The world’s retail organic agriculture market is worth nearly US$40 billion a year and is now produced from over 30 million hectares of land. Australia has by far the largest organic production area (12.3 million hectares).
So says the latest global statistics report from the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) and the Foundation Ecology and Agriculture (SÖL). It was launched at Biofach 2008 in Nuremberg, billed as Europe’s largest organic trade show.
The results of the study are taken from a snapshot of 135 countries, and they illustrate how organic agriculture is developing rapidly worldwide. Of the 30.4 million hectares in total managed organically across the world Australia has 12.3 million hectares; China: 2.3 million hectares; Argentina: 2.2 million hectares and the USA: 1.6 million hectares.
In terms of global organic surface area the greatest share is Oceania/Australia: 42%; Europe: 24% and Latin America: 16%. The global organic area grew by approximately 1.8 million hectares in 2006, with the largest growth in Oceania/Australia (more than 600,000 hectares) and Europe (more than 500,000 hectares).
Global market for organic products
• Global turnover reached US$38.6 billion in 2006
• This represents an annual growth of US$5 billion
• North America and Europe represent 97% of global organic revenues
Helga Willer, Minou Yussefi-Menzler, Neil Sorensen (Eds.) (2008): The World of Organic Agriculture. Statistics and Emerging Trends 2008. IFOAM and FiBL; DE-Bonn and CH-Frick
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