November 6,  2001

Organic Monitor estimates the international market for organic foods to reach US $26 billion in 2001. The global market has experienced exceptionally high growth this year due to rising consumer interest in organic foods in many parts of the world.

The highest growth has been observed in Europe where market revenues have expanded by a third
this year to US $12 billion. The BSE crisis is the latest in a series of food scares that have afflicted
Europe since the early 1990s and it has been responsible for a surge in demand for organic foods.
The most noticeable increase has been observed in parts of southern Europe where demand for
organic foods was subdued prior to the crisis.

Northern American market revenues are valued at close to US $10 billion this year with the majority from the US. Discerning consumer behavior toward foods and growing interest in health issues is fuelling consumer demand for organic foods in the USA and Canada. The American food
industry has as of yet not suffered any major losses of confidence as Europe has experienced in the last decade.

Almost a half of the global organic farmland is in Oceania however the organic food market represents less then 1 percent of global market revenues. Most of the organic food production in Australia and New Zealand is for export markets. Growing consumer demand for quality and nutritious food, and opposition to Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), are the major drivers of growth in this continent.

The Japanese market is the third largest in the world after EU and US and it accounts for the bulk of Asian market revenues. Although there are vast amounts of Asian farmland that do not use chemical pesticides and synthetic fertilisers, there are only 51,404 hectares of certified organic farmland.

Organic Monitor foresees high growth in the global market for organic foods to continue in the
coming years. In the short-term, demand is expected to remain confined to the developed world,
namely Europe, North America, and Japan. The largest growth in organic farmland is projected to
be in developing countries. Countries with economies that are highly reliant on agriculture are
increasingly turning to organic agriculture because of the export benefits of doing so.

The organic food industry faces many challenges ahead, which include certification fragmentation,
preventing fraudulent business practices, protection of the price premium, and affirming the role of
the government during industry development.

One of the major challenges the industry faces is how to facilitate global trade in organic foods
considering there is a plethora of organic standards. Countries can easily use organic standards and certificates as a form of protectionism and this could hamper international trade. The world maybe coming closer together but maybe not so quickly in this sector of the food industry.

This research article is based on a presentation done by Organic Monitor on the global market for
organic foods at the Food Ingredients Europe Food Summit.

Organic Monitor news release
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