the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural
Research, was continued to be used.
Contact› Lisa Barsley, Textile Exchange, London, UK› Albrecht Benzing, Ceres, Happburg, Germany,www.ceres-cert.com› Ditta Fetekene, Control Union, Zwolle, The
Netherlands› Daniël Kotzé, Ecocert South Africa,
Stellenbosch, South Africa› Ritu Priya, Onecert, Mansarovar, Jaipur, India,
www.onecert.com
Note
For Ethiopia no new data have been received
from the national data source since 2015.
Therefore, data from international certifiers wereused. A direct year-to-year comparison istherefore not possible.

Falkland Islands/Malvinas
Source› Department of Agriculture, Bypass Road,
Stanley, Falkland Islands,
www.agriculture.gov.fk.

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Annex › Sources
Contact

Contact› Lucy Ellis, Department of Agriculture, Bypass
Road, Stanley, Falkland Islands,
www.agriculture.gov.fk
Comment› Eva Lacarce, Agence Bio, Montreuil sous Bois,
France, www.agencebio.fr

The drop in area and number of producers isdue to the challenging situation of the wool
market, COVID-19 being one factor.

Faroe Islands
Source› Vottunarstofan Tún ehf, Laugavegur 7, 101
Reykjavík, Iceland, www.tun.is.
Contact› Gunnar Gunnarsson, Vottunarstofan Tún ehf.,
Reykjavík, Iceland, www.tun.is

Fiji Islands
Sources› Pacific Organic and Ethical Trade Community(POETCom), Suva, Fiji, www.spc.int
Contact› Karen Mapusua, Pacific Organic and Ethical
Trade Community (POETCom), Suva, Fiji

Finland
Sources› Land area and operators: Eurostat database,Eurostat Luxembourg.
› Market data: Pro Luomu, Kauniainen, Finland› Export data: Pro Luomu, Kauniainen, Finland.
Total exports are estimated at 25 to 30 million
euros› Import data: European Commission/Traces
Contact› Marja-Riitta Kottila, Pro Luomu, Kauniainen,
FinlandFranceSource› Area and operators: Agence Bio, Montreuilsur-Bois, France. www.agencebio.org, andEurostat database, Eurostat Luxembourg› Retail sales: Agence Bio, Montreuil-sur-Bois,
France› Export (2017) and import (2018) data (values inEuros): Agence Bio, Montreuil-sur-Bois, France› Import data (MT): European
Commission/Traces
Contact› Eva Lacarce, Agence Bio, Montreuil-sous-Bois,
France, www.agencebio.fr

French Guyana
Source› Agence Bio, Montreuil-sur-Bois, France.
www.agencebio.org.

French Polynesia
Source› Pacific Organic and Ethical Trade Community(POETCom), Suva Fiji, www.spc.int.
Contact› Karen Mapusua, Secretariat of the PacificCommunity (SPC), Suva Fiji, www.spc.int

GambiaCertifier data.

Georgia
Source› Elkana Survey, Elkana, 16 Gazapkhuli Street,
0177 Tbilisi, Georgia, www.elkana.org.ge. The
data is from 2015.
Contact› Elene Shatberashvili, Biological Farming
Association Elkana, 16 Gazapkhuli street, 0177
Tbilisi, Georgia, www.elkana.org.ge› The data is from 2015

Germany
Sources› Area and operator data: Federal Agency for
Agriculture BLE, Bonn, Germany› Crop and livestock details: Agrarmarkt
Informations-Gesellschaft mbH (AMI), Bonn,
Germany, www.ami-informiert.de.
› Retail sales: Arbeitskreis Biomarkt (Working
group organic market), coordinated by AMI
based on data of GfK, Nielsen, bioVista und
Klaus Braun Kommunikationsberatung› Import data (MT): European
Commission/Traces
Contact› Diana Schaack, Agrarmarkt InformationsGesellschaft mbH (AMI), Bonn, Germany,
www.ami-informiert.de

Ghana
SourceThe data was compiled by FiBL based on thedata of the following international certifiers. Not
all certifiers provided updated data.
› CERTISYS, Brussels, www.certisys.eu› Control Union, Zwolle, The Netherlands,
www.controlunion.org› Ecocert West Africa, Ouagadougou, Burkina
Faso› Kiwa BCS, Nürnberg, Germany, www.bcsoeko.de

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Annex › Sources
Contact

Guinea› Ditta Fetekene, Control Union, Zwolle, The
Netherlands› Tobias Fischer, Kiwa BCS, Nürnberg,
Germany, www.bcs-oeko.de› Emmeline Foubert, CERTISYS, Brussels,
Belgium› Sisigué Arsène Sanou, Ecocert Burkina Faso,
Ouaga, Burkina Faso, www.ecocert.com

Certifier data (from 2017).

GreeceContact

Sources› Rodrigo Misiac, Argencert, Buenos Aires,› Land area and operators: Eurostat database,Eurostat, Luxembourg.
› Market data: Daso Business Performance PC,
Strategy & Management Consultants,
Thessaloniki, Greece› Wild collection data (2015) Mediterranean
Organic Agriculture Network (MOAN),
MOAN Secretariat Istituto Agronomico
Mediterraneo di Bari (CIHEAM Bari), Bari,
Italy› Import data (MT): European
Commission/Traces
Contact› Nicolette van der Smissen, Feres, Greece

GrenadaGuinea Bissau
Certifier data.

GuyanaSource› Rodrigo Misiac, Argencert, Buenos Aires,

Argentina

Argentina

Haiti
Source› IMOcert Latinoamerica LTDA, Cochabamba,
Bolivia› Kiwa BCS, Nürnberg, Germany, www.bcsoeko.de› Ecocert France, L'Isle-Jourdain, France
Contact› Eva Berre, Ecocert France, L'Isle-Jourdain,
France› Osvaldo Garcia, IMOcert Latinoamerica LTDA,
Cochabamba, Bolivia› Tobias Fischer, Kiwa BCS, Nürnberg,
Germany, www.bcs-oeko.de

Certifier data. The data is from 2018.

Honduras

Guadeloupe

SourceSource› Area, operators, and production data from
Agricultura Orgánica Honduras, Secretaria deAgricultura y Ganadería, Tegucigalpa,
Honduras, SENASA Honduras.
› Data is from 2017.
Contact› Agence Bio, Montreuil-sur-Bois, France.
www.agencebio.org.
Contact› Eva Lacarce, Agence Bio, Montreuil-sous-Bois,
France, www.agencebio.fr

GuatemalaSource› Area, operators, and total export data:
Department of Organic Agriculture, Ministeriode Agricultura, Ganaderia y Alimentación(MAGA), Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala
C.A. 01013, www2.maga.gob.gt.
› Operators and production volume data (2014):
USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, Global
Agricultural Information Network (2015):
Guatemala. USDA, Washington D.C.
Contact› Álvaro Alfredo Ramos Méndez, Lauro Antonio
Rivera Gramajo, Dirección de Fitozoogenéticay Recursos Nativos (DFRN), Viceministerio de
Sanidad Agropecuaria y Regulaciones(VISAR), Ministerio Agricultura, Ganadería yAlimentación (MAGA), Ciudad de Guatemala,
Guatemala, https://visar.maga.gob.gt/

324› Carlos Galo, Jefe del Departamento de
Agricultura Orgánica (DAO) Sub Dirección de
Sanidad Vegetal (SAVE). Servicio Nacional de
Sanidad Vegetal (SENASA) Secretaría de
Agricultura y Ganadería (SAG) Edificio Senasa
Boulevard Centroamérica, Ave. La FAO, antes
de INJUPEMH, Tegucigalpa. M.D.C.
Honduras.

Hungary
Sources› Land area and operator data: National Food
Chain Safety Office, Food and Feed Safety
Office, Food Trade Control Department,
Hungary, www.nebih.gov.hu, and Eurostat
database, Eurostat, Luxembourg› Market and trade data (2015): Survey/Estimate
by Ferenc Frühwald, Budapest, Hungary› Import data (MT): European
Commission/Traces

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Annex › Sources
Contact

Iraq› Dora Drexler and Bence Trugly, Hungarian
Institute of Organic Agriculture ÖMKi,Budapest, Hungary, www.biokutatas.hu

SourceIceland
Source› Vottunarstofan Tún ehf. Laugavegur 7, 101
Reykjavík, Iceland, www.tun.is.
Contact› Gunnar Gunnarsson Vottunarstofan Tún ehf.,
Reykjavík, Iceland, www.tun.is

India
Source› Land area, operators, exports: Agricultural andProcessed Food Products Export Development(APEDA) Ministry of Commerce & Industry,
Government of India, New Delhi, India,
www.apeda.com.
› Retail sales data (2017): ICCOA- International
Competence Centre for Organic Agriculture,
Karnataka, India
Note:› In addition to the 3rd party certified area, there
were 649818.02 hectares with PGS certification
managed by a total of 1’020’888 farmers
organized in 37’344 PGS groups. The data isavailable at: http://pgsindia-ncof.gov.in.
Contact› Manoj Kumar Menon, International
Competence Centre for Organic Agriculture
ICCOA, Bangalore, India

Indonesia
Source› Indonesian Organic Alliance, Bangor,
Indonesia (www.organicindonesia.org). To thisdata (from 2017), the 2019 data from one
international certifier were added.
Contact› Lidya Ariesusanty, Indonesian Organic
Alliance, Bangor, Indonesia

Iran
Source› Environmental Sciences Research Institute,
Shahid Beheshti University ESRI, Evin, Tehran,
Iran. The information is based on the data of
the certifiers active in the country. The data isfrom 2017.
Contact› Hossein Mahmoudi, Environmental Sciences
Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University
ESRI, Tehran, Iran.

› Zakho Small Villages Projects (ZSVP), Dohuk
City, Dohuk, Iraq
Contact› Dr. Abid Ali Hasan, Zakho Small Villages
Projects (ZSVP), Program Coordinator in Iraq,
Dohuk City, Dohuk, Iraq

Ireland
Sources› Area, operators and livestock data: Eurostat,
Luxembourg› Market data (2017): Bord Bia, Dublin, Ireland.
The retail sales presented here are a Bord Bia
extrapolation of the Kantar panel data andhence not comparable to the total organic retailsales provided for the years before 2017.
› Import data (MT): European
Commission/Traces
Contact› Lorcan Burke, Bord Bia, Dublin, Ireland

IsraelSource› Standardization and Accreditation Department
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development Plant Protection and Inspection
Services (PPIS), Israel,
www.ppiseng.moag.gov.il/ppiseng/ISREAL
Contact› Tal Weil Tzameret, Standardization andAccreditation Department, Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Development, Plant
Protection and Inspection Services (PPIS),
IsraelItaly
Sources› Operator, primary crops, and livestock
products: SINAB (2020): Bio in Cifre 2019.
SINAB, Rome, Italy, Eurostat database,Eurostat, Luxembourg, and Mediterranean
Organic Network MOAN, Bari, Italy› Retail sales data provided by Nomisma,
Bologna, Italy› Import data (MT): European
Commission/Traces
Contact› Roberto Pinton, Assobio, 35121 Padova, Italy› Silvia Zucconi, Nomisma, Bologna, Italy

Jamaica
Source› Jamaica Organic Movement JOAM, P.O. Box5728, Kingston 6, Jamaica, www.joamltd.org.
The data is from 2016.

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Annex › Sources
Contact› Trevor Brown, Jamaica Organic Movement
JOAM, www.joamltd.org

Japan› The data is from 2018.
Contact› Samuel Ndungu, Kenya Organic Movement(KOAN), Nairobi, Kenya, www.koan.co.ke

SourceKorea, Republic of› Area and producer data: Ministry ofAgriculture, Forestry and Fisheries(MAFF),Tokyo, Japan,
http://www.maff.go.jp/j/jas/jas_kikaku/yuuki.h
tml#zisseki› Domestic market data: Ministry of Agriculture,
Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), Tokyo, Japan.
Data provided by the Italian Embassy in Tokyo
at a presentation at SANA 2019, Bologna› All data is from 2018.
Contact

Source› Miyoshi Satoko, Global Organic Textile
Standard (GOTS) Japan, Tokyo, Japan

KosovoJordanSource› Mediterranean Organic Agriculture Network(MOAN), MOAN Secretariat Istituto
Agronomico Mediterraneo di Bari (CIHEAM
Bari), Bari, Italy. The data is from 2017.

Kazakhstan
Sources› Bioinspecta, Frick, Switzerland› Control and Certification for Organic Products
Office Ufficio Attività di Controllo e
Certificazione Prodotti Biologici, Bologna,
Italy, www.ccpb.it› Ecocert Balkan, Belgrad, Serbia› Ekoagros, Kaunas, Lithuania› Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina.
› Organic Standard, Kyiv, Ukraine
Contact› Sergiy Galashevsky, Organic Standard, Kyiv,
Ukraine› Juan Gilardoni, LETIS, Rosario, Santa Fe,
Argentina› Milana Kosanovic, Ecocert Balkan, Belgrad,Serbia› Virginija Luksiene, Ekoagros, Kaunas,
Lithuania› Roberto Maresca, Control and Certification for
Organic Products Office CCPB, Bologna, Italy,
www.ccpb.it› Franziska Staubli, Bioinspecta, Frick,
Switzerland

Kenya
Source› Kenya Organic Movement (KOAN), Nairobi,
Kenya, www.koan.co.ke

326› Korea Institute of Rural Social Affairs,
Chungnam Province, Republic of Korea,
Republic of Korea
Contact› Jennifer Chang, Korean Federation of Organic
Agriculture Organisations (KFSA), Republic ofKorea› Hakkyun Jeong, Korea Institute of Rural Social
Affairs, Chungnam Province, Republic of
Korea
Source› Mediterranean Organic Agriculture Network(MOAN), MOAN Secretariat Istituto
Agronomico Mediterraneo di Bari (CIHEAM
Bari), Bari, Italy

KuwaitSource› Ecocert India, Aurangabad, Maharashtra,
India, www.ecocert.com
Contact› Amresh Kumar Pandey, Ecocert India,
Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India,
www.ecocert.com

Kyrgyzstan
Source› Agricultural Commodity and Service
Cooperative "Bio Farmer", Kyrgyzstan. To thisdata, the data of two international certifiers aswell as data from Textile Exchange about
Cotton was added
Contact› Gulzaada Aleshova, Helvetas, Jalalabad,
Kyrgyzstan

Lao People’s Democratic Republic
Source› Department of Agriculture (DOA), PO BOX
811, Vientiane, Laos. The data is from 2016.

› To the data of DOA, the data for some crops
from an international certifier were added.
Contact› Thavisith Bounyasouk, Department ofAgriculture (DOA), PO BOX 811, Vientiane,
Laos

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Annex › Sources
LatviaSource› Area and Operators: Eurostat database,Eurostat, Luxembourg› Market data (from 2017): Retail sales andexport data: Moreganic Sourcing AB (2018):
Baltic Organic Market Report 2018/2019.
Moreganic Sourcing, Uppsala, Sweden› Import data (MT): European
Commission/Traces

LebanonSource› CCPB Middle East, Beirut, Lebanon
Contact› Angel Atallah, CCPB Middle East, Beirut,
LebanonLesotho› The certifier who provided data in the past is
not active in the country anymore.

Liechtenstein
Source› Klaus Büchel Anstalt, Institute of Agriculture
and Environment, 9493 Mauren, Liechtenstein,www.kba.li.
Contact› Florian Bernardi and Klaus Büchel, Institute ofAgriculture and Environment, 9493 Mauren,
Liechtenstein, www.kba.li.
Note
Retail sales data are not available for
Liechtenstein. Data published previously werebased on estimates and removed from thedatabase.

Lithuania
Source› Land area, production volume, operators:
Eurostat database, Eurostat, Luxembourg› Market data: Retail sales and export data
(2017): Moreganic Sourcing AB (2018): Baltic
Organic Market Report 2018/2019. Moreganic
Sourcing, Uppsala, Sweden› Import data (MT): European
Commission/Traces
Contact› Virginija Luksiene, Ekoagros, Kaunas,
Lithuania

Luxembourg
Source› Land area and operator data: Administration
des Services Techniques de l'Agriculture,
Service de la protection des végétaux,
Luxembourg, www.asta.etat.lu› Market data: Oekopolis and Statistical Office of
Luxembourg/Ministère de l'Agriculture, de la
Viticulture et du Développement rural.
Organic shares of total retail sales were
calculated by FiBL using Eurostat retail sales
data› Import data (MT): European
Commission/Traces
Contact› Claudine Schmit, Ministère de l’Agriculture, dela Viticulture et de la Protection desconsommateurs, Luxembourg,
www.asta.etat.lu› Aender Schanck, Biogros, Munsbach,www.biogros.lu

Madagascar
Certifier data.

Malawi
SourceThe data were compiled by FiBL based on thedata of the following international certifiers.
› Control Union, Zwolle, The Netherlands,
www.controlunion.org› Daniël Kotzé, Ecocert South Africa,
Stellenbosch, South Africa, www.ecocert.com› Kiwa BCS, Nürnberg, Germany, www.bcsoeko.deContact› Ditta Fetekene, Control Union, Zwolle, The
Netherland› Tobias Fischer, Kiwa BCS, Nürnberg,
Germany, www.bcs-oeko.de› Daniël Kotzé, Ecocert South Africa,
Stellenbosch, South Africa
Note
The number of producers is higher than in thepast, as for the first time the number ofsmallholders was provided by one certifier.

Malaysia
Certifier data.

Mali
Certifier data. The data is from 2017.

Malta
Source› Area, operators, livestock, production: Eurostat
database, Eurostat, Luxemburg› Import data (MT): European
Commission/Traces

Martinique (France)
Source› Agence Bio, Montreuil-sur-Bois, France.
www.agencebio.org

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Annex › Sources› Contact› Eva Lacarce, Agence Bio, Montreuil sous Bois,
France, www.agencebio.fr

Mauritius
Source› Ecocert, Antananarivo, Madagascar,www.ecocert.com
Contact› Brayène Ramanantsoa, Ecocert, Antananarivo,
Madagascar, www.ecocert.com

Mayotte (France)
Source› Agence Bio, Montreuil-sur-Bois, France.
www.agencebio.org
Contact› Eva Lacarce, Agence Bio, Montreuil sous Bois,
France, www.agencebio.fr

MexicoSource› Subdirectora de Autorización y Aprobación de
Organismos de Coadyuvancia, Servicio
Nacional de Sanidad, Inocuidad y Calidad
Agroalimentaria (SENASICA), Secretaría de
Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural (SADER),
Ciudad de México, México.
Contact› Aurora Josefina Lobato García, Responsable decontrol de productos orgánicos., Servicio
Nacional de Sanidad, Inocuidad y Calidad
Agroalimentaria (SENASICA), Secretaría de
Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural (SADER),
Ciudad de México, México
Note
Please note that the data source has changed
since the 2018 data, and that a direct year-to-yearcomparison is not possible with the data
received after 2017. The current data include
data from all certifiers that are registered under
the system of the Mexican Ministry ofAgriculture (SADER). Previously the data were
provided by the Universidad Autónoma
Chapingo (Latest data from 2016). Data from the
Mexican Ministry of Agriculture only include
operators that are certified under the nationallaw for organic products (LPO). In 2018, theMinistry issued a communication that all organic
operators, regardless of the destination market of
their products, must be certified under the LPO.
Therefore, there was a significant increase in thearea reported in 2019, compared to 2018, as
many operators who initially only certified theirproducts under the standards of the countries towhich they exported, were also certified under328

the national law in 2019. As to the operators, it
should be noted that under the current system,
only operations are counted but not thesmallholders associated to them. The current
number of all operations including smallholders
is not available.

Moldova
Source› Nadejda Mocanu, Country Director Farmer-toFarmer, Cultivating New Frontiers inAgriculture, Chisinau, Moldova, www.cnfa.org
based on a survey among the certifiers active inthe country
Contact› Nadejda Mocanu, Country Director Farmer-toFarmer, Cultivating New Frontiers inAgriculture, Chisinau, Moldova, www.cnfa.org

Mongolia› Department of Coordination for Food
Production Policy Implementation, Ministry ofFood Agriculture and Light industry ofMongolia Contact› TUNGALAG Davaa, Senior officer,
Department of Coordination for Food
Production Policy Implementation, Ministry ofFood Agriculture and Light industry ofMongolia
Note
Please note that the data refer to PGS operations
certified under the governments’ accreditation
system. Historical data are currently revised by
the government.

Montenegro
Source› Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development, Podgorica, Montenegro› Market data (from 2010): Ecozept - Market
research and marketing consulting agency.
Freising, Germany
Contact› Andrijana Rakočević, Advisor for Organic
production, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development, Podgorica, Montenegro

MoroccoSources› AMABIO, Casa Blanca, Morocco,
www.amabio.org› Mediterranean Organic Agriculture Network(MOAN), MOAN Secretariat Istituto
Agronomico Mediterraneo di Bari (CIHEAM
Bari), Bari, Italy› The data is from 2018.

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Annex › Sources
Contact

Contact› Zaoui Elhousseine, AMABIO/FIMABIO, Casa
Blanca, Morocco, www.amabio.org› Karen Mapusua, Secretariat of the PacificCommunity (SPC), Suva Fiji, www.spc.int

Mozambique

New Zealand

Sources

Source› Control Union, Zwolle, The Netherlands› Ecocert, South Africa, Stellenbosch, Namibia› Kiwa BCS, Nürnberg, Germany, www.bcsoeko.deContact› 2018 New Zealand Organic Sector Market
Report. Organics Aotearoa New Zealand,
Wellington, New Zealand, www.oanz.org.nz.
› The data is from 2018.
Contact› Ditta Fetekene, Control Union, Zwolle, The
Netherlands› Tobias Fischer, Kiwa BCS, Nürnberg,
Germany, www.bcs-oeko.de› Daniël Kotzé, Ecocert South Africa,
Stellenbosch, South Africa› Ritu Priya, Onecert, Mansarovar, Jaipur, India,
www.onecert.com› Jon Manhire, the AgriBusiness Group,
Christchurch, New Zealand,
www.agribusinessgroup.com

MyanmarCertifier data (from 2017)

Namibia
Source› Certifier data.
Note› Please note that previously PGS data were
included. However, these were not confirmed(see also PGS statistics in this book) andtherefore this data was removed from thedatabase. This explains the drop in organic
farmland in Namibia.

Nepal
Source› Maheswar Ghimire, Kathmandu, Nepal. To
this data, some crop details and operator datafrom certifiers were added.

Netherlands
Sources› Land area and operator data: Eurostat
database, Eurostat, Luxembourg.
› Retail sales and export data: Bionext, Ede, The
Netherlands; the Bionext website,
https://bionext.nl/. The export data is from2016.
› Import data (MT): European
Commission/Traces
Contact› Miriam van Bree, Bionext, Ede, The
Netherlands, www.bionext.nl

New Caledonia
Source› Pacific Organic and Ethical Trade Community(POETCom), Suva Fiji, www.spc.int

Nicaragua
Source› Instituto de Protección y Sanidad Agropecuaria(IPSA), Departamento de Inspección
Certificación Fitosanitaria, Managua,
Nicaragua, www.magfor.gob.ni
Contact› Ing. Ramón Ernesto Noguera García, Institutode Protección y Sanidad Agropecuaria IPSA,
Departamento de Inspección Certificación
Fitosanitaria, Managua, Nicaragua,
www.magfor.gob.ni

Niger
Certifier data.

Nigeria
Source› Control Union, Zwolle, The Netherlands,
www.controlunion.org.
› Ecocert South Africa, Stellenbosch, South
Africa› LACON, Offenburg, Germany (2017 data)
Note› Data provided in the past from the Associationof Organic Agriculture Practitioners of Nigeria(NOAN), Ibadan, Nigeria, and the Universityof Ibadan, Nigeria, which included PGS data
were removed as there seemed duplication
with the certifier data.
› Producers: Please note that the certifiers did
not provide the total number of producers; inmost cases, only the number ofcompanies/projects/certificates were provided.
The number of producers must therefore beconsiderably higher.
Contact› Olugbenga O. AdeOluwa, University of
Ibadan, Nigeria› Ditta Fetekene, Control Union, Zwolle, theNetherlands, www.controlunion.org.

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Annex › Sources› Daniël Kotzé, Ecocert South Africa,
Stellenbosch, South Africa

Vegetal, Ministerio de Desarrollo Agropecuario(MIDA), Panama, www.mida.gob.pa

Niue

Papua New Guinea

SourceSource› Pacific Organic and Ethical Trade Community(POETCom), Suva Fiji, www.spc.int
Contact› Pacific Organic and Ethical Trade Community(POETCom), Suva Fiji, www.spc.int
Contact› Karen Mapusua, Secretariat of the PacificCommunity (SPC), Suva Fiji, www.spc.int› Karen Mapusua, Secretariat of the PacificCommunity (SPC), Suva Fiji, www.spc.int

North Macedonia

Paraguay

SourceSource› Land area and operator data: Eurostat
database, Eurostat, Luxembourg› Wild collection: Certifier data

› Servicio Nacional de Calidad y Sanidad
Vegetal y de Semillas (SENAVE), Departmentof Organic Agriculture, Asuncion, Paraguay,www.senave.gov.py
Contact

NorwaySources› Land area and operator data: Eurostat
database, Eurostat, Luxembourg› Market data for general retailers: Norwegian
Agriculture Agency (Landbruksdirektoratet),
Oslo, Norway, based on Nielsen data. The total
retail sales data were compiled by FiBL basedon data from the Norwegian Agriculture
Agency and experts estimates on further sales
channels.
Contact› Alexandra Forbord, Norwegian Agriculture
Agency (Landbruksdirektoratet), Oslo,
NorwayOman
SourceData from one international certifier were added
to the data provided previously.

Pakistan
Certifier data.

Palestine, State of› Area for agricultural land, production,
beehives, total wild collection area:
Mediterranean Organic Agriculture Network(MOAN), MOAN Secretariat Istituto
Agronomico Mediterraneo di Bari (CIHEAM
Bari), Bari, Italy

Panamá
Source› Ministerio de Desarrollo Agropecuario,
Dirección Nacional de Sanidad Vegetal,
Panama, www.mida.gob.pa.
› The data is from 2018.
Contact› Fermín Vicente Romero Houlstan, Rita
Villareal, Dirección Nacional de Sanidad

330› Genaro Coronel, Servicio Nacional de Calidad
y Sanidad Vegetal y de Semillas, Departmentof Organic Agriculture, Asuncion, Paraguay,www.senave.gov.py› Juana Beatriz Caballero Almada, Coordinadora
Ejecutiva de la Dirección de Extensión Agraria(Viceministerio de Agricultura, Ministerio de
Agricultura y Ganadería) Coordinadora
Alterna - Comité Técnico de Promoción de la
Producción Orgánica (CTPPO)

Perú
Source› Area and number of producers: SENASA.
Producción Orgánica. Lima, Perú. For somecrops no detailed area data was available.
Therefore, crop details were used from one
certifier who supplied these.
› Domestic market data: PromPeru, Lima, Perú,www.promperu.gob.pe.
› Export data: PromPeru, Lima, Perú,www.promperu.gob.pe
Contact› Félix Oswaldo Maquera Cuayla, Subdirecciónde Producción Orgánica, Servicio Nacional de
Sanidad Agraria (SENASA), Ministerio de
Agricultura y Riego (MINAGRI)› Marly Cristina López Rengifo, Dirección
General Agrícola (DGA – MINAGRI).
Secretaria Técnica del Consejo Nacional deProductos Orgánicos (CONAPO)

Philippines
Sources
The data were compiled by FiBL from a numberof certifiers, but there are more certifiers active
than those listed below. Certifiers who provided
data:

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Annex › Sources› Ceres, Happburg, Germany, www.cerescert.com (2018 data)› Control Union, Zwolle, The Netherlands,
www.controlunion.org;› Ecocert India, Aurangabad, Maharashtra,
India, www.ecocert.com› Kiwa BCS, Nürnberg, Germany, www.bcsoeko.deContact› Albrecht Benzing, Ceres, Happburg, Germany,www.ceres-cert.com› Ditta Fetekene, Control Union, Zwolle, theNetherlands, www.controlunion.org.
› Tobias Fischer, Kiwa BCS, Nürnberg,
Germany, www.bcs-oeko.de;› Amresh Kumar Pandey, Ecocert India,
Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India,
www.ecocert.com
Note› A direct year-to-year comparison over theyears is not possible as not all certifiers
provided updates every year. Please note that
we undertook a total revision of the historicalarea and producer data due to the fact that one
certifiers provided revised data.

PolandSource› Land area and land use, livestock andproduction: Department of Promotion andFood Quality, Ministry of Agriculture andRural Development, Poland and Eurostat
database, Eurostat, Luxembourg› Retail sales: Biokurier, Bydgoszcz› Import data (MT): European
Commission/Traces
Note
Please note that retail sales data do not cover all
retail sales.

Portugal
Source› Organic land and operators: Eurostat database,
Luxembourg› Market data (2011): INTERBIO,
http://www.interbio.pt› Import data (MT): European
Commission/Traces
Contact› Catarina Crisostomo, Portugal

Puerto Rico
Certifier data (from 2016).

RéunionSource› Agence Bio, Montreuil-sur-Bois, France.
www.agencebio.org
Contact› Eva Lacarce, Agence Bio, Montreuil-sous-Bois,
France, www.agencebio.fr

Romania
Sources› Organic area, land use, livestock andproduction: Eurostat database, Luxemburg.
› Wild collection: Ministry of Agriculture
MADR, Bucharest, Romania, see
http://www.madr.ro/ro/agriculturaecologica/dinamica-operatorilor-si-asuprafetelor-in-agricultura-ecologica.html. The
data is from 2014.
› International trade values (in Euros, from2011): BCG-Global Advisors (2013) Romanian
Organic Sector – Business Insight Booklet.
Global Advisors, Bio-Romania Association,
University of Bucharest. Bucharest 2012
› Retail sales data: Dobrescu, Monica (2017):
Romania: Organic production and market
overview. GAIN Report No. RO 1702. The
USDA FAS website. USDA, Washington. The
data is from 2016.
› Import data (MT): European
Commission/Traces

Russian Federation
Source› The area data was compiled by FiBL based on
the data of the following international
certifiers:› Bio.Inspecta, Frick, Switzerland, www.bioinspecta.ch› Control and Certification for Organic Products
Office (CCPB), Roberto Maresca, Ufficio
Attività di Controllo e Certificazione Prodotti
Biologici, , Bologna, www.ccpb.it› Control Union, Zwolle, The Netherlands,
www.controlunion.org› Ecocert China, Beijing, China› Ekoagros, Kaunas, Lithuania› Ecoglobe - Organic control and certification
body, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia,
www.ecoglobe.am› Kiwa BCS, Nürnberg, Germany, www.bcsoeko.de› LETIS, Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina› Organic Standard, Kyiv, Ukraine› Organización Internacional Agropecuaria(OIA), Buenos Aires, Argentina› Market data (retail sales)

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

331

Annex › Sources› Prusso, Giuseppe (2019): Il Mercato die
Prodotti Bio nella Federazione Russa.
Presentation by Prusso, Giuseppe of the Italian
Trade Agency at Sana, Bologna, September 6,
2019
Contact› Nune Darbinyan, Ecoglobe - Organic control
and certification body, Yerevan, Republic of
Armenia, www.ecoglobe.am.
› Ditta Fetekene, Control Union, Zwolle, The
Netherlands, www.controlunion.org› Tobias Fischer, Kiwa BCS, Nürnberg,
Germany, www.bcs-oeko.de› Sergiy Galashevskyy, Organic Standard, Kyiv,
Ukraine› Juan Gilardoni., LETIS, Rosario, Santa Fe,
Argentina› Pedro Landa, Organización Internacional
Agropecuaria (OIA), Buenos Aires, Argentina› Virginija Luksiene, Ekoagros, Kaunas,
Lithuania› Franziska Staubli, Bio.Inspecta, Frick,
Switzerland, www.bio-inspecta.ch
Note
A direct year-to-year comparison over the years
is not possible as not all certifiers provide
updates every year and as certifiers are added
not included previously.

RwandaCertifier data.

Samoa
Source› Pacific Organic and Ethical Trade Community(POETCom), Suva Fiji, www.spc.int
Contact

Saudi Arabia
Source› Department of Organic Agriculture (DOA),
http://moa.gov.sa/organice/portale
Contact› Eng. Ayman Saad Al-Ghamdi, General
Manager of Organic Agriculture Department(DOA), Saudi Arabia› Raed Saleh Almusaylim; Manager of Control &Legislation Section, Department of Organic
Production, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Senegal
Sources› Kiwa BCS, Nürnberg, Germany, www.bcsoeko.de› CERTISYS, 1150 Bruxelles, Belgium,www.certisys.eu.
› Ecocert Burkina Faso, Ouaga, Burkina Faso,
www.ecocert.com
Contacts› Tobias Fischer, Kiwa BCS, Nürnberg,
Germany, www.bcs-oeko.de› Emmeline Foubert, CERTISYS, 1150 Bruxelles,
Belgium, www.certisys.eu.
› Sisigué Arsène Sanou, Ecocert Burkina Faso,
Ouaga, Burkina Faso, www.ecocert.com
Note
No update date had been received from the
National Federation for Organic Agriculture,Thiès, Sénégal, and the data were removed, withthe exception of the number of producers as thecertifiers only provided the number ofcompanies/projects/certificates.
Please note that the area data include nuts, someof which might potentially be wild collection.

› Karen Mapusua, Secretariat of the PacificCommunity (SPC), Suva Fiji, www.spc.int

SerbiaSan Marino› Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water
Management, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia
Contact

Certifier data.

Sao Tome and Prince
Source› National Directorate of Planning, Ministry of
Finance, Trade and Blue Economy, São Tomeand Principe, www.financas.st. (2017 data) The
number of producers was provided by Ecocert(2017 data).
Contact› Geisel de Menezes, Director of Planning andProspective, Min. of Finance, Commerce andBlue Economy, São Tome and Principe,
www.financas.st.

332

Source› Jelena Milic, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry
and Water Management, Belgrade, Republic of
SerbiaSierra Leone
Certifier data.
Please note that one certifier combined the area
for cocoa and coffee; FiBL made an estimate of
how much of this area was for coffee and how
much for cocoa.

Singapore
Certifier data.

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Annex › Sources
Slovakia
Sources› Area, operators, livestock, and crop
production: Eurostat database, Luxemburg› Market data (2010): Ecozept, market research
and marketing consulting agency. Freising,Germany› Import data (MT): European
Commission/Traces

Slovenia
Sources› Area, operators, livestock, crop production:
Ministrstvo za kmetijstvo, gozdarstvo inprehrano/Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry andFood, Ljubljana, Slovenia, www.mkgp.gov.si› Retail sales (from 2103): Institute for
Sustainable Development, Ljubljana, Slovenia› Marketing channels (from 2009): Institute for
Sustainable Development, Ljubljana, Slovenia› Export and import values (in Euros) are from2009: Institute for Sustainable Development,
Ljubljana, Slovenia› Import data (MT): European
Commission/Traces
Contact› Anamarija Slabe, Institute for Sustainable
Development, Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Solomon Islands
Sourceagricultural land, when in fact these were wildcollection areas. The revised figure for 2018 is
23’278 hectares.
Contact› Ditta Fetekene, Control Union, Zwolle, The
Netherland› Tobias Fischer, Kiwa BCS, Nürnberg,
Germany, www.bcs-oeko.de› Daniël Kotzé, Ecocert South Africa,
Stellenbosch, South Africa

Spain
Sources› Area and land use, operators: Ministerio de
Agricultura y Pesca, Alimentación y Medio
Ambiente (2010): Estrategias de vertebracióndel sector de la producción ecológica deEspaña – Año 2019. MAPAMA, Madrid› Retail Sales: Ecovalia (2018 data)› Import data (MT): European
Commission/Traces› International trade data (values) MAPAMA Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y
Alimentación (MAPA) (2018) Caracterizacion yanalisis de la viabilidad de una organizacion
interprofesional agroalimentria en el sector dela produccion ecologica de Espana. MAPA,
Madrid. The market data is from 2017.
› Import data (MT): European
Commission/Traces
Contact› Pacific Organic and Ethical Trade Community(POETCom), Suva Fiji, www.spc.int
Contact› Pedro López, Pro-Voc-Association, Madrid,
Spain, www.provotec.es› Karen Mapusua, Secretariat of the PacificCommunity (SPC), Suva Fiji, www.spc.int

Sri Lanka

Somalia› The data were compiled by FiBL using the datafrom several international certifiers.

Certifier data.

South Africa

SourceSudan (former)

Sources

Source› Control Union, Zwolle, The Netherlands,
www.controlunion.org› Ecocert South Africa, Stellenbosch, South
Africa› Kiwa BCS, Nürnberg, Germany, www.bcsoeko.de› LACON GmbH, Offenburg, Germany (2017data)
Please note that not all certifiers provided
updated data. The total area for 2017 was revised
as some areas had been counted as agriculturalland, when in fact these were wild collection
areas. The revised figure for 2017 is 22’646
hectares. Also for 2018, the area for 2018 wasrevised as some areas had been counted as

Certifier data

Suriname› Certifier data

SwedenSources› Area, livestock and operators: Eurostat
database, Luxembourg› Market data: Ecoweb Sweden. Please note thatthe data source was changed in 2017 from
Statistics Sweden to Ecoweb, also for historical
data. Per capita consumption and growth rates
were recalculated.
› Import data (MT): European
Commission/Traces

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn333

Annex › Sources
Contact› Olle Ryegård, Ecoweb, Sweden.

Switzerland
Sources› Land area and crop data, producers: Federal
Agency for Statistics (BfS), Neuchatel,
Switzerland.
› Processors: Bio Suisse, Basel, Switzerland› Retail sales data: Bio Suisse, Basel, Switzerland,www.biosuisse.ch/de/bioinzahlen.php.
Contact› Helga Willer, FiBL, Frick, Switzerland

Syria› Source for all data: Mediterranean Organic
Agriculture Network (MOAN), MOAN
Secretariat Istituto Agronomico Mediterraneo
di Bari (CIHEAM Bari), Bari, Italy› No separate figure for the number of producers
was available; the figure communicated is thatfor all operators in the country.
All data is from 2010.

TaiwanSource› Agriculture and Food Agency, Council ofAgriculture, Executive Yuan, R.O.C. Taiwan.
Available athttps://info.organic.org.tw/category/english/sta
tistics/
Contact› Ray Tzeng, Organic Center, National I-lan
University, Taiwan

Tajikistan
SourcePlease note that previous data for after 2013 fromvarious sources were removed, as no updates
were received. Instead, the data from Textile
Exchange on cotton and cotton producers wereused.

Tanzania
Source› Tanzania Organic Agriculture Movement(TOAM), PO Box 70089, Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania, www.kilimohai.net. Survey among
the organic operators in the country. The data
is from 2017.
› To the TOAM data, wild collection data frominternational certifiers were added.

ThailandSource› Green Net Survey among the international anddomestic certifiers; Green Net, 10330 Bangkok,

334

Thailand. Domestic market and international
trade data are from 2014.
Contact› Vitoon Panyakul, Green Net, 10330 Bangkok,
Thailand, www.greennet.or.th.
The big increase in the organic area is due to theincrease of organic rice

Timor-Leste
Certifier data.

Togo
Sources
The data was compiled by FiBL based on thedata of the following international certifiers. Not
all certifiers provided updated information.
› Ceres, Happburg, Germany› CERTISYS, Brussels, Belgium, www.certisys.eu› Ecocert, Ecocert West Africa, Ouagadougou,
Burkina Faso, www.ecocert.com› LACON GmbH, Offenburg, Germany

Tonga
Source› Pacific Organic and Ethical Trade Community(POETCom), Suva Fiji, www.spc.int
Contact› Karen Mapusua, Secretariat of the PacificCommunity (SPC), Suva Fiji, www.spc.int

Tunisia
Source› Direction Générale de L’Agriculture Biologique(DGAB), Tunis, Tunisia› The data is from 2018.
Contact› Samia Maamer Belkhiria, Direction Générale
de L’Agriculture Biologique (DGAB), Ministryof Agriculture and Hydraulic Resources, Tunis,
Tunisia

TurkeySource› Republic of Turkey Ministry of Agriculture
and Forestry, Ankara, Turkey› Market data (2014): USDA Foreign Agricultural
Services (2016): Turkish Organic Market
Overview. USDA, Washington, USA. Available
athttps://gain.fas.usda.gov/Recent%20GAIN%20
Publications/Turkish%20Organic%20Market%2
0Overview_Ankara_Turkey_1-26-2016.pdf
Contact› Elif Bayraktar Öktem, Republic of Turkey
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Ankara,
TurkeyFiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn

Annex › Sources
Notes
Some areas contain crops that can be harvested
from the same parcel. Therefore, the total of theland use/crop data exceeds the actual area
surface cultivated for organic farming. A
correction value was used in order to calculate
the correct total.

UgandaSource› National Organic Agricultural Movement of
Uganda (NOGAMU), PO Box 70071, ClockTower, Kampala, Uganda,
www.nogamu.org.ug. The data is from 2016.
› Revisions were undertaken; some of the areasthat were reported as organic agricultural land
were put under wild collection.

UkraineSources› Area and operator data: Ministry for
Development of Economy, Trade andAgriculture of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine› Crop data: Based on the data of four certifiers
but are therefore not complete.
› Domestic market, export value and wildcollection data: Organic Federation of Ukraine(OFU), Kyiv, Ukraine, www.organic.com.ua
Contact› Valentyna Zaiets, Ministry for Development of
Economy, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine,
http://www.me.gov.ua› Eugene Milovanov, Organic Federation of
Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, www.organic.com.ua

United Arab Emirates
Source› Ministry of Environment and Water (MOEW),
United Arab Emirates.
› Please note that by error the correct data was
not entered into the database by the time ofprinting. The correct number for certified
organic farmland in the United Arab Emirates
for 2019 was 5041 hectares.
Contact› Market data: Soil Association (2020): Organic
Market Report 2020. Soil Association, Bristol.
The export data is from 2016.
Contacts› Finn Cottle, Soil Association, Bristol, UK

United States of America
Source› Land area and producers: United States
Department of Agriculture, Washington, USA.
› Market data: Organic Trade Association (OTA),
Washington D.C., USA› Export data: Organic Trade Association (OTA),(from 2016)
Contact› Barbara Haumann, OTA, Brattleboro VT 05301,
www.ota.com

United States Virgin Islands
Certifier data.

Uruguay
Certifier data

Uzbekistan
Certifier data.

Vanuatu
Source› Pacific Organic and Ethical Trade Community(POETCom), Suva Fiji, www.spc.int
Contact› Karen Mapusua, Secretariat of the PacificCommunity (SPC), Suva Fiji, www.spc.int

Venezuela
United States Department of Agriculture(USDA) Organic Integrity Database. USDA,
Washington

Viet Nam
Source› Vietnam Organic Agriculture Association,
Hanoi, Vietnam. Please note that some PGS
figures were included.
Note› Eng. Saif Mohamed Alshara, Ministry ofEnvironment and Water, UAE› Fatima Obaid Saeed, Ministry of Environment
and Water, UAE› Mohammad Al-Oun (PhD), Organic Farming,
Plant Health and Development Department,
Dubai, UAE› The data for 2018 were revised. In 2018, there
were almost 51’400 hectares of agricultural
land; 100’000 hectares of aquaculture and14’450 hectares of wild collection.
Contact

United Kingdom

Zambia› Huong Dang, Vietnam Organic Agriculture
Association, Hanoi, Vietnam

Sources

Source› Land use details/crops/operators: Eurostat
database, Eurostat, Luxembourg› Ecocert South Africa, Stellenbosch, South
AfricaFiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and Bonn335

Annex › Sources
Contact

Note› Daniël Kotzé, Ecocert South Africa,
Stellenbosch, South Africa› Please note that data from other sources (datafrom before 2019) were removed from thedatabase back to 2009 as they were notconfirmed and it was not clear if there were
duplications with the data from the certifiers.

Zimbabwe
Source› Ecocert South Africa, Stellenbosch, South
AfricaContact› Daniël Kotzé, Ecocert South Africa,
Stellenbosch, South Africa

Table 88: Development of the number of producers and the organic area according to the Ministry ofAgriculture, Livestock and Food in Brazil
Production units
Producers
Area

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

5’406

8’064

11’063
5’934
1’553’675*

10’064
6’719
603’206

13’232
10’194749’305

13’482
11’478940’000

15’590
14’222
1’094’131

20’05017’451653’630

22’06417’473719’286

25’227
19’978822’406

Source: Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento* Includes wild collection areas

336

FiBL & IFOAM – Organics International (2021): The World of Organic Agriculture. Frick and BonnOrganic agriculture is practised in 187 countries, and 72.3 million hectares ofagricultural land are managed organically by at least 3.1 million farmers.
The global sales of organic food and drink reached more than 106 billion euros
in 2019.
The 22nd edition of The World of Organic Agriculture, published by the ResearchInstitute of Organic Agriculture FiBL and IFOAM – Organics International,
provides a comprehensive review of recent developments in global organic
agriculture. It presents detailed organic farming statistics covering the area underorganic management, land use and crops in organic systems, the number of farms
and other operator types and selected market data.
The book includes contributions from representatives of the organic sector aroundthe world about the global market for organic food, organic imports, standards
and regulations, Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS), public food procurementin the organic sector and insights into current and emerging trends in organic
agriculture in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, and Oceania.
This year’s edition also includes information describing the impacts of the
COVID-19 pandemic on the organic sector.
The latest data are presented annually at BIOFACH in Nuremberg, Germany
In 2022, BIOFACH will be held from 15 – 18 FebruaryISBN Printed version
ISBN PDF version

978-3-03736-393-5
978-3-03736-394-2

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