March, 2003

The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), the Foundation for Ecology und Agriculture (SÖL) and the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) presented the revised and updated edition of the study entitled "The World of Organic Agriculture - Statistics and Future Prospects" by Minou Yussefi (SÖL) and Helga Willer (FiBL) at BioFach 2003.

Of the more than 22 million ha farmed organically throughout the world, Australia accounts for approx. 10.5 million ha, followed by Argentina (3.2 million ha) and Italy with more than 1.2 million hectares. Germany holds seventh position in the world with 632,165 hectares.

The leaders in terms of the organic share of the total agricultural area are the European Alpine countries and Scandinavia. Germany with 3.7 % occupies eleventh place by international comparison.

According to information from Rudy Kortbech-Olesen of the International Trade Centre (ITC), an agency of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the WTO, the worldwide turnover of organic products for 2003 is estimated at approx. 23-25 billion US dollars (24.6 - 26.7 milliard EUR).

The organic share of the total food market is expected to rise from the present 1-3 % to 5-10 % in the
larger markets of Europe and the USA in the coming years. The forecast annual growth rates have, however, been reduced a little compared with last year and are currently estimated at 5-15 % in most countries.

The full report is in PDF format at
http://www.ifoam.org/ and
http://www.soel.de/oekolandbau/weltweit.html