The worldwide organic market has edged one step closer to a USD100 billion “milestone”, delegates at a Global Market Overview session at the Biofach Congress in Nuremberg, Germany, heard today.
The comment came from one of the session panellists, Amarjit Sahota from London-based consultancy Ecovia Intelligence, which supplied market data for the World of Organic Agriculture 2019 report published yesterday.
The latest survey shows that the global organic market continues to grow strongly, reaching a total value USD97 billion in 2017. The United States remains the leading national market with 40 billion euros, followed by Germany (10 billion euros), France (7.9 billion euros), and China (7.6 billion euros).
In 2017, many major markets continued to show double-digit growth rates, and the French organic market grew by 18 percent. The Swiss spent the most on organic food (288 Euros per capita in 2017). Denmark had the highest organic market share (13.3 percent of the total food market).
The annual World of Organic Agriculture surveys (produced by organic farming data specialist ‘) is widely seen as the definite guide to global organic data and indicators.
This year’s report shows that 2017 was another record year for global organic agriculture, with the organic farmland increasing substantially, and the number of organic producers and organic retail sales reaching “another all-time high”.
A total of 69.8 million hectares were organically managed at the end of 2017, representing a growth of 20 percent or 11.7 million hectares over 2016, the largest growth ever recorded. Australia has the largest organic agricultural area (35.6 million hectares), followed by Argentina (3.4 million hectares), and China (3 million hectares). Due to the large area increase in Australia, half of the global organic agricultural land is now in Oceania (35.9 million hectares). Europe has the second largest area (21 percent; 14.6 million hectares), followed by Latin America (11.5 percent; 8 million hectares). The organic area increased in all continents.
Globally, 1.4 percent of the farmland is organic. However, many countries have far higher shares. The countries with the largest organic share of their total farmland are Liechtenstein (37.9 percent), Samoa (37.6 percent), and Austria (24 percent). In fourteen countries, 10 percent or more of all agricultural land is organic.
Global organic statistics show the contribution of organic agriculture to the Sustainable Development Goals
According to Dr. Monica Rubiolo from SECO and Joseph Wozniak from ITC “global data on organic production and markets are of high relevance for policy makers and contribute to understanding the importance of organic farming in the different countries.”
“This publication shows our ongoing engagement with transparency in the organic sector” say Professor Urs Niggli, FiBL director, and Louise Luttikholt, IFOAM – Organics International Executive Director. And they add “This publication also demonstrates the contribution of organic agriculture to the Sustainable Development Goals. Overall, the yearbook shows the potential organic farming has to contribute to a sustainable future!”