2018 was another record year for global organic agriculture, a major new report on global organic trends finds.
New data contained in The World of Organic Agriculture 2020, published jointly by FiBL and IFOAM – Organics International, show that organic farmland increased by 2.0 million hectares, and organic retail sales also continued to grow, reaching another all-time high.
The report, which gathered data from 186 countries, confirms a continuation of the positive trend seen in the past years.
USD100 billion market
The market research company, Ecovia Intelligence, estimates that the global market for organic food passed 1USD100 billion for the first time in 2018 (almost EUR97 billion). The United States is the leading market with EUR40.6 billion euros, followed by Germany (EUR10.9 billion) and France (EUR9.1 billion). In 2018, many major markets continued to show double-digit growth rates, and the French organic market grew by more than 15%. Danish and Swiss consumers spent the most on organic food (EUR312 per capita in 2018). Denmark had the highest organic market share with 11.5% of its total food market.
2.8 million organic producers worldwide
In 2018, 2.8 million organic producers were reported. India continues to be the country with the highest number of producers (1,149,000), followed by Uganda (210,000), and Ethiopia (204,000).
Steady increase of organic farmland
A total of 71.5 million hectares were organically managed at the end of 2018, representing a growth of 2.9% or 2 million hectares compared to 2017.
Australia has the largest organic agricultural area (35.7 million hectares), followed by Argentina (3.6 million hectares), and China (3.1 million hectares). Due to the large area of organic farmland in Australia, half of the global organic agricultural land is in Oceania (36.0 million hectares). Europe has the second largest area (15.6 million hectares), followed by Latin America (8 million hectares). The organic area increased in all continents compared to 2017.
10% or more of the farmland is organic in 16 countries
Globally, 1.5% of farmland is organic. However, many countries have far higher shares. The countries with the largest organic share of their total farmland are Liechtenstein (38.5%), Samoa (34.5%), and Austria (24.7%). In sixteen countries, 10% or more of all agricultural land is organic.
The World of Organic Agriculture 2020 – How to order/download
The printed version (30 euros + postage; affiliates of IFOAM – Organics International: 20 euros) can be ordered and downloaded in the FiBL shop (order number 5011). Graphs and infographics can be downloaded at Organic-World.
- fibl.org: The World of Organic Agriculture 2020 in the FiBL shop
- organic-world.net: The World of Organic Agriculture 2020 on Organic-World including graphs, maps and infographics
Main image: Presentation of global organic market data at this week’s Biofach event