31 Million Hectares Now Organic

WASHINGTON - Feb 14/06 - SNS -- More than 31 million hectares of farmland is now certified for producing organic food around the world, according to statistics compiled by The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), the Swiss Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), and the Foundation Ecology & Farming (SOEL), Germany.

The data was generated for presentation at BioFach Fair 2006 in Nuremberg later his week. The organizations said this represents a five million hectare increase over the previous year. "A major increase of organic land has taken place in China, where nearly three million hectares of pastoral land were recently certified," the report's authors said.

Herta Krausmann, Managing Director of Nürnberg Global Fairs, highlights the importance of the growing numbers in China, stating "in recognition of the significant growth in organic production in China, the BioFach China project, a two-year public-private partnership between Nürnberg Global Fairs and the German Development and Investment Society (DEG), will take place for the first time at the end of November 2006 in Shanghai in an effort to spur this growth and development even further."

In terms of organic land, excluding wild collection, Australia leads pack with 12.1 million hectares, followed by China (3.5 million hectares) and Argentina (2.8 million hectares). Most of the world’s organic land is in Australia / Oceania (39%), followed by Europe (21 %), Latin America (20%), Asia (13%), North America (4 %) and Africa (3 %).

Regarding the share of organic farmland in comparis! on with the total agricultural area, Austria, Switzerland and Scandinavian countries lead the way. In Switzerland, for example, more than ten percent of the agricultural land is managed organically.

The editors of the study Minou Yussefi (SOEL) and Helga Willer (FiBL) note that "the continued increase in the organic land area over the last years is not just due to the ever greater interest in organic farming, but also a result of improved access to information and data collection each time the study is updated."

In 2004, the market value of organic products worldwide reached 27.8 billion US$, (23.5 billion EUR), the largest share of organic products being marketed in Europe and North America. Ongoing growth of the market and organic land area is expected for the foreseeable future, in part due to an increased support of governments and development organizations.

Angela B. Caudle, IFOAM Executive Director, emphasizes "as markets for organic products continue to develop throug! hout the world, including in key markets outside of Europe and North America, such as Brazil and the Middle East, the benefits of organic agricultural systems on a large scale will become increasingly evident."