organic food markets

ITC INTERNATIONAL TRADE CENTRE

UNCTAD CNUCED

ORGANIC FOOD AND BEVERAGES:

WORLD SUPPLY

AND MAJOR EUROPEAN MARKETS

Product and Market Development

ITC INTERNATIONAL TRADE CENTRE

UNCTAD CNUCEDGENEVA

1999

ORGANIC FOOD AND BEVERAGES: WORLDSUPPLY AND MAJOR EUROPEAN MARKETS

ii

© International Trade Centre UNCTAD/WTO

Abstract for trade information services

1999 SITC 0ORG

INTERNATIONAL TRADE CENTRE UNCTAD/WTOOrganic food and beverages: world supply and major European marketsGeneva: ITC, 1999. xiv, 271 p.

Market study of organic food and beverages in Denmark, France, Germany,Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and UK – explains nature of organic agriculture andidentifies products that can be grown organically and sold commercially to build upprofitable export markets for developing countries; provides information on qualityrequirements with particular reference to certification and labelling systems andprocedures; gives comments and data on world trade, identifying major producingcountries and import markets; outlines market requirements and characteristics incountries under review; examines distribution channels and identifies major importers,retail organizations and selected institutions.

Subject descriptors: food, beverages, agricultural products.

English, French, Spanish (Free to developing countries)

Palais des Nations, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

The Government of Denmark financed the preparation of this study.

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply theexpression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the International Trade CentreUNCTAD/WTO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of itsauthorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

Mention of firm names and commercial products does not imply the endorsement of ITC.

The opinions expressed in this study are those of the authors and their contacts in the trade anddo not necessarily reflect the views of ITC.

ITC encourages the reprinting and translation of its publications to achieve widerdissemination. Short extracts may be freely reproduced, with due acknowledgement of thesource. Permission should be requested for more extensive reproduction or translation. A copy of the reprinted or translated material should be sent to ITC.

ITC/P12.E/PMD/MDS/99-VII ISBN 92-9137-115-7

Acknowledgements

Main contributors

Rudy Kortbech-Olesen, Senior Market Development Adviser, ITC, and coordinator and joint principalauthor of this study, is responsible for ITC's trade promotion and development activities in processed fruits andvegetables, and fish and fishery products. He is also the ITC focal point for organic products.Mr Kortbech-Olesen wrote the introduction and the chapters on world trade and market characteristics,Denmark and Switzerland.

Carol H. Haest, joint principal author, works for Haest Consultancy for the Organic Industry, Belgium, is aformer treasurer of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) and is the currentcoordinator of the World Organic Supermarketing Club (WOSC). He wrote the chapters on the world supplysituation and Germany, and provided guidance and assistance in the preparation of the study.

Birthe Thode Jacobsen, joint principal author, is a Denmark-based independent consultant specializing inenvironmental and agricultural economics. She has worked with the Food and Agriculture Organization of theUnited Nations (FAO) for several years. She wrote the chapters on organic farming and the certification oforganic products, and contributed to the chapter on the world supply situation.

Joy Pakenham-Walsh, joint principal author and technical editor, is a Netherlands-based independentconsultant whose clients have included the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries(CBI), Rotterdam. She wrote the chapter on the Netherlands and contributed to the chapter on world trade andmarket characteristics.

Collaborating authors and consultants

Dorothee Doswald-Kuhlmann, a food engineer in the Swiss private sector, has several years' experience in the technical and commercial aspects of the food industry. She contributed to the chapter on Switzerland.

Peter Fuchs, of Fox Research AB in Sweden, specializes in the Nordic food sector. His clients haveincluded the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the Swedish Ministry of Industryand Trade, and the private sector. He wrote the chapter on Sweden.

David Jones, of David Jones & Associates, United Kingdom, has carried out a number of assignments forITC, other United Nations organizations, the European Commission and the private sector over the years. Hewrote the chapter on the United Kingdom.

Jean Muller, of Jean Muller Consultants Internationaux, France, has worked for various clients, includingthe French Government, ITC and the private sector. He wrote the chapter on France.

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A large number of persons from all over the world, including the following, have contributed to the study inone way or another: Rainer Bächi, IMO, Switzerland; Bernward Geier, IFOAM, Germany; Thomas B. Harding,AgriSystems International™ United States; Torben Laursen, FDB, Denmark; Otto Schmid, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, Switzerland; and Conrad Thimm, consultant, Germany.

Leni Sutcliffe edited the study. Carmelita Endaya and Isabel Droste Montgomery were responsible fordesktop publishing and assisted in copy-editing.

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Contents

Acknowledgements iii

Note xiii

Tables xi

PART I – BASIC CONCEPTS 1

INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL SUMMARY 3

Background 3Product description and scope of the study 3Objectives of the study 3Summary of market opportunities for developing countries 4

Chapter 1ORGANIC FARMING 6

Concepts 6Standards and certification 7Practical obstacles and constraints to conversion in developing countries 7

Chapter 2CERTIFICATION 9

Introduction 9What is certification of organic food products? 9

Certification procedures 10Accreditation 11

Standards: development and application 11IFOAM 11Demeter International eV 12Codex Alimentarius Commission 12World Trade Organization 12International Organization for Standardization 13CEN and CENELEC 13

Regulations in major markets 14European Union 14Other markets 17

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Certification in exporting countries 17Certification by local bodies 17Certification under partnerships between local and international bodies 18Certification by a local branch of an international certification body 18Certification by international bodies 19

Some types of certification arrangements 19Subcontracting 19Grower groups 19

Setting up a certification programme 20The long-term possibility 20

AnnexesI. Basic concepts 21II. MAFF consolidated version of EC Regulation 22

PART II – GLOBAL OVERVIEW: TRADE AND SUPPLY 51

Chapter 3OVERVIEW OF WORLD TRADE AND MARKET CHARACTERISTICS 53

Introduction 53Target markets 55

Denmark 55France 55Germany 55Netherlands 56Sweden 57Switzerland 57United Kingdom 58Other major markets 58

Market segments 59The retail sector 59Food processing industry 59Catering and institutional sector 60

Distribution channels 60Importers, processors, repackers 60Food manufacturers 60Retail trade 61Fair trade 61

Market access 62Organic certification and food laws 62Customs duties 63

Sources of information 63Trade fairs 64FAO’s contribution to organic agriculture 65

Chapter 4WORLD SUPPLY BY GEOGRAPHICAL REGION AND BY COUNTRY 67

Introduction 67Africa 68Asia 79

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Oceania 88Europe 90The Americas (excluding NAFTA countries) 112NAFTA countries 125

Chapter 5WORLD SUPPLY BY PRODUCT GROUP 133

Animal products 133Meat, dairy products, eggs 133Honey 133Fish 133

Vegetable products 133Vegetables, roots and tubers 133Fruits and nuts 134Cocoa, coffee, tea and maté 134Cereals 135Oil-seeds and oleaginous fruits 135

Prepared foodstuffs 136Vegetable oils and fats 136Sugars and sugar confectionery 136Preparations of vegetables, nuts and other parts of plants 136Alcoholic beverages 136Food additives 136Other processed food products 137

Miscellaneous products 137Feedstuff 137Cotton 137Natural pesticides and repellents 137Other non-food products 137

PART III – MAJOR MARKETS 139

Chapter 6DENMARK 141

Introduction 141Supply and demand 141

Production 141Market size 142

Import and market requirements by major product group 143Fresh fruits and vegetables 143Dried fruits and nuts, seeds and kernels 143Processed fruits and vegetables 143Grains, flour and bakery products 144Coffee, tea and cocoa 144Herbs and spices 144Sweeteners 144Dried legumes/pulses 145Oil-seeds and oils, starch, soy 145Other food and beverage products 145Animal feed 145

Market characteristics 145

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Market segments 145Consumer habits and product preferences 145Sales promotion and advertising 146

Market access 146Customs duties 146Food laws and regulations 147

Distribution channels 147Agents, importers, repackers, processors 147Food and beverage manufacturers 148Retail organizations 148Catering and institutional trade 149

Market prospects 149

Annex – Denmark: selected addresses 151

Chapter 7FRANCE 154


Domestic production 154Retail sales 156

Market characteristics 157Consumer patterns 157

Product and market requirements 159Market access 160

Regulations on organic foods 160Certification 161

Distribution channels 161Retail structure 161Processors/packers and wholesalers 162Imports 163Future trends 163

Competition, prices and margins 163Prospects and opportunities 164

Overall prospects 164Specific market opportunities 165

AnnexesI. France: selected addresses 167II. Individual import authorizations for organic food products originating

in third countries in 1997 171III. Commercial organic products sold in 1997 173

Chapter 8GERMANY 176

Organic farming: historical development 176Supply and demand 176

Domestic production 176Retail sales 178Imports and exports 178

Market characteristics 180Consumer categories 180

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Consumer confusion about organic products 181The generic bio-label 181Purchasing organic foods: the criteria used 181Fair trade and its relationship with organics 182Market segmentation 184

Market requirements 184Importers’ requirements 185Competition and prices 185Organic certification and food laws and regulations 187

EU Regulation 2092/91 187Organic certification for the German market 187Harmonization of EU food laws 187Permissible agricultural ingredients of non-organic origin 188

Distribution channels 188Traders, importers, packers, processors and wholesalers 188Food manufacturers 189Specialist organic retail outlets 190Natural food shops (Naturkostläden) and organic supermarkets 190Farm shops, food boxes and other direct selling methods 191Reform shops 191Other specialist outlets; catering 191Major retail chains 191

Summary and market prospects 193

AnnexesI. Germany: selected addresses 195II. List of approved ingredients of non-organic origin 198

Chapter 9THE NETHERLANDS 199

Supply and demand 199Domestic production 199Imports 200Exports 201Retail sales 201

Market characteristics 203Consumer behaviour 203Market segments and end-users 205

Market requirements 206Fresh fruits and vegetables 206Processed fruit and vegetables 207Dried fruits and edible nuts 207Grains, cereals, pulses and seeds 208

Importers’ requirements 210Competition and prices 211Food laws and regulations 212Distribution channels 212

Traders, importers, packers, processors 212Wholesalers 213Retail outlets 214Food manufacturers 215

Prospects 215

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AnnexesI. Netherlands: selected addresses 216II. Countries in which SKAL carries out organic inspection services 218III. Specifications of Euroherb Bio BV 219IV. Tradin: certified organic products traded 221

Chapter 10SWEDEN 222


Domestic production 222Exports 224Imports 224

Market requirements by major product group 225Fresh fruits and vegetables 225Processed fruits and vegetables 226Cereal and bakery products 227Coffee and tea 228Vegetable oils, vinegar, and condiments, spices and herbs 228Sugar and syrup 228Beverages 228Other product groups 229

Market characteristics 230Market segments 230Market trends 230Sales promotion and marketing 230

Market access 231Food laws 231Swedish control organizations 231

Distribution channels 232Integrated retail and wholesale groups 232


Annex – Sweden: selected addresses 236

Chapter 11SWITZERLAND 240

Supply and demand 240Production 240Market size 240

Import and market requirements by major product group 241General 241Fresh fruits and vegetables 241Dried fruits and nuts 241Processed fruits and vegetables 241Cereals, flour and bakery products 242Coffee, tea and cocoa 242Herbs and spices 242Sugar and sweeteners 242Oil products 242Dairy products 242

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Other food products 242Market characteristics 242

Consumer habits 242Promotion and advertising 243

Market access 243Customs duties and restrictions 243Food laws and regulations 243

Distribution channels 244Importers and agents 244Food industry 244Retail trade 244Catering 246


Annex – Switzerland: selected addresses 248

Chapter 12UNITED KINGDOM 251


Retail sales 251Imports 252Domestic production 252

Market characteristics and requirements 253Market characteristics 253

Food laws and regulations 258Distribution channels 259

Importers, traders and wholesalers 259The retail sector 259Processors and food manufacturers 262


AnnexesI. United Kingdom: selected addresses 264II. Source countries of a sample of organic products seen at one supermarket

outlet in London, March 1998 266III. List of organic products sold by one supermarket (Waitrose), March 1998 267

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 269

Tables3.1 World markets for organic food and beverages, 1997 533.2 European markets: percentage shares of retailers in organic food sales, 1997 614.1 Europe (EU and EFTA): organic agriculture in figures 917.1 France: organic livestock and livestock products, 1995 and 1996 1557.2 France: imports of organic products from non-EU countries, 1993-1997 1568.1 Germany: number of farms and areas under organic farming, 1 January 1998 1778.2 Germany: AGÖL member organizations, 1 January 1999 1778.3 Germany: sales of organic foods, by product group 179

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8.4 Germany: turnover of the organic trade, by main distribution channel, 1997 1848.5 Germany: major food retailers and their involvement in organic food sales 19210.1 Sweden: consumption of organic foods, by volume and by value, 1997 22310.2 Sweden: market for processed fruits and vegetables, by quantity and by value, 1997 226

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Note

The geographical groupings of countries used in this study follow the practice of the United NationsStatistics Division. The groupings are used for the sake of convenience and are not intended to express ajudgement about the stage reached by a particular country or area in the development process.

Unless otherwise specified, all references to dollars ($) are to United States dollars, and all references totons are to metric tons. The term ‘billion’ denotes 1 thousand million.

The following abbreviations and acronyms are used:

AGÖL Arbeitsgemeinschaft Ökologischer Landbau (Federation of Organic Agricultural Associations,Germany)

BCS BCS Öko-Garantie GmbH (Germany)

CBI Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries (Netherlands)

CEN European Committee for Standardization

CENELEC European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization

CMA Marketing Agency for Agrarian Products (Germany)

DIPO Danish Import Promotion Office for Products from Developing Countries

EC European Communities/European Commission

EEC European Economic Community

EFTA European Free Trade Association

EN European Standard

EU European Union

FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

FLO Fair Trade Labelling Organization International

FVO Farm Verified Organic (United States)

GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

GMO(s) Genetically modified organism(s)

GSP Generalized System of Preferences

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GTZ German Agency for Technical Cooperation

HS Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System

IAF International Accreditation Forum

ICM Integrated crop management

IEC International Electrotechnical Commission

IFOAM International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements

IMO Institut für Marktökologie (Germany and Switzerland)

INAC International Nutrition and Agriculture Certification (Germany)

IOAS International Organic Accreditation Service

ISO International Organization for Standardization

ITC International Trade Centre UNCTAD/WTO

KRAV Swedish Organic Agriculture Association

LDC(s) Least developed country(ies)

NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement

NASAA National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia

NGO(s) Non-governmental organization(s)

OCIA Organic Crop Improvement Association (United States)

OF&G Organic Farmers & Growers Ltd (United Kingdom)

OGBA Organic Growers and Buyers Association (United States)

OIA Organización Internacional Agropecuaria (Argentina)

OSEC Office suisse d’expansion commerciale (Swiss Office for Trade Promotion)

QIA Quality Assurance International (United States)

RELACC Red Latinoamericana de Comercialización Comunitaria

SITC Standard International Trade Classification

UNCED United Nations Conference on Environment and Development

UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

USDA United States Department of Agriculture

VAT Value-added tax

WHO World Health Organization

WTO World Trade Organization

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Part I

BASIC CONCEPTS

INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL SUMMARY

Background

In recent years, global aware ness of health andenvi ron mental issues has been growing, andsus tain ability has become the key word indis cus sions on eco nomic devel op ment, par ticu larlyin rela tion to devel oping coun tries. The ever- growing number of health and envi ron men tally con cernedcon sumers, mainly in the indus tri al ized coun tries ofWestern Europe, North America, Japan andAus tralia, is at the root of this devel op ment. Theinter na tional com mu nity is becoming more and more con scious of these issues, and gov ern ment poli cies in

indus tri al ized as well as devel oping coun triesincreas ingly encourage organic and other forms ofsus tain able agri cul ture.

This study endeav ours to fill an infor ma tion gapamong deci sion makers at gov ern ment andnon- government levels by pro viding com pre hen siveinfor ma tion on the mar kets for organic prod ucts, thesupply situa tion world wide and cer ti fi ca tion of organic origin. As this study emphasizes again and again,certification is nec es sary for suc cess in world trade.

Product description and scope of the study

This study deals with organic food and bever ages, asdefined in chapter 1. Organic prod ucts are currentlynot clas si fied sepa rately under the Stan dardInter na tional Trade Clas si fi ca tion (SITC) and theHarmo nized Commodity Descrip tion and CodingSystem (HS), both of which group organic prod uctstogether with conven tional prod ucts. For example,organic fruits and vege ta bles are covered by the SITC and HS head ings for fruits and vege ta bles.

In prin ciple, the study covers the whole range of foodand bev erage prod ucts. How ever, some items likemeat and dairy prod ucts are taken up very briefly, and others like fish and fishery prod ucts are referred toonly occa sion ally. The iden ti fi ca tion of the prin cipalproduct groups being traded in organic form, inpar ticular those that can be exported by devel opingcoun tries, is a major pur pose of this study.

Objectives of the study

The ulti mate pur pose of this study is to helpdevel oping coun tries in their efforts to improve theutili za tion of their agri cul tural resources and toincrease and diver sify their exports. The infor ma tionpro vided is there fore intended to enable thesecoun tries, and their farmers and other enter prises, tomodify their pro duc tion and mar keting activi ties soas to be better able to exploit existing and poten tialexport oppor tu ni ties for organic prod ucts. The study

should also help them improve their bar gainingposi tion vis-à-vis importers and other com mer cialpart ners.

The spe cific aims of the study are to:

q Explain what organic agriculture is and whichproducts can be considered organic products in acommercial sense (i.e. certified organic);

q Provide an understanding of what certificationis, why it is necessary and what it entails; explainwhat needs to be done in developing countries;

q Present an over view of world trade in organicprod ucts, and iden tify major producing/exportingcoun tries and import markets, describing their mainchar ac ter is tics;

q Identify products that are or can be grownorganically and sold commercially with a view tobuilding up profitable export markets;

q Provide market information on qualityrequirements, with special reference to requiredcertification/labelling systems and procedures;

q Provide a better under standing of the struc ture,compe ti tion and pricing in the markets surveyed;

q Examine distri bu tion chan nels and iden tifymajor agents and importers, indus trial end- users,retail organi za tions, and other organi za tions andasso cia tions.

This study is expected to be of assistance to thefollowing target audiences:

q Government agencies and ministries concernedwith organic agriculture and trade development

programmes, specifically in the formulation ofproduction and export policies;

q Individual enterprises – whether farmers,processors, exporters or importers – involved in theorganic trade;

q Individuals and organizations preparing orevaluating investment proposals for organic farming,processing facilities, joint ventures and similarprojects;

q Inter na tional organi za tions (such as the Foodand Agri cul ture Organi za tion of the United Nations – FAO), devel op ment banks and non- governmentalorgani za tions (NGOs) involved in organicproduc tion and trade;

q Trade associations in exporting and importingcountries, export promotion bodies, chambers ofcommerce, and member organizations and associates of the International Federation of OrganicAgriculture Movements (IFOAM).

The study has been designed as a prac tical tool foruse in training courses, semi nars, work shops,mar keting tours, etc., whether organ ized by theInter na tional Trade Centre UNCTAD/WTO (ITC),other organi za tions or by pro ducers/exportersthem selves.

Summary of market opportunities for developing countries

With retail sales of organic food and beveragesreaching an estimated $11 billion in the sevenmarkets covered by this survey (Denmark, France,Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland,Sweden, the United Kingdom) and in Austria, Italy,the United States of America and Japan in 1997, trade in organic foodstuff has become an important globalagribusiness. Preliminary estimates for 1998 indicateretail sales in these markets of $13 billion to $13.5billion. The organic trade is of particular interest in adevelopment context because of the spectaculargrowth that has taken place in recent years, withgrowth rates of between 5% and 40% expected overthe medium term, depending on the market inquestion. It should be noted that the continuousgrowth in the organic sector is all the moreremarkable since overall food sales is experiencingeither slow growth or stagnation.

There are good reasons to conclude that the marketfor organic food and beverages is growing rapidly inmost countries in Western Europe, North America,Japan and Australia. Expansion is also taking place in a few developing countries though at a slower pace.The currently small share of organic products in thefood and beverage trade in all these markets indicatesa large long-term potential. Expectations of growthare underpinned not only by strong and increasingconsumer awareness of health and environmentalissues, but also by the more goal-oriented andaggressive marketing and promotion beingundertaken by the major retail groups. Productdevelopment and innovations in packaging by foodprocessors and manufacturers, as well as supportivegovernment policy in many countries, will also pushup world demand.

4 CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL SUMMARY

It seems clear – at least in the short to medium term –that an insuf fi cient supply of organic prod ucts will bethe main problem rather than lack of demand.Though domestic produc tion is growing rapidly inmany markets, demand appears to be expanding even faster. This opens up oppor tu ni ties for exporters indevel oping coun tries, not only for those already in the busi ness but also for others who would like to startproduc tion. A review of the world supply situa tionshows that more than 130 coun tries produce certi fiedorganic food and bever ages in commer cial quan ti ties, including at least 65 devel oping coun tries of whichabout 15 are least devel oped (LDCs). Produc tion also exists in most tran si tion econo mies. It should benoted that interest in promoting organic agri cul ture in devel oping as well as devel oped coun tries is rising.

Although the overall picture looks highly posi tive, anumber of poten tial risk factors should be borne inmind when evalu ating future devel op ments in theorganic food busi ness. For example, occa sionalover supply of a given product may not only haveimme diate but also more long- term nega tive effects.Further more, other forms of envi ron men tallyfriendly and sustain able agri cul ture are likely toresult in increased compe ti tion in the future. Reduced price premiums for organic produce and insuf fi cientprof it ability among farmers and other opera tors arealso factors to reckon with. Unfa vour able press (e.g.fraud) and scare stories, whether justi fied or not,cannot be excluded either.

Developing countries produce a wide range oforganic products and many are doing relatively well.However, most of them suffer from a number ofconstraints, such as the lack of technical know-how(e.g. on production methods), lack of storage andprocessing facilities, poor logistics, inadequate

market information (for example on which productsto grow, which markets and distribution channels tochoose, the competition, market access) andinsufficient financing. Certification is a majorproblem that they share with producers in developedcountries. Importers, food manufacturers, retailorganizations and consumers need a guarantee oforganic origin. In other words, the organic trade facesa number of challenges in the future.

On bal ance, how ever, there is no doubt that the worldmar kets for organic food and bev er ages will con tinue tooffer devel oping coun tries prof it able exportoppor tu ni ties. All of the major mar kets under reviewoffer good pros pects for sup pliers of organic prod uctsthat are not pro duced domes ti cally: exam ples arecoffee, tea, cocoa, spices, tropical fruits and vege ta blesand citrus fruits. How ever, there are also very goodpros pects for sev eral prod ucts that are pro duced in themain mar kets them selves. Such oppor tu ni ties exist notonly for off- season pro duce (such as fruits andvege ta bles), but also for many other prod ucts likein- season fruits (e.g. apple and pears) and vege ta bles,cane sugar, grains, cereals, pulses and seeds, for thesimple reason that the rap idly growing demand in mostmar kets cannot be met by local sup plies, at least in theshort and medium term.

To succeed in building up an export trade in organicprod ucts, exporters will find that careful selec tion oftarget markets and distri bu tion chan nels is of theutmost impor tance. A strong and reli able rela tion shipwith an importer/distributor in the target markets is an abso lute must in estab lishing a prof it able busi ness.Finally, suppor tive govern ment poli cies as well asassis tance from the inter na tional commu nity areother neces sary elements.

CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL SUMMARY 5

Chapter 1

ORGANIC FARMING

Concepts

The con cept of organic farming is based on a holisticview point, meaning that nature is per ceived to be more than just the sepa rate indi vidual ele ments into which itmay be split. Its prin ci ples are found in ecology, asci ence con cerned with the inter re la tion ship of livingorgan isms and their envi ron ments. In prac tical terms,this means that organic farmers obtain their inspi ra tionand learn from natural ecosystems. Farmers try toimi tate at farm level basic char ac ter is tics of rele vanteco- systems, for instance by working towards themaximal use and recy cling of onfarm resources(fodder, manure, organic waste, etc.).

Organic farming dif fers from indus tri al izedagri cul ture in that in the latter, bio logical sys tems areto a larger extent replaced by tech nical sys tems. Forinstance, the diver si fied rota tion of crops, withits bio logical sig nifi cance, is often sup plantedby monocul tural prac tices giving rise to the needto use pes ti cides and arti fi cial fer til izers, andorganic manure is often exchanged for arti fi cialfer til izers.

The con cept of organic farming also covers eco nomic and social aspects of agri cul tural pro duc tion, local aswell as global.

In organic farming, the aim is to sup port andstrengthen bio logical processes without recourse totech nical reme dies such as syn thetic fer til izers andpes ti cides and the geneti c modi fi ca tion of organ isms;hence, the approach to the con trol of weeds, pests and dis eases is pri marily pre ven tive.

Organic farming is based on the enhance ment of thestruc ture and the fer tility of the soil, a bal ancedchoice of crops, and the imple men ta tion of

diver si fied crop rota tion sys tems. The number ofani mals kept on the farm and the avail able land areaare cor re lated so that farm units can cover their needfor feed and soil nutri ents from within the system.

Among its key char ac ter is tics are the use of organicmate rials to main tain organic matter and nutri ents inthe soil (including green manure), nitrogen- fixingplants, pest- resistant plant varie ties, soil man age ment tech niques such as mulching and the use of fallowperiods, various crop ping sys tems (including inter- cropping) and agro for estry. (Agro for estry con sists ofland-use sys tems in which woody per en nials aregrown in asso cia tion with crops and/or live stock.)Organic farming gives due con sid era tion to animalwel fare and the use of manual, mechanical andthermic weeding.

Organic farming merges tra di tional and respectfulviews on nature with modern sci en tific insights. Itencom passes sev eral farming methods andapproaches. For instance, research car ried out byMüller and Rusch in the first half of this cen tury hasbeen adapted and fur ther devel oped by one ofGer many's largest organic farmers’ asso cia tions(Bioland; see chapter 8). The Soil Asso cia tion in theUnited Kingdom (see chapter 12) has its roots in thework of Albert Howard and Eve Bal four whichfocuses on soil fer tility and health.

Bio dy namic agri cul ture (a con tracted trans la tion ofthe German biologisch- dynamische Land wirtschaft)is yet another approach; it is based on anthro po sophyand the ideas for mu lated in the 1920s by the Aus trianRudolf Steiner. The main te nance and fur ther ance oflife- processes in the soil, and in nature in gen eral, aswell as the har nessing of cosmic energy and other

influ ences from the sun, the stars, the moon and otherplanets, are basic prin ci ples. Bio dy namic agri cul tureadvo cates the com bi na tion of animal hus bandry andcrop pro duc tion (mixed farming) and it uses com postand bio dy namic prepa ra tions (natu rally occur ringplant, animal and min eral mate rials which arecom bined in spe cific recipes) in order to vitalize thesoil and to enable it to transmit this vitality to plantsand sub se quently to ani mals and human beings.Sowing, cul ti va tion and har vesting are timedaccording to cosmic rhythms.

There are other but not organic approaches whichrep re sent alter na tives to high- external- input pro duc -tion sys tems, and which are more envi ron men tally

friendly but not organic. An example is low- external- input sus tain able agri cul ture (LEISA),which is based on the increased use of localresources. A key factor dis tin guishing LEISA fromorganic farming is the use of chemical inputs, whichis reduced but not elimi nated.

Inte grated farming sys tems combine the use ofchemical and bio logical con trols. Among thetech niques util ized are inte grated pest man age ment(IPM), inte grated nutrient man age ment (INM) andinte grated weed man age ment (IWM). Inte gratedfarming sys tems are seen by some as a com pro misebetween organic farming and inten sive con ven tionalagri cul ture.

Standards and certification

The sub jects of stan dards and cer ti fi ca tion and theforms they have taken world wide are dis cussed ingreater detail in chapter 2. What is impor tant to pointout here is that one of the most sig nifi cant fac torsdis tin guishing organic farming from other con ceptsof sus tain able agri cul ture is the exis tence ofpro duc tion stan dards and cer ti fi ca tion pro ce dures.Stan dards have been devel oped by pri vateasso cia tions, enti tling mem bers to use the respec tiveasso cia tions’ organic brands and guar antee labelswhen mar keting their prod ucts. At least 100 regionalor national stan dards have been devel oped

world wide. Sev eral coun tries are for mu lating or have adopted laws and regu la tions on organic pro duc tionand proc essing and on cer ti fi ca tion require ments tocon trol the use of labels indi cating organic origin.

The cer ti fi ca tion of organic pro duc tion methods is anincreas ingly impor tant aspect of the inter na tionaltrade in organic prod ucts. Most regu la tions requireprod ucts that are labelled organic to be cer ti fied by an inde pendent body, thereby pro viding a guar antee thatthe goods have indeed been pro duced according toorganic pro duc tion stan dards.

Practical obstacles and constraints to conversionin developing countries

As organic agri cul ture seems fairly similar to manytra di tional farming sys tems in devel oping coun tries,con ver sion from these tra di tional sys tems andcer ti fi ca tion may appear to be an obvious thing toaspire to. How ever, cer ti fi ca tion is costly and forsub sis tence farmers with small mar ket able sur pluses,it may not be eco nomi cally fea sible. Addi tion ally,many smallholder pro duc tion sys tems cause soildeg ra da tion and are not envi ron men tally sus tain able.

The adop tion of organic farming tech niques may also be con strained by the lack of know-how and theabsence of training and exten sion facili ties.Fur ther more, exper tise on local farming con di tions isa basic require ment and out siders, while they may be

con ver sant with the prin ci ples of organic farming,may not have this exper tise. Research into thesecon di tions is essen tial to organic farming: forinstance, a cer tain crop ping system may be pref er able in one area, whereas in another area the threat of acer tain pest would dic tate a dif ferent approach.

Uncer tain ties about own er ship and access to land arereal obsta cles to con ver sion. Farmers have to be surethat they will be able to benefit from investing, forexample, in improved soil fer tility in order to want tomake such an invest ment. Dif fi cult access to credit isanother factor often impeding ini tia tives and theimple men ta tion of con ver sion proj ects.

CHAPTER 1 – ORGANIC FARMING 7

Some farmers do have access to finan cial resourcesand are more likely to con sider con ver sion. How ever, they also have to con tend with mar keting con straints.The market for organic prod ucts is still com para tively small and is mainly con cen trated in the Euro peanUnion, the United States and Japan, making access toboth market infor ma tion and the mar kets them selvesdif fi cult. The length of the con ver sion period,nor mally two to three years, is also a bar rier, asprod ucts usu ally cannot be sold as organic during this period.

These are some of the direct impedi ments tocon ver sion by small holders. How ever, the issue iswider and more com plex. Take the ques tion of theexternal costs of high- input con ven tional farming.

These costs, which take such forms as for instance the pol lu tion of drinking water and reduced bio- diversity, are not reflected in the market prices of the prod uctsof con ven tional farming; if they were, these prod uctswould per haps be less price com peti tive.Fur ther more, some enter prises have an interest inpro moting the inputs on which these con ven tionalsys tems are based, and stimu late activi ties pro motingtheir use, including tech no logical research.

Indi vidual small holders are usu ally advised to join orto form coop era tives or other farm ers' groups in order to over come some of the prob lems described above,create the required critical mass, build the nec es saryinfra struc ture (pri mary proc essing and pack agingfacili ties), cut costs and improve market access.

8 CHAPTER 1 – ORGANIC FARMING

Chapter 2

CERTIFICATION

Introduction

A tomato has a price in the market place. A tomatoclaimed to be pro duced in accor dance with organicfarming prin ci ples, i.e. an organic tomato, often has ahigher price in the same market place. A commonway of informing con sumers that cer tain prod ucts are pro duced according to organic pro duc tion prin ci ples,thereby jus ti fying a price pre mium, is the indi ca tionon product labels that the prod ucts are organic.

During the last two dec ades there has been anextraor di nary growth in the use of labels refer ring tothe organic origin of prod ucts, as well as labelssug gesting organic pro duc tion methods using termslike ‘green’ and ‘eco -friendly’. Until regu la tions onthe label ling of organic prod ucts were imple mented,it was dif fi cult for con sumers to know what wasmeant by the various terms and which pro duc tion

methods had actu ally been used. Simi larly, pro ducers were in for unfair com pe ti tion in the sense thatprod ucts which were organic only to a cer tain degreecould be claimed to be organic or envi ron mentfriendly in various ways and there fore enti tled to aprice pre mium.

Cer ti fi ca tion is one way of ensuring that prod uctsclaimed to be organic are actu ally pro ducedaccording to organic farming prin ci ples. It is thus away of pro tecting con sumers, pro ducers and tradersagainst the use of mis leading or decep tive labels. It isalso a mar keting instru ment ena bling pro ducers toaccess mar kets for organic prod ucts and obtainpre mium prices. Finally, it cre ates trans par ency, asinfor ma tion on cer ti fied pro ducing organi za tions andtheir prod ucts is nor mally made public.

What is certification of organic food products?

Cer ti fi ca tion is a pro ce dure for veri fying that aproduct con forms to cer tain stan dards. In the case oforganic prod ucts, cer ti fi ca tion is pri marily anacknow ledge ment that these prod ucts have been pro -duced according to organic pro duc tion stan dards(annex I to this chapter defines the basic prin ci ples ofthis cer ti fi ca tion). These stan dards may be the stan -dards of pri vate asso cia tions or com pa nies, or of cer -ti fi ca tion bodies, or of the State.

Cer ti fi ca tion bodies may use dif ferent pri vate or offi -cial stan dards against which to carry out their cer ti fi -ca tion activi ties. For instance, organi za tions oforganic pro ducers may estab lish their own stan dards,and set up their own cer ti fi ca tion pro grammes, rules

and pro ce dures, and man age ment regu la tions for cer -ti fying the con for mity of their member farmers andtheir prod ucts with these stan dards. Some cer ti fi ca -tion bodies do not have their own stan dards, and useoffi cial stan dards. Thus a cer ti fi ca tion pro grammemay relate to offi cial stan dards or to pri vate stan -dards; how ever, wher ever offi cial regu la tions are inplace, pri vate cer ti fi ca tion pro grammes must bedesigned so that the cer ti fied prod ucts comply withboth the stan dards of the pri vate organi za tion con -cerned and with offi cial regu la tions.

Once cer ti fied, organic prod ucts are mar keted car rying a cer ti fi ca tion mark indi cating that the prod ucts arecer ti fied organic. The cer ti fi ca tion mark attests to

con for mity with cer tain stan dards and is in itself not a trade mark. How ever, in most coun tries thecer ti fi ca tion mark is also reg is tered as a trade mark.

A dis tinc tion can be made between pri vate marks (intro -duced by com pa nies or organic asso cia tions which have adopted cer ti fi ca tion pro grammes), marks issued bycer ti fi ca tion bodies, and national marks des ig nated bygov ern ments. Most cer ti fi ca tion pro grammes use theirown logos; in this way, cer ti fi ca tion also serves to dis tin -guish the prod ucts of their mem bers or con tractedopera tions from those of their com peti tors.

For producers to enter a specific market for certifiedorganic products, their products must be producedand certified according to the standards applicable inthat market. If the market has State regulations, theseregulations must be complied with. In some cases, itmay be an advantage to be certified by a certificationbody with a certification mark that is well known inthat market.

For a product to be cer ti fied organic, all opera tors inthe product chain, including farmers, proc es sors,manu fac turers, exporters, importers, whole salers andretailers must be cer ti fied as acting in con for mity withthe stan dards and regu la tions of the cer ti fi ca tionpro gramme con cerned. Some times dif ferentcer ti fi ca tion bodies cer tify dif ferent opera tors in theproduct chain.

Certification may be linked to the production of certain products, or it may relate to the operation as such, forinstance the fields of a farm. Such differences dependon the certification scheme applied.

Once certified, it is the operator who labels the product with the certification mark and it is the producer who is continuously responsible to the certification bodyand/or the owner of the mark for its correct use.

It should be noted that cer ti fi ca tion of organic prod ucts is basi cally the cer ti fi ca tion of a pro duc tion system, asopposed to the cer ti fi ca tion of a product. It is morecom plex than product cer ti fi ca tion because it cannotbe based solely on meas ur able product char ac ter is tics.

Certification procedures

Broadly, the certification process may be split intotwo parts: inspection (or control) to verify thatproduction and handling are carried out inaccordance with the standards against whichcertification is to be done; and certification to

confirm that production and handling conforms tostandards. A certification body may operate its owninspection activities, or inspection may be carried outon its behalf by external inspection bodies. Thedecision as to whether adequate confidence isprovided that production and handling are inconformity with the standards rests with thecertification committee. If a certification body hasits own standards against which certification iscarried out, it may also have a standards settingcommittee.

Certification procedures for the certification oforganic products should make it possible to track andcontrol the flow of products from primary productionat farm level through each stage of manufacturingright to the final consumer product.

Certification is based on a systematic procedureconsisting of several steps. The operator, i.e. thefarmer, the processor, the trader or whoever ishandling the product and needs certification, and acertification body sign a contract, and then thecertification body registers the operator. Farmers arerequired to provide basic information on the farm,such as size of fields, crops, crop rotation, etc.Processors and packers must submit information onrecipes, capacities, range of products, operations, etc.

The next step is inspection. It may be carried out byan inspection body on behalf of the certification bodyor by the certification body itself. On-site checks arecarried out by inspectors who follow a verificationprogramme. At the level of farms or operators,inspections cover fields and facilities, productionpractices, inputs and materials used, and records. Thefindings are presented in a report and submitted forevaluation, normally by a special certificationcommittee representing various areas of competenceand different sectors. The third step is certification. Ifthe certification body is confident that the operation is in conformity with the standards against which theinspection and certification are carried out, acertificate will be forwarded to the operator, statingsuch conformity. The operator will be licensed to usethe certificate or mark of certification on its products.

The inspection of a certification programme coversagricultural production, processing, trade, labellingand certificates. The key elements of inspection areverification and evaluation.

Certification is not a one-time procedure: it is carriedout continuously on the basis of ongoing monitoring

10 CHAPTER 2 – CERTIFICATION

and inspection. The cost of certification varies. At the farm level it is generally a fixed amount, calculatedfrom the number of days required for the inspection.For processors and traders there may be a fixed price,as well as a percentage of the commercial valueranging between 0.3% and 1%.

Accreditation

The process of cer ti fi ca tion should meet basic cri teriaof trans par ency and inde pend ence (freedom from theinflu ence of vested inter ests). Cer ti fi ca tion bodies may be evalu ated according to their ability to meet suchcri teria, and this requires an analysis of theircer ti fi ca tion sys tems, including an assess ment of theirper sonnel, stan dards and their inspec tion andcer ti fi ca tion pro ce dures. If a cer ti fi ca tion body meets

the require ments, it may be awarded accredi ta tionstatus, meaning that an authori ta tive body givesformal rec og ni tion that the cer ti fi ca tion body iscom pe tent to carry out cer ti fi ca tion activi ties. Anaccredi ta tion con tract is signed, which sets out theterms and con di tions for the use of the accredi ta tionstatus.

There is no international regulation on who may or maynot carry out accreditation. However, several countrieshave designated official bodies for the accreditation ofcertification and inspection bodies. The InternationalAccreditation Forum (IAF) groups together 18 of theworld’s 30 accreditation bodies; one of its objectives isto establish the equivalence of its members’accreditation programmes on the basis of a multilateral,mutual recognition agreement among them.

Standards: development and application

Stan dards set the frame for organic farming and proc -essing prac tices and the use of marks and descrip tions in ref er ence to organic pro duc tion methods. Pro duc -tion stan dards and the accom pa nying brands were inthe past largely devel oped by organi za tions in the pri -vate sector, which also author ized com plying farmermem bers to use their brands.

Over the last decade, standards have increasinglybeen embodied in public regulations, including laws.These regulations define the conditions for references to organic production methods on product labels.Such standards may set out the principles for organicfarming, processing and trade, list prohibited orallowed substances or conduct, and prescribe controland certification measures.

There is at present no regulation on organic productsapplicable worldwide. Different associations,industries or governments may have varyingperceptions of how organic products should bedefined and certified. Thus, individual brands naming products organic may have disparate standards fororganic production and certification behind them.Moreover, diversities in, for instance, climatic,ecological or social conditions, may result indiffering production standards. However, thedevelopment of standards for organic production andtrade in the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius

Commission is an important step towards a commonunderstanding of what the term implies.

The inter na tional trade in organic prod ucts can there -fore be quite com plex. Many devel oping coun tries,mostly exporters, could benefit from increased har -moni za tion or an inter na tional pro ce dure for estab -lishing the equiva lence of organic stan dards.How ever, stan dards do exist and are being con tinu -ously devel oped at the inter na tional level, par ticu -larly in two forums: IFOAM and the CodexAli men ta rius Com mis sion.

IFOAM

The Inter na tional Fed era tion of Organic Agri cul tureMove ments (IFOAM) was estab lished in 1972 as anumbrella organi za tion for national organic agri cul -ture asso cia tions. Mem bers also include cer ti fi ca tionbodies, traders and proc es sors. IFOAM has estab -lished inter na tional Basic Stan dards of Organic Agri -cul ture and Food Proc essing, which pro vide aframe work for various cer ti fi ca tion pro grammes. The IFOAM stan dards are updated regu larly by theIFOAM Stan dards Com mittee and are approved bythe IFOAM Gen eral Assembly every second year.IFOAM has con sul ta tive status with the Euro peanUnion (EU) and the Codex Ali men ta rius Com mis -sion, and a formal liaison status with FAO.

CHAPTER 2 – CERTIFICATION 11

IFOAM has estab lished an inter na tional Accredi ta -tion Pro gramme, which is oper ated by the Inter na -tional Organic Accredi ta tion Service (IOAS). IOASis an inde pendent non- profit organi za tion withIFOAM as sole member. IFOAM accredi ta tion isbased on com pli ance with its Basic Stan dards and itsAccredi ta tion Cri teria for Pro grammes Cer ti fyingOrganic Agri cul ture and Proc essing. As of mid 1999,13 cer ti fi ca tion bodies were accred ited by IOAS and6 were in the process of being accred ited. Fur therinfor ma tion on IFOAM is pro vided at its Web page(http://www.ecoweb.dk/ifoam).

Demeter International eV

Demeter International eV is a worldwide network of19 international certification bodies in Africa,Australia, Europe and North America. It claims tohave more than 3,500 partners in 35 countries,covering 1 million hectares of biodynamicallycultivated land. Its internationally recognized mark isregistered in over 50 countries.

Organic farmers following biodynamic productionprinciples (see chapter 1 for a brief description ofthese principles) may be certified against Demeterstandards and thereby authorized to label theirproducts with the Demeter mark. Standards areagreed internationally, although there may be somenational differences of interpretation. Thebiodynamic standards are formulated in such a wayas to comply with international regulations onorganic farming. Demeter International also runs anaccreditation programme and assists in theestablishment of certification bodies.

Fur ther infor ma tion on Demeter Inter na tional ispro vided at its Web site (http://www.demeter.net).

Codex Alimentarius Commission

In 1962, the Joint FAO/WHO Food StandardsProgramme was created in order to protectconsumers from health hazards and deception whileat the same time facilitating international trade infood products. The Programme operates through anintergovernmental body referred to as the CodexAlimentarius Commission. The work of theCommission aims primarily at the prevention of theuse of international standards as technical barriers tothe trade in food products. The work of theCommission has been specifically recognized underthe Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and

Phytosanitary Measures of the World TradeOrganization (WTO).

Two Codex committees are currently developingstandards that are relevant to the international trade in organic products. The first is the Committee on FoodLabelling which is establishing guidelines for theproduction, processing, labelling and marketing oforganically produced foods. The Committee on FoodImport and Export Inspection and CertificationSystems is developing guidelines for food import and export inspection and certification systems.

The Committee on Food Labelling met in May 1998and has submitted standards for vegetable production for the consideration of the Codex AlimentariusCommission in 1999. At its twenty-third session,held at the FAO headquarters in Rome from 28 Juneto 3 July 1999, the Commission adopted Guidelineson the Production, Processing, Labelling andMarketing of Organically Produced Foods. TheCommittee on Food Labelling is also developingstandards for livestock products, which will beconsidered by the Commission at a later stage.

While the development of Codex guidelines is not away of establishing equivalency, WTO may refer tothese guidelines in its dispute settlement procedures.The significance of the guidelines will depend on theextent to which WTO uses them in this way, as wellas on the extent to which governments use them when formulating regulations.

The formulation of the Codex guidelines is largelybased on European Union regulations on organicfood products and IFOAM standards. The guidelinesshould be of assistance to countries developingregulations on organic food products.

World Trade Organization

WTO administers global trade rules, including ruleson technical barriers to trade and on the application of sanitary and phytosanitary measures. It also offers amechanism for conciliation and dispute settlement. Acountry exporting organic food products, which isrefused access to an importing country's market ongrounds that the organic standards applied are notequivalent to the importing country's standards, mayrefer the issue to WTO if it considers the refusal to bea violation of global trade rules, i.e. based on atechnical barrier to trade. WTO may rule against theimporting country if the exporting country is found to comply with international standards for organic food


products, such as those being formulated by theCodex Alimentarius Commission, even if theexporting country does not comply with the morestringent requirements of the importing country.

It should be noted that, in gen eral, WTO is opposed totrade restric tions based on pro duc tion and proc essingmethods (referred to as PPMs) and some experts areclaiming that eco- labelling based on such cri teria areagainst WTO rules, in par ticular those of theAgree ment on Tech nical Bar riers to Trade. In theirview this would apply even to man da tory regu la tionslike Council Regu la tion (EEC) No. 2092/91 and itsamend ments.

International Organization forStandardization (ISO)

The International Organization for Standardization(ISO), established in 1947, is a worldwide federationof national standards bodies from some 130countries, one from each country.

ISO pro motes the devel op ment of stan dardi za tionwith a view to facili tating the inter na tional exchange of goods and serv ices, as well as coop era tion in theintel lec tual, sci en tific, tech no logical and eco nomicspheres. ISO's work results in inter na tional agree ments which are pub lished as Inter na tional Stan dards.

ISO covers all technical fields with the exception ofelectrical and electronic engineering. However, it hasnot published guides or standards which specificallyaddress organic production. The ISO 9000 series ofstandards are standards for quality managementsystems and the ISO 14000 series deals with different aspects of environmental management, includingenvironmental management systems, environmentallabelling and the environmental aspects of productstandards. The standards do not have any directimplications for the methods and principlesapplicable to organic food production.

The most impor tant guide for organic cer ti fi ca tionis cur rently ISO/IEC1 Guide 65:1996, Gen eralrequire ments for bodies oper ating productcer ti fi ca tion sys tems, which estab lishes prin ci ples for cer ti fi ca tion bodies. There is no guide spe cific to thecer ti fi ca tion of pro duc tion methods, but Guide 65pro vides gen eral guid ance for any product

cer ti fi ca tion body, including those cer ti fying organicfood prod ucts.

The IFOAM Accredi ta tion Cri teria for Pro grammesCer ti fying Organic Agri cul ture and Proc essing arebased on ISO/IEC Guide 65 and are appli cable topro duc tion cer ti fi ca tion (but not product cer ti fi ca -tion) within the organic sector. The Demeter Accredi -ta tion Pro gram like wise accredits organi za tions inaccor dance with this Guide.

Another impor tant guide is ISO/IEC Guide 61:1996,Gen eral require ments for assess ment and accredi ta -tion of cer ti fi ca tion/reg is tra tion bodies, whichdefines require ments for accredi ta tion bodies.

CEN and CENELEC

In the European Union, standardizing bodies at theregional level include the European Committee forStandardization (CEN) and the European Committeefor Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC).Their members are the national standards bodies ofEU member countries as well as the Czech Republic,Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. In addition toformulating their own European standards, thesebodies adopt standards issued by internationalstandardizing bodies such as ISO and IEC.

CEN and CENELEC have recently jointly publishedthe European Standard (EN) 45011 (1998), Generalcriteria for certification bodies operating productcertification. EN 45011 (1998) corresponds toISO/IEC Guide 65:1996. EN 45011 is based onISO/IEC Guide 40:1983, General requirements forthe acceptance of certification bodies, which wasalso the basis for the development of ISO/IEC Guide65. While EN 45011 is not specifically applicable tothe certification of production methods, it applies toany certification body operating within EU, including organic certification bodies. As of 1 January 1998,inspection bodies approved by EU must satisfy therequirements laid down in EN 45011.

EN 45011 belongs to the 45000 series of standardscovering testing, certification and accreditation.Another standard in the series is EN 45010, Generalrequirements for assessment and accreditation ofcertification/registration bodies, which correspondsto ISO/IEC Guide 61.


1 IEC is the International Electrotechnical Commission; it cooperates closely with ISO.

Regulations in major markets

Prior to the establishment of regulations, exporterscould legally label products as organic and sell theirproducts in any country. Regulations in the majorityof importing countries have introduced a legalequivalence requirement for products marketed asorganic in those countries.

To date, regulations essentially deal with referencesto the organic production method on labels. They donot define stan dards for the use of pri vate trade marks or cer ti fi ca tion marks. This implies that regu la tionsmay be sup ple mented by pri vate quality seals basedon pri vate stan dards. Many cer ti fi ca tion bodieswithin EU have chosen to keep pri vate stan dards;some have not.

European Union

Production and certification

The basic EU regulations on organic food productsare set out in Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2092/91of 24 June 1991 and its amendments. Annex IIpresents a consolidated version of the Regulation andits amendments.

The EU Regulation applies to all processed andunprocessed food products from plants or animals.Until June 1999, standards for organic livestockproduction were still in draft form and had not beenapproved. Hence, livestock products were governedonly by standards set by private certification bodiesand by national regulations in some EU membercountries, including Austria, Denmark and France.The administration and enforcement of organicstandards are carried out by national authorities.

According to Article 5 of the Regulation, thelabelling of a product may refer to the organicproduction method only if the product was producedin accordance with the rules laid down in Article 6(Rules of Production) and if the producer or importeris subject to the inspection measures laid down inArticles 8 and 9 (Inspection System).

Annex I to the Regulation defines the EU principlesof organic production at farm level and Annex II cites

the materials that are authorized for use in soilconditioning, fertilization and plant protection.Annex III lists minimum inspection requirements and Annex VI sets out the requirements for processedfoods. If at least 95% of the agricultural ingredients in the product are organic, the product can be labelledorganic providing that the remaining 5% of theingredients are not available from organic productionand are listed in Annex VI, Section C. If the productcontains between 70% and 95% of organicingredients (the percentage being based on the weight of the agricultural ingredients), the organicingredients can be mentioned only in the list ofingredients and the product may not be marketed asan organic product.

The Regulation recognizes the variety of terminology used in the different EU member countries (Article2), for example ‘ökologisch’ in German, ‘biologique’in French and, of course, ‘organic’ in English. Thecertification mark placed on organic products may befreely chosen.

The Regulation is based to a large extent on theIFOAM Basic Standards. Consequently, there arefew substantive differences between the two, withsome notable exceptions such as the length ofconversion periods.

Each EU member country has set up an inspectionsystem operated by public inspection authorities,private inspection and/or certification bodies or both.For instance, Denmark and Finland have set up afully government-run inspection system. Registration and authorization of private certification bodies iscarried out by a designated authority in each EUmember country and extends only to the work of thecertification body within that country. Each year, theEuropean Commission publishes a list of inspectionand certification bodies authorized by the variousmember coun tries to under take inspec tion inindi vidual coun tries2.

Imports

Organic food products originating from non-EUmember countries may be imported and marketed


2 The terminology used in Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2092/91 is ‘inspection’, ‘inspection measures’, ‘inspection system’ and so on. However, the term commonly used by the trade is ‘control’.

within EU carrying a label referring to the organicorigin of the product, if it is accepted that the products are produced and certified according to proceduresequivalent to those of the Union.

There are basi cally two ways of meeting therequire ments for equiva lency: a third country may beapproved by the Euro pean Com mis sion as havingstan dards and inspection meas ures equiva lent tothose of EU. The country will then be added to a listof approved coun tries, the so- called Article 11 list3.Alter na tively, an indi vidual EU member country may authorize an importer to import prod ucts from acountry not on the Article 11 list into that par ticularEU member country. Under this pro vi sion, theimporter should apply to the des ig nated authori ties inthe EU member country for an import per mis sion and the appli ca tion should be accompanied bydocu men ta tion on the equiva lency of stan dards andcon trol meas ures.

Literally, Article 11.7 opens up the possibility of athird-country certification body being added to theArticle 11 list. However, it is interpreted by some asgiving EU certification bodies the possibility of being added to the list and authorized to carry outcertification activities in approved third countries. An example is the Netherlands certification body,SKAL: it is approved for certification in Hungary, acountry in the Article 11 list.

Article 11 list of third countries

When a third country has estab lished andimple mented organic stan dards, it may apply to theEuro pean Com mis sion for inclu sion in the Article 11list. The Com mis sion will then evaluate the coun try’s organic pro duc tion stan dards and its cer ti fi ca tionmeas ures. These stan dards should cor re spond withthe stan dards described in Article 6 of Regu la tion2092/91, and cer ti fi ca tion meas ures shouldcor re spond to the meas ures described in Arti cles 8and 9. An approval may apply to cer tain productcate go ries, regions or pro duc tion units, as well as tocer tain cer ti fi ca tion bodies. It may also refer tocer tain ori gins of the prod ucts.

In June 1999, only five coun tries appeared on theArticle 11 list: Argen tina, Aus tralia, Hun gary, Israeland Swit zer land.

Each consignment from an approved third countryshould be accompanied by a certificate, certifyingthat standards and certification measures areequivalent to those applicable in EU. Thecertification may be issued only by the approvedcertification bodies mentioned in the Article 11 list.For example, in Hungary only the BiokontrollHungária Kht and the SKAL office in that countrymay issue this certification. It should also be notedthat this approval is specific to work in the said thirdcountry.

With the excep tion of Swit zer land (which oper ates an inter na tional veri fi ca tion system), the prod uctsincluded in the Article 11 list must origi nate from thelisted country itself. Prod ucts con taining ingre di entsfrom out side the country are not cov ered by theCom mis sion approval. An import licence must beobtained for such prod ucts to be mar keted within EUas organic.

Coun tries seeking approval may apply to theEuro pean Com mis sion.

Imports from countries not on the Article 11 list

Until 31 December 2002, organic prod ucts from coun -tries not on the Article 11 list may be imported into EUunder import per mits issued by EU member coun tries,pro vided that the importer sub mits docu men ta tion thatthe prod ucts are pro duced and cer ti fied according torules equiva lent to those of EU. The bulk of the prod -ucts cur rently entering EU are cov ered by indi vidualimport per mits, and it is widely believed that the pro vi -sion will be extended beyond 2002. In the frame workof this regime, EU member States have acceptedimports from more than 60 coun tries.

Import per mits are granted by des ig nated authori ties in each EU member country to spe cific importers and are valid only for those importers and for import entry into that member country. If the importer wants to useanother EU member country as an import entry point,a sepa rate per mis sion must be obtained from the lattercountry. Once imported into an EU member country,the prod ucts may be mar keted freely within EU.

Import per mits are issued for a cer tain amount ofspe cific prod ucts from speci fied coun tries and arevalid for defined periods not exceeding 31 December


3 Article 11 of Regulation 2092/91, which provides for the drawing up of this list by the European Commission, sets out the rules for theimportation of organic products into EU as well as the criteria for inclusion on the list.

2002. The cur rent authori za tion arrange ments forprod ucts from third coun tries are appli cable until31 December 2002.

To obtain an import per mis sion in accor dance withArticle 11.6a, the importer must pro vide suf fi cientevi dence that the product is pro duced in accor dancewith pro duc tion require ments equiva lent to those laid down in Article 6, that con trol meas ures are aseffec tive as those set out in Arti cles 8 and 9, and thatthese con trol meas ures are effec tively andper ma nently imple mented. As of 1 January 1998,cer ti fi ca tion bodies must sat isfy the require ments ofEN 45011 or those of ISO/IEC Guide 65:1996.

Having accepted the evi dence, the dele gatedauthority in the importing EU member country issues an import permit. Any change in the grounds onwhich an import per mis sion is granted willneces si tate a new import permit. For example, if theimporter imports the same product from the samecountry but through another exporter or ifcer ti fi ca tion is car ried out by another cer ti fi ca tionbody, a sepa rate import permit will be required.

Member coun tries and even regional authori tiesimple ment this pro vi sion dif fer ently, meaning thatdif ferent kinds of con trol meas ures are accepted asensuring equiva lency to EU regu la tions. A draftdocu ment for guid ance on the imple men ta tion of thepro vi sions for impor ta tion from third coun tries exists, but the docu ment has not been final ized, and theEuro pean Com mis sion is cur rently working oninvolving cus toms authori ties in con trol meas ures.

Equiva lency between pro duc tion methods in EU andthe export country is docu mented through the use ofcer ti fi ca tion bodies having stan dards at leastequiva lent to those of EU or a cer ti fi ca tionpro gramme that ensures cer ti fi ca tion againststan dards equiva lent to those of EU. Because ofvaria tions in local con di tions some dif fer ences inpri mary pro duc tion methods between EU and thirdcoun tries are often allowed to a cer tain extent.

In gen eral, the cri teria for granting the import licenceare shifting away from evalua tion at the pro duc tionlevel towards approval of the cer ti fi ca tionarrange ments, including the cer ti fi ca tion bodies. Inorder to ensure equiva lency in the effec tive ness ofinspec tion and cer ti fi ca tion meas ures, third-countrycer ti fi ca tion bodies must also sat isfy therequire ments laid down by EN 45011 or by ISO/IEC

Guide 65:1996. EU member coun tries have agreedon common guide lines on how such con for mity canbe docu mented4. According to these guide lines,con for mity can be decided by:

q Official accreditation bodies designated in thethird country or in any EU member country foraccreditation of certification and inspection bodies(option 1);

q The competent authority in the third country(government) (option 2);

q The competent authority in the EU membercountry which grants import permits (option 3).

In the first instance, the importer must pro vide docu -men tary evi dence that the cer ti fi ca tion body con formswith the require ments of EN 45011 or ISO/IEC Guide65:1996, and that this con for mity is con firmed by anoffi cial accredi ta tion body. The offi cial accredi ta tionbody should comply with the require ments foraccredi ta tion bodies set out in EN 45010 or ISO/IECGuide 61. As all Euro pean accredi ta tion bodies areexpected to be sub ject to inter na tional mutual rec og ni -tion agree ments in the near future, selected offi cialaccredi ta tion bodies should also pref erably join theInter na tional Accredi ta tion Forum, under which theimple men ta tion of such agree ments is likely. Offi cialaccredi ta tion processes require the peri odic sur veil -lance and reas sess ment of accred ited inspec tion andcer ti fi ca tion bodies.

The require ment for accredi ta tion by an offi cialaccredi ta tion body is par ticu larly sig nifi cant forcer ti fi ca tion bodies in devel oping coun tries, as it canbe quite expen sive to obtain such accredi ta tion.Addi tion ally, many coun tries may not have offi cialaccredi ta tion bodies.

At this moment, it is not clear whether IFOAMaccredi ta tion is accept able as evi dence of thecon for mity of a cer ti fi ca tion body with EN 45011 orISO/IEC Guide 65. IFOAM is not an ‘off icialaccredi ta tion body’ that can be des ig nated by anythird country or EU member country; it is, how ever,applying for mem ber ship of IAF.

In the second instance, docu men ta tion showing that acom pe tent authority in the exporting countryguar an tees con for mity of the cer ti fi ca tion body withthe stan dards of EN 45011 or ISO/IEC Guide 65 mustbe sub mitted by the importer. Addi tion ally, the


4 Commission document 7607/VI/97, Rev. 3.

importer should pro vide suf fi cient evi dence that theaccred ited cer ti fi ca tion bodies are sub jected toperi odic sur veil lance and reas sess ment according tothe require ments of EN 45011 and ISO/IEC Guide 65.

In the third instance, the importer must submit allinfor ma tion required by the com pe tent authority in theEU member country to enable the latter to decide oncom pli ance with EN 45011 or ISO/IEC Guide 65.Regular sur veil lance and reas sess ment of thecer ti fi ca tion bodies must be made by inde pendentexperts or offi cial accredi ta tion bodies des ig nated bythe com pe tent authority in the EU member country.How ever, not all com pe tent authori ties in EU membercoun tries are ready to imple ment this option. There is a pos si bility that docu men ta tion on IFOAMaccredi ta tion can in some cases be accepted as meeting docu men ta tion require ments under this pro vi sion, andsome EU member countries may accept evaluationscarried out by independent experts.

For all import permits granted after 1 January 1998for combinations of exporting countries andcertification bodies not previously assessed by acompetent authority in an EU member State, thecertification bodies must comply with therequirements of EN 45011 or ISO/IEC Guide 65. Forimport per mits granted before 31 December 1997 orappli ca tions based on pre vious com bi na tions ofexporting coun tries and cer ti fi ca tion bodies, atime table for tran si tional arrange ments was drawnup. Documentation evidencing the compliance ofcertification bodies with EN 45011 or ISO Guide 65should have been forwarded to the relevantcompetent authorities no later than 31 May 1999. The competent authorities in the EU member countrieswere then to decide which import permits wouldcontinue to be valid and which import permits wereto be withdrawn.

The above require ment on com pli ance with EN45011 and ISO/IEC Guide 65 caused some stir, sinceit added to the burden on cer ti fi ca tion bodies indevel oping coun tries, as well as implied thatimporters would have to pro vide addi tionaldocu men ta tion on equiva lency.

As has been men tioned ear lier, the con tinuous sur -veil lance and reas sess ment of cer ti fi ca tion bodies ispart of the offi cial accredi ta tion process. This sur veil -lance and reas sess ment is increas ingly replacingsuper vi sion as a means of ensuring the effec tiveappli ca tion of inspec tion meas ures. How ever, somemember coun tries may in some cases require fur therevi dence that inspec tion and cer ti fi ca tion activi ties inthe third country are per ma nently and effec tivelyapplied. There are no common guide lines on how therelated super vi sion is to be car ried out and by whom.

The above- mentioned require ments must be ful filledfor each export con sign ment des tined for an EUcountry. In addi tion, the exporter must pres ent to theimporter an indi vidual export form indi cating thekind and quan tity of goods, the stan dards applied, and the cer ti fi ca tion body pro viding the cer ti fi ca tion. Theforms and details required may vary from country tocountry.

The EU member State granting an import authori za -tion noti fies the Euro pean Com mis sion and the otherEU member States and for wards to all of them docu -men ta tion rele vant to the issu ance of the importpermit.

Other markets

Regu la tions in non- European mar kets, such asAus tralia, Japan, Canada and the United States, aredis cussed in chapter 4. Regu la tions in Swit zer landare taken up in chapter 11.

Certification in exporting countries

Cer ti fi ca tion in exporting coun tries may be car riedout by local cer ti fi ca tion bodies, by inter na tionalcer ti fi ca tion enti ties, or under a part ner shiparrange ment between these two types of bodies.

Certification by local bodies

If the exporter wants to enter the Euro pean marketand the exporting country is on the EU Article 11 list,

a cer ti fi ca tion body appearing on the list should bechosen. For example, for Argen tina, which is on theArticle 11 list, the local cer ti fi ca tion bodies Insti tutoArgen tino para la Cer ti fi ca ción y Pro mo ción dePro ductos Agro pecuarios Orgánicos srl (Argencert)and Organi za ción Inter na cional Agro pecuaria (OIA)appear in the Article 11 list. They have the approvalof SENASA, part of the Argen tine Depart ment of


Agri cul ture, and have part ner ship agree ments withpri vate and gov ern mental cer ti fi ca tion bodies in bothEurope and the United States.

Argencert is a lim ited liability com pany. It has astan dards com mittee, inspec tors and an inde pendentcer ti fi ca tion com mittee. The last- mentionedcom mittee con sists of four per sons rep re senting fourinsti tu tions. Argencert serves sev eral growers,grower groups, processors and traders. Eachpro ducer in these groups has a cer ti fi ca tionagree ment with Argencert and is inspected annu ally.

However, as only very few countries and certificationbodies are on the Article 11 list, most operators mustrely on certification to obtain import permits. Localcertification bodies wishing to ensure that theircertification will be accepted by EU authorities shouldeither seek official accreditation (option 1, see page16), or request guarantees from the local authoritiesthat they comply with ISO/IEC Guide 65 (option 2).Such guarantees should be based on legal grounds.

How ever, the serv ices of local cer ti fi ca tion bodiesoper ating in coun tries not on the Article 11 list, whichare not offi cially accred ited and whose com pli ancewith ISO/IEC Guide 65 is not guar an teed by the localauthori ties, may be rec og nized for the pur poses ofissuing import per mits. This rec og ni tion can beobtained through an evalua tion car ried out by an inde -pendent expert accept able in EU (option 3). Anexample of such a body is Bio latina SAC. Its mainoffice is in Peru, and it has local inspec tion offices inBolivia, Colombia and Nica ragua. It has devel oped acer ti fi ca tion pro gramme for Latin America. Its inspec -tion and cer ti fi ca tion activi ties are evalu ated by anexpert approved by a com pe tent authority in Ger many.

It is dif fi cult to envisage an export trade in organicprod ucts with the EU market based solely on localcer ti fi ca tion and accredi ta tion. Many coun tries do not have accredi ta tion facili ties, and the cost of offi cialaccredi ta tion can be quite high. Addi tion ally, if EUmember countries require further evidence thatcontrol measures are being effectively andpermanently applied, recourse may have to be madeto international bodies or experts.

In effect therefore international accreditation and/orinternational supervision and surveillance arerequired. In regard to supervision and surveillance,local certification bodies have often establishedpartnerships with international certification bodies orexperts carrying out these activities.

Coun tries that have estab lished and imple mentednational leg is la tion for the pro duc tion and cer ti fi ca tionof organic prod ucts may apply to the Euro peanCom mis sion for inclu sion on the Article 11 list.

Certification under partnershipsbetween local and international bodies

Cer ti fi ca tion may be car ried out under a part ner shipbetween local and inter na tional cer ti fi ca tion bodies.The part ner ship can take various forms, but often thelocal bodies carry out the bulk of the activi tiesleading to cer ti fi ca tion, while the inter na tional cer ti fi -ca tion body peri odi cally evalu ates the imple men ta -tion of cer ti fi ca tion pro ce dures and some times issuesthe cer tifi cates. This may reduce cer ti fi ca tion costsfor the opera tors while pro viding access to an inter na -tional cer ti fi ca tion mark, as well as strengthen localinspec tion and cer ti fi ca tion capacity.

Local inspec tion enti ties and inter na tionalcer ti fi ca tion bodies may enter into part ner shipcon tracts under which the local body car ries out theon- site inspec tions, writes inspec tion reports andsub mits them to the inter na tional cer ti fi ca tion body;cer ti fi ca tion is under taken by the inter na tional body.Pro ducers cer ti fied this way gain access to theinter na tional cer ti fi ca tion mark.

Full cer ti fi ca tion may also be car ried out locally, theonly inter na tional involve ment being super vi sion toensure that the cer ti fi ca tion bodies comply with EN45011 or ISO/IEC Guide 65 stan dards or that con trolmeas ures are being effec tively and per ma nentlyapplied.

Inter na tional super vi sion may be paid for by an aidorgani za tion, the local cer ti fi ca tion body and, in some cases, by an importer.

Certification by a local branch of aninternational certification body

An inter na tional cer ti fi ca tion body may estab lishbranch offices else where. Such offices follow theinspec tion and cer ti fi ca tion pro ce dures of the mothercom pany and are fully inte grated into its inter na tional cer ti fi ca tion system.

Several certification bodies operating at theinternational level have established branch offices inother countries. For example, the Organic CropImprovement Association, Inc. (OCIA), a UnitedStates company, has set up several branch offices in a


number of countries, including at the Organic FoodDevelopment Center (OFDC) in China. The branchoffice has its own certification committee and acertification programme, which follows OCIAstandards and by-laws. Inspection is carried out byChinese inspectors approved by OCIA.

Certification by international bodies

An operator may choose to be cer ti fied by an inter na -tional cer ti fi ca tion body. Inter na tional cer ti fi ca tion islikely to be more expen sive than local cer ti fi ca tion, butif no local cer ti fi ca tion pro gramme is avail able it maybe the only solu tion in the short term. For the long term,the estab lish ment of a local cer ti fi ca tion pro grammeshould be con sid ered. The inter na tional market pre -mium on the product will deter mine whether cer ti fi ca -tion by a for eign cer ti fi ca tion body is fea sible.

The cer ti fi ca tion body does not need to be Euro peanfor the operator to enter the Euro pean market. Other

inter na tional cer ti fi ca tion bodies may offercer ti fi ca tion pro grammes ful filling EU require ments.

How ever, some opera tors choose Euro pean cer ti fi ca -tion bodies for exports to Europe on the grounds thatthis will reduce trade dif fi cul ties. Only a minority ofthe cer ti fi ca tion bodies approved by the various EUmember coun tries are active in third coun tries. Theyinclude BCS Öko Garantie GmbH (Ger many), Eco -cert (France), Institut für Mark tök ologie or IMO(Swit zer land), KRAV (Sweden), Organic Farmers &Growers Ltd (OF&G, United Kingdom), SKAL(Neth er lands) and Soil Asso cia tion Cer ti fi ca tion Ltd(United Kingdom).

Sev eral Euro pean cer ti fi ca tion bodies are active inmany African coun tries, as well as in India and SriLanka. There are even cases, for instance in India,where one operator is inspected and cer ti fied bysev eral inter na tional cer ti fi ca tion bodies, American,Aus tra lian and Euro pean.

Some types of certification arrangements

Subcontracting

Cer ti fied opera tors may enter into sub con tracts withother opera tors to carry out spe cific opera tions ontheir behalf, for instance part of a manu fac turingprocess. The sub con tractor may, for example, be afarm ers’ coop era tive, a proc essor or a packer. Thecer ti fi ca tion of such sub con trac tors is car ried out aspart of the cer ti fi ca tion of the main opera tors (orlicen sees), who pay for the cer ti fi ca tion. Sub con trac -tors do not have the right to market their pro duc tionwith the cer ti fi ca tion mark, and they may handleorganic prod ucts only within the coop era tion agree -ment with the licensee. The cer ti fi ca tion mark may be used only by the licensee.

Sub con tracting is quite common in many parts of theworld, including Europe. Cer ti fi ca tion based on sub -con tracting is also done for instance by Argencert inArgen tina. It is often a trader or a proc essor that iscer ti fied and holds the cer tifi cate and pays for the cost of cer ti fi ca tion.

Grower groups

Spe cial inspec tion and cer ti fi ca tion arrange ments can be devel oped for groups of small pro ducers. In agrower group system, the key ele ments are the

reduc tion of external inspec tion through theestab lish ment of an internal con trol mecha nism andcommon mar keting opera tions for the pro ducersbelonging to the system. Grower groups may includesmall proc essing units and storage units. Sev eralcer ti fi ca tion pro grammes have made spe cialpro vi sions for the cer ti fi ca tion of small holders,proj ects and other kinds of coop era tive arrange ments. Pro vi sions for the inspec tion of such groups oftendiffer from those applied to single opera tors.

In gen eral there are two approaches to thecer ti fi ca tion of a grower group system. Inspec tionmay be directed to part of the grower group, forinstance a per centage of the farmers, or it may bedirected to the internal con trol system, i.e. focusingon com piling docu men ta tion on each of the farmers,in- house moni toring system, quan tity con trol, etc.

To mention an example, the certification bodies BCS, Bio Latina, Ecocert, IMO, OCIA and SKAL, whichare all active in Latin America, carry out certificationof grower group systems there. A control programmehas been established which basically covers thedesign and establishment of an internal controlsystem within the producers’ organizations. Thisprogramme provides for documentation on eachfarmer (production procedures, basic information,management plan, etc.) and internal inspections.


Setting up a certification programme

The long-term possibility

Inspec tion and cer ti fi ca tion can be done locally and,if the appro priate local bodies do not exist, they canbe estab lished. The best way for ward is to bringtogether all the par ties involved in organic agri cul -ture, including farmers, proc es sors, advo cacy organi -za tions, con sumer organi za tions, envi ron mentalorgani za tions, uni ver sity researchers, agri cul turalexten sion workers, etc. A com mittee could be estab -lished to review the organic stan dards of gov ern -ments, cer ti fi ca tion bodies, the Codex Ali men ta riusCom mis sion, and the IFOAM Basic Stan dards.Guide lines for car rying out inspec tion and cer ti fi ca -tion at local level are often avail able: for instance,offi cial regu la tions (e.g. the Euro pean Council Regu -la tion (EEC) No. 2092/91 and its amend ments) andthe IFOAM cri teria for organic cer ti fi ca tion pro -grammes could pro vide valu able infor ma tion.

After reviewing inter na tional stan dards and those ofother coun tries, the com mittee can develop andrec om mend national organic stan dards. These should be con sis tent with stan dards in impor tant mar ketswhile taking local con di tions into con sid era tion. Thecom mittee can also rec om mend a struc ture for thecer ti fi ca tion body. Pro ce dures for inspec tors andcer ti fi ca tion should also be estab lished and inspec tors must be trained.

After the estab lish ment of the local cer ti fi ca tionpro gramme, local farmers and proc es sors should beedu cated about the organic stan dards and the

cer ti fi ca tion process. When cer ti fi ca tion hascom menced, an appli ca tion for accredi ta tion shouldbe made.

Spe cific guide lines for estab lishing local cer ti fi ca tion bodies can be found in the pub li ca tion Building Trustin Organics: A Guide to Set ting Up OrganicCer ti fi ca tion Pro grammes, written by G. Rund grenand pub lished by IFOAM in 1997.

Assis tance can also be obtained from the Inde pendent Organic Inspec tors Asso cia tion, which offers aninspector training course, as well as from other localor inter na tional cer ti fi ca tion bodies, espe cially thosethat have been accred ited or that appear on the EUArticle 11 list. For instance, an inter na tionalcer ti fi ca tion or accredi ta tion body may pro videtuto rial assis tance to local pro fes sionals in inspec tionand cer ti fi ca tion pro ce dures. The training maysome times be part of a devel op ment proj ect,involving external funding, NGOs and otherestab lish ments. After the training, a national organicstan dards com mittee may be estab lished, and thetrained inspec tors can carry out local inspec tions forthe inter na tional partner. This is the first step towardsthe crea tion of a fully opera tional local pro gramme.

To men tion one example, the Soil Asso cia tionCer ti fi ca tion Ltd, an offi cially rec og nizedcer ti fi ca tion body in the United Kingdom linked withThe Soil Asso cia tion, has pro vided tuto rial assis tance to Vene zuelan pro fes sionals in inspec tion andcer ti fi ca tion pro ce dures.


Annex I

Basic con cepts

Accredi ta tion. A pro ce dure by which an authori ta tive bodyevalu ates and gives a formal rec og ni tion that a cer ti fi ca tion pro gramme is in accor dance with the stan dards of theauthori ta tive body.

Cer tifi cate. Docu ment indi cating that ade quate con fi dence is pro vided that a product, process or service is incon for mity with a spe cific stan dard.

Cer ti fi ca tion. A pro ce dure by which a third party giveswritten assur ance that a product, process or service is incon for mity with cer tain stan dards. Cer ti fied organic foodprod ucts are food prod ucts that have been veri fied to havebeen pro duced in accor dance with speci fied stan dards fororganic pro duc tion and proc essing.

Cer ti fi ca tion body. An organi za tion per forming cer ti fi ca tion. Some times referred to as the cer ti fier or the cer ti fi ca tionagency.

Cer ti fi ca tion mark. A mark or symbol indi cating thatcom pli ance with stan dards has been veri fied.

Cer ti fi ca tion pro gramme. A system of rules, pro ce duresand man age ment for car rying out cer ti fi ca tion. One cer ti fi -ca tion body may exe cute sev eral dif ferent cer ti fi ca tion pro -grammes. Some times referred to as a cer ti fi ca tion system.

Com pe tent authority. The offi cial gov ern ment agencyhaving juris dic tion.

Con trol, con trol body. Terms com monly used by the tradewhen refer ring to inspec tion and an inspec tion body.

Inspec tion. An on- site visit to verify that the per form ance of an opera tion is in accor dance with spe cific stan dards of acer ti fi ca tion pro gramme.

Inspec tion body. The body per forming the inspec tion partof cer ti fi ca tion. Where a cer ti fi ca tion body per forms its own inspec tions, the inspec tion body is iden tical to thecer ti fi ca tion body. Some times referred to as the inspec tionagency or the con trol body.

Inspector. A person appointed to under take the inspec tionpart of a cer ti fi ca tion pro gramme.

Licence. A docu ment issued under the rules of acer ti fi ca tion pro gramme, by which a cer ti fi ca tion body

grants a person or body the right to use cer tifi cates orcer ti fi ca tion marks for its prod ucts, processes or serv icesin accor dance with the rules of the rele vant cer ti fi ca tionpro gramme.

Licensee. An operator that has a license to use acer ti fi ca tion mark

Operator. Anyone car rying out activi ties cov ered by acer ti fi ca tion pro gramme, for instance farmers, proc es sors,han dlers.

Stan dards. Docu mented agree ments con taining tech nicalspeci fi ca tions or other pre cise cri teria to be used con sis -tently as rules, guide lines or defi ni tions, to ensure thatmate rials, prod ucts, processes and serv ices are fit for their pur pose. Stan dards relating to organic food prod ucts arepro duc tion and/or proc essing stan dards describing, pre -scribing, allowing or pro hib iting pro ce dures and mate rials,as well as stan dards for cer ti fi ca tion and label ling.

Sub con tractor. Anyone car rying out activi ties cov ered by a cer ti fi ca tion pro gramme, for instance farmers, proc es sors,han dlers, on behalf of an operator.

EN 45010.* A Euro pean stan dard for accredi ta tiondevel oped by CEN and CENELEC.

EN 45011.* A Euro pean stan dard for cer ti fi ca tiondevel oped by CEN and CENELEC.

ISO/IEC Guide 61.* An inter na tional guide to accredi ta tion devel oped by the inter na tional stan dardi za tionorgani za tions ISO and IEC.

ISO/IEC Guide 65.* An inter na tional guide to cer ti fi ca tiondevel oped by ISO and IEC.

____________________* The EN 45000 series of stan dards and their cor re spondingISO/IEC Guides lay down gen eral cri teria for the opera tion oftesting and cali bra tion labo ra to ries, cer ti fi ca tion bodies forprod ucts, quality sys tems and per sonnel, inspec tion bodies, andaccredi ta tion bodies with the aim of ensuring con fi dence andreli ability in the activi ties of these bodies. The EN 45000stan dards are also referred to as “har mo nized stan dards”.

Annex II

MAFF consolidated version of EC Regulationa/

COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No. 2092/91

of 24 June 1991

on organic production of agricultural products and indications referring thereto on agriculturalproducts and foodstuffs

(note: substantive changes arising from the latest amending Council Regulation No. 1935/95are indicated by the use of bold italics)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the EuropeanEconomic Community, and in particular Article 43 thereof,

Having regard to the proposals from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament,

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and SocialCommittee,

Whereas demand from consumers for organicallyproduced agricultural products and foodstuffs isincreasing; whereas a new market for agricultural products is thus being created by this phenomenon;

Whereas the market price for such products is higher,while the way in which they are produced involves lessintensive use of land; whereas, therefore, in the context ofthe reorientation of the common agricultural policy, thistype of production may contribute towards the attainmentof a better balance between supply of, and demand for,agricultural products, the protection of the environmentand the conservation of the countryside;

Whereas, in response to the rising demand, agriculturalproducts and foodstuffs are being placed on the marketwith indications stating or implying to purchasers that theyhave been produced organically or without the use ofsynthetic chemicals;

Whereas some Member States have already adoptedrules and inspection arrangements for the use of suchindications;

Whereas a framework of Community rules on production,labelling and inspection will enable organic farming to be

protected in so far as it will ensure conditions of faircompetition between the producers of products bearingsuch indications and give the market for organic productsa more distinctive profile by ensuring transparency at allstages of production and processing, thereby improvingthe credibility of such products in the eyes of consumers;

Whereas organic pro duc tion methods con sti tute a spe cificform of pro duc tion at farm level; whereas, con se quently, itshould be pro vided that, on the label ling of proc essed prod -ucts, indi ca tions refer ring to organic pro duc tion methodsshould relate to the ingre di ents obtained by such methods;

Whereas, for the implementation of the arrangementsconcerned, provision should be made for flexibleprocedures whereby certain technical details or measuresmay be amended, amplified or further defined in order totake account of experience gained; whereas, within asuitable period, this Regulation will be supplemented byequivalent rules covering livestock production;

Whereas, in the interests of the producers and purchasersof products bearing indications referring to organicproduction methods, the minimum principles which mustbe complied with in order for products to be presented withsuch indications should be laid down;

Whereas organic production methods entail significantrestrictions on the use of fertilizers and pesticides whichmay have detrimental effects on the environment or resultin the presence of residues in agricultural produce;whereas, in this context, practices accepted in theCommunity when this Regulation is adopted must becomplied with in accordance with codes of practicefollowed in the Community when this Regulation isadopted; whereas, moreover, in the future, the principlesgoverning the authorization of products which may beused in this type of farming must be established;

__________________________________

a/ Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Farming and Fisheries, United Kingdom. Not to be regarded as a definitive legal text.

Whereas, moreover, organic farming involves variedcultivation practices and limited use of non-syntheticfertilizers and conditioners of low solubility; whereas thesepractices should be specified and conditions for the use ofcertain non-synthetic products laid down;

Whereas the procedures laid down make possible, if thisappears necessary, the addition to Annex I of morespecific provisions aimed at avoiding the presence ofcertain residues of synthetic chemicals from sources otherthan agriculture (environmental contamination) in theproducts obtained by such production methods;

Whereas, to ensure compliance with the rules onproduction, all stages of production and marketing shouldnormally be subject to inspection;

Whereas all operators producing, preparing, importing ormarketing products bearing indications referring to organic production methods must be subject to a regularinspection system, meeting minimum Communityrequirements and carried out by designated inspectionauthorities and/or by approved and supervised bodies;whereas provision should be made for a Communityindication of inspection to appear on the labelling of theproducts concerned;

(“Whereas” recitals in amending Reg. No. 1935/95)

Whereas the Commission has received a specificmandate in the framework of Regulation (EEC) No2092191 to review a number of provisions of thatRegulation by 1 July 1994 and to submit any appropriateproposal for revision of that Regulation;

Whereas it has become apparent that the provisions,expiring on 1 July 1995 concerning the labelling ofagricultural products and foodstuffs containing aningredient of agricultural origin which was produced byproducers converting to organic farming, should beextended in order to permit those producers to valorizethe additional cost of their production by an appropriatelabelling of their products;

Whereas the review of Articles 5, 10 and 11 requested bythe Council by 1 July 1994 has shown that a number oftechnical and drafting amendments in those Articles aswell as in certain other provisions are necessary toensure a proper management and implementation of theRegulation; whereas priority has therefore been given tothe establishment of these amended rules and thatconsequently the establishment of the rules concerninganimal production should be postponed for a limitedperiod;

Whereas it has become apparent from the review that theprovisions concerning the labelling of foodstuffsprepared only partly from ingredients of agriculturalorigin which were produced according to organicproduction methods, should be improved in orderto permit greater emphasis to be placed on theorganically produced component in such foodstuffs;

Whereas it has also become apparent that the indicationprovided for in Annex V should remain optional, butshould also, in order to prevent improper use of that

indication, be restricted to sales of prepackagedfoodstuffs or direct sales by the producer or preparer tothe ultimate consumer, provided that the nature of theproduct can be identified unambiguously;

Whereas it has fur ther more become apparent that propa -gating mate rial should be obtained from organi callygrown plants but that a system of dero ga tions is nec es -sary in order to enable pro ducers to use, during a tran si -tional period, conventionally- produced propa gatingmate rial, where no appro priate organically- producedpropa gating mate rial is avail able;

Whereas, for the same reasons, it must be permissible for whole seedlings obtained in a conventional manner andintended for planting for plant production to be used foran interim period;

Whereas it has become apparent that a number ofproducts which were used before the adoption ofRegulation (EEC) No 2092/91 in accordance with thecodes of practice of organic farming followed in theCommunity, have not been included in Annex II of theRegulation; whereas the use of such products should bepermitted to the extent that their use is also permitted inconventional agriculture;

Whereas it has appeared appropriate to clarifythat the inspection system provided for appliesalso to importers of products from third countriesestablished in the European Union;

Whereas Regulation (EEC) No 2092191 should thereforebe amended,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Scope

Article 1

1. This Regulation shall apply to the following products, where such products bear, or are intended to bear,indications referring to organic production methods:

(a) unprocessed agricultural crop products; alsoanimals and unprocessed animal products, to theextent that principles of production and specificinspection rules for them are introduced intoAnnexes I and III;

(b) products intended for human consumptioncomposed essentially of one or more ingredients ofplant origin; in addition, upon adoption of theprovisions concerning livestock production referredto in (a), products intended for human consumptioncontaining ingredients of animal origin.

2. A proposal concerning the principles and specificmeasures of control governing organic animal production,non-processed animal products and products intended forhuman consumption containing ingredients of animalorigin shall be submitted by the Commission as soon aspossible and before 30 June 1995.

CHAPTER 2 – CERTIFICATION, Annex II 23

Article 2

For the purposes of this Regulation a product shall beregarded as bearing indications referring to organicproduction methods where, in the labelling, advertisingmaterial or commercial documents, such a product or itsingredients is described by the indications in use in eachMember State suggesting to the purchaser that theproduct or its ingredients have been obtained inaccordance with the rules of production laid down in Article 6 and in particular the following terms, unless such termsare not applied to agricultural products in foodstuffs orclearly have no connection with the method of production:

- in Spanish: ecológico,- in Danish: rkologisk,- in German: ökologisch,- in Greek: $4@8@(4i`, - in English: organic,- in French: biologique,- in Italian: biologico,- in Dutch: biologisch,- in Portuguese: biológico,- in Finnish: luonnomukainen- in Swedish: ekologisk

Article 3

This regulation shall apply without prejudice to otherCommunity provisions governing the production,preparation, marketing, labelling and inspection of theproducts specified in Article 1.

Definitions

Article 4

For the purpose of this Regulation:

1. “labelling” shall mean any words, particulars, trademarks, brand names, pictorial matter or symbols on anypackaging, document, notice, label, board or collaraccompanying or referring to a product specified inArticle 1;

2. “production” shall mean the operations on theagricultural holding involved in producing, packaging andinitially labelling as products of organic productionagricultural products produced on that holding;

3. “preparation” shall mean the operations ofpreserving and/or processing of agricultural products, andalso packaging and/or alterations made to the labellingconcerning the presentation of the organic productionmethod of the fresh, preserved and/or processedproducts;

4. “marketing" shall mean holding or displaying forsale, offering for sale, selling, delivering or placing on themarket in any other form;

5. “operator” shall mean any natural or legal personwho produces, prepares or imports from a third country,with a view to the subsequent marketing thereof, productsas referred to in Article 1, or who markets such products;

6. “ingredients” shall mean the substances, includingadditives, used in the preparation of the products specifiedin Article 1 (1) (b), as defined in Article 6 (4) of Directive79/112/EEC on the approximation of the laws of theMember States relating to the labelling, presentation andadvertising of foodstuffs for sale to the ultimateconsumer;

7. “plant protection products” shall mean products asdefined in Article 2 (1) of Council Directive 79/117/EEC of21 December 1978 prohibiting the placing on the marketand use of plant protection products containing certainactive substances, as last amended by Directive89/365/EEC;

8. “deter gents” shall mean sub stances and prepa ra -tions, within the meaning of Council Direc tive 73/404/EECof 22 November 1973 on the approxi ma tion of the laws ofthe Member States relating to deter gents, as last amended by Direc tive 86/94/EEC, which are intended to be used forcleaning cer tain prod ucts as referred to in Article 1 (1) (a);

9. “pre-packaged foodstuff’ shall mean any singleitem as defined in Article 1 (3) (b) of Directive 79/112/EEC;

10. “list of ingre di ents" shall mean the list ofingre di ents referred to in Article 6 of Direc tive79/112/EEC.

Labelling

Article 5

1. The labelling and advertising of a product specifiedin Article 1 (1) (a) may refer to organic production methodsonly where:

(a) such indications show clearly that they relate to amethod of agricultural production;

(b) the product was produced in accordance with therules laid down in Article 6 or imported from a thirdcountry under the arrangements laid down inArticle 11;

(c) the product was produced or imported by anoperator who is subject to the inspection measureslaid down in Articles 8 and 9;

(d) in the case of products prepared after 1 January1997, the labelling refers to the name and/or thecode number of the inspection authority of body towhich the operator is subject. Member States shalldecide whether to require a reference to the nameand/or to the code number and shall notify theCommission accordingly;

2. (deleted)

24 CHAPTER 2 – CERTIFICATION, Annex II

3. The labelling and advertising of a product specifiedin Article 1 (1) (b) may bear indications referring to organicproduction methods in the sales description of the productonly where:

(a) at least 95% of the ingredients of agricultural originof the product are, or are derived from, productsobtained in accordance with the rules laid down inArticle 6 or imported from third countries under thearrangements laid down in Article 11;

(b) all the other ingredients of agricultural origin of theproduct are included in Annex VI, Section C or havebeen provisionally authorized by a Member State inaccordance with any implementing measuresadopted where appropriate pursuant to paragraph 7;

(c) the product contains only substances listed in Annex VI, Section A, as ingredients of nonagriculturalorigin;

(d) the product or its ingredients of agricultural origin,referred to in subparagraph (a), have not beensubjected to treatments involving the use ofsubstances not listed in Annex VI, Section B;

(e) the product or its ingredients have not beensubjected to treatments involving the use of ionizingradiation;

(f) the product has been prepared or imported by anoperator who is subject to the inspection measureslaid down in Articles 8 and 9;

(g) in the case of products prepared after 1 January1997, the labelling refers to the name and/or thecode number of the inspection authority or body towhich the operator who has carried out the mostrecent preparation operation is subject. MemberStates shall decide whether to require a referenceto the name and/or to the code number and shallnotify the Commission accordingly.

The indications referring to organic productionmethods must make it clear that they relate to amethod of agricultural production and must beaccompanied by a reference to the ingredients ofagricultural origin concerned, unless such referenceis clearly given in the list of ingredients.

4. Ingredients of agricultural origin may be included inAnnex VI, Section C only where it has been shown thatsuch ingredients are of agricultural origin and are notproduced in sufficient quantity in the Community inaccordance with the rules laid down in Article 6, or cannotbe imported from third countries in accordance with therules laid down in Article 11.

5. Products labelled or advertised in accordance withparagraphs 1 or 3 may bear indications referring toconversion to organic production methods, provided that:

(a) the requirements referred to in paragraph 1 orparagraph 3 respectively are fully satisfied, with theexception of that concerning the length of theconversion period referred to in paragraph 1 ofAnnex I;

(b) a conversion period of at least 12 months before theharvest has been complied with;

(c) such indications do not mislead the purchaser of theproduct regarding its difference from products whichsatisfy all the requirements of paragraphs 1 or 3.After 1 January 1996 such indications must take the form of the words “product under conversion toorganic farming”, and must appear in a colour, sizeand style of lettering which is not more prominentthan the sales description of the product; in thisindication the words “organic farming” shall not bemore prominent than the words “product underconversion to”;

(d) the product contains only one ingredient ofagricultural origin;

(e) for products prepared after 1 January 1997, thelabelling refers to the name and/or the code number of the inspection authority or body to which theoperator who has carried out the most recentproduction or preparation operation is subject.Member States shall decide whether to require areference to the name and/or to the code numberand shall notify the Commission accordingly.

5a. Without prejudice to the provisions of paragraph 3,the labelling and advertising of a product as referred to inArticle 1 (1) (b) may only bear indications referring toorganic production methods where:

(a) at least 70% of the ingredients of agricultural originare, or are derived from, products obtained inaccordance with the rules laid down in Article 6 orimported from third countries under thearrangements laid down in Article 11;

(b) all the other ingredients of agricultural origin ofthe product are included in Annex VI, Section C orhave been provisionally authorized by a MemberState in accordance with any implementationmeasures adopted where appropriate pursuant toparagraph 7;

(c) the indications referring to organic productionmethods appear in the list of ingredients and only in clear relation to those ingredients obtainedaccording to the rules laid down in Article 6 orimported from third countries under thearrangements laid down in Article 11; they appearin the same colour and with an identical size andstyle of lettering as the other indications in the listof ingredients. Such indications must also appearin a separate statement set in the same visual fieldas the sales description and indicating thepercentage of the ingredients of agricultural originor derived therefrom which were obtained inaccordance with the rules laid down in Article 6 orwere imported from third countries under thearrangements laid down in Article 11. Thestatement may not appear in a colour, size and style of lettering which is more prominent than the salesdescription of the product. The statement shall bein the following form: “X% of the agriculturalingredients were produced in accordance with therules of organic production”;


(d) the product contains only substances listedin Annex VI, Section A as ingredients ofnonagricultural origin;

(e) the product or its ingredients of agricultural originreferred to in subparagraph (a) have not beensubjected to treatments involving the use ofsubstances not listed in Annex VI, Section B;

(f) the product or its ingre di ents have not been sub -jected to treat ments involving the use of ion izingradia tion;

(g) the product has been prepared or imported by anoperator who is subject to the inspection measureslaid down in Articles 8 and 9;

(h) for prod ucts pre pared after 1 January 1997, thelabel ling refers to the name and/or the code number of the inspec tion authority or inspecting body towhich the operator who has car ried out the mostrecent pro duc tion or prepa ra tion opera tion is sub -ject. Member States shall decide whether to requirea ref er ence to the name and/or to the code numberand shall notify the Com mis sion accord ingly.

6. During a tran si tional period expiring on31 December 1997, the label ling and adver tising of aproduct as referred to in Article 1 (1) (b) pre pared partlyfrom ingre di ents not sat is fying the require ments inpara graph 3 (a) may refer to organic pro duc tion methodspro vided that:

(a) at least 50% of the ingredients of agricultural originsatisfy the requirements referred to in paragraph 3 (a);

(b) the product satisfies the requirements referred to inparagraph 3 (c), (d), (e) and (f);

(c) the indications referring to organic productionmethods:

- appear only in the list of ingredients as providedfor in Directive 79/112/EEC, as last amended byDirective 89/395/EEC,

- clearly refer to only those ingredients obtainedaccording to the rules referred to in Article 6 orimported under the arrangements laid down inArticle 11;

(d) the ingredients and their relative levels appear indescending order by weight in the list of ingredients;

(e) indications in the list of ingredients appear in thesame colour and with an identical size and style oflettering;

7. Detailed rules concerning the implementation of thisArticle may be established according to the procedure laiddown in Article 14.

8. Limi ta tive lists of the sub stances and prod uctsreferred to in para graph 3 (b), (c) and (d) and para graph 5a (b), (d) and (e) shall be estab lished in Annex VI, Sec tionsA, B and C, according to the pro ce dure laid down inArticle 14.

Conditions of use and compositional requirements ofthese ingredients and substances may be specified.

Where a Member State considers that a product should beadded to the above-mentioned lists or that amendmentsshould be made thereto, it shall ensure that a dossiergiving the reasons for the inclusion or the amendments issent officially to the other Member States and theCommission, which shall present it to the Committeereferred to in Article 14.

9. For the calculation of the percentages referred to inparagraphs 3 and 6, the rules provided for in Articles 6and 7 of Directive 79/112/EEC shall be applied.

10. In a product as referred to in Article 1 (1), aningredient obtained according to the rules laid down inArticle 6 shall not be present together with the sameingredient not obtained according to those rules.

11. Before 1 January 1999, the Commission shallreview the provisions of this Article and of Article 10 andsubmit any appropriate proposals for their revision.

Rules of Production

Article 6

1. The organic production method implies that for theproduction of products referred to in Article 1 (1) (a) otherthan seeds and vegetative propagating material:

(a) at least the requirements of Annex I and, whereappropriate, the detailed rules relating thereto, mustbe satisfied;

(b) only products composed of substances listed inAnnexes I and II may be used as plant-protectionproducts, detergents, fertilizers, soil conditioners orfor another purpose where such purpose isspecified in Annex II in regard to certainsubstances. They may be used only under thespecific conditions laid down in Annexes I and II in so far as the corresponding use is authorized in general agriculture in the Member States concerned inaccordance with the relevant Community provisionsor national provisions in conformity with Communitylaw;

(c) only seed or vegetative propagating materialproduced by the organic production methodreferred to in paragraph 2 is used.

2. The organic production method implies that forseeds and vegetative reproductive material, the motherplant in the case of seeds and the parent plant(s) in thecase of vegetative propagating material have beenproduced in accordance with the provisions ofsubparagraphs (a) and (b) of the previous paragraph forat least one generation or, in the case of perennial crops,two growing seasons.


3(a) By way of derogation from paragraph 1 (c), seedsand vegetative propagating material not obtainedby the organic production method may, during atransitional period expiring on 31 December 2000and with the approval of the competent authority ofthe Member State, be used in so far as users ofsuch propagating material can show to thesatisfaction of the inspection body or authority ofthe Member State that they were unable to obtainon the market propagating material for anappropriate variety of the species in question andsatisfying the requirements of paragraph 2. In thatcase, propagating material which is not treated with products not listed in Annex II, Section B must beused, if available on the Community market.Member States shall inform the other MemberStates and the Commission of any authorizationgranted under this paragraph.

(b) The procedure laid down in article 14 may beapplied to decide on:

- the intro duc tion, before 31 December 2000 ofrestric tions con cerning the tran si tional measure referred to in sub para graph (a) with regard tocer tain spe cies and/or types of propa gatingmate rial and/or the absence of chemicaltreat ment,

- the maintenance, after 31 December 2000, of thederogation provided for in subparagraph (a) with regard to certain species and/or types ofpropagating material and with regard to thewhole Community or certain parts thereof,

- the intro duc tion of pro ce dural rules and cri teriacon cerning the dero ga tion referred to insub para graph (a) and the infor ma tion thereoncom mu ni cated to the pro fes sional organi za tions con cerned, to other Member States and theCom mis sion.

4. Before 31 December 1999 the Commission shallreview the provisions of this Article, in particularparagraph 1 (c) and paragraph 2 and submit anyappropriate proposals with a view to their revision.

Article 6a

1. For the purposes of this Article, “seedlings” shallmean whole seedlings intended for planting for plantproduction.

2. The organic production method implies that whenproducers use seedlings, they have been produced inaccordance with Article 6.

3. By way of derogation from paragraph 2 seedlingsnot obtained by organic production methods may beused during a transitional period expiring on31 December 1997 in so far as the following conditionsare met.

(a) the competent authority of the Member State hasauthorized the use after the user or users of such

material have demonstrated to the satisfaction ofthe inspection body or authority of the MemberState that they were not able to obtain anappropriate variety of the species in question onthe Community market,

(b) the seedlings have not been treated, since sowing,with any products other than those listed in AnnexII, Sections A and B;

(c) the seedlings come from a producer who hasaccepted an inspection system equivalent to thearrangements laid down in Article 9 and has agreedto apply the restriction in subparagraph (b); thisprovision shall enter into force on 1 January 1996;

(d) after planting, the seedlings must have beencultivated in accordance with the provisions ofArticle 6 (1) (a) and (b) for a period of at least sixweeks before harvesting;

(e) the labelling of any product containing ingredientsderived from such seedlings may not include theindication referred to in Article 10;

(f) without prejudice to any restriction resulting fromthe procedure referred to in paragraph 4, anyauthorization granted under this paragraph shall be withdrawn as soon as the shortage comes to anend, and shall expire on 31 December 1997 at thelatest.

4(a) Where an authorization as referred to in paragraph3 has been granted, the Member State shallimmediately notify to the other Member States andto the Commission the following information:

- the date of the authorization,

- the name of the variety and species concerned,

- the quantities that are required and thejustification for those quantities,

- the expected period of the shortage,

- any other information requested by theCommission or the Member States.

4(b) If the infor ma tion sub mitted by any Member State to the Com mis sion and to the Member State whichgranted the authori za tion shows that an appro -priate variety is avail able during the period of theshortage, the Member State shall con sider with -drawing the authori za tion or reducing its period ofvalidity, and shall inform the Com mis sion and theother Member States of the meas ures it has takenwithin 10 days of the date of receipt of theinfor ma tion.

4(c) At the request of a Member State or at theCommission’s initiative, the matter shall besubmitted for examination to the Committeereferred to in Article 14. It may be decided, inaccordance with the procedure laid down In Article14, that the authorization shall be withdrawn or itsperiod of validity amended.


Article 7

1. Products not authorized at the date of adoption ofthis Regulation for a purpose indicated in Article 6 (1) (b)may be included in Annex II, provided that the followingconditions are satisfied:

(a) if they are used for the purpose of plant pest ordisease control:

- they are essential for the control of a harmfulorganism or a particular disease for which otherbiological, cultural, physical or plant breedingalternatives are not available, and

- the conditions for their use preclude any directcontact with the seed, the crop or crop products;however, in the case of perennial crops, directcontact may take place, but only outside thegrowing season of the edible parts (fruits)provided that such application does not indirectlyresult in the presence of residues of the product in the edible parts, and

- their use does not result in, or contribute to,unacceptable effects on, or contamination of, theenvironment;

(b) if they are used for fertilization or soil-conditioningpurposes:

- they are essential for specific nutritionrequirements of crops or specific soil-conditioning purposes which cannot be satisfied by thepractices mentioned in Annex I, and

- their use does not result in unacceptable effectson the environment or contribute to thecontamination thereof.

1(a) The conditions provided for in paragraph 1 shallnot apply to products which were in common use beforethe adoption of this Regulation according to the codes ofpractice on organic farming followed in the Community.

2. If need be, the following may be specified for anyproduct included in Annex II:

- the detailed description of the product,

- the conditions of its use and compositional and/or solubility requirements, with regard in particular to the need to ensure for these products a minimalpresence of residues on edible parts of the cropand on edible crop products as well as a minimum effect on the environment,

- particular labelling requirements for productsreferred to in Article 1 where such products areobtained with the aid of certain products referredto in Annex II.

3. Amendments to Annex II, concerning eitherinclusion or cancelling of products as referred to inparagraph 1 or inclusion or amendments of specificationsas referred to in paragraph 2, shall be adopted by theCommission in accordance with the procedure laid downin Article 14.

4. Where a Member State considers that a productshould be added to Annex II or that amendments shouldbe made thereto, it shall ensure that a dossier giving thereasons for the inclusion or the amendments is sentofficially to the other Member States and the Commission,which shall introduce it to the committee referred to inArticle 14.

Inspection system

Article 8

1. Any operator who produces, prepares or importsfrom a third country products as specified in Article 1 forthe purpose of marketing them shall:

(a) notify this activity to the competent authority of theMember State in which the activity is carried out;such notification shall include the informationspecified in Annex IV;

(b) submit his undertaking to the inspection systemreferred to in Article 9.

2. Member States shall designate an authority or bodyfor the reception of notifications.

Member States may provide for the communication of anyadditional information which they consider to be necessary for effective supervision of the operators concerned.

3. The competent authority shall ensure that anupdated list containing the names and addresses ofoperators subject to the inspection system is madeavailable to interested parties.

Article 9

1. Member States shall set up an inspection systemoperated by one or more designated inspection authorities and/or by approved private bodies to which the operatorsproducing, preparing or importing from third countriesproducts as referred to in Article 1 shall be subject.

2. Member States shall adopt the measures necessaryto ensure that an operator who complies with theprovisions of this Regulation and pays his contribution toinspection expenses has access to the inspection system.

3. The inspection system shall comprise at least theapplication of the precautionary and inspection measuresspecified in Annex III.

4. For the application of the inspection systemoperated by private bodies, Member States shalldesignate an authority responsible for the approval andsupervision of such bodies.

5. For the approval of a private inspection body, thefollowing shall be taken into account:


(a) the standard inspection procedure to be followed,containing a detailed description of the inspectionmeasures and precautions which the bodyundertakes to impose on operators subject to itsinspection;

(b) the penalties which the body intends to apply whereirregularities and/or infringements are found;

(c) the availability of appropriate resources in the formof qualified staff, administrative and technicalfacilities, inspection experience and reliability;

(d) the objectivity of the inspection body vis-à-vis theoperators subject to its inspection.

6. After an inspection body has been approved, thecompetent authority shall:

(a) ensure that the inspections carried out by theinspection body are objective;

(b) verify the effectiveness of its inspections;

(c) take cognizance of any irregularities and/orinfringements found and penalties applied;

(d) withdraw approval of the inspection body where itfails to satisfy the requirements referred to in (a) and(b) or no longer fulfils the criteria indicated inparagraph 5 or fails to satisfy the requirements laiddown in paragraphs 7, 8, 9 and 11.

6(a) Before 1 January 1996, Member States shall issue acode number to each inspection body or authorityapproved or designated in accordance with theprovisions of this Article. They shall inform the otherMember States and the Commission thereof; theCommission shall publish the code numbers in the listreferred to in the last subparagraph of Article 15.

7. The inspection authority and the approvedinspection bodies referred to in paragraph 1 shall:

(a) ensure that at least the inspection measures andprecautions specified in Annex III are applied toundertakings subject to their inspection;

(b) not disclose information and data they obtain in theirinspection activity to persons other than the personresponsible for the undertaking concerned and thecompetent public authorities.

8. Approved inspection bodies shall:

(a) give the competent authority, for inspectionpurposes, access to their offices and facilities,together with any information and assistancedeemed necessary by the competent authority forthe fulfilment of its obligations pursuant to thisRegulation;

(b) send to the competent authority of the Member State by 31 January each year a list of operators subject to their inspection on 31 December of the previousyear and present to the said authority a conciseannual report.

9. The inspection authority and inspection bodiesreferred to in paragraph 1 shall:

(a) ensure that, where an irregularity is found regardingthe implementation of Articles 5 and 6 or of themeasures referred to in Annex III, the indicationsprovided for in Article 2 referring to the organicproduction method are removed from the entire lot or production run affected by the irregularityconcerned;

(b) where a manifest infringement, or an infringementwith prolonged effects is found, prohibit the operatorconcerned from marketing products with indicationsreferring to the organic production method for aperiod to be agreed with the competent authority ofthe Member State.

10. The following may be adopted in accordance withthe procedure laid down in Article 14:

(a) detailed rules concerning the requirements indicated in paragraph 5 and the measures listed inparagraph 6;

(b) implementation measures concerning the provisions of paragraph 9.

11. As from 1 January 1998 and without prejudice tothe provisions of paragraphs 5 and 6, approvedinspection bodies must satisfy the requirements laiddown in the conditions of standard EN 45011 of 26 June1989.

Indication that products are covered by the inspection scheme

Article 10

1. The indication and/or the logo shown in Annex Vindicating that products are covered by the specificinspection scheme, may appear on the labelling ofproducts as referred to in Article 1 only where suchproducts:

(a) satisfy the requirements of Article 5 (1) or (3);

(b) have been subject to the inspection arrangementsreferred to in Article 9 throughout the production andpreparation process;

(c) are sold directly by the producer or preparer to theultimate consumer in sealed packaging, or placedon the market as pre-packaged foodstuffs; in thecase of direct sales by the producer or preparer tothe ultimate consumer, the sealed packaging is notrequired when the labelling enables the productrequiring this indication to be identified clearly andunambiguously;

(d) show on the labelling the name and/or businessname of the producer, preparer or vendor togetherwith the name or code number of the inspection


authority or body, and any indication required inaccordance with the provisions of the regulations onthe labelling of foodstuffs, in accordance withCommunity legislation.

2. No claim may be made on the label or advertisingmaterial that suggests to the purchaser that the indicationshown in Annex V constitutes a guarantee of superiororganoleptic, nutritional or salubrious quality.

3. The inspection authority and inspection bodiesreferred to in Article 9 (1) must:

(a) ensure that, where an irregularity is found underArticles 5 and 6 or the measures referred to in Annex III, the indication shown in Annex V is removed fromthe entire lot or production run affected by theirregularity concerned;

(b) where a manifest infringement, or an infringementwith prolonged effects, is found, withdraw from theoperator concerned the right to use the indicationshown in Annex V for a period to be agreed with thecompetent authority of the Member State.

4. Rules on withdrawal of the indication shown inAnnex V where certain infringements of Articles 5, 6 and 7or of the requirements and measures in Annex III aredetected may be adopted in accordance with theprocedure laid down in Article 14.

General enforcement measures

Article 10a

1. Where a Member State finds irregularities orinfringements relating to the application of this Regulationin a product coming from another Member State andbearing indications as referred to in Article 2 and/or AnnexV it shall inform the Member State which designated theinspection authority or approved the inspection body andthe Commission thereby.

2. Member States shall take whatever measures andaction are required to prevent fraudulent use of theindications referred to in Article 2 and/or Annex V.

Imports from third countries

Article 11

1. Without prejudice to Article 5, products as specifiedin Article 1 which are imported from a third country may bemarketed only where:

(a) they originate in a third country appearing in a list tobe drawn up by Commission decision in accordance

with the procedure laid down in Article 14 and wereproduced in a region or a production unit and underthe inspection of an inspection body specified,where appropriate, in the decision concerning thethird country in question;

(b) the competent authority or body in the third countryhas issued a certificate of inspection stating that thelot designated in the certificate:

- was obtained within a system of productionapplying rules equivalent to those laid down inArticle 6, and

- was subject to a system of inspection recognizedas equivalent in accordance with paragraph 2 (b).

2. For the purpose of deciding whether, for certainproducts as specified in Article 1, a third country may at itsrequest be included in the list referred to in paragraph 1(a), the following shall be taken into account in particular:

(a) the guarantees which the third country can offer, atleast in respect of production for export to theCommunity, as regards the application of rulesequivalent to those laid down in Article 6;

(b) the effectiveness of the inspection measuresapplied, which, at least in respect of production forexport to the Community, must be equivalent to theinspection measures referred to in Articles 8 and 9 to ensure compliance with the rules referred to in (a).

On the basis of this information, the regions or productionunits of origin, or the bodies whose inspections aredeemed to be equivalent, may be specified in theCommission decision.

3. The certificate referred to in paragraph 1 (b) must:

(a) accompany the goods, in the original copy, to thepremises of the first consignee; thereafter theimporter must keep the certificate at the disposal ofthe inspection body and/or inspection authority fornot less than two years;

(b) be drawn up in accordance with procedures and amodel to be adopted in accordance with theprocedure laid down in Article 14.

4. Detailed rules for the implementation of this Articlemay be determined according to the procedure referred toin Article 14.

5. When examining a request from a third country, theCommission shall require it to supply all the necessaryinformation; it may also entrust experts with the task ofcarrying out, under its authority, an on-the-spotexamination of the rules of production and inspectionmeasures actually applied in the third country in question.

6.

(a) By way of derogation from paragraph 1, theimporter(s) in a Member State shall be authorized by the competent authority of the Member State to


market until 31 December 2002, products importedfrom a third country not included in the list referred toin paragraph 1 (a) provided the importer(s)furnish(es) the competent authority of the importingMember State with sufficient evidence that theimported products were manufactured according toproduction rules equivalent to those laid down inArticle 6 and were subject to inspection measures ofequivalent effectiveness to those referred to inArticles 8 and 9, and that such inspection measureswill be permanently and effectively applied.

Such authorization shall be valid only as long as theabove-mentioned conditions are shown to besatisfied. It shall expire from the time of the decision to include a third country in the list referred to inparagraph 1 (a), unless it concerns a product whichwas produced in a region not specified in thedecision referred to in paragraph 1 (a), and whichwas not examined in the framework of the requestsubmitted by the third country, and only where thatthird country has agreed to the continuation of theauthorization arrangements provided for in thisparagraph.

(b) Where a Member State has received sufficientevidence from an importer, it shall forthwith notify tothe Commission and the other Member States thethird country from which products are imported andsupply detailed information on the production andinspection arrangements and the guarantees thatthey will be permanently and effectively applied.

(c) At the request of a Member State or at theCommission’s initiative, the matter shall besubmitted to the Committee referred to in Article 14for examination. Should it emerge from thisexamination that the imported products were notmanufactured according to equivalent productionrules and/or inspection measures of equivalenteffectiveness, the Commission shall request theMember State which granted the authorization towithdraw it. It may be decided, in accordance withthe procedure laid down in Article 14, that theimports in question shall be prohibited or that theircontinuation subject to certain of the importconditions being amended within a given period.

(d) The notification referred to in (b) shall not berequired where it concerns production andinspection arrangements already notified by anotherMember State, pursuant to (b), unless significantnew evidence is submitted justifying a review of theexamination and decision referred to in (c).

Before 31 July 1994, the Commission shallreexamine the provisions of paragraph 1 and submitany appropriate proposals for its review.

7. The Commission may, in accordance with theprocedure laid down in Article 14 at the request of aMember State, approve a third country’s inspection bodywhich has previously been assessed by the MemberState concerned and add it to the list referred to inparagraph 1 (a). The Commission shall forward therequest to the third country concerned.

Free movement within the Community

Article 12

Member States may not, on grounds relating to themethod of production, to labelling or to the presentation ofthat method, prohibit or restrict the marketing of productsas specified in Article 1 that meet the requirements of thisRegulation.

Administrative provisions and implementation

Article 13

The following may be adopted in accordance with theprocedure laid down in Article 14:

- detailed rules for applying this Regulation,

- amendments to Annexes I, II, III, IV and VI,

- amendments to Annex V in order to define aCommunity logo to accompany or replace theindication that products are covered by theinspection scheme.

Article 14

The Commission shall be assisted by a committeecomposed of representatives of the Member States andchaired by the representative of the Commission.

Where the procedure laid down in this Article is to befollowed, the representative of the Commission shallsubmit to the committee a draft of the measures to betaken.

The Committee shall deliver its opinion on the draft, withina time limit which the chairman may lay down according tothe urgency of the matter. The opinion shall be deliveredby the majority laid down in Article 148 (2) of the Treaty.The votes of the representatives of the Member Stateswithin the committee shall be weighted in the manner setout in that Article. The chairman shall not vote.

The Commission shall adopt the measures envisaged ifthey are in accordance with the opinion of the committee.

If the measures envisaged are not in accordance with theopinion of the committee, or if no opinion is delivered, theCommission shall, without delay, submit to the Council aproposal relating to the measures to be taken. The Council shall act by a qualified majority.

If, on the expiry of a period of three months from the date of referral to it the Council has not acted, the proposedmeasures shall be adopted by the Commission.


Article 15

Before 1 July each year, Member States shall inform theCommission of measures taken in the preceding year forthe implementation of this Regulation and shallcommunicate in particular:

- a list of the operators who, on 31 December of the previous year, had given notification under Article8 (1) (a) and are subject to the inspection systemreferred to in Article 9,

- a report on supervision pursuant to Article 9 (6).

In addition, by 31 March each year, Member States shallinform the Commission of the list of inspection bodiesapproved on 31 December of the previous year, their legaland operational structure, their standard inspectionprocedure, their penalty arrangements and, whereappropriate, their mark.

The Commission shall each year publish, in the ‘C’ seriesof the Official Journal of the European Communities, thelists of approved bodies notified to it within the deadlineslaid down in the foregoing subparagraph.

Article 16

1. This Regulation shall enter into force on the day of its publication in the Official Journal of the EuropeanCommunities.

2. Within nine months of the entry into force of thisRegulation, Member States shall implement Articles 8and 9.

3. Article 5, Article 8 (1) and Article 11 (1) shall applyfrom 1 January 1993.

In accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 14,the date of application of Article 11 (1) may be deferred fora specified period for imports from a third country where,following a request by the third country, the stage reachedin examining the matter does not permit a decisionregarding the inclusion of the country concerned in the listprovided for in Article 11 (1) (a) before expiry of the periodreferred to in the first subparagraph.

For the purposes of complying with the conversion periodreferred to in paragraph 1 of Annex I, the period which haselapsed before the entry into force of this Regulation shallbe taken into account where the operator can demonstrate to the satisfaction of the inspection body that during thatperiod he was producing in accordance with the nationalprovisions in force or, failing that, with the recognizedinternational standards for organic production.

4. For 12 months following the entry into force of thisRegulation, Member States may, by way of derogationfrom Article 6 (1), authorize the use in the territory ofproducts containing substances not listed in Annex II,where they consider that the requirements of Article 7 (1)are satisfied.

5. For a period expiring 12 months after theestablishment of Annex VI in accordance with Article 5 (7),Member States may continue to authorize, in accordancewith their national provisions, the use of substances notlisted in the said Annex VI.

6. Each Member State shall inform the other MemberStates and the Commission of substances authorizedpursuant to paragraphs 4 and 5.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done in Luxembourg, 24 June 1991

For the Council

The President

J. C. JUNCKER


ANNEX I

PRINCIPLES OF ORGANIC PRODUCTION AT FARM LEVEL

Plants and plant products

1. The principles set out in this Annex must normallyhave been applied on the parcels during a conversionperiod of at least two years before sowing or, in the case ofperennial crops other than grassland, at least three yearsbefore the first harvest of products as referred to in Article1 (1) (a). The inspection body may, with the approval of the competent authority, decide, in certain cases, to extend orreduce that period, having regard to previous parcel use.

In particular, the conversion period may be reduced to thestrict minimum by a Member State in situations where theparcels have been treated with a product not included inAnnex II, part B as part of a pest or disease control scheme made mandatory by the competent authority of theMember State on its territory or on certain parts of itsterritory in respect of a specific crop.

The reduction in the conversion period must take accountof all the following points:

– the parcels were already converted or wereundergoing conversion to organic farming,

– the degradation of the plant protection productconcerned must result in an insignificant level ofresidue in the soil and, where the latter is a perennialcrop, in the crop,

– the Member State concerned must notify the otherMember States of its decision concerning theobligation of treatment and also the level of thereduction decided for the conversion period,

– products of the harvest following treatment may not besold bearing an indication referring to organicproduction.

2. The fertility and the biological activity of the soil mustbe maintained or increased, where appropriate, by:

(a) cultivation of legumes, green manures ordeep-rooting plants in an appropriate multiannualrotation programme;

(b) incor po ra tion in the soil of organic mate rial,com posted or not, from hold ings pro ducingaccording to the rules of this Regu la tion. Pendingthe adop tion of common tech nical rules con cerningorganic live stock, pro duc tion, by- products fromlive stock farming, such as farm yard manure, may be used if they come from live stock hold ings respectingexisting national rules or, in the absence thereof,inter na tion ally rec og nized prac tices con cerningorganic live stock pro duc tion.

Other organic or mineral fertilizers, mentioned in Annex II,may be applied only to the extent that adequate nutrition of

the crop being rotated or soil conditioning are not possibleby the methods set out under (a) and (b) of the precedingsubparagraph.

For compost activation, appropriate micro-organism orplant-based preparations may be used.

So-called “biodynamic preparations” from stone meal,farmyard manure or plants may also be used for thepurposes covered by this paragraph.

3. Pests, diseases and weeds shall be controlled by acombination of the following measures:

– choice of appropriate species and varieties,

– appropriate rotation programme,

– mechanical cultivation procedures,

– protection of natural enemies of pests throughprovisions favourable to them (e.g. hedges, nestingsites, release of predators),

– flame weeding.

Only in cases of immediate threat to the crop mayrecourse be had to products referred to in Annex II.

4. The collection of edible plants and parts thereof,growing naturally in natural areas, forests and agriculturalareas, is considered an organic production methodprovided that:

– those areas have received no treatments with products other than those referred to in Annex II for a period ofthree years before the collection.

– the collection does not affect the stability of the naturalhabitat or the maintenance of the species in thecollection area.

*5. For production of mushrooms, substrates may beused, if they are composed only of the followingcomponents:

5.1 farmyard manure and animal excrements (includingthe products referred to in indents 1 to 4 of Annex II, Part Ato Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91):

(a) either from holdings producing according to theorganic production methods;

(b) or satisfying the requirements referred to in Annex II, Part A, indents I to 4, of Regulation (EEC) No2092/91, only up to 25% (*), and only when theproduct under 5.1 (a) is not available;


5.2 products of agricultural origin, other thanthose covered under point 5.1 (e.g. straw), fromholdings producing according to organic productionmethods;

5.3 peat not chemically treated,

5.4 wood, not treated with chemical products afterfelling;

5.5 mineral products of Annex II, Part A to Regulation(EEC) No 2092/91, water and soil.

(*) This percentage is calculated on weight of totalcomponents of the substrate (excluding the coveringmaterial and any added water) before composting.

Animals and animal products

Pending the adoption of the proposal referred to in Article 1 (2), and for the purpose of preparation of ingredientsreferred to in Article 5 (3) (a), animals shall be raised inaccordance with the existing national rules, or in theabsence thereof, internationally recognized practicesconcerning organic livestock production.


__________________________________*This provision shall enter into force on 1 December 1998.

By derogation to the provisions under points 5.1 and 5.2 of Annex I, the following may be used during a transitional period expiring on1 December 2001:

– products referred to in point 5.1 (a) of the Annex, not from holdings producing according to the organic production method but satisfying the requirements referred to in Annex II, Part A, indents 1 to 4 of Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91,

– and/or products referred to in point 5.2 of the Annex, not from holdings producing according to the organic production method, butsatisfying, where relevant, the requirements referred to in Annex II, Part A of Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91,

if the products referred to in points 5.1 (a) and 5.2 are not available from holdings producing according to the organic production methodand the need is recognized by the inspection authority or body.

In such cases, the labelling and advertising shall contain a statement, with the wording ‘Mushrooms cultivated on a substrate fromextensive agriculture which is permitted in organic farming during a transitional period’. The word ‘organic’ in this statement, elsewhere onthe label and/or on the advertising, shall not be more prominent than the other words of the statement. (Text taken from Article 2 ofCommission Regulation 1900/98 of 4 September 1998 - OJ L247/6 of 5/9/98)

ANNEX II

A. FERTILIZERS AND SOIL CONDITIONERS

General conditions for all the products:

– use in accordance with provisions of Annex I,

– use only in accordance with the provisions of fertilizer legislation applicable within each Member State.

Products authorized exceptionally for use in soil conditioning and fertilization, in accordance with thedispositions of Annex I (2)

Name Description, compositional requirements, conditions for use

Compound products or products containing onlymaterials listed hereunder:

- Farmyard manure Product comprising a mixture of animal excrements andvegetable matter (animal bedding)

Need recognized by the inspection body or inspection authority

Indication of animal species

Coming from extensive husbandry and only in the sense ofArticle 6 (5) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2328/91, as lastamended by Regulation (EC) No 3669/93

- Dried farmyard manure and dehydrated poultrymanure



Coming from extensive husbandry and only in the sense ofArticle 6 (5) of Regulation (EEC) No 2328/91.

- Composted animal excrements, including; poultry manure and composted farmyard; manure included


Indication of the animal species

Factory farming origin forbidden

- Liquid animal excrements (slurry, urine, etc.) Use after controlled fermentation and/or appropriate dilution



Factory farming origin forbidden

- Composted household waste Compost of source separated household waste;

only vegetable and animal waste;

produced in a closed and monitored collection system, acceptedby the Member State;

maximum concentrations in mg/kg of dry matter: Cadmium: 0,7;Copper: 70; Nickel: 25; Lead: 45; Zinc: 200; Mercury: 0,4;Chromium (total): 70; Chromium (VI): 0 (*)

only during a period expiring on 31 March 2002;

need recognized by the inspection body or inspection authority.

- Peat Use limited to horticulture (market gardening, floriculture,arboriculture, nursery)

- Clays (e.g. perlite, vermiculite, etc.)


__________________________________

(*) Limit of determination


- Mushroom culture wastes The initial composition of the substrate must be limited toproducts of the present list

- Dejecta of worms (vermicompost) and insects

- Guano Need recognized by the inspection body or inspection authority

- Composted mixture of vegetable matter Need recognized by the inspection body or inspection authority

- Products or by-products of animal origin asbelow:- blood meal- hoof meal- horn meal- bone meal or degelatinized bone meal- animal charcoal- fish meal- meat meal- feather, hair and “chiquette” meal- wool- fur- hair- dairy products


maximum concentration in mg/kg of dry matter of Chromium (VI):0 (*)

- Products and by-products of plant origin forfertilizers (for instance, oil-seed cake meal,cocoa husks, malt culms, etc.)

- Seaweeds and seaweeds products As far as directly obtained by:(i) physical processes including dehydration, freezing and;

grinding;(ii) extraction with water or aqueous acid and/or alkaline solution;(iii) fermentation;

need recognized by the inspection body or inspection authority

- Sawdust and wood chips Wood not chemically treated after felling

- Composted bark Wood not chemically treated after felling

- Wood ash From wood not chemically treated after felling

- Soft ground rock phosphate Product as specified by Council Directive 76/116/EEC, as lastamended by Directive 89/284/EEC

Cadmium content less than or equal to 90 mg/kg of P205

- Aluminium calcium phosphate Product as specified by Directive 76/116/EEC, as last amendedby Directive 89/284/EEC;

Cadmium content less than or equal to 90 mg/kg of P205

Use limited to basic soils (pH > 7.5)

- Basic slag Need recognized by the inspection body or inspection authority

- Crude potassium salt (for instance: kainit, sylvinite, etc.)


- Potassium sulphate containing magnesium salt Need recognized by the inspection body or inspection authority

Derived from crude potassium salt

- Stillage and stillage extract Ammonium stillage excluded


__________________________________

(*) Limit of determination.


- Calcium carbonate of natural origin (for instance: chalk, mart, ground limestone, Breton ameliorant (maërl), phosphate chalk)

-

- Magnesium and calcium carbonate of natural origin (for instance: magnesian chalk, groundmagnesium limestone, etc.)

Only of natural origin


- Magnesium sulphate (for instance: kieserite) -

- Calcium chloride solution Foliar treatment of apple trees, after identification of deficit ofcalcium


- Calcium sulphate (gypsum) Product as specified by Directive 76/116/EEC, as amended byDirective 89/284/EEC

Only of natural origin

- Industrial lime from sugar production Need recognized by the inspection authority or inspection body;

only during a period expiring on 31 March 2002.

- Elemental sulphur Product as specified by Directive 76/116/EEC, as amended byDirective 89/284/EEC


- Trace elements Trace elements included in Directive 89/530/EEC


- Sodium chloride Only mined salt


- Stone meal -

B. PRODUCTS FOR PLANT PROTECTION

General conditions applicable for all the products composed or containing the following active substances:

– use in accordance with provisions of Annex I,

– only in accordance with the specific provisions of the plant protection product legislation applicable withinthe Member State where the product is used (where relevant (*)).

I. Substances of crop or animal origin


Azadirachtin extracted from Azadirachta indica.(Neem tree)

Insecticide;

Only to be used on mother plants for the production of seeds and on parent plants for the production of other vegetativereproductive material, and on ornamental crops.

(*) Beeswax Pruning agent

Gelatine Insecticide

(*) Hydrolysed proteins Attractant;

Only in authorized applications in combination with otherappropriate products of this Annex II, part B.


__________________________________

(*) In certain Member States the products marked with (*) are not considered as plant protection products and are not subject to theprovisions of the plant protection products legislation.


Lecithin Fungicide

Extract (aqueous solution) from Nicotianatabacum

Insecticide;

Only against aphids in subtropical fruit trees (e.g. oranges,lemons) and tropical crops (e.g. bananas); use only at the start of the vegetation period;

Need recognized by the inspection body or inspection authority;

Only during a period expiring 31 March 2002.

Plant oils (e.g. mint oil, pine oil, caraway oil) Insecticide, acaricide, fungicide and sprout inhibitor

Pyrethrins extracted from Chrysanthemumcinerariaefolium.

Insecticide

Quassia extracted from Quassia amara. Insecticide, repellent

Rotenone extracted from Derris spp. andLonchocarpus spp. and Terphrosia spp.

Insecticide;

Need recognized by the inspection body or inspection authority.

II. Microorganisms used for biological pest control


Microorganisms (bacteria, viruses and fungi) e.g.Bacillus thuringensis, Granulosis virus, etc.

Only products not genetically modified in the meaning ofDirective 90/220/EEC (1).

Ill. Substances to be used in traps and/or dispensers

General conditions:

- the traps and/or dispensers must prevent the penetration of the substances in the environment and prevent contactof the substances with the crops under cultivation.

- the traps must be collected after use and disposed of safely


(*) Diammonium phosphate Attractant;

Only in traps

Metaldehyde Molluscicide;

Only in traps containing a repellent to higher animal species;

Only during a period expiring 31 March 2002.

Pheromones Insecticide, attractant;

In traps and dispensers

Pyrethroids (only deltamethrin orlambdacyhalothrin)

Insecticide;

Only in traps with specific attractants;

Only against Batrocera oleae and Ceratitis capitata wied;

Need recognized by the inspection body or inspection authority;

Only during a period expiring on 31 March 2002.


__________________________________

(1) OJ No L117, 8.5.1990, p.15.(*) In certain Member States the products marked with (*) are not considered as plant protection products and are not subject to theprovisions of the plant protection products legislation.


IV.Other substances from traditional use in organic farming


Copper in the form of copper hydroxide, copperoxychloride, (tribasic) copper sulphate, cuprousoxide

Fungicide;

only during a period expiring on 31 March 2002;

need recognized by the inspection body or inspection authority

(*) Ethylene Degreening bananas

Fatty acid potassium salt (soft soap) Insecticide

(*) Potassium alum (Kalinite) Prevention of ripening of bananas

Lime sulphur (Calcium polysulphide) Fungicide, insecticide, acaricide;only for winter treatments in fruittrees, olive trees and vines

Paraffin oil Insecticide, acaricide

Mineral oils Insecticide, fungicide;

Only in fruit trees, vines, olive trees and tropical crops (e.g.bananas);

Only during a period expiring on 31 March 2002;


Potassium permanganate Fungicide, bactericide;

only in fruit trees, olive trees and vines

(*) Quartz sand Repellent

Sulphur Fungicide, acaricide, repellent

C. OTHER PRODUCTS


__________________________________

(*) In certain Member States the products marked with (*) are not considered as plant protection products and are not subject to theprovisions of the plant protection products legislation.

ANNEX III

MINIMUM INSPECTION REQUIREMENTS AND PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES UNDER THE INSPECTIONSCHEME REFERRED TO IN ARTICLES 8 AND 9

A. Plants and plant products from farm production orcollection

1 . Production must take place in a unit the land parcelsand production and storage locations of which are clearlyseparate from those of any other unit not producing inaccordance with the rules laid down in this Regulation;processing and/or packaging workshops may form part ofthe unit, where its activity is limited to processing andpackaging of its own agricultural produce.

2. When the inspection arrangements are firstimplemented, the producer, even where his activity islimited to the collection of wild plants, and the inspectionbody must draw up:

– a full description of the unit, showing the storage and production premises and land parcels and/orcollection areas and, where applicable, premiseswhere certain processing and/or packagingoperations take place,

– all the practical measures to be taken by theproducer at unit-level to ensure compliance with theprovisions of this Regulation,

– and, in case of col lec tion of wild plants, the guar an -tees given by third par ties, if appro priate where rele -vant which the pro ducer can pro vide to ensure thatthe pro vi sions of Annex I, point 4 are sat is fied.

The description and the measures concerned must becontained in an inspection report countersigned by theproducer concerned.

In addition, the report must specify:

– the date of the last application on the parcels and/orcollection areas concerned of products the use ofwhich is not compatible with Article 6 (1) (b),

– an undertaking by the producer to carry outoperations in accordance with Articles 5 and 6 and to accept, in the event of infringement, enforcement ofthe measures referred to in Article 9 (9) and, whererelevant, in Article 10 (3).

3. Each year, before the date indicated by theinspection body, the producer must notify the body of itsschedule of production of crop products, giving abreakdown by parcel.

4. Written and/or documentary accounts must be keptwhich enable the inspection body to trace the origin,nature and quantities of all raw materials bought, and theuse of such materials; in addition, written or documentaryaccounts must be kept of the nature, quantities andconsignees of all agricultural products sold. Quantitiessold directly to the final consumer shall be accounted on adaily basis.

Where the unit processes its own agricultural produce, theaccounts must contain the information as referred to inPoint B.2. third hyphen of this Annex.

5. Storage, in the unit, of input products other thanthose the use of which is compatible with Articles 6 (1) (b)and 7 is prohibited.

6. Apart from unannounced inspection visits, theinspection body must make a full physical inspection, atleast once a year, of the unit. Samples for testing ofproducts not authorized under this Regulation may betaken. However, such samples must be taken where theuse of unauthorized products is suspected. An inspectionreport must be drawn up after each visit, countersigned bythe responsible person of the unit.

7. The producer must give the inspection body, forinspection purposes, access to the storage and production premises and to the parcels of land, as well as to theaccounts and relevant supporting documents. He mustprovide the inspection body with any information deemednecessary for the purposes of the inspection.

8.1 Products as referred to in Article 1 may betransported to other units, including wholesalers andretailers, only in appropriate packaging or containersclosed in a manner preventing substitution of the contentand provided with a label stating, without prejudice to anyother indications required by law:

(a) the name and address of the person responsiblefor the production or preparation of the product, or,where another seller is mentioned, a statementwhich enables the receiving unit and the inspectionbody to identify unequivocally the personresponsible for the production of the product;

(b) the name of the product, in cluding a ref er ence to theorganic pro duc tion method, in ac cor dance withAr ticle 5.

8.2 However, the closing of packaging or containers isnot required where:

(a) transportation is between a producer and anotheroperator who are both subject to the inspectionsystem referred to in Article 9, and

(b) the products are accompanied by a document giving the information required under the previoussubparagraph.

Where an operator runs sev eral pro duc tion units in thesame area, units in the area pro ducing crops or cropprod ucts not cov ered by Article 1 together with storageprem ises for input prod ucts (such as fer til izers, plantpro tec tion prod ucts, seed) must also be sub ject to theinspec tion arrange ments as regards the first sub para graph


of point 2 and points 3 and 4. Crops of the same variety asthose pro duced at the unit referred to in point 1 may not bepro duced at these units.

However, producers may derogate from the rule referredto in the last sentence of the preceding subparagraph:

(a) in the case of the production of perennial cropproducts (fruit growing, vines and hops) provided the following conditions are met:

1. the pro duc tion in ques tion forms part of a con -ver sion plan in respect of which the pro ducergives a firm under taking and which pro vides forthe begin ning of the con ver sion of the last partof the area con cerned to organic pro duc tion inthe shortest pos sible period which may not inany event exceed a maximum of five years,

2. appropriate measures have been taken toensure the permanent separation of theproducts obtained from each unit concerned,

3. the inspection body or authority is notified of theharvest of each of the products concerned atleast 48 hours in advance,

4. imme di ately upon com ple tion of the har vest, the pro ducer informs the inspec tion body orauthority of the exact quan ti ties har vested onthe units con cerned together with any par ticulardis tin guishing fea tures (such as quality, colour,average weight, etc.) and con firms that themeas ures taken to sepa rate the prod ucts havebeen applied,

5. the conversion plan and the measures referredto in points 1 and 2 have been approved by theinspection body or authority. This approval must be confirmed each year after the start of theconversion plan;

(b) in the case of areas intended for agricultural researchagreed by the Member States’ competent authorities,provided that conditions 2, 3 and 4 and the relevantpart of condition 5 referred to in (a) are met;

(c) in the case of production of seed, vegetativepropagating material and transplants, provided thatconditions 2, 3 and 4 and the relevant part ofcondition 5 referred to in (a) are met.

B. Processing and packaging units for plantproducts and foodstuffs composed essentially ofplant products

1. When the inspection arrangements are firstimplemented, the producer and inspection body mustdraw up:

- a full description of the unit, showing the facilitiesused for the processing, packaging and storage ofagricultural products before and after the operationsconcerning them,

- all the practical measures to be taken at the level ofthe unit to ensure compliance with this Regulation.

This description and the measures concerned must becontained in an inspection report, countersigned by theresponsible person of the unit.

In addition, the report must include an undertaking by theoperator to perform the operations in such a way as tocomply with Article 5 and to accept, in the event ofinfringement, the enforcement of the measures referred toin Article 9 (9) and, where relevant, in Article 10 (3).

2. Written accounts must be kept enabling theinspection body to trace:

- the origin, nature and quantities of agriculturalproducts as referred to in Article 1 which have beendelivered to the unit,

- the nature, quantities and consignees of products as referred to in Article 1 which have left the unit,

- any other infor ma tion, such as the origin, nature andquan ti ties of ingre di ents, addi tives and manu fac -turing aids deliv ered to the unit and the com po si tionof proc essed prod ucts, that is required by theinspec tion body for the pur poses of proper inspec -tion of the opera tions.

3. Where products not referred to in Article 1 are alsoprocessed, packaged or stored in the unit concerned:

- the unit must have separate areas within thepremises for the storage of products as referred to inArticle 1, before and after the operations,

- operations must be carried out continuously until thecomplete run has been dealt with, separated byplace or time from similar operations performed onproducts not covered by Article 1,

- if such operations are not carried out frequently, they must be announced in advance, with a deadlineagreed on with the inspection body,

- every measure must be taken to ensureidentification of lots and to avoid mixtures withproducts not obtained in accordance with the ruleslaid down in this Regulation.

4. Apart from unannounced inspection visits, theinspection body must make a full physical inspection, atleast once a year, of the unit. Samples for testing ofproducts not authorized under this Regulation may betaken. However, they must be taken where the use ofunauthorized products is suspected. An inspection reportmust be drawn up after each visit countersigned by theperson responsible for the unit inspected.

5. The operator must give the inspection body, forinspection purposes, access to the unit and to the writtenaccounts and relevant supporting documents. He mustprovide the inspection body with any informationnecessary for the purposes of the inspection.


6. Products as referred to in Article 1 may betransported to other units, including wholesalers andretailers, only in appropriate packaging or containersclosed in a manner preventing substitution of the contentand provided with a label stating, without prejudice to anyother indications required by law:

(a) the name and address of the person responsible forthe production or preparation of the product, or,where another seller is mentioned, a statementwhich enables the receiving unit and the inspectionbody to identify unequivocally the personresponsible for the preparation of the product;

(b) the name of the product, including a reference to theorganic production method according to the relevantprovisions of Article 5.

On receipt of a product as referred to in Article 1, theoperator shall check the closing of the packaging orcontainer where it is required and the presence of theindications referred to in the previous paragraph, in pointA.8.1 or in point C.8. The result of this verification shall beexplicitly mentioned in the accounts referred to in pointB.2. Where the check leaves any doubt that the productconcerned came from an operator subject to theinspection system provided for in Article 9, it may only beput into processing or packaging after elimination of thatdoubt, unless it is placed on the market without indicationreferring to the organic production method.

C. Importers of plant products and foodstuffscomposed essentially of plant products from thirdcountries

1. When the in spec tion ar range ments are first im ple -mented, the im porter and in spec tion body must draw up:

- a full description of the importer’s premises and ofhis import activities, indicating as far as possible thepoints of entry of the products into the Communityand any other facilities the importer intends to use for the storage of the imported products;

- all the practical measures to be taken by the importer to ensure compliance with this Regulation.

This description and the measures concerned must becontained in an inspection report, countersigned by theimporter.

In addition, the report must include an undertaking by theimporter

- to per form the import opera tions in such a way as tocomply with the pro vi sions of Article 11 and toaccept, in the event of infringe ment, the enforce ment of the meas ures referred to in Article 9 (9);

- to ensure that any storage facilities that the importerwill use are open to inspection, to be carried outeither by the inspection body or, when these storagefacilities are situated in another Member State orregion, by an inspection body approved forinspection in that Member State or region.

2. Written accounts must be kept enabling theinspection body to trace for each lot of products referred toin Article 1, imported from a third country:

- the origin, nature and quantity of the lot concerned,and on request by the inspection body, any detailson the transport arrangement from the exporter inthe third country to the importer’s premises orstorage facilities;

- the nature, quantities and consignees of the lotconcerned, and on request by the inspection body,and details on the transport arrangements from theimporter’s premises or storage facilities to theconsignees.

3. The importer shall inform the inspection body ofeach imported consignment into the Community, givingany details this body or authority may require, such as acopy of the inspection certificate for the importation oforganic products. When the products concerned arecirculating in a Member State or region other than the onewhere the inspection body is approved for inspection, thatbody may pass the information to a body, approved forinspection in that Member State or region, for on-the-spotinspection of the imported consignment.

4. Where imported products referred to in Article 1 arestored in storage facilities where also other agriculturalproducts or foodstuffs are processed, packaged or stored:

- the products as referred to in Article 1 must be keptseparate from the other agricultural products and/orfoodstuffs;

- every measure must be taken to ensureidentification of lots and to avoid mixtures withproducts not obtained in accordance with the ruleslaid down in this Regulation.

5. Apart from unannounced inspection visits, theinspection body must make a full physical inspection, atleast once a year, of the importer’s premises and, whererelevant, of a selection of the other storage facilities whichthe importer uses.

The inspection body shall inspect the written accountsmentioned in point C.2 and the certificates referred to inArticle 11 (1) (b) and (3). Samples for testing of substances not authorized under this Regulation may be taken.However, they must be taken where the use ofunauthorized substances is suspected. An inspectionreport must be drawn up after each visit, countersigned bythe person responsible for the unit inspected.

6. The importer must, for inspection purposes, give theinspection body access to his premises and to the writtenaccounts and relevant supporting documents, in particularany import certificates. He must provide the inspectionbody with any information necessary for the purposes ofthe inspection.

7. Products as referred to in Article 1 shall be importedfrom a third country in appropriate packaging orcontainers, closed in a manner preventing substitution ofthe content and provided with identification of the exporter


and with any other marks and numbers serving to identifythe lot with the inspection certificate.

On receipt of a product as referred to in Article 1, importedfrom a third country, the operator shall check the closing ofthe pack aging or con tainer and the cor re spon dence of theiden ti fi ca tion of the lot with the cer tifi cate referred to inArticle 11 (1) (b) or a similar cer tifi cate where required by the authori ties under any arrange ments adopted under Article11 (6). The result of this veri fi ca tion shall be explic itly men -tioned in the accounts referred to in point C.2. Where thecheck leaves any doubt as to the origin of the product from a third country or from an exporter in a third country notaccepted under Article 11, the product may be put on themarket, or proc essed or pack aged, only after such doubthas been dis pelled, unless it is placed on the market without indi ca tion of the organic pro duc tion method.

8. Products referred to in Article 1 may be transportedto other units, including wholesalers and retailers, only inappropriate packaging or containers closed in a mannerpreventing substitution of the content and provided with alabel stating, without prejudice to any other indicationsrequired by law:

(a) the name and address of the importer of the product, or a statement which enables the receiving unit andthe inspection body to identify unequivocally theimporter of the product;

(b) the name of the product, including a reference to theorganic production method under Article 5.


ANNEX IV

INFORMATION TO BE NOTIFIED AS PROVIDED IN ARTICLE 8 (1) (a)

(a) Name and address of operator

(b) Location of premises and, where appropriate, parcels (land register data) where operations are carried out

(c) Nature of operations and products

(d) Undertaking by the operator to carry out the operations in accordance with Articles 5, 6, 7 and/or 11

(e) In the case of an agricultural holding, the date on which the producer ceased to apply products the use of which is notcompatible with Articles 6 (1) (6) and 7 on the parcels concerned

(f) The name of the approved body to which the operator entrusted inspection of his undertaking, where the MemberState has implemented the inspection system by approving such bodies

ANNEX V

INDICATION THAT PRODUCTS ARE COVERED BY THE INSPECTION SCHEME

The indication that a product is covered by the inspection scheme must be shown in the same language or languages asused for the labelling.

ES: Agricultura Biológica - Sistema de control CEE

DK: qkologisk Landbrug - EF Kontrolordning

D: kologische Agrarwirtschaft - EWG-Kontrollsystem, or Biologische Agrarwirtschaft - EWG-Kontrollsystem

GR: $4@8@(4i0 'gCOD(4" − EL@J0:" +8,(P@L EOK

EN: Organic Farming - EEC Control System

F: Agriculture biologique - Système de contrôle CEE

I: Agricoltura Biologica - Regime di controllo CEE

NL: Biologische landbouw - EEG-controlesysteem

P: Agricultura Biológica - Systema de Controlo CEE

Fl: Luonnonmukainen maataloustuotanto - ETY:n valvontaj rjestelm/Ekologiskt jordbruk - EEG-Kontrollsystem

S: Ekologiskt jordbruk - EEG-kontrollsystem.


ANNEX VI

INTRODUCTION

For the purposes of this Annex, the following definitions willapply:

1. ingredients: substances as defined in Article 4 of thisRegulation under the restrictions as referred to in Article6 (4) of Council Directive 79/112/EEC of 18 December 1978on the approximation of the laws of the Member Statesrelating to the labelling, presentation and advertising offoodstuffs for sale to the ultimate consumer.

2. ingredients of agricultural origin:

(a) single agricultural products and products derivedtherefrom by appropriate washing, cleaning, thermicand/or mechanical processes and/or by physicalprocesses having the effect of reducing the moisturecontent of the product;

(b) also, prod ucts derived from the prod ucts men tionedunder (a) by other processes used in food proc essing,unless these prod ucts are con sid ered food addi tives orfla vour ings as defined under points 5 or 7 here under.

3. ingredients of non-agricultural origin: ingredients otherthan ingredients of agricultural origin and belonging to atleast one of the following categories:

3.1 food additives, including carriers for food additives, asdefined under points 5 and 6 hereunder;

3.2 flavourings, as defined under point 7 hereunder;

3.3 water and salt;

3.4 micro-organism preparations;

3.5 minerals (including trace elements) and vitamins.

4. proc essing aids: sub stances as defined in Article 1 (3)(a) of Council Direc tive 89/107/EEC on the approxi ma tion ofthe laws of the Member States con cerning food addi tivesauthor ized for use in food stuffs intended for humancon sump tion;

5. food additives: substances as defined in Article 1(1) and (2) of Directive 89/107/EEC and covered by thatDirective or by a comprehensive Directive as referred toin Article 3(1) of Directive 89/107/EEC;

6. carriers, including carrier solvents: food additivesused to dissolve, dilute, disperse or otherwise physicallymodify a food additive without altering its technologicalfunction in order to facilitate its handling, application oruse;

7. flavouring: substances and products as defined inArticle 1 (2) of Council Directive 88/388/EEC of 22 June1988 on the approximation of the laws of the MemberStates relating to flavourings for use in foodstuffs and tosource materials for their production, and covered bythat Directive.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES

Sections A, B and C cover the ingredients andprocessing aids which may be used in the preparation offoodstuffs composed essentially of one or moreingredients of plant origin, referred to in Article 1 (1) (b) of this Regulation, with the exception of wines.

Not with standing ref er ence to any ingre dient in Sec tions Aand C or any proc essing aid in Sec tion B, any ingre dientor such proc essing aid shall be used only in accor dancewith rele vant Com mu nity leg is la tion and/or nationalleg is la tion com patible with the Treaty and, in the absencethereof, in accor dance with the prin ci ples of goodmanu fac turing prac tice for food stuffs. In par ticularaddi tives shall be used according to the pro vi sions ofDirec tive 89/107/EEC and, where rele vant, those of anycom pre hen sive Direc tive as referred to in Article 3 (1) ofDirec tive 89/107/EEC; fla vour ings shall be usedaccording to the pro vi sions of Direc tive 88/388/EEC andsol vents according to the pro vi sions of Council Direc tive88/344/EEC of 13 June 1988 on the approxi ma tion of thelaws of the Member States on extrac tion sol vents used inthe pro duc tion of food stuffs and food ingre di ents.

SECTION A – INGREDIENTS OF NON-AGRICULTURAL ORIGIN (REFERRED TO IN ARTICLE 5 (3) (B) OF REGULATION (EEC) NO. 2092/91):

A.1. Food additives, including carriers

Name Specific conditions

E 170 Calcium carbonates -E 270 Lactic acid -E 290 Carbondioxide -E 296 Malic acid -E 300 Ascorbic acid -E 306 Tocopherol-rich extract anti-oxydant in fats and oilsE 322 Lecithins -E 330 Citric acid -


E 333 Calcium citrates -E 334 Tartaric acid -E 335 Sodium tartrate -E 336 Potassium tartrate -E 341(i) Monocalciumphosphate raising agent for self raising flourE 400 Alginic acid -E 401 Sodium alginate -E 402 Potassium alginate -E 406 Agar -E 407 Carrageenan -E 410 Locust beam gum -E 412 Guar gum -E 413 Tragacanth gum -E 414 Arabic gum -E 415 Xanthan .E 416 Karaga gum -E 440 (i) Pectin -E 500 Sodiumcarbonates -E 501 Potassiumcarbonates -E 503 Ammoniumcarbonates -E 504 Magnesiumcarbonates -E 516 Calcium sulphate carrierE 524 Sodiumhydroxide surface treatment of LäugengebackE 998 Argon -E 941 Nitrogen -E 948 Oxygen -

A.2. Flavourings within the meaning of Directive 88/388/EEC

Substances and products as defined in Article 1 (2) (b) (i) and 1 (2) (c) of Directive 88/388/EEC labelled as naturalflavouring substances or natural flavouring preparations, according to Article 9 (1) (d) and (2) of that Directive.

A.3. Water and salt

Drinking water

Salt (with sodium chloride or potassium chloride as basic components), generally used in food processing.

A.4. Micro-organism preparations

(i) Any preparations of micro-organisms normally used in food processing, with the exception of micro-organisms genetically modified within the meaning of Article 2 (2) of Directive 90/220/EEC;

(ii) Micro-organisms genetically modified within the meaning of Article 2 (2) of Directive 90/220/EEC; if they have been included according to the decision procedure of Article 14.

A.5. Minerals (trace elements included), vitamins, aminoacids and other nitrogen compounds

Minerals (trace elements included), vitamins, aminoacids and other nitrogen compounds, only authorized as far astheir use is legally required in the foodstuffs in which they are incorporated

SECTION B – PROCESSING AIDS AND OTHER PRODUCTS WHICH MAY BE USED FOR PROCESSING OF ORGANICALLY PRODUCED INGREDIENTS OF AGRICULTURAL ORIGIN, REFERRED TO IN

ARTICLE 5(3)(C) OF REGULATION (EEC) NO. 2092/91

Name Specific conditions

Water -Calcium chloride coagulation agentCalcium carbonate -Calcium hydroxide -Calcium sulphate coagulation agent


Magnesium chloride (or nigari) coagulation agentPotassium carbonate drying of grapesSodium carbonate sugar productionCitric acid oil production and hydrolysis of starchSodium hydroxide sugar production

oil production from rape seed (Brassica spp) only during a period expiring on 31 March 2002

Sulphuric acid sugar productionCarbon dioxide -Nitrogen -Ethanol solventTannic acid filtration aidEgg white albumen -Casein -Gelatin -Isinglass -Vegetable oils greasing, releasing or anti-foaming agentSilicon dioxide gel or colloidal solution -Activated carbon -Talc -Bentonite -Kaolin -Diatomaceous earth -Perlite -Hazelnut shells -Rice meal -Beeswax releasing agentCarnauba wax releasing agent

Preparations of micro-organisms and enzymes:

(i) Any preparations of micro-organisms and enzymes normally used as processing aids in food processing, with theexception of micro-organisms genetically modified within the meaning of Article 2 (2) of Directive 90/220/EEC;

(ii) Micro-organisms genetically modified within the meaning of Article 2 (2) of Directive 90/220/EEC: If they have beenincluded hereunder according to the decision procedure of Article 14.

SECTION C – INGREDIENTS OF AGRICULTURAL ORIGIN WHICH HAVE NOT BEEN PRODUCED ORGANICALLY, REFERRED TO IN ARTICLE 5(4) OF REGULATION (EEC) No 2092/91 *

C.1. Unprocessed vegetable products as well as products derived therefrom by processes referred to under definition 2(a):

C.1.1. Edible fruits, nuts and seeds:

Acerola Malpighia punicifoliaAcorns Quercus sppCashew nuts Anacardium occidentale Cola nuts Cola AcuminataFenugreek Trigonella foenum-graecumGooseberries Ribes uva-crispaMaracujas (passion fruit) Passiflora edulisPapayas Carica papayaPine kernels Pinus pineaRaspberries (dried) Rubus idaeusRed currants (dried) Ribes rubrum


C.1.2. Edible spices and herbs:

Allspice Pimenta dioicaCardamom Fructus cardamomi (minoris) (malabariensis)

Elettaria cardamomumCinnamon Cinnamomum zeylanicumClove Syzygium aromaticumGinger Zingiber officinaleHorseradish seeds Armoracia rusticanaLesser galanga Alpinia officinarumWatercress herb Nasturtium officinale

C.1.3. Miscellaneous:

Algae, including seaweed

C.2. Vegetable products, processed by processes as referred to under definition 2(b):

C.2.1. Fats and oils whether or not refined, but not chemically modified, derived from plants other than:

Cocoa Theobroma cacaoCoco Cocos nuciferaOlive Olea europaeaSunflower Helianthus annuus

C.2.2. Sugars; starch; other products from cereals and tubers:

Beet sugar Fructose Rice paper Starch from rice and waxy maize

C.2.3. Miscellaneous:

Curry composed of:- Coriander Coriandrum sativum- Mustard Sinapis alba- Fennel Foeniculum vulgare- Ginger Zingiber officinalePea protein Pisum sppRum: only obtained from cane sugar juice

C.3. Animal products:

Aquatic organisms, not originating from aquaculture

Buttermilk powderGelatinHoneyLactoseWhey powder ‘herasuola’

* The following products may be used under the same conditions as products listed in Section C of Annex VI to Regulation (EEC) No2092/91 until 31 January 2000 – apricot concentrate (Prunus armeniaca), elderberry concentrate (Sambucus nigra), mangoes (Mangiferaindica), strawberry (Fragaria vesca) as dried powder or concentrate, five-spice powder composed of: fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), clove(Syzygium aromaticum), ginger (Zingiber officinale), aniseed (Pimpinella anisum) and cinnamon (Cinnamonum zeylanicum), coco fat,cocoa fat and starches produced from cereals and tubers, not chemically modified.


Appendix A to MAFF consolidated version of EC Regulation 2092/91

CHECKLIST OF RELEVANT AMENDING REGULATIONS TO ORGANIC REGULATION 2092/91

Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 1535/92 of 15 June 1992. Amends Annexes I and III. Official Journal L 162, 16.6.92.

Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2083/92 of 14 July 1992. Adds Article 11 (6). Official Journal L 208, 24.7.92.

Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 207/93 of 29 January 1993. Defines the content of Annex VI. Official Journal L 25,2.2.93.

Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 2608/93 of 23 September 1993. Amends Annexes I, II and III. Official Journal L 239,24.9.93.

Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 468/94 of 2 March 1994. Amends Annex VI. Official Journal L 59, 3.3.94.

Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 2381/94 of 30 September 1994. Amends Annex II, Part A.Official Journal L 255,1.10.94.

Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 1201/95 of 29 May 1995. Amends Annex VI, Section C. Official Journal L 119, 30.5.95.

Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 1202/95 of 29 May 1995. Amends Annexes I and III. Official Journal L 119, 30.5.95.

Council Regulation (EEC) No. 1935/95 of 22 June 1995. General updating of main text (no changes to Annexes). OfficialJournal L 186, 5.8.95.

Commission Regulation (EC) No 418/96 of 7 March 1996. Amends Annex VI. Official Journal L 59/10, 8.3.96.

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1488/97 of 29 July 1997. Amends Annex II and Annex VI. Official Journal L 202/14,30.7.97.

Commission Regulation (EEC) No 1900/98 of 4 September 1998. Amends Annex I. Official Journal L 247/6, 5.9.98.

Commission Regulation (EEC) No 330/1999 of 12 February 1999. Amends Annex VI. Official Journal L 40/25, 13.2.99.


Part II

GLOBAL OVERVIEW: TRADE AND SUPPLY

Chapter 3

OVERVIEW OF WORLD TRADE ANDMARKET CHARACTERISTICS

Introduction

The world trade in organic prod ucts is domi nated byEurope (mainly the Euro pean Union coun tries andSwit zer land), the United States and Japan, thoughthere are smaller but inter esting mar kets in manyother coun tries, including a few devel oping ones. Asthere are no offi cial trade sta tis tics, it is impos sible togive a com plete pic ture of the inter na tional organictrade. In all mar kets, the sector forms an inte gral partof the overall food and bev erage trade, becauseorganic prod ucts are sold to con sumers within thenormal assort ment of super mar kets and other gro cery out lets, as well as by spe cial ized chan nels likeorganic and natural food shops, street mar kets, farmshops and box schemes.

Retail sales of organic foods in these threemajor market areas were esti mated atnearly $11 bil lion in 1997 and pre limi naryesti mates for 1998 indi cate that the totalmay have risen to over $13 bil lion.Ger many is by far the largest market inEurope, accounting for over one third oftotal sales. The other main mar kets in terms of abso lute con sump tion are France,United Kingdom, the Neth er lands,Swit zer land, Den mark and Italy (in Italysup plies are mainly of domestic origin).Some other mar kets, like Aus tria andSweden, are smaller in abso lute terms, buttheir per capita con sump tion of organicfoods is rising rap idly.

Table 3.1 gives an over view of theesti mated size of the major world mar ketsfor organic food and bev er ages in 1997.

Demand for organic food variescon sid erably from country to country

within Europe, ranging from a very small per centageof total food spending in the more southern regions to a much higher pro por tion in northern and cen tralEurope, espe cially in Aus tria, Den mark andSwit zer land. The share of organic foods as a seg mentof the gro cery market is increasing but typi callyaccounts for only between 1% and 1.5% of totalspending on food. Recent market research has shownthat con sumer demand is growing rap idly in mostmajor mar kets, and that the share of organic foods isexpected to reach 5% - 10% of total food sales in somecoun tries by the year 2005. All mar kets, exceptGer many, proj ect a growth rate of con sump tion in

Table 3.1 World markets for organic food and beverages, 1997

MarketApproximate

retail sales(US$ million)

% of total food sales

Expected growth rate (%) over

the medium term

Germany 1 800 1.2 5-10

France 720 0.5 20

United Kingdom 450 0.4 25-35

Netherlands 350 1 10-15

Switzerland 350 2.0 20-30

Denmark 300 2.5 30-40

Sweden 110 0.6 30-40

Italy 750 0.6 20

Austria 225 2 10-15

Other Europe a/ 200

Total, Europe 5 255

United States 4 200 1.25 20-30

Japan 1 000

TOTAL 10 455

Source: Compiled by ITC.

a/ Belgium, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Norway.

excess of 10% per annum in the medium term andcer tain mar kets (Swit zer land, Den mark, Sweden,United Kingdom) fore cast rates of over 25%.

In the 1970s and early 1980s the devel op ment of theorganic food market in northern Euro pean coun trieswas stimu lated by growing con sumer interest in health and nutri tion and an increasing aware ness of the needto pre serve nature and the envi ron ment. Small groupsof dedi cated con sumers, who were willing to pay sig -nifi cantly higher prices for organi cally pro duced food,took the lead and demand was also stimu lated bymedia interest, up and coming envi ron mental move -ments and green political par ties, food scan dals (suchas those which arose over bovine spongi formencepha lo pathy or BSE, por cine pest, dioxin con tami -na tion) and con tro ver sies posed by the use of geneti -cally modi fied organ isms or GMOs, which fur thermoti vated peo ple’s search for healthy food. How ever,in most mar kets, with the excep tion of Den mark andSwit zer land, organic food remained a very small niche product in the total gro cery trade until the mid 1990s,when a larger seg ment of con sumers – though lesswilling to pay high prices – became the domi nantfactor in the organic market. The expe ri ences of indi -vidual mar kets dif fered but, in gen eral, sev eral majorfac tors con trib uted to this lack of devel op ment:

q High prices;

q Unavailability of supply owing to theinsufficient involvement of farmers and foodprocessors;

q Limited participation of the supermarkets or themainstream grocery trade;

q Lack of consumer confidence in organic quality.

In the 1990s the rates of devel op ment of organic foodsales in indi vidual Euro pean mar kets have varieddra mati cally. Three key posi tive fac tors haveinflu enced prog ress, though their effect has dif feredfrom country to country.

First, under EU and national (organic) agri cul turepoli cies, finan cial sup port for con verting to, andmain taining, organic farming has increased sub stan -tially, which has stimu lated the supply of organic pro -duce in nearly all Euro pean coun tries. The policy isfar more marketing- oriented in some coun tries thanin others, so that in coun tries like Aus tria, Den markand the Neth er lands, funding has gone not only tofarmers in the form of hec tare pre miums but also for

building mar keting struc tures, including con sumerand pro ducer advi sory serv ices and pro mo tion. How -ever, in Ger many, for example, more funding hasgone directly to farmers. Con sump tion, par ticu larlyof organic dairy pro duce, grain, vege ta bles and fruit,has been stimu lated by more con sis tent avail abilityand, very impor tantly, by the resulting lower pricepre miums.

Second, the main stream super market trade hascom mitted itself to the organic trade, not only bystocking organic prod ucts, but also by making it aserious objec tive to pro mote a com plete range oforganic gro cery prod ucts among their cus tomers. Ingen eral, Euro pean con sumers do a high pro por tion oftheir house hold shop ping at super mar kets and overalldemand for organic prod ucts in the mid 1990s grewfastest in coun tries where the large com mer cial chainswere most active in pro moting organic prod ucts. Thisis high lighted by the situa tion in Den mark and, since1995, by the growing organic sales and the rapidly increasing market share of super market groups inAus tria, France, Ger many, the Neth er lands, Sweden,Swit zer land and the United Kingdom.

The third factor has been the uni form stan dards fororganic food pro duc tion and label ling and for organiccer ti fi ca tion which were intro duced throughout theEuro pean Union by Council Regu la tion (EEC)2092/91. How ever, though the Direc tive covers thewhole of the Euro pean Union, national organiclabel ling schemes con tinue to differ from country tocountry. In mar kets like Bel gium, Den mark, theNeth er lands and Sweden, cer ti fied organic quality ispre sented to con sumers by a single logo which theyrec og nize as a guar antee. In France, until theintro duc tion of the national AB logo, the pro lif era tionof indi vidual logos was par ticu larly con fusing. InGer many, whether or not the logo Öko prüfzeichen,launched in early 1999, will become a genuinenational organic symbol will largely depend on how itis man aged.

In the larger and more dynamic organic mar kets, thedemand and supply situa tion for fresh foods has beenthe major con tributor to growth. How ever, becausethe organic food trade aims to mirror the con ven -tional gro cery trade, there is growing demand for allfood and bev erage prod ucts. Sup plies are first soughtlocally, then sub se quently from nearby Euro peansources. How ever, a huge variety of prod ucts, whichcannot be grown within the com mu nity or are notavail able through the year, are bought in from world -wide sources, including many devel oping coun tries.

54 CHAPTER 3 – OVERVIEW OF WORLD TRADE AND MARKET CHARACTERISTICS

Target markets

Denmark

With a popu la tion of just over 5 mil lion people,Den mark is a fairly small market for most food andbev er ages. How ever, total sales of organic food andbev er ages were esti mated at about $300 mil lion(excluding value- added tax or VAT) in 1997,cor re sponding to 2.5% of the total retail market forfood stuffs. This places Den mark in the top leagueamong world mar kets, as far as per capitacon sump tion of organic food stuffs is con cerned.Fur ther more, it should be noted that con sump tion has been growing rap idly in recent years. Organicprod ucts are believed to have reached 3.5% - 4% oftotal food and bev erage sales in 1998, or a value ofapproxi mately $500 mil lion.

There are strong indi ca tions that the Danish organicfood market will con tinue to expand for a con sid er -able number of years. First, con sumer interest inhealthy food and envi ron men tally friendly prod uctscon tinues to grow and more people are pur chasingorganic prod ucts. Second, the major retailers are pro -moting organic food stuffs quite aggres sively, pri -marily through heavy adver tising and com peti tivepricing. For example, FDB (Coop Den mark), thelargest food retailing group, which con trols about one third of national food sales, has set ambi tious salestar gets for spe cific organic prod ucts (as a per centageof total sales of a given item) to be reached by a cer -tain target year. Third, Danish farmers as well as foodmanu fac turers are increas ingly becoming aware ofthe oppor tu ni ties that exist in sat is fying con sumerexpec ta tions. Finally, cur rent gov ern ment policyaims at pro moting pro duc tion and con sump tion oforganic food stuffs. Sources in both trade and industry are con fi dently pre dicting that organic prod ucts willreach about 10% of total food sales by the year 2005.

It should also be noted that the Min istry of Food,Agri cul ture and Fish eries has just issued (in January1999) its Action Plan II for the fur ther devel op mentof organic farming and trade in Den mark during theperiod 1999-2003 and beyond.

France

Although France, with its popu la tion of over 58mil lion, is one of the largest mar kets for organic foods in Europe, per capita con sump tion and the pene tra tion

of the sector into the overall food market is low.According to trade sources, the retail marketamounted to about $725 mil lion in 1997, equiva lentto just under 0.5% of total food sales. Retail sales arebelieved to have exceeded $800 mil lion in 1998 andthe cur rent growth rate is esti mated at around 20%.

Despite the impor tance of France as a majoragri cul tural pro ducer and a sig nifi cant food andbev erage exporter, organic farming has failed to keeppace both with demand from the domestic market and with the accel er ated rate of con ver sion inneigh bouring Euro pean mar kets. In 1997 organicagri cul ture accounted for only 0.3% of the usage oftotal farm land in France, com pared with over 7% inAus tria and Swit zer land and 2% in Ger many.How ever, gov ern ment policy is in place to sup portand pro mote more rapid devel op ment over the nextfew years and the number of organic farmers in thecountry is tar geted to rise from 4,500 at the end of1997 to about 25,000 by the year 2005. It is alsosig nifi cant that organic proc essing is increasing andthat some major French food manu fac turers havelaunched organic product lines.

The growing involve ment of major retailorgani za tions in organic food sales is expected to havea highly posi tive effect on total con sump tion, becauseit will increase the expo sure and avail ability of organicprod ucts to occa sional buyers. These new cus tomersdo most of their house hold shop ping at super mar ketsand hyper mar kets and expect to be able to buy thesame wide range of organic food stuff that they havebeen used to pur chasing in con ven tional quality.

France is an impor tant exporter of organic fresh fruits and vege ta bles, cereals, wine, eggs and poultry.How ever, because of the rela tively small scale ofpro duc tion and growing domestic demand, there is agreat need for imports of both pro duce which cannotbe grown in France and prod ucts of which localsup plies are insuf fi cient to meet demand. Imports oforganic foods from out side the Euro pean Union havegrown rap idly over the last five years. It is cer tain that France will con tinue to be an impor tant market, notleast for devel oping coun tries.

Germany

Ger many is the largest market in Europe for organicfoods and the second largest in the world after the

CHAPTER 3 – OVERVIEW OF WORLD TRADE AND MARKET CHARACTERISTICS 55

United States. Sales totalled about $1,800 mil lion in1997 and were expected to reach over $2,000 mil lionin 1998. How ever, this figure cor re sponds to onlyabout 1.2% of total German food sales and a fairlylow per capita con sump tion for the huge popu la tionof 82 mil lion. The market is unlikely to con tinueperforming at the double- digit growth rates of thepast 10 years or so, but trade sources are con fi dentthat organic sales will rise in the medium term atabout 5% - 10% annu ally.

The most sig nifi cant seg ments of demand for organicfoods are for fresh fruit and vege ta bles, dairyprod ucts, bread and bakery prod ucts, and baby food.Together these account for nearly two thirds of totalcon sump tion. Con ver sion to organic agri cul ture inGer many has accel er ated rap idly in recent years, with the organi cally farmed area expanding from 45,000hec tares in 1989 to 350,000 hec tares in 1997. Thishuge expan sion has meant that Ger many has becomelargely self- sufficient in many basic food items (likecereals, vege ta bles, milk and meat) and that pricelevels for cer tain key prod ucts are fal ling because ofover supply and keen com pe ti tion.

Until recently, retail dis tri bu tion was con trolledlargely by natural food shops, reform shops, farmshops and other direct selling out lets; super mar ketswere slow to enter the market. Although most majorGerman super market chains now carry organicpro duce they have been slower than many of theirEuro pean coun ter parts to make a clear com mit mentto mar keting a fuller organic assort ment. A fur thernega tive influ ence on overall organic spending hasbeen con fu sion in the minds of con sumers about thetrue meaning of organic and the fact that to date theGerman organic move ment has not found asuc cessful way of com mu ni cating its mes sage to thepopu la tion as a whole, though a common logo(Öko prüfzeichen) was intro duced in early 1999.

Ger many is by far the largest importer in Europe andimports a wide assort ment of organic prod ucts. Thekey sources of imports are France, Italy, Spain, theNeth er lands, eastern Europe, the United States, Turkey and other Medi ter ra nean coun tries and coun tries inLatin America. The rising levels of organic pro duc tionin eastern Ger many and in nearby eastern Europe have partly shifted the emphasis of the import trade in thefive years to 1998 away from France and Italy, andnew sup pliers are increas ingly sig nifi cant.

It should be noted that German con sumers areamongst the most critical in Europe and, in their food

pur chasing, con sumers are moti vated, not only byorganic origin, but also by fresh ness, taste, goodpres en ta tion, local farm sourcing and the per ceivedenvi ron mental friend li ness of prod ucts and theirpack aging. Some organic traders and other sup pliershave become some what dis cour aged by the slowprog ress of market devel op ment and exporters fromdevel oping coun tries are finding it increas inglydif fi cult to pene trate the German market because ofgrowing com pe ti tion and the extremely strictstan dards required. It is nec es sary to take a muchmore pro fes sional approach than in the past.

None the less, a number of posi tive aspects of theGerman market should not be ignored, for example, a strong aware ness of envi ron mental and health issues,con sumer interest in organic con ven ience food, andthe new national logo for organic prod ucts. Of spe cial interest to devel oping coun tries is the Pro trade/GTZ- sponsored Green Trade Net inter na tional data base on organic prod ucts, which pro vides market infor ma tion and links exporters in these coun tries with importersin Ger many and else where. (GTZ stands for Deut -sche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusam menar beit orthe Ger many Agency for Tech nical Coop era tion.)

Netherlands

Con sump tion of organic food stuff accounts for only a small share in total gro cery expen di ture in theNeth er lands. It is esti mated that the sector was wortharound $350 mil lion at retail prices in 1997. This wasequiva lent to about 1% of the total gro cery market,which is small com pared with some Euro peanmar kets. The major fac tors lim iting growth until themid 1990s have been:

q High prices. Netherlands consumers spend asmaller percentage of their disposable income onfood than their EU neighbours and price is a keyinfluence on expenditure on grocery products.

q The marginal level of involvement of themainstream grocery trade. Most supermarketscarried until recently only a very small range oforganic products.

How ever, 1996 marked a turning point in theNeth er lands organic trade: retail sales increased by3% - 5% in that year and most esti mates agree that the rate of increase accel er ated to between 10% and 15%in 1997, a trend that has con tinued since. Posi tivedevel op ments have included the expan sion of localsupply and more effi cient dis tri bu tion of dairy and


vege table pro duce, ration ali za tion of whole saledis tri bu tion to the spe cialist shops, which still play akey role in retail sales, and inten si fied gov ern mentini tia tives to stimu late both organic pro duc tion andcon sump tion. Per haps the key change has beenincreased pene tra tion into super mar kets and theiruptake of new organic product ranges. The domi nantfood retailer Albert Heijn launched its own brand forits organic assort ment in early 1998, which isexpected to have a strong posi tive effect on overallsales. Future growth will depend strongly on the rateof expan sion by super mar kets into a fuller range ofprod ucts and on the ability of sup pliers to offerorganic pro duce to con sumers at prices they arepre pared to pay. Retail sales are believed to havereached about $425 mil lion in 1998.

In spite of the com para tively small domestic con sump -tion of organic food, the Neth er lands is a major Euro -pean and global trader in organic food and bev er ages.The country exports domes ti cally pro duced freshvege ta bles, dairy prod ucts and proc essed organicfoods, but it has a far greater role in importing, proc -essing and repacking bulk organic foods from world -wide sources for re- export to most Euro pean mar kets.Fresh fruits and vege ta bles, grain and cereals, coffee,dried fruits and nuts, tea, and spices and herbs are par -ticu larly impor tant re- export prod ucts. A large part ofthe bulk organic food stuffs imported into Europe fromdevel oping coun tries is han dled by Neth er landstraders. Moreover, the Neth er lands organic inspec tionauthority SKAL is one of the most impor tant Euro pean cer ti fi ca tion organi za tions, oper ating organic inspec -tion serv ices in over 30 coun tries.

Sweden

Con sump tion of organic food and bev er agesaccounted for about 0.6% of total retail gro cery sales in Sweden in 1997 and was valued at an esti mated $110mil lion (excluding value- added tax). Demand hasincreased sig nifi cantly in recent years and there hasbeen a problem in coping with the growth in require -ments. The most sig nifi cant sec tors of demand aredairy prod ucts and fresh vege ta bles, which togetheraccount for over two thirds of total organic sales.

By 1997 Sweden had about 3,000 organic farms, on118,000 hec tares of land, cer ti fied by the nationalorganic cer ti fi ca tion authority KRAV. The cer ti fiedarea made up 3.4% of all agri cul tural land.Gov ern ment policy aims to increase this per centagesub stan tially over the next sev eral years. Domesticpro duc tion ensures that Sweden is more or less

self- sufficient in organic dairy prod ucts, meat, breadcereals and sugar. At pres ent about 20% of organicfood require ments are imported, but this is expectedto increase as demand grows for a fuller range ofprod ucts. The most impor tant imports are fresh fruitsand vege ta bles, and green coffee. (Sweden has thehighest per capita con sump tion of coffee in the worldand all coffee roasters offer organic varie ties.) Theother main import groups are dried fruits andvege ta bles, pack aged food, and raw mate rials andingre di ents (espe cially cereals, spices, herbs,vege table oils and fats) for the domestic foodindustry, which has a share of about 80% in totalmanu fac tured food con sump tion.

Con cern for the envi ron ment is a key moti va tion forSwedish buyers of organic foods, but price pre miumshave been a major bar rier to market expan sion. Con -sump tion is con cen trated in the met ro politan areas.Scar city and irregular avail ability have also been prob -lems for the sector, but the supply situa tion isimproving and this is expected to have a favour abledown ward impact on price pre miums. Another posi -tive factor for the overall market is that the three largest super market chains in Sweden have recently set ambi -tious tar gets for organic foods which, if imple mented,could increase the cur rent market size four- or five fold. Trade experts are con fi dently pre dicting that organicfoods could account for 4% - 5% of total Swedish food con sump tion within a few years.

Switzerland

Though a small country with a population of only7 mil lion, Swit zer land is one of the pio neers in thedevel op ment of organic agri cul ture, which it startedas early as the 1930s. Organic farming is welldevel oped and accounted for an esti mated 8% of total agri cul tural land in 1998. Market pene tra tion oforganic food is among the highest in the world.

Though organic prod ucts have long been sold at thefarm gate and through other direct out lets and later on through organic shops, the market began to growseri ously only after 1993 when the big super marketchain, Coop started to market organic food, fol lowedby another large super market chain, Migros, in 1996.Sales have since increased strongly. The retail market for cer ti fied organic food was esti mated at betweenSw F 500 mil lion and Sw F 520 mil lion in 1997,cor re sponding to roughly 2% of the totalfood market. Sales in 1998 of organic food andbev er ages can be esti mated at about Sw F 560 mil lion to Sw F 580 mil lion.


Overall, the market for organic food prod ucts isexpected to grow strongly over the next few years.This will be due to the con sum ers’ posi tive atti tudetowards health food and natu rally and ethi callypro duced food; increased sup plies as more farmersgo into organic farming (con ver sion to organicfarming is being sup ported by the Gov ern ment); andmore aggres sive mar keting by major super marketchains. The import rate is in gen eral com para tivelylow as market access is dif fi cult, mainly owing to thepre domi nance of pri vately con trolled labels andstrict require ments. For various rea sons, the Swissmarket is likely to remain a dif fi cult one forexporters.

Nev er the less, it is an impor tant market that shouldnot be ignored by devel oping coun tries. Prod uctswith the best oppor tu ni ties are those that cannot begrown in Swit zer land, e.g. coffee, tea and cocoa,citrus and tropical fruits, rice, millet, durumwheat, spices, nuts and dried fruit. Other prod ucts,e.g. off- season fruits and vege ta bles, and prod uctsin short supply may also find open ings in the market.

United Kingdom

While the United Kingdom is one of the largermar kets for organic foods in Europe, growth incon sump tion has been dis ap pointing until recently.Total retail sales in 1997 amounted to an esti mated$450 mil lion, only 0.4% of the overall gro cerymarket. Despite the fact that the country has been amajor con tributor to the for mu la tion of EU organicstan dards and cer ti fi ca tion pro ce dures, it has laggedseri ously behind in its own market devel op ment.Pros pects for the coming years appear to be muchbrighter: sales nearly dou bled between 1995 and1997 and the trade opti mis ti cally fore casts that theretail value of the organic market could be as highas $10 bil lion within 10 years, which would rep re sent a market share of about 10%. Fruits andvege ta bles account for about 45% of total organiccon sump tion, fol lowed by cereals, meat and dairyprod ucts.

Domestic organic agri cul ture has not devel opedquickly: in 1997 there were only 1,200 units using75,000 hec tares or about 0.4% of the total avail ablefarm land. It is the trade view that the Gov ern ment isnot yet truly com mitted to organic pro duc tion. Thelevel of assis tance to farmers con verting to organicmethods is less than half that given to farmers in most other EU coun tries. Moreover, the com para tively

large size of the average British farm makescon ver sion more dif fi cult. The main organic out putsare dairy prod ucts, meat, eggs and cereals.

The small number of pow erful mul tiple chains,which con trol 70% of food retailing in the UnitedKingdom, has played a sig nifi cant role in the (lack of) devel op ment of the organic trade. Despite a longhis tory of involve ment in the organic trade, theiractivity has been marked by periods of enthu si asticdevel op ment fol lowed by with drawals from han dling organic pro duce. When organic prod ucts were sold,the price dif fer en tials were fre quently so high as torestrict demand. Fur ther more, although most groupssaw organic foods as a poten tial growth area, theyfound the prob lems of ensuring reli ability andcon ti nuity of supply, meeting quality require mentsand offering com peti tive pricing too dif fi cult toover come. Most of the major chains, par ticu larlySains bury’s, Wai trose, Safeway and Tesco, are nowbecoming increas ingly com mitted to expanding theirrange of prod ucts and their sales of organic foods. Itshould be noted, how ever, that organic foods canexpect to face com pe ti tion in the British as well asother mar kets from ICM (inte grated cropman age ment/sus tain able agri cul ture).

The British organic market is highly dependent onimports, which are esti mated to have a share of about70% of the total market. About half of the imports aresourced in other Euro pean coun tries, but as much as one third of the total is sup plied from devel oping coun tries.Owing to the small scale of local pro duc tion andthe pro jected future growth of the market, the UnitedKingdom should be one of the key target mar kets forpro spec tive sup pliers of organic food stuffs.

Other major markets

The United States market for organic food andbev er ages was valued at an esti mated $4,200 mil lionin 1997, up from about $2,800 mil lion in 1995. In1998, trade sources expected the year’s sales to reach$5,000 mil lion. Growth rates of at least 10% - 15%are antici pated.

Little infor ma tion is avail able on the Japa nese market,but according to some sources, the market probablyamounted to as much as $1,000 mil lion-$1,200 mil lion in 1997 and is growing rap idly. Retail sales in 1998 are believed to have been in the range of $1,300 mil lion -$1,500 mil lion. Addi tional infor ma tion on these andother mar kets is given in chapter 4 on the world supply situa tion.


Market segments

From the point of view of exporters in devel opingcoun tries, the most impor tant market seg ment inEuro pean mar kets is the food proc essing andrepacking sector, because vir tu ally all importedorganic food and bev er ages con sist of fresh pro duceor raw mate rial which needs some form of repackingor proc essing before it can be offered for sale to thecon sumer. Most mar kets focus strongly on pri maryproc essing but, as demand for organic prod uctsgrows and the con sumer increas ingly expects to buyorganic alter na tives to con ven tional food stuffs, sec -on dary proc essing and food manu fac turing, not onlyby spe cial ized organic firms but also by major mul ti -na tional food com pa nies, are gradu ally taking off.

Although it is dif fi cult to make clear dis tinc tionsbetween sec tors, the organic trade in indi vidualEuro pean mar kets can be broadly divided into thethree seg ments dis cussed below: the retail sector, thefood proc essing industry, and the catering andinsti tu tional sector.

The retail sector

The retail trade is ulti mately the main outlet for organic foods in all Euro pean mar kets, but within the sector the roles played by the major mul tiple super mar kets andby spe cialist organic out lets vary con sid erably fromcountry to country. Whereas in Den mark, France,Sweden, Swit zer land and the United Kingdom thesuper mar kets domi nate con sumer sales, in othercoun tries, par ticu larly Ger many and the Neth er lands,the spe cialist organic shops still hold the largest share.In all mar kets, espe cially since 1995, the main streamgro cery trade has been increasing its involve ment inthe sector, and most leading super market groups nowcarry a range of organic food and bev er ages. How ever, there are still sig nifi cant varia tions in the level ofcom mit ment of the large mul ti ples to spreading theorganic mes sage and to stra te gi cally mar keting a fullorganic assort ment. Because of the pow erful posi tionof these organi za tions in overall food retailing, theirpolicy has and will con tinue to have a strong directinflu ence on overall sales growth in each indi vidualmarket.

Organic food sales are domi nated in most Euro peanmar kets by dairy prod ucts, fresh fruits and vege ta bles,cereals and cereal- based prod ucts. In a number ofmar kets, espe cially Aus tria, Den mark, the Neth er lands

and Sweden, the dairy sector has been a major forcein the recent fast growth of organic food sales. Freshfruits and vege ta bles are a sig nifi cant product groupin all mar kets: the rap idly growing demand forpro duce sup plied from local sources has gradu allygiven rise to increasing demand for the organiccoun ter parts of the full range of fruits and vege ta blesavail able from con ven tional agri cul ture. This ispos sibly the product group which offers the bestoverall export oppor tu ni ties for devel oping countrypro ducers. Other impor tant product groups includecereals, cocoa, coffee and tea, dried fruits and nuts,herbs and spices, fats, oils and derived prod ucts, andsugar.

Food processing industry

Until recently the organic food proc essing industry inmost Euro pean mar kets con cen trated mainly onpri mary proc essing and repacking of agri cul turalpro duce into a form suit able for sale to con sumers,and on sec on dary proc essing into a lim ited range ofmanu fac tured food prod ucts. This manu fac turingwas car ried out largely by spe cialist organic foodpro ducers and their output was sold mainly on thedomestic market. The one excep tion is theNeth er lands, which plays a major role as a gatewayinto EU mar kets for imports from out side the Union.The country is a major trader in organic foods and isthought to re- export up to 80% of all imports ofpri mary pro duce (espe cially cereals, coffee and tea,fresh fruits and vege ta bles, herbs and spices, nuts,oil- seeds, pulses) and at least 50% of domes ti callymanu fac tured pack aged foods to other Euro peanmar kets.

The sig nifi cance of the food industry as an end- userof organic raw mate rials is now growing fast becausecon sumers, both local and in export mar kets, arelooking for an assort ment of proc essed foods similarto that avail able from con ven tional pro duc tion. There is increasing demand for con ven ience foods andready meals. A key devel op ment in recent years hasbeen the expanding involve ment of the main streamgro cery trade in the sector and the growing number of main stream proc es sors which are adding organics totheir fac tory pro duc tion lines. Many of the newreg is tra tions of organic pro duc tion units are fororganic depart ments of con ven tional foodcom pa nies, rather than new spe cialist organic


busi nesses. Among mul ti na tionals Heinz stands outas a com mitted manu fac turer of organic food; otherswhich are already pro ducing organic product rangesare still hesi tant about their level of com mit ment.

The degree of proc essing car ried out by foodmanu fac turers varies con sid erably according to theproduct group. The fol lowing list indi cates majoruses:

q Coffee and tea: mainly retail; small but growingcatering and institutional use.

q Dried fruits: mainly for the bakery trade, but also for muesli, consumer snacks and fruit yoghurts.

q Edible nuts: mainly for industrial use in peanutbutter, other nut pastes, sauces, bakery products,snacks, muesli.

q Fresh fruits and vegetables: primarily for directconsumer consumption.

q Grains, cereals, rice: bread and bakery products,muesli, rice cakes and cereal-based drinks; consumerpacks for retail sale; animal feed.

q Herbs and spices: both retail and industrial(soups, ready meals, etc.), with the latter segmentgrowing in comparative importance.

q Honey: mainly for consumer use (table honey);also for bakeries.

q Oil- seeds: mainly indus trial (marga rine, cookingoil, bread); some consumer snack foods.

q Processed fruits and vegetables: largely into fruit and vegetable juices, frozen and canned produce,conserves, pulp, purées, soups, pizzas, baby food,fruit yoghurts and desserts.

q Pulses: mainly consumer packing for the retailtrade, but also for bread spreads and conveniencefoods. Soy has numerous uses in virtually all foodsectors, e.g. drinks, desserts, tofu, vegetable burgers.

Catering and institutional sector

The catering and insti tu tional use of organic foodshas com menced in some Euro pean mar kets but hasnot devel oped exten sively to date. In Den mark,Ger many, Italy, the Neth er lands and Sweden, somemunicipal and other public bodies have started torequire offi cial insti tu tions like schools, hos pi tals, old peo ple’s homes, uni ver si ties and admin is tra tiveoffices to offer organic menus and organic coffee andtea in their can teens. Res tau rants spe cial izing inorganic foods are increasing in number. Some air linecom pa nies, e.g. Luf thansa and, in par ticular,Swis sair, offer organic on- flight meals.

Distribution channels

Importers, processors, repackers

The most usual form of dis tri bu tion for importedorganic foods is through a spe cial ized importerand/or a proc essor/packer, then to a whole saler ordirect to the retail outlet, which makes the final sale to the con sumer. How ever, the func tional dis tinc tionsbetween dif ferent types of dis tri bu tion channel areoften not clear because many com pa nies under takevarious levels of interim proc essing and repacking,according to the type of product and the end-use. Ineach market and for each of the major product groupsa few spe cial ized organic traders tend to domi nateimports and these com pa nies are the key (poten tial)cus tomers for for eign exporters. They import on their own account and sell to packers, proc es sors and foodmanu fac turers.

Direct sales from for eign exporters to the cen tralpur chasing units of retail chain stores are still rare butare likely to be of growing interest to the mul ti ples astheir organic vol umes and their uptake of neworganic prod ucts increases. There is a growingten dency towards sourcing sup plies more glob allyand devel oping part ner ships at all levels.

Food manufacturers

Food manu fac turers tend to obtain their importedsup plies either direct from importers or from spe cial -ized (Euro pean) repackers/proc es sors, which canpro vide require ments according to the manu fac -turers’ speci fi ca tions and ensure con ti nuity of supply.For logis tical, food safety and envi ron mental rea sonsthey usu ally prefer to buy from domestic or nearby


Euro pean sources. They do not often import directfrom out side Europe, though it is likely that this willincrease, espe cially as more con ven tional foodmanu fac turers begin to set up organic product lines.

Retail trade

The dis tri bu tion struc ture for organic foods has beenone of the key deter mi nants of the rate of prog ress ofretail sales in indi vidual Euro pean mar kets. The clearcom mit ment of mul tiple super market groups tomar keting a full organic assort ment has had a directinflu ence on the rap idly rising growth rate of mar ketssuch as Aus tria, Den mark, Swit zer land and, recently,the United Kingdom and other mar kets. Productiden ti fi ca tion, strong mer chan dising, improvedassort ment and regular stocking have helpedsuper mar kets to draw many new organic cus tomers.

As the stores expand the variety of prod ucts stocked,people who tend to do a large part of their gro ceryshop ping in a single outlet and who have only beenocca sional users of organic foods gradu ally increasetheir pur chases. Moreover, the growing avail abilityof supply and more effi cient dis tri bu tion of largerquan ti ties help to lower the price pre miums fororganic food to levels more accept able to con sumers.

In the above- mentioned coun tries super mar kets nowhave a domi nant share in organic food sales, whereasin mar kets like Ger many and the Neth er lands spe -cialist organic out lets have played a larger role. Inrecent years these shops have tended to con soli date in order to meet increasing com pe ti tion from the majormul ti ples, and some spe cialist organic super mar ketshave started to emerge. Some coun tries, which tra di -tion ally had a health food market seg ment, still sell acer tain pro por tion of organic food through thischannel, but the impor tance of these outlets hasdeclined. One key reason is that they tend to have alim ited range of fresh pro duce, which is the mainproduct group behind the cur rent faster growth rate in organic food sales.

Euro pean con sumers also buy organic foods directfrom farms and at organic mar kets. A highlysig nifi cant devel op ment over recent years has beenthe organic food box sub scrip tion schemes run byfarm out lets and fruit and vege table traders in someEuro pean mar kets. Ger many now has between 250and 300 schemes, pri marily for fresh fruits andvege ta bles but some offer a larger choice of fruits and bev er ages. Box schemes are also growing inpopu larity in the United Kingdom and theNeth er lands. Sev eral sys tems for ordering via theInternet have also started oper ating.

Fair trade

Fair trade organi za tions have become animpor tant dis tri bu tion channel for organicprod ucts in Europe, par ticu larly in Ger many,Swit zer land and the Neth er lands, but also in anumber of other mar kets. The pri marycon cern of the fair trade move ment is thesocial and eco nomic situa tion of farmers andpro ducers in the South rather than organicagri cul ture as an ideal, but the twomove ments are tending to con verge, as bothcon tribute to genuine sus tain ability. Fair tradedis tri bu tion is of great con se quence for anumber of product groups from devel opingcoun tries, espe cially bananas, cocoa, coffee,honey and tea.


Table 3.2 European markets: percentage shares of retailersin organic food sales, 1997

Market Multipleretailers

Specialistshops a/ Other b/

Denmark 70 15 15

France 40 30 30

Germany 25 45 20

Netherlands 20 75 5

Sweden 90 5 5

Switzerland 60 30 10

United Kingdom 65 17.5 17.5

Source: Trade estimates.

a/ Specialist organic food stores, Reform shops, natural/health food shops,dietetic shops, etc.

b/ Direct farm sales, organic markets, box schemes, catering, etc.

Market access

Organic certification and food laws

Uni form stan dards for organic food pro duc tion andlabel ling throughout the Euro pean Union wereestab lished with the prom ul ga tion of CouncilRegu la tion (EEC) 2092/91 of 24 June 1991. Thisregu la tion and sub se quent amend ments estab lish themain rules for organic pro duc tion, proc essing andimporting, including inspec tion, record keeping,label ling and mar keting. The use of the term‘organic’, or its equiva lent in dif ferent nationallan guages, for label ling and adver tising food pro duce is now lim ited in the Euro pean Union to prod uctsobtained according to the prin ci ples of pro duc tionand the rules of proc essing defined in the Regu la tion.In prin ciple, organic prod ucts which have beenimported into one EU country can be freely soldthroughout the Union, although label ling inspec tionschemes do still demand dif ferent stan dards in someindi vidual mar kets.

Each EU country is respon sible for appointing itsown con trol organi za tion and has some flexi bility ininter preting and enforcing the Regu la tion, whichonly sets down minimum require ments forcer ti fi ca tion. It should be noted that the actualstan dards required by cer ti fi ca tion organi za tions andimporters can be much more strin gent than theseminimum require ments.

Prod ucts from third (non-EU) coun tries can be sold asorganic only when it has been dem on strated that theyare from a country whose organic farming rules areequiva lent to those of the Union as laid down in theRegu la tion. Cer ti fi ca tion must be car ried out by arec og nized inspec tion body, either a national authorityin the country con cerned whose equiva lence has beenapproved according to Regu la tion 2092/91 or by anEU inspec to rate which oper ates inter na tion ally, likeEco cert, SKAL, KRAV or BCS.


GOLDEN RULES FOR THE EXPORTER OF ORGANIC PRODUCTS

q Your products must be organically certifiable and meet the legal and market requirements (hygiene, weight,size, ripeness, colour, packing and other technical specifications) of the importing country. You m ust make sureyou know the rules and are aware of all requirements and that your products are produced, stored, processed,packed and labelled accordingly.

q Unless you have a way, either directly or through your group or cooperative, for marketing and selling yourproducts to the final customer, you will need an exporter and/or an importer. Make sure that the chosen exporters are competent, trustworthy and solvent. They must defend your best interests at all times and you must be able to build a lasting partnership with them. Likewise, importers must have a sound understanding of your potential aswell as your limits and must be ready and able to communicate with you on a continuous basis.

q Make sure that you communicate with your trading partners (exporters and importers) adequately yourself.Nothing is more frustrating for trading partners than not to be informed about your situation, especially onproduct availability, and not to receive prompt replies to their requests for information.

q Make sure you build up expertise on foreign markets. Is there any need for your product? Where? When (whichseason)? Who are the target customers? What are the price levels? Are there limitations to imports? Yourexporters and importers can help with this but you should also use other sources to obtain independent marketinformation. Possible sources (see pp. 63-4) include the GreenTrade Net, fair trade organizations, chambers ofcommerce, and other organizations, including NGOs, in your own country.

q Do not speculate on prices. Set an adequate price level through open communication with your exporters andwith importers, allowing for reasonable profits for all, as befits partners.

q Work as much as possible in collaboration with other producers in a cooperative or other group relationship.Working together can mean producing marketable quantities at better prices, better assortments, and improvedpost-harvest treatment, processing, packaging, storage, transportation and administration. It may also help to cut the costs of certification and participation in foreign trade shows.

q Exporting can be profitable business, but do not ignore building up a national market, whatever the problemsand hindrances. Be creative and innovative!

Exporters of all types of food and bev erage prod uctsto Euro pean coun tries must also comply with theincreas ingly strict EU regu la tions on food safetyand hygiene, nutri tional infor ma tion, addi tives, pack -aging and label ling.

Customs duties

The external trade of all EU member coun tries isgov erned by common regu la tions and tradingagree ments. Once the required duties have been paidon goods imported from out side EU into a spe cific EU

market, these goods can be cir cu lated throughout theUnion without fur ther cus toms for mali ties. Someimports are sub ject to quan ti ta tive and otherrestric tions. Most prod ucts from the Asian,Car ib bean and Pacific States asso ci ated with EU andfrom least devel oped coun tries are exempt from duty. For other devel oping coun tries, GSP (Gen er al izedSystem of Pref er ences) agree ments may lowerappli cable cus toms tar iffs. In accor dance with EUcom mit ments under the WTO Agree ment, EU’saverage tariff levels will be low ered con sid erablyover the next few years.

Sources of information

A major pur pose of this study is to help fill theinfor ma tion gap that exists in most devel opingcoun tries which export or are plan ning to exportorganic prod ucts. With the aim of maxi mizing exportearn ings, it is abso lutely vital that the exporter obtains regular updates on price and market trends. Thefol lowing sug ges tions may be useful:

q Producers and exporters should pay regularvisits (pref erably at least once a year) to the targetmarket(s) to collect market and marketing infor ma -tion through meet ings with trading part ners and visits to retail shops and special ized trade fairs.

q Producers and exporters should establish andmaintain contacts with other producers and exportersto exchange information and discuss marketdevelopments and trading conditions.

q Producers and exporters should make maximum use of existing sources of information, such as thepublications mentioned in the bibliography at the endof this study.

q Many importers, proc es sors, food manu fac -turers, retail organi za tions and other compa niesinvolved in the organic trade have Web sites thatprovide useful infor ma tion. This is also true of anumber of inter na tional organi za tions, NGOs, aidorgani za tions, trade asso cia tions, certi fi ca tionbodies and other enti ties. As far as possible, rele vant Web sites and e-mail addresses are provided in thisstudy.

The fol lowing sources of infor ma tion are par ticu larly useful:

q Green Trade Net, an inter na tional data base onorganic prod ucts on the Internet, which providesmarket infor ma tion and links exporters in thesecoun tries with importers in Germany and else where.The data base is spon sored by Protrade/GTZ,Germany’s trade promo tion and entre pre neur shipprogramme.

Web site: http://www.green-tradenet.deE-mail: [email protected]: +49-69 811 228Fax: +49-69 824 684

q BioFoodNet, an information and news platformfor the global, European and local organic markets on the Net. It is operated from Belgium and is sponsoredby BioFoodNet PVBA.

Chemin des Maréchaux 35B-1300 Wavre-LimalWeb site: http://www.biofood.netE-mail: [email protected]/Fax: +32-10 410 675

q Fresh-Marketplace is a new on-line databasethat links potential buyers and sellers of fresh fruitsand vegetables via the Internet. It was co-developedby the International Trade Centre UNCTAD/WTO(ITC) and an organization in the United Kingdom. Itcovers mainly conventional but also organic fruitsand vegetables. Coverage of products other than fresh fruits and vegetables may be included at a later stage.For further information contact:

Fresh-MarketplaceInternational Trade Centre UNCTAD/WTO (ITC)54-56 rue de Montbrillant


CH-1202 GenevaSwitzerlandWeb site: http://www.fresh-marketplace.comE-mail: [email protected]: +41-22 730 01 11Fax: +41-22 733 44 39

Market News Serv ice (MNS), an ITC globalpro gramme, pro vides price and market infor ma tionon a number of food prod ucts, including fresh fruitsand vege ta bles, bulk- packed fruit juices, spices andrice. MNS does not cur rently cover organic prod ucts,although selec tive cov erage may be intro duced at

some stage. For sub scrip tion and fur ther infor ma tioncon tact:

Market News ServiceInternational Trade Centre UNCTAD/WTO (ITC)54-56 rue de MontbrillantCH-1202 Geneva, SwitzerlandWeb page:http://www.intracen.org/services/

mns/mns.htmE-mail: [email protected] Tel: + 41-22 730 01 11Fax: + 41-22 730 05 72; + 41-22 730 09 06

Trade fairs

Organic pro ducers and exporters in devel opingcoun tries should aim to visit food fairs when everpos sible. Increas ingly exporters also par tici pate asexhibi tors, usu ally in coop era tion with a trading

partner or under the spon sorship of an importpro mo tion organi za tion. There are a number of tradefairs rele vant for the organic trade, including thefol lowing:


January (annual) Grüne Woche (Green Week)

Berlin, GermanyTel: +49-6634-91929-0/-1Http://www.messe-berlin.de E-mail: [email protected]

Mainstream food show with a growingpresence of organic products.

February (annual) Bio Fach

Nürnberg, GermanyTel: +49-9171-96100Fax: +49-9171-4016Http://www.biofach.deE-mail: [email protected]

The world’s largest organic food show; has many exhibitors from developingcountries.

March (annual) Natural Products, Expo West

Anaheim, Ca, United StatesTel: +1-303939-8440Fax: +1-303939-9559Http://www.naturalproductexpo.comE-mail: [email protected]

The largest organic and natural foodshow in the United States.

April (annual) Natural Products, Expo East

Brighton, United KingdomTel: +44-1903-879077Fax: +44-1903-879052Http://www.naturalproducts.co.ukE-mail: [email protected]

The United Kingdom’s largest organicand natural food show.

31 May - 2 June 2000 Natural Products, Expo Europe

Amsterdam, NetherlandsTel: +44-1273-384282 (UK)Fax: +44-1273-384285 (UK)E-mail: [email protected]

April (annual) Vitafoods International, Conferenceand Trade Exhibition

Geneva, SwitzerlandTel: +44-1872-263682 (UK)Http://www.vitafoods.co.uk. E-mail: [email protected]

Organized by Vitafoods InternationalLtd, Truro, United Kingdom.Natural medicines and foods, including organic products.

May (annual) Bio Cultura

Barcelona, SpainTel: +34-93-5801118Fax: +34-93-5801120E-mail: [email protected]

The Barcelona version of Spain’slargest organic and natural food show,created by Vida Sana.

September (annual) Valeriane

Namur, BelgiumTel: +32-81 303690Fax: +32-81 310306Http://www.euronature.comE-mail: [email protected]

Created by Nature et Progrès;Belgium’s largest organic food show.

FAO’s contribution to organic agriculture

In response to a request made by its gov erning bodiesin January 1999, FAO is devel oping an organization- wide and cross- sectoral pro gramme in organic agri -cul ture. This pro gramme will be under taken in col -labo ra tion with public and pri vate insti tu tions such asnational and inter na tional agri cul tural research cen -tres, national pro grammes, con sumer asso cia tionsand inter na tional organi za tions such as ITC andIFOAM.

Coun tries are requesting advice and assis tance forinformed decision- making and policy analysis, aswell as tech nical assis tance in research, exten sionwork and in tap ping market oppor tu ni ties.

FAO intends to help devel oping coun tries to accessinter na tional mar kets by pro viding tech nical infor -ma tion on pro duc tion require ments, trade infor ma -tion on market oppor tu ni ties, and assis tance incapacity building. Spe cific assis tance will be givenfor the devel op ment of appro priate national leg is la -tion, cer ti fi ca tion capa bili ties, research and exten sionfacili ties, and to pro mote the exchange of expe ri ences

between coun tries. FAO will cover the whole pro duc -tion, storing, han dling, proc essing and mar ketingchain.

In order to obtain the basic intelligence needed tounderstand fully the magnitude of organic production and trade, statistical data is required on the number offarmers who have adopted organic managementtechniques, and on the volumes of goods producedand traded. Steps are being taken to specify datacollection methodologies and to amend internationalclassification systems.

Countries seek assistance in deciphering the multitudeof rules various traders expect their suppliers to follow. Increasing international trade in organic products hasplaced FAO at the forefront of efforts to achievegreater harmony in organic standards. The CodexCommittee on Food Labelling has preparedGuidelines on the Production, Processing, Marketingand Labelling of Organically Produced Foods whichwere adopted by the FAO/WHO Codex AlimentariusCommission in July 1999.


September (annual) SANA

Bologna, ItalyTel: +39-02 8645 1078Fax: +39-02 8645 3506Http://www.sana.itE-mail: [email protected]

Traditionally Italy’s largest organicfood show.

September (annual) Natural Products

Baltimore, MA, United StatesTel: +1-303939-8440/-9559 ExpoEastHttp://www.naturalproductexpo.com

The East Coast version of the Anaheim show.

October (biennial, tobe held next in 2000) SIAL

SIAL Paris, France Tel: +33-149685499/-147313782Http://www.sial.fr E-mail: [email protected]

A large European mainstream foodshow, alternating with Anuga inCologne, Germany; with a growingorganic presence.

October (biennial, tobe held next in 1999) Anuga

Cologne, GermanyTel: +49-221-821-0/-2574,Http://www.koelnmesse.de E-mail: [email protected]

A large European mainstream foodshow, alternating with SIAL Paris.

(Biennial) Food-Ingredients-Europe-Exhibition

NetherlandsInfo: Miller Freemann BvTel: +31-346 559444Fax: +31-346 573811Http://www.infbv.com/foodE-mail: [email protected]

Mainstream event with strong organicpresence rotating netween Paris(September 1999), Frankfurt(November 2000) and London (2001).

November (annual) MarjolaineParisTel: +33-490310042Fax: +33-490324391

France’s traditional organic food show, created by Nature & Progrès.

November (annual) Bio Cultura

Madrid, Spain Tel: +34-3-5801118Fax: +34-3-5801120E-mail: [email protected]

The Madrid version of Spain’s largestorganic and natural food show, createdby Vida Sana.

FAO is prepared to respond to requests from membercountries for assistance in developing regionalorganic standards that take into account localproduction needs as well as international marketdemands.

The highly local nature of organic production meansthat community-based expertise and organizationalcapacity is needed. FAO could support, upon request, the establishment of local certification organizationsin developing countries.

For further information contact:

Food and Agriculture Organizationof the United NationsVia delle Terme di Caracalla00100 RomeItalyWeb site: http://www.fao.orgTel: +3906 57051Fax: +3906 57053152Contact: Secretary, Inter-Departmental Working

Group on Organic Agriculture of FAO


Chapter 4

WORLD SUPPLY BY GEOGRAPHICAL REGIONAND BY COUNTRY

Introduction

This chapter gives a world wide over view ofpro duc tion and trade in organic food prod ucts byregion and by country. Spe cial atten tion has been paid to devel oping coun tries and the dis cus sion focuses on key issues of pro duc tion, trade, cer ti fi ca tion andexport poten tial.

As has been men tioned in an ear lier chapter, thisstudy does not concentrate on a spe cific product orproduct group but on a niche in the overall foodsector. While this niche encom passes the wholespec trum of food prod ucts, there is little or no offi cialsta tis tical infor ma tion avail able. The descrip tionthere fore of pro duc tion and trade is pri marilyquali ta tive. It is based on what ever data wereavail able during 1998 when the study was car ried outand on inter views with importers, retailers,cer ti fi ca tion and accredi ta tion agen cies, and tradepro mo tion organi za tions [such as Pro trade/GTZ, theCentre for the Pro mo tion of Imports from devel oping coun tries (CBI) and Office suisse d’ex pan sioncom mer ciale (OSEC)]. The dif fi culty of makingesti mates of pro duc tion vol umes and market sizeswas exac er bated by the sig nifi cant pro por tion oforganic pro duce sold direct by pro ducers tocon sumers, the pro lif era tion of organic schemes, andthe dif fering cer ti fi ca tion and label ling prac tices allover the world.

It must be empha sized that the amount and detail ofinfor ma tion given on each country in this chapter and in the country chap ters do not reflect the size of theirrespec tive sec tors, but simply indi cate that for somecoun tries data have been more easily avail able thanfor others. The same applies to the men tion of

organi za tions, traders and others, which should not be inter preted as an endorse ment of any kind. Themen tion is merely an indi ca tion of the infor ma tionavail able within the time frame for the study and themethods used for col lecting data. The countrysec tions there fore, while they give an insight intonational organic food sec tors, can by no means beregarded as pre senting a com plete pic ture.

All prod ucts referred to as being pro duced or traded invarious coun tries are organic prod ucts cer ti fied torec og nized stan dards. Goods that could probably berightly called organic but have not receivedcer ti fi ca tion are excluded from the study, althoughthey are some times alluded to. Simi larly, prod uctsmar keted as ‘organic’, ‘bi olog ical’, ‘ec olog ical’, etc.but which are cer ti fied to stan dards that do notcon form to inter na tional stan dards (the latter including the EU Regu la tion on organic crop pro duc tion and theIFOAM stan dards for animal pro duc tion) fall beyondthe scope of this study.

It should be added that, wher ever they are pro duced,organic prod ucts other than food and bev er ages (such as wood and wood prod ucts, wool, cotton and cottonyarn) are men tioned in the country sec tions, basi callyto indi cate devel op ments in other seg ments that mayhave an impact, how ever indi rect, on the food andbev erage sector. Advances in cer ti fi ca tion, forexample, in other sec tors, would facili tate similarini tia tives in regard to food. The reader should alsonote that the list ings of items by product cate gory aremerely illus tra tive of the items being pro duced inindi vidual coun tries. Fur ther more, the geo graphicalgrouping of coun tries fol lows that of the United

Nations Sta tis tical Year book, which is gen er ally (butnot always) based on con ti nental regions.

It is hoped that this study will serve as a first step

towards the con tinued col lec tion and dis semi na tionof data on world pro duc tion and trade in organic foodprod ucts, espe cially in devel oping coun tries.

Africa

Organic farming takes place in a growing number ofAfrican coun tries, but gen er ally on a very small scale. The absence of an organ ized national market andlocal dis tri bu tion system is a major hin drance.Organic prod ucts are usually sold only in impro visedfarm ers’ mar kets, more often than not with no pricepre miums. Access to tech nical assis tance andrea son able credit remains dif fi cult. None the less,numerous farm ers’ and women’s organi za tions andNGOs prac tice organic farming to pro moteself- sufficiency in food in their areas, to cur tail landero sion, to recover land in deser ti fied areas, or forexport. Some times, bene fiting from new insights,they return to long- abandoned tra di tional prac tices,similar in many ways to organic farming methods(see section on Burkina Faso).

In many coun tries, cer ti fi ca tion, with its costimpli ca tions, does not yet make much eco nomicsense. How ever, Egypt is already an impor tantpro ducer and exporter of organic prod ucts as areMada gascar, some of the Maghreb coun tries, andSouth Africa. Exotic fruits, herbs and spices, nuts,essen tial oils, oil-seeds, vegetables and cotton aresome of the most impor tant items pro ducedorgani cally.

Con trol and cer ti fi ca tion are mostly car ried out byfor eign enti ties although local struc tures are being setup in a number of coun tries.

Algeria

Algeria has the begin nings of an organic agri cul turalsector. It pro duces dried fruit (dates) and exportssome of this, mainly to the Euro pean Union.

Useful address

ECO MRKInstitut des sciences de la nature de l’Université deBejaiaDZ-Tizi Ouzou 15000Tel: +213-5214334Fax: +213-5214332E-mail: [email protected]

(Production, development)

Benin

Benin pro duces some quan ti ties of dried fruits andnuts, oil- seeds like palm, coconut and sesame, andcotton.

Useful addresses

Association ORUKUTUKUBP 80, Dassa-ZouméTel/Fax: +229-324300(Production, development)

PADEC - KandiProjet d’appui au développement dans lacirconscription urbaine de KandiBP 90, KandiTel: +229-630013(Development)

Burkina Faso

This was the first African country to host the bien nialIFOAM Inter na tional Sci en tific Con fer ence andGen eral Assembly (in 1989). At that con fer ence theDec la ra tion of Oua ga dougou was launched: it statesthat organic agri cul ture in devel oping coun tries is nota luxury but a pre con di tion for attaining foodself- sufficiency. Burkina Faso is member of theIFOAM African fran cophone group (see sec tion onSenegal).

The country pro duces some fresh fruit (mango),millet, oil crops (sesame seed), pulses, sor ghum,vege ta bles and other prod ucts for domesticcon sump tion. It engages in a small export trade,mainly in sesame seed, pre domi nantly to Bel giumand France.

The redis covery and reu tili za tion of the tra di tionalzai method in the Sahel area, aban doned for about50 years, is making it pos sible to regain deser ti fiedland. The method con sists of hacking holes of adepth and width of 30 cen ti me tres into the

68 CHAPTER 4 – WORLD SUPPLY BY GEOGRAPHICAL REGION AND BY COUNTRY

stone- hard lat erite soil. Com posted manure and thensome millet or sor ghum seed and some pulses aresown into the holes. Stone dikes 10-20 cen ti me treshigh are built, forming par cels and pre venting rainwater (when it comes) from flowing away. Hedgesare planted next to the dikes, strength ening them.Ani mals are fenced in or guarded so that they do noteat the young plants and hedges. The soil recu per atessuf fi ciently after three har vests to be ploughednor mally again.

In this country, where close to half of the popu la tionlives below the threshold of pov erty, dis tri bu tion isrudi men tary. A number of NGOs and farm ers’ andwomen’s asso cia tions (such as SSSSSS – the Six S)are active in organic agri cul ture in the Sahel area.Their goal is not only to help the popu la tion attainfood self- sufficiency but also to stop deser ti fi ca tionand to regain land both in the north, where the Saheldesert advances, and in the south where defor es ta tioncauses heavy ero sion. The Ligue des con som ma teursin Oua ga dougou pro motes organic agri cul ture anddefends con sum ers’ rights vis- à-vis the authori tiesand eco nomic opera tors.

Useful addressesABC (Agri Bio Conseil)BP 2545, Bobo-DioulassoFax: +226-970850(Development, consultancy)

AVAPAS (Association agroécologistes au Sahel) Aned La Baoogo PO Box 8095, Ouagadougou 04 Tel: +226-308499 Fax: +226-310618 (Producer, processor)

INADES (Institut africain pour le développementéconomique et social)01 BP 1022, Ouagadougou 01Tel: +226-302070; 340341Fax: +226-340519E-mail: [email protected](Production, development)

Ligue des consommateurs du Burkina Faso BP 6936, Ouagadougou 1Tel/Fax: +226-315570E-mail: [email protected](Production, development, and safeguardingconsumer interests)

Burundi

Burundi pro duces fresh fruits such as avo ca dos,bananas, man goes and pine ap ples.

Cameroon

Cam eroon pro duces and exports some fresh fruits(pine ap ples, papayas, bananas) and vege ta bles.

Useful addresses

CAIPE(Centre d’appui initiatives paysannes d’Ebolowa)BP 132, RFC-EbolowaTel: +237-283618Fax: +237-281034(Production, trade)

Export Agro sarlBP 4524, DoualaTel: +237-401024Fax: +237-400613E-mail: [email protected](Producer, exporter)

SAP(Sustainable Agroforestry Promoters)PO Box 514, RFC-BamendaFax: +237-362111E-mail: [email protected](Production, consultancy)

Cape Verde

An export- oriented banana proj ect is in an advancedstage of devel op ment.

Comoros

Organic agri cul ture is just begin ning on thisarchi pelago in the Indian Ocean. Some quan ti ties ofspices (e.g. vanilla) are being pro duced.

Côte d’Ivoire

The country pro duces some cocoa and coffee. It exports some quan ti ties of cocoa to the Euro pean Union.

Useful address

IACO(Inter-African Coffee Organization)BP V 210, Abidjan Tel: +225-216131; 216185(Production, development)

CHAPTER 4 – WORLD SUPPLY BY GEOGRAPHICAL REGION AND BY COUNTRY 69

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Organic pro duc tion is in its first stages.

Useful address

CANAEL(Comité de l’animation d’Entre Lubau et Ntumina)BP 39, Eglise KimbaguisteAve. Bongolo 44, Kinshasa

Egypt

Production

The Sekem group ini ti ated and gave a strong impetusto organic farming in Egypt in 1978. It is involvedwith COAE, the Centre for Organic Agri cul ture inEgypt, estab lished in 1990 to pro mote organicfarming and to advise and assist organic farmers.

In 1998, 150 farms cov ering 5,000 acres were inopera tion, largely fol lowing bio dy namic stan dards.Crops include fruits, both fresh and dried (apri cots,bananas, citrus, dates, grapes, man goes); grains(barley, rice, wheat); herbs ( basil, dill, paprika, spear -mint); leg umes, dried (peas, beans); medicinal plants; roots and tubers (pota toes); vege ta bles (cucum bers,egg plants, garlic, onions, squash, toma toes); spices(caraway, cori ander, paprika, pepper); and tea. Live -stock farming also takes place (dairy cattle, sheep;pigeons), as does some api cul ture. Cotton is alsopro duced.

Egypt is member of the AgriBio Medi ter raneo (seeItaly) and of the IFOAM African anglo phone group(see Kenya).

Processing and trade

Many prod ucts are proc essed through the Sekemgroup. On the domestic market, these are sold as food and phyto- pharmaceuticals to super mar kets, spe cial -ized food shops and phar ma cies. Exports are con sid -er able and are rising. Agro food Organic Egypt inCairo is an exporter of herbs, spices and vege ta bles.

The main export crops are fresh fruits and vege ta bles(more than 6,000 tons yearly), herbs and medicinalplants (around 200 tons yearly), and cotton. The main mar kets are the Euro pean Union and Swit zer land

Certification

The Egyp tian Bio dy namic Asso cia tion (EBDA) hasits own cul ti va tion stan dards and regu la tions. BothCOAE and EBDA coop erate with uni ver si ties andresearch insti tu tions for the fur ther devel op ment ofEgyp tian stan dards for organic farming. TheSwiss- German body IMO super vises the coun try’sinspec tion sys tems.

Useful addresses

COAE(Centre for Organic Agriculture in Egypt)Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams UniversityPO Box 1535, Alf Maskan , ET-11757 CairoTel/Fax: +20-2-2818886 E-mail: sekem@sekem (Production, development)

EBDA(Egyptian Biodynamic Association)PO Box 2834, El Horreya, ET-Heliopolis, CairoTel: +20-2-2807994Fax: +20-2-2806959E-mail: [email protected](Development)

ECOA(Egyptian Centre of Organic Agriculture)18 Mena Street, Dokki, ET-Giza Tel/Fax: +20-202-3618717 (Inspection)

Sekem PO Box 2834, El Horreya, ET-Heliopolis Tel: +20-22807994Fax: +20-22806959E-mail: [email protected](Producer, processor, wholesaler)

UGEOBA(Union of Growers and Exporters of Organic andBiodynamic Agriculture)3 Cumbeese Street, ET-12311 Dokki-Giza, Cairo Tel: +20-2-3484252Fax: +20-2-3601028(Production, development)

Ethiopia

Ethiopia is an important coffee-pro ducing country.An ITC proj ect is assessing the fea si bility of organicfarming and of estab lishing a cer ti fi ca tion system inthe country. Ethiopia is member of the IFOAMAfrican anglo phone group (see Kenya).


The major varieties of coffee include yer gacheffe,harrar and sidamo, which may be exported in organicform in the future.

Useful address

Coffee & Tea AuthorityPO Box 3222Addis AbabaTel: +251-1518088Fax: +251-1517293(Production, consultancy)

Gabon

Gabon is taking its first steps towards estab lishing anorganic sector. Some quan ti ties of organic cocoa arenow being pro duced.

Gambia

The Gam bia’s nas cent organic sector pro duces someoil crops (e.g. sesame seed).

Useful addressFarato FarmsPO Box 142, 79 Hagan Street, BanjulTel/Fax: +220-227869; +220-226148(Production, development)

Ghana

Ghana pro duces cocoa; fruits, fresh (bananas, papayas, man goes, pine ap ples); nuts (pea nuts) and vege ta bles,fresh. It has many wild tropical fruits, herbs, nuts andvege ta bles, whose poten tial for cul ti va tion andmar keting has not yet been explored, but which couldbroaden the organic product range on the worldmarket. The Tra di tional Organic Farm ers’ Asso cia tion(TOFA) and various other groups and NGOs pro motetra di tional organic farming sys tems.

Organic farming in Ghana has good poten tial forfur ther devel op ment. As it is, the use of chemicalinputs is restricted to the large com mer cial farms andmarket gar dens around the cities, which account foronly a small pro por tion of overall food pro duc tion.

With two weekly open-air mar kets in Accra, thenational market is growing. The export trade with theEuro pean Union is prom ising.

There is no cer ti fi ca tion body in the country andsmall holders depend on spon sored inter na tionalinspec tion and cer ti fi ca tion. Ghana is member of theIFOAM African anglo phone group (see Kenya).

Useful addressesGhana Export Promotion CouncilPO Box 146, AccraTel: +233-21-228813Fax: +233-21-668263

GOAN(Ghana Organic Agriculture Network)PO Box 6342, GH-KumasiTel: +233-51-20954Fax: +233-51-25306(Production, development)

TOFA(Traditional Organic Farmers’ Association)PO Box 71, GH-Mampong AkrofosoFax: +233-21-777098(Production, consulting)

Guinea

Organic agri cul ture in Guinea is at an early stage.

Useful address

CePATA (Centre de promotion agricole et de technologiesadaptées)PO Box 530, Conakry Tel/Fax: +224-443291(Production, processing)

Kenya

Production and trade

Various Kenyan NGOs actively pro mote organicagri cul ture by estab lishing dem on stra tion farms forsmall farmers and exten sion workers. Cer ti fiedpro duc tion for export is in its infancy; thecer ti fi ca tion of maca damia nuts (by a German entity)started in 1996. Organic vege ta bles, dried leg umes(beans), tea and cotton are also pro duced.

The Kenya Insti tute of Organic Farming (KIOF)under takes activi ties to create aware ness of organicfarming and car ries out training courses on organicfarming tech niques. Since 1993, KIOF has beenworking on a research proj ect to assess the on- farmpoten tial of organic farming tech niques underdif ferent agro- ecological and socio- economiccon di tions.

Cer ti fied maca damia nuts are exported, though nofig ures were made avail able for this study. It ispos sible to find organic prod ucts locally, but themarket is very small.


Kenya is member of IFOAM’s anglo phone Africangroup, which has its seat at KIOF.

Certification

There are no national stan dards for organic farming.How ever, the Kenya Organic Farm ers’ Asso cia tion,which is in the process of being formed, plans to draw up organic stan dards. In coop era tion with the UnitedKing dom’s The Soil Asso cia tion, the Asso cia tion forBetter Land Hus bandry (ABLH) has starteddevel oping stan dards, which will be based on thestan dards of The Soil Asso cia tion but adapted tocon di tions in Kenya.

Potential

There is no doubt that Kenya has good pos si bili tiesfor the fur ther pro duc tion and trade in organicprod ucts. It is believed that it has good con di tions forpro ducing sesame seed, and fresh and dried fruits, forwhich reason a trade pro mo tion pro gramme wasini ti ated in 1997. It also has favour able con di tions forcotton pro duc tion and a related pro gramme wasstarted in 1997.

Kenya has an excel lent supply base and an existingexport infra struc ture (it is already a sig nifi cantexporter of con ven tion ally pro duced fruits andvege ta bles, flowers and other prod ucts). Fur ther more,there seems to be great interest in organic agri cul tureamong farmers, exten sion agents, NGOs and otherasso cia tions.

Sev eral activi ties are already being under taken,including the training of stu dents and research. Somecol labo ra tion will take place with a GTZagro- forestry proj ect, cov ering, for example, theplanting of mango trees.

Useful addresses

Export Promotion CouncilAnniversary Towers 1st & 16th FloorsUniversity WayPO Box 40247NairobiTel: +254-2-228 534Fax: +254-2-218 013, +254-2-228539

ITFSP(Integration of Tree Crops into Farming)ICRAF House, UN Avenuec/o GTZ Office PO Box 47051, GigiriTel: +254-2-522887

Fax: +254-2-521001E-mail: [email protected](Production, processing)

KIOF(Kenya Institute of Organic Farming)PO Box 34972, Nairobi Tel: +254-2-583194; +254-2-583383Fax: +254-2-583370E-mail: [email protected]

SACDP (Sustainable Agriculture Community DevelopmentProgramme)PO Box 44752, Nairobi Fax: +254-2-331276; +254-2-225725(Production, development)

Madagascar

Production and certification

The con trolled pro duc tion of organic food prod uctsin Mada gascar began in 1990 in col labo ra tion withthe German com pany Rapunzel and the Frenchcom pany Man timex. The first cer ti fied prod ucts were oils (palm oil, coconut oil), cashew nuts and spices(vanilla). Today sev eral pro ducers are cer ti fied byEco cert.

The product groups cur rently pro duced (with someexam ples of spe cific items) are listed below:

q Cocoa;

q Coffee;

q Essential oils;

q Fruits, dried (orange, papaya, pineapple, mango);

q Fruits, fresh (apples, passion fruit, litchis,gooseberries);

q Fruits, processed (fruit juices and pulp ofpineapple, mango, papaya and banana);

q Herbs and spices (vanilla, clove, allspice,pepper, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, ginger, chilli);

q Honey;

q Oil crops (coconut) and oils (coconut, pine,palm, geranium, lemon grass, green pepper);

q Sugar cane, sugar cane molasses and syrup;

q Vegetables, fresh (green beans).

Some new proc essing activi ties are starting,including a joint ven ture with a French com pany.


The pro ducers include both small to medium- sizedfamily-run farms and larger plan ta tions. Some of thelatter are State- owned, pro ducing coco nuts for instance;others are pri vately owned and pro duce palm oil, forexample. Around 1,000 farm fami lies are thought to beinvolved in the pro duc tion of organic prod ucts.

Trade

Organic prod ucts are pro duced mainly for export;Ger many is a major market. The failing infra struc ture has impaired Mada gas car’s export poten tialcon sid erably. Some exporters and the prod ucts theyhandle are listed below:

Exporter Location ProductAgrico Antananarivo Fruits and essential oilsAgropole Tamatava Edible oils

Expam- Antananarivo PharmaceuticalsHomeopharmaLa Bouffe Antananarivo Exotic fruits and spicesMillot Antananarivo Spices, cacao and coffee

Pabiom Antsiranana Vanilla and essential oilsPhael Flor Antananarivo Essential oils

Satrana Taomasina Rum

PROMABIO, a com pany in Anta na na rivo,coor di nates the activi ties of organic exporters.

Useful addressPROMABIOLot II N 184 Ter Besarety, RM-AntananarivoTel: +261-20-2242499Fax: +261-20-2226921E-mail: [email protected](Exporting)

Malawi

Production, trade and certification

Shire High lands Organic Growers Asso cia tion(SHOGA) is the main pro moter of organicpro duc tion and trade in Malawi. Founded in 1995, ithas 13 active mem bers and a number of small- farmerasso ciate mem bers. These mem bers are pri marilyengaged in the pro duc tion of organic herbs andspices. The bulk of pro duc tion is car ried out at two ofthe larger farms, on cer ti fied areas of 30 and 50hec tares respec tively. Herb proc essing and pack aging facili ties for export have been set up.

Sev eral other small inde pendent organi za tions andNGOs are inter ested in pro moting organic farming inthe country.

Malawi’s output includes bam bara nut, beans ofvarious kinds, cal en dula, cay enne pepper, chamo mile,chilli, cori ander seed, cumin, dill, echi nacea andannato, fennel, ground nuts, hibiscus, lav ender, lemongrass, lemon ver bena, melissa, pigeon pea, rose mary,sesame seed, sun flower seed and sugar cane. Theseprod ucts are exported by two of SHO GA’s largermem bers (see above). Their main market is Ger many;the United Kingdom and the United States are alsoexport des ti na tions. Some prod ucts have likewise been sent to Zim babwe. The export trade is organ izedthrough SHOGA.

The cold pressing of oils is sched uled to start in 2000,and a still for essen tial oils is planned.

There seems to be a small domestic market forcer ti fied and non- certified organic prod ucts. Organichoney, for instance, can be found in one local store.

Eco cert takes care of inspec tion and cer ti fi ca tion.There are no local inspec tion or cer ti fi ca tion bodies,and no offi cial stan dards for organic farming.

Potential

Malawi has good con di tions for the pro duc tion of awide range of tropical, sub tropical and cer taintem perate zone crops.

In addi tion, SHOGA can pro vide tech nical adviceand assis tance on organic farming, market access,and arranging and pre paring for inspec tion andcer ti fi ca tion. Some mem bers have con sid er ableexpe ri ence and exper tise in the pro duc tion,inspec tion and export of organic prod ucts. Malawithere fore has a good poten tial for the fur therdevel op ment of organic pro duc tion and trade,including that of new products, e.g. organic foodadditives and organic pesticides.

Useful addresses

Lipangwe Organic Manure Demonstration FarmPO Box 26, Matale, Ntcheu Fax: +265-671427(Production, development)

MEPC(Malawi Export Promotion Council) Delamere House, Victoria AvenuePO Box 1299, Blantyre

SHOGA (Shire Highlands Organic Growers Association)PO Box 930, Blantyre


Tel: +265-671355/671182 Fax: +265-671427 (Production, processing, trade)

Mali

Organic agri cul ture in Mali has just begun.

Useful address

GRAT(Groupe de recherches et d’applications techniques)BP 2502, Bamako Tel/Fax: +223-224341(Production, development)

Mauritius

Organic sugar has been pro duced since 1991 and hasmainly been cer ti fied by the British cer ti fi er OF&G.Among the other prod ucts are fresh fruits (litchis,pine ap ples, man goes) and spices (chilli paste,pepper).

In 1995, 650 tons, mainly of cane sugar, wereexported from three farms with a total area of around175 hec tares. The area has since been reduced owingto lower yields and the higher costs of weed con trol.The United Kingdom and France are the maincus tomers.

Mau ri tius is member of IFOAM’s anglo phoneAfrican group (see Kenya).

Useful address

IOAEN(Indian Ocean Agro-Ecology Network)11, Royal Street, Mont IdaTel/Fax: +230-4165080E-mail: [email protected](Control, development)

Morocco

Pro duc tion includes fresh fruits (citrus, which hasbecome an impor tant export to the Euro pean Union);fresh vege ta bles (such as toma toes); dried fruits(dates); olives; dried leg umes; spices and herbs (basil, mar joram).

There is no formal domestic market as yet. Allpro duce is exported to the Euro pean Union. In thepast this was done through Bio- Maroc, anorgani za tion that is no longer in exis tence.Nowa days, the trade is han dled by the indi vidualgrowers who sell mainly to French importers in

Per pignan for dis tri bu tion throughout EU. A majorbrand is ECOFARM, marketed, among others, by the growers Kohar sa in Taroudant.

Cer ti fi ca tion is car ried out by the German leg ofEco cert, Eco con trol GmbH.

Useful address

Magrebio5, Route InaraHay LelbahjaTel: +212-4492104Fax: +212-4492101(Development

Mozambique

Some nuts are being pro duced. Cashew nuts are anexample.

Useful address

AMRU (National Asso cia tion for Rural WomenDevel op ment)PO Box 1892, Maputo Tel: +258-1-422809Fax: +258-1-422893(Pro duc tion, devel op ment)

Nigeria

Organic agri cul ture in Nigeria is at its ini tial stages.

Useful addresses

Regfoss Green Commission7, Murtala Mohammed WayJos, PO Box 531, WAN-Jos Plateau StateTel: +234-73-454668Fax: +234-73-55202(Production, development)

Village Pioneer ProjectPO Box 1622, Akure, Ondo State, WAN-Nigeria (Production, development)

Senegal

In Senegal, sev eral NGOs pro mote organic farmingprac tices among small holders. Self- sufficiency infood is the pri mary goal and exporting the sec on daryobjec tive. Fruits (man goes) and vege ta bles areamong the main prod ucts with export poten tial. Ini -tia tives are being taken to set up a national cer ti fi ca -tion body.


Senegal has good poten tial for the pro duc tion of fresh fruits like papayas and melons, dried fruits, cashewnuts and cotton.

Useful addresses

Agrecol AfriqueBP 234, SN-Mbour Tel: +221-9563215Fax: +221-9564202E-mail: [email protected](Production, development)

ASPAB(Association sénégalaise pour la promotion del’agriculture biologique)BP 412, SN-Thiès Tel: +221-511237(Production, certification)

PRONAT ENDA54 rue de Carnot, BP 3370, SN-Dakar Tel: +221-225565,Fax: +221-8222695E-mail: [email protected](Production, development)

Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone has taken its first steps towardsdevel oping an organic sector.

Useful addresses

FOE(Friends of the Earth in Sierra Leone)PM Bag 950, 33 Robert Street, WAL-Freetown Tel: +232-22-226511Fax: +232-22-224439(Production, development)

KEIOF(Kenema Institute of Organic Farming)9 Hangha Road, PO Box 165, Kenema Fax: +232-22-229076(Production, development)

South Africa


Over the last few years South Africa has gainedimpor tance as a pro ducer and exporter of organicprod ucts. Its output includes fresh fruits (man goes,avo cados, litchis), vegetables, herbs and spices, andcane sugar. There are about 35 organic growers in all.

South Africa exports and imports organic prod ucts.For instance, it exports to the Euro pean Union and

imports from Zim babwe. Borneo Fruit in Lady brandand Kirl ington Organic Farm in Ficks burg arepromi nent fruit exporters, Mead owsweet Farm inWin terton exports herbs, spices and herbal tea to theEuropean Union (e.g. to Denmark, France, Swedenand the United Kingdom).

Among the other pro ducers are Organic Herbs Farms(Cape Town) and Coetzee and Coetzee in Kuils rivier. The main whole saler is Uni foods in Durban.

The local South African market is developing. Organic foods are sold in a number of spe cial ized stores.Super market chains such as Shoprite Checkers, Pickn’Pay, Wool worths and Hyperame sell some organicfoods, mainly in their health food sec tions.

Particularly around Johannesburg, much of theproduction and local trade is coordinated byWensleydale Farms. They supply a wide range offruits, berries and vegetables to some supermarkets,e.g. Pick n’ Pay, as well as direct to private customers. Products are labelled ‘organically grown’. In thesame area, there is a weekly open market for organicproduce.

Certification

There is no legislation on organic production andlabelling.

Several foreign certifiers, including The SoilAssociation, Ecocert and SKAL, are active in thecountry. Discussions are also taking place on thesetting up of a local certification programme.

Useful addresses

BDAASA(Bio Dynamic Agricultural Association of SouthAfrica)PO Box 115, ZA-Paulshof 2056, SandtonTel: +27-11-8031688Fax: +27-11-8037191E-mail: [email protected](Production, development)

OAASA(Organic Agricultural Association of South Africa)Box 1975, ZA-Kelvin 2054Tel/Fax: +27-11-7062672E-mail: [email protected](Control, certification)

Organic Herb Farms601 Costa Brava, 299 Beach RoadPO Box 4336, Cape Town


Tel: +27-21-4397816Fax: +27-21-4394732(Production and trade)

Wensleydale FarmsBryanston 2021PO Box 71085Tel: +27-12-6500064Fax: +27-12-6500207E-mail: [email protected]

Western Cape Organic Agricultural SocietyPO Box 611, StellenboschTel/Fax: +27-21-8548904; +27-083-4614567E-mail: [email protected]

Sudan

Organic agri cul ture in the Sudan has just begun. Itsoutput includes fresh fruits (citrus), oil crops ( sesame seed), grains and poultry prod ucts.

Tanzania, United Republic of

Production, trade, certification

Some of this coun try’s output by product group arelisted below; some exam ples of spe cific prod ucts arealso given.

q Cotton;

q Essential oils (lemon grass);

q Fruits, dried (banana, pineapple, mango,papaya);

q Fruits, fresh (citrus, papaya, guava, mango);

q Herbs and spices (cinnamon, ginger, vanilla,chilli, pepper, nutmeg, cardamom, clove, curry,lemon grass);

q Honey;

q Nuts (peanuts, cashew nuts);

q Oil-seeds (sunflower) and oils (palm oil,sunflower oil);

q Tea (black tea, hibiscus tea);

q Vegetables, fresh (peas);

q Vegetables, processed (garlic and onionpowder).

In all, more than 4,000 hec tares have been cer ti fiedorganic and this area is increasing. In 1993, three

farms and one com pany were cer ti fied to EUstan dards. They included one tea plan ta tion of 230hec tares, a pri vate farm of 350 hec tares, a farm of 40hec tares pro ducing essen tial oils, and an enter prisethat pro duces spices on around 300 hec tares on thebasis of land leases and con tracts with small holders.These four enter prises have so far exported black tea,hibiscus tea, essen tial oils and spices. Since 1995, anincreasing number of farmers have started pro ducingessen tial oils and spices. Some packing of spices andcracking of cashew nuts take place.

A cer tain amount of cotton is pro duced under theaus pices of a tex tile com pany that has con tracts withsmall- scale cotton pro ducers. The com pany alsoorgan izes cer ti fi ca tion, proc essing into cotton yarnand exporting. The yarn is exported to Swit zer land.

One com pany, Kimango Farm Enter prises Ltd (inMoro goro) exports herbs and spices, fresh and driedfruits (papayas, man goes, guavas), herbal tea andother prod ucts. Zanz- Germ Enter prises (Zan zibar)exports a wide variety of herbs and spices. TheZan zibar State Trading Cor po ra tion, also in Zan zibar, exports essen tial oils.

Sev eral NGOs pro mote organic cul ti va tion prac ticesin the country by training small holders and exten sionworkers. The Tan za nian Society of Organic Farming(KIHATA), an umbrella organi za tion of groupsworking on sus tain able agri cul ture, has beenestab lished.

Much of the coun try’s output is cer ti fied by Euro peanbodies like IMO and The Soil Asso cia tion. There is alocal inspector in Zan zibar, and inspec tors from Kenya and Zambia are also used. The United Republic ofTan zania has no offi cial organic farming stan dards.

Potential

The country appears to have good poten tial fororganic pro duc tion. How ever, farmers need trainingand there are sev eral hur dles to be over come in orderto increase exports, espe cially in rela tion toinfra struc ture and product quality.

Useful addresses

Board of External TradeTrade Fair GroundsPO Box 5402, Dar es SalaamTel: +255-51-851706Fax: +255-5-851700E-mail: [email protected]


KIHATA (Chama Cha Kilimo Hai Tanzania) PO Box 208c/o Kilimo Cha Mseto, Peramiho Fax: +255-6352917(Production, development)

Kimanga Farm Enterprises LtdPO Box 642, MorogoroFax: +255-56-4714

Swedish Export Promotion of Organic Productsfrom Africa (EPOPA) ProgrammePO Box 71393, Dar es SalaamTel: +255-51-131205; +255-51-118239Fax: +255-51-131205E-mail: [email protected]

Zanz-Germ Enterprises LtdPO Box 3369, ZanzibarTel: +255-811-326440Fax: +255-811-321072E-mail: [email protected]

Togo

Pro duc tion includes fresh fruits (bananas, man goes)and dried fruits (pine ap ples, papayas, man goes),proc essed fruit, oil crops (coco nuts), stimu lants(coffee and cacao) and spices (ginger).

Useful addressesASDEB (Action solidaire pour un développement entretenuà la base)Rue No 106, Avenue Togo-Gaz, BP 3771, Lomé Tel/Fax: +228-227427(Development)

GJEDBP 536, Kpalimé Tel/Fax: +228-410280 and +228-410076

Tunisia

Pro duc tion includes fresh fruits (citrus) andvege ta bles (toma toes), dried fruits (dates), nuts, oilcrops (olives) and herbs. Some farms use bio dy namic farming methods. Sev eral Italian and Germanimporters have set up organic proj ects in Tunisia.

Exports to the Euro pean Union are rap idlyincreasing. Medi fruit in Borj Cedria and WTCO inKebill are date exporters.

Tunisia is member of the AgriBio Medi ter raneogroup (see Italy).

Useful addressITTA(Institut tunisien de technologie appliquée)BP 61, 4042 Chatt MariemTel/Fax: +216-3-210188; +216-1-276656(Production, development)

Uganda


Uganda pro duces fresh fruits and vege ta bles(pine ap ples, pas sion fruit, bananas, avo cados), rootsand tubers (sweet pota toes), dried fruits (pine apple),oil- seeds (sesame, sun flower), dried leg umes (soybeans), coffee, cocoa, herbs and spices (vanilla,ginger, chilli), and honey.

More than 30 organi za tions pro mote the organicpro duc tion of a variety of items, including dairyprod ucts in Bukonyo county. One of the largestven tures is the Lango cotton proj ect, in which 5,000farmers par tici pate. The Depart ment of Social andEco nomic Devel op ment (SED) car ries out trainingpro grammes in rural com mu ni ties and has adem on stra tion farm. Most of the farmers trained havediver si fied their pro duc tion. There are also Good Food (see the Neth er lands) proj ects pro ducing dried fruitsand edible nuts.

One com pany has been exporting fresh tropical fruitsand vege ta bles from con trolled organic farms on acon trac tual basis since 1993. Among the coun try’sexport prod ucts are cer ti fied organic cocoa, coffee,ginger, pine ap ples, sesame and sweet bananas.

Certification

There are no offi cial stan dards for organic farming inUganda and no local inspec tion or cer ti fi ca tionbodies. Among the inter na tional inspec tion agen ciesactive in the country are IMO, KRAV and SKAL.Both KRAV and SKAL have trained local inspec torsin order to cut costs.

Potential

Uganda has good natural con di tions for organicagri cul ture and many crops can be grown. Much ofthe agri cul tural land is cul ti vated by small holderswithout recourse to agro- chemicals, and tra di tionalmixed farming sys tems remain in use in some places.


How ever, because of increasing pres sure on the land,tra di tional farming sys tems may not be sus tain able inmany places in the long run. The main exportcon straint is the lack of com pa nies with enoughcapital to buy organic prod ucts for export and toarrange for cer ti fi ca tion.

Useful addressesDENIVA(Development Network of Indigenous VoluntaryAssociations)PO Box 11224, KampalaTel: +256-41-531150; +256-41-530575Fax: +256-41-531238E-mail: [email protected]

SANU(Sustainable Agriculture Network of Uganda)PO Box 281, Kampala Tel: +256-41-530575 Fax: +256-41-531236(Production, development)

Uganda Export Promotion BoardPlot 17/19 Jinja RoadPO Box 5045, KampalaTel: +256-41-230250; +256-41-259779Fax: +256-41-259779E-mail: [email protected]

Zambia

Zambia pro duces some organic prod ucts, includinghoney.

Useful address

Export Board of ZambiaFifth Floor, Woodgate HouseCairo Road, South End, LusakaTel: +260-1-228106; +260-1-228107Fax: +260-1-222509; +260-1-222259

Zimbabwe

In 1993, some farmers started to grow com mer cialorganic prod ucts and organ ized them selves into theZim babwe Organic Pro ducers Asso cia tion (ZOPA),now ZOPPA. The area under pro duc tion is about1,000 hec tares. Out puts include essen tial oils, herbs(e.g. basil), spices and spice prepa ra tions (bar becuesea son ings, cay enne pepper), fruits, soy beans andcocoa. Cer ti fi ca tion is car ried out by a Britishcer ti fi ca tion body.

Under the Nature Farming Net work of Zim babwe,around 10 NGOs work together in organicagri cul ture, mainly for home con sump tion. One

com pany, Four Sea sons, has a product range thatincludes soy prod ucts, peanut butter, herbs andspices, herbal teas, essen tial oils, sauces, pastas,jel lies, grains and pulses. Its output is cer ti fied by theBritish cer ti fier Organic Farmers & Growers Ltd, and is exported through dis tribu tors in Europe, NorthAmerica, Aus tralia, Japan and South Africa.

Sev eral firms have started mar keting their prod uctspacked for final con sump tion under various brandnames. Around 50% of the cer ti fied pro duc tion isexported, the rest is mar keted in- country. In addi tionto Europe, Aus tralia, the United States and Canada,South Africa is a sig nifi cant importer of organicprod ucts from Zim babwe.

Useful addresses

Africa Centre for Holistic Resource ManagementPO Box MP 266, Mt. Pleasant, Harare Tel/Fax: +263-4-732360 E-mail: [email protected]

Four Seasons FoodsP. O. Box AY 56, Amby-Harare Tel: +263-4-487832; +263-4-487559Fax: +263-4-486178(Production, trade)

Horticultural Promotion CouncilAgricultural HouseCorner Adylins Road/Mulbury DrivePOB WGT 290 HarareFax: +263-4-309853E-mail: [email protected](Supports organic agriculture)

Nature Nurture (Pvt.) LtdPrivate Bag 2003, Ruwa Tel: +263-73-2771/2Fax: +263-73-2321(Production)

NFN(Nature Farming Network)8 Elseworth AvenueBox CY 301, Causeway-Harare Tel: +263-4-731541Fax: +263-4-723056E-mail: [email protected](Development)

ZOPPA(Zimbabwe Organic Producers and ProcessorsAssociation) PO Box BW1011, Borrowdale Tel/Fax: +263-14882094E-mail: [email protected](Production, processing, trade)


Other countries in Africa

In December 1998, there appeared to be no cer ti fiedorganic agri cul ture in the fol lowing coun tries:Angola, Bot swana, Cen tral African Republic, Chad,Congo, Dji bouti, Equa to rial Guinea, Eri trea,Guinea- Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, the Libyan Arab

Jama hiriya, Mau ri tania, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda,Western Sahara, Sao Tome and Prin cipe, Sey chelles,Somalia and Swa zi land.

How ever, ini tia tives may have been taken in some ofthese coun tries to develop organic farming.

Asia

Organic pro duc tion takes place, though gen er ally ona very small scale, in most Asian coun tries. It isprac tised to reach self- sufficiency in food, to improve soil fer tility, or to engage in the export trade. It isorgan ized by indi vidual farmers, farm ers’ andwomen’s organi za tions and a wide variety of NGOs.In almost all coun tries local dis tri bu tion is a hugeproblem. Often, it does not exist or is impro vised andgen er ally pro vides no price pre mium. Access totech nical assis tance and rea son able forms of creditremains dif fi cult. Israel, Japan and, to a much lesserextent, Malaysia and the Phil ip pines havedis tri bu tion sys tems involving super mar kets as wellas spe cial ized stores. Israel and Turkey are impor tantpro ducers of a variety of food prod ucts, but mainlydried and fresh fruits and vege ta bles, and nuts.Among the other sig nifi cant pro ducing coun tries areChina, India, the Republic of Korea and Sri Lanka;their output includes cocoa, coffee, essen tial oils,herbs and spices, pea nuts, rice, tea and vanilla. TheAsi atic areas of the Russian Federation have somepockets of impro vised organic agri cul ture without astruc tured market. Israel and Japan have becomeorganic importers as well as exporters.

Cer ti fi ca tion becomes an issue if organ ized nationalor export mar kets are to be devel oped. China, India,Israel and Japan have well- established con trol andcer ti fi ca tion bodies; some other coun tries areestab lishing similar enti ties. Nev er the less, for eigncon trol and cer ti fi ca tion bodies remain active in Asiasince only Israel has so far obtained equiva lency withthe stan dards of the Euro pean Union.

Azerbaijan

Ini tial steps are being taken to develop organicfarming. One proj ect, which pro duces apples, is onthe verge of being cer ti fied by SKAL.

Bangladesh

Bang la de sh’s organic output includes herbs and tea.

Useful addresses

PROSHIKA-PRO-TrainingSHI-Education, KA-ActionCentral Training Center, PO KoillaDist. ManikgonjTel: +880-2-09333127Fax: +880-2-805811(Production, development)

SCI BangladeshMoudubi Health & Agriculture DevelopmentProject 6/5 Sir Syed Road, 1E floor, Block AMohammedpur, Dhaka 1207Tel/Fax: +880-2-9113623Fax: +880-2-810254E-mail: [email protected](Production)

China

Production

From 1995 to end- 1997 the area under cer ti fiedorganic pro duc tion increased from around 450hec tares to about 4,000 hec tares. In addi tion, about10,000 hec tares in the wild have been cer ti fied. China pro duces about 40 items within the productcate go ries listed below; sample items are also given.

q Fruits, processed fruit ( juices);

q Fruits, fresh (apples);

q Grains (rice, wheat, buckwheat, maize);

q Herbs and spices (ginger);

q Honey;


q Legumes, dried (soybeans, beans);

q Nuts (chestnuts, walnuts, peanuts);

q Oil crops (sesame, pumpkin, sunflower) and oil;

q Tea;

q Vegetables.

China also offers spe cial ties like sea- buckthorn oil,con cen trate and powder.

Trade

The domestic organic market is being organ izedunder the ini tia tive of the China Green FoodDevelopment Centre and others. Pro duc tion isstrongly export- oriented. The first fully organic foodtrading com pany, Winged Ox Organic Food Co. Ltd,was formed in 1995 and since then four othercom pa nies have been estab lished. The overallturn over has risen almost ten fold in recent years toreach an esti mated $600 mil lion in 1997/98.

A growing array of prod ucts is finding mar kets inEurope, Japan and the United States. Records showthat cer ti fied organic tea was exported to Euro peancoun tries by the Import and Export Tea Cor po ra tionof Zhejiang Prov ince as early as 1994. Organicsoy bean was exported to Japan for the first time in1994. Some exporting com pa nies and their prod uctsare listed below:

q China Environmental Organic Food Company(Beijing): corn, peanuts, rice, sesame and spices;

q Hei Agriculture Cultivation InternationalOrganic Food Development Co., Ltd (in the Dalianfree tariff zone): produces and exports grains,oleaginous seeds, pulses, soy and vegetables;

q Huan En Organic Food Trading Co. (Daliandevelopment zone): exports soy to Japan;

q Naturex Organic Foods Ltd (Jiangsu): driedfruits, edible oils, Suzhou noodles, sweets;

q Winged Ox Organic Food Co. Ltd (Nanjing):peanuts, seeds, soy.

Certification

In 1994, the Chi nese National Envi ron mentalPro tec tion Agency estab lished the Organic FoodDevel op ment Centre (OFDC). The Centre has

devel oped stan dards for pro duc tion, proc essing andlabel ling; has set up inspec tion, cer ti fi ca tion,research, exten sion and training facili ties; and hasini ti ated a pro mo tion net work. It is now the mainChi nese cer ti fier. SKAL (of the Neth er lands) andOCIA (of the United States) have con trib uted to thedevel op ment of cer ti fi ca tion in China. The GermanBCS, the Swiss IMO and the American QAI (Quality Assurance International) are also active in this field.

Potential

China has an enor mous poten tial as a pro ducer oforganic prod ucts. A survey has indi cated, forinstance, that around 30% of the tea pro duced in themoun tainous regions of Anhui and Zhejiang could be turned rela tively easily into organic prod ucts.

Useful addresses

CGFDC(China Green Food Development Centre)15, Guangximen Beili, XibaheChaoyang District, Beijing 100028Tel: +86-10-64227205Fax: +86-10-64221175E-mail: [email protected](Development)

China Dalian Free Tariff Zone Hei Agriculture Cultivation International OrganicFood Development Co., Ltd12-4 Qing Song Bel Economy and TechnologyDepartment ZoneDalian 116600Tel: +86-411-7605917Fax: +86-411-7602447(Production and trade: soy, oleaginous seeds, pulses and vegetables)

ICAIRD(Intercontinental Centre for Agro-ecologicalIndustry Research)17-206 Xijadatong, Golou, Nanjing 210008Tel: +86-25-3602748Fax: +86-25-3602748E-mail: [email protected](Research, control)

JROFT (Jiangsu Ruikang Organic Food Trade)66-1 Chengxian Street, Nanjing 210018Tel: +86-25-7712445Fax: +86-25-3356700E-mail: [email protected](Processing, trade)

NA - Produce Green Foundation18, Hok Tau Village, Hong Kong, Fanling N.T.Tel: +852-6741190


Fax: +852-6748077E-mail: [email protected] site: www.producegreen.org.hk(Production, development)

NOF (Naturex Organic Foods Ltd of Jiangsu)233 Binhe Rd., Suzhou New DistrictSuzhou 215011Tel: +86-512-8254247Fax: +86-512-8251347E-mail: [email protected]

OFDC-SEPA (Organic Food Development Centre of China)8 Jiangwangmiao StreetPO Box 4202, Nanjing 210042Tel: +86-25-5412926Fax: +86-25-5420606E-mail: [email protected];

[email protected](Control, certification)

Winged Ox Organic Food Co. Ltd85 Huju Road, Nanjing 210013Tel: +86-25-3737169Fax: +86-25-3710549

Cyprus

Cyprus has two organic pro ducers. Yial lourou haseight hec tares of vine yards with an output of 17,000bot tles of organic wine a year; it is con trolled andcer ti fied by SKAL. The second pro duces a smallquan tity of aro matic herbs, which are not cer ti fied.

Useful addressOekologiki Oenotechnia YiallourouPO Box 1827, CY-Limassol Tel: +357-5-242730Fax: +357-5-359009(Production, trade)

Georgia

Organic agriculture is at an early stage.

India

Production

Lord Albert Howard, one of the founding fathers oforganic agri cul ture, devel oped his first com postingmethods in India around 1910. Organic agri cul turegained impetus in the 1980s and now India pro ducesa wide variety of organic prod ucts such as fresh anddried fruits (pine ap ples, bananas, pears), proc essedfruit (mango con cen trate), vege ta bles, nuts (cashew,

pea nuts), oil crops (sesame, coconut), dried leg umes,grains (rice), coffee, sugar cane, herbs and spices andother prod ucts. India is best known for its organic tea, of which it has numerous varie ties.

Trade

The home market is small and mainly informal.Pro duc tion is largely export- oriented, with mar ketsincluding the Euro pean Union, the United States andJapan. The number of organic traders is growingrap idly. Among them are the Amboothia Tea Groupand God frey Phil lips India Ltd, both based inCal cutta and both exporters of tea. Another exporteris Enfield Agro base Pvt Ltd of Madras which tradesin nuts, pea nuts, sesame, rice and dried fruits.

Certification

ENCON, formed in col labo ra tion with The SoilAsso cia tion, cer ti fies Indian pro duce as well as thosefrom some neigh bouring coun tries. Sev eral Euro pean and American inspec tion cer ti fi ca tion bodies are alsoactive. The Swiss IMO has estab lished a sub sidiary in India (IMO Con trol).

It is believed that India has tre men dous poten tial as apro ducer of organic prod ucts and fur ther efforts todevelop it are expected in the near future.

Useful addresses

ENCONPO Box 575, Kanchan NagarNakshatrawadi, Aurangabad 431002Tel: +91-240-332336/322828Fax: +91-240-322866(Certification)

Ginni Exports14 Madan Chatterjee Lane, Calcutta 700002Tel: +91-33-2320138Fax: +91-33-2330915E-mail: [email protected](Production, trade)

IIRDPO Box 12, NakshatrawadiAurangabad 41300, MaharashtraTel: +91-240-332336Fax: +91-240-331036E-mail: [email protected](Consultancy, development)

IMO ControlUmesh Chandravekhar 103729A Cross Rd, Jayanagar, Bangalore 560082Tel/Fax: +91-80-6651772


E-mail: [email protected](Control, certification)

IOAM(Indian Organic Agricultural Movement)25/1, Yeshwant Niwas Rd, Shreesh ChamberIndore DIN 452003Tel: +91-731-536813Fax: +91-731-432869(Inspection, certification)

Indonesia

In 1995, Indo ne sia’s output of organic food stuffs wasinsig nifi cant. It con sisted of wild fruits, vege ta bles,grains (rice), coffee and spices (vanilla, cin namon,cloves) and herbs. Since then pro duc tion has takenoff, and vanilla has become an export crop. Fur therdevel op ments are expected to take place.

Useful addresses

Biotani Pan Indonesia-Biodinamika Pertanian PanJl. Persada Raya NE 1RI-Menteng Dalam, Djakarta 12870Tel/Fax: +62-21-8296545(Inspection, certification)

OAADC (Organic Agriculture & Agroforestry DevelopmentCentre)Sribhawono RT/ 05/RW 02 Labuhan MaringgarRI-Kabupaten Lampung Tengah, Lampung 34199Tel: +62-21-8293967 and 8318967Fax: +62-21-8293967E-mail: [email protected](Production, development)

PPLH Seloliman (Pusat Pendidikan Lingkungan Hidup)PO Box 03Trawas, Mojokerto61375 East JavaTel/Fax: +62-343-80884E-mail: [email protected] page: http://www.webcom.com.com/pplh

Islamic Republic of Iran

Organic agri cul ture is in its ini tial stages ofdevel op ment in this country.

Useful address

College of Agriculture, Ferdowski UniversityPO Box 91775-1163, Mashhad Tel: +98-51-8108635 or +98-51-822939Fax: +98-51-815845E-mail: [email protected]

Iraq

Organic agri cul ture is in its early stages.

Useful address

ZQVP, Zakho Projects University of Dohuk, College of AgricultureAbid Ali Hassan, Dohuk, KurdistanTel: +964-62-682623815Fax: +964-62-682623816

Israel

In the begin ning of 1999, Israel had close to 250organic farms on roughly 2,100 hec tares of land. Interms of their prod ucts, the farms are dis trib uted asfol lows (some have sev eral cate go ries of prod ucts):

No. of farms Products Yearly volume 125 Vegetables 11,500 tons

110 Fruits 6,500 tons

50 Field crops 18,000 tons

27 Citrus 17,200 tons 30 Livestock 3 million litres of milk, 10 million eggs,

150 tons of meat, honey

Among the fresh vege ta bles, roots and tubers pro ducedare car rots, celery, cherry toma toes, Chi nese cab bage,cucumber, fennel, garlic, ice berg let tuce, onions,pota toes (early), sweet corn, sweet pota toes, toma toesand zuc chini. Fruits include avo ca dos, bananas, citrus,dates, grapes, man goes, melons and papayas.

Bio dy namic farming is also prac tised.


The country has about 20 packing houses; it also hasproc essing plants pro ducing fruit juices, for example.

Both North America and the Euro pean Union importfresh pro duce from Israel, espe cially fruits andvege ta bles. The country has an effi cient pro duc tionand mar keting system, for the larger part based oncol labo ra tion between farmers and the State.Mar keting is car ried out by Agr exco, which hassub sidi aries in France, Ger many, the Neth er lands, the United Kingdom and the United States.

About 16,000 tons of field crops, 13,000 tons ofcitrus, 5,000 tons of fruits, 3,000 tons of vege ta bles,and all of the live stock prod ucts are sold in Israel’s


health food stores, local mar kets and super mar kets,or are proc essed. The bal ance is exported.

Various organic prod ucts are imported by about 10importers.

Israel has its own organic regu la tions, which haveobtained equiva lency with EU stan dards. It has its own cer ti fi ca tion agency, IBOAA (Israel Bio- OrganicAgri cul ture Asso cia tion). IBOAA issues its owncer ti fi ca tion label, Biotop. It is seeking IFOAMaccredi ta tion.

Israel is a member of IFOAM’s Medi ter ra nean group, AgriBio Medi ter raneo (see Italy).

Useful addresses

Agrexco Ltd PO Box 20601, Tel Aviv 61206Tel: +972-3-5630940Fax: +972-3-5630918E-mail: [email protected]

Citrus Bio Organic Growers AssociationKibbutz Gevolut, IL-85525 Kibbutz GevolutTel: +972-7-9983101Fax: +972-7-9987900(Production, trade)

IBOAA(Israel Bio-Organic Agriculture Association)121 Hahashmonaim St, IL-67011, Tel AvivTel: +972-3-5610538Fax: +972-3-5618633E-mail: [email protected](Certification)

Japan

Production

Organic pro duc tion in Japan started in the 1930s, andhas devel oped strongly since the 1970s. In the twodec ades since 1970, an increasing number oftra di tional Japa nese food pro ducers and proc es sorshave been con verting to organic pro duc tion. Thesecom pa nies con tinue to export through com pa nies like Muso in Osaka and Mitoku in Tokyo to mac ro bi oticcir cles and natural food shops all over the world.Their prod ucts include the fol lowing:

q Miso (a soy condiment);

q Mochi (a dried paste of steamed rice);

q Noodles, including the specialities ramen, soba(buckwheat noodles) and udon;

q Pickles and fermented apricots (umeboshi);

q Sake (rice wine);

q Soy sauces like tamari and shoyu;

q Tea, such as the special teas bancha, kukicha(twig tea) and green tea;

q Ume-su (a fermented apricot vinegar),genmai-su (whole rice vinegar).

Prod ucts now popular all over the world, such as ricecake and soy milk, origi nated in Japan.

A fer til izer widely used in organic cir cles in Japan is a com posted mix ture of rice bran (sup plying cel lu lose)and okara (a by- product of the soy milk industry andsup plying nitrogen). Organic livestock farming isnon- existent.

There is a very strong part ner ship, referred to astei-kei, between organic farmers and con sumers. Thecon sumers often supply pre- financing and otherserv ices, and the farmers pro vide an organic foodbasket at afford able prices. It is believed that morethan 1 mil lion Japa nese con sumers are involved inthe tei-kei. How ever, no clear stan dards have beenevolved for the tei-kei output and none of it iscer ti fied.

Manufacturing and trade

Pro duc tion is aimed at both domestic and exportmar kets, the national market being esti mated at$1.3 billion-$1.5 bil lion in 1998. There are numerousorganic proc es sors and manu fac turers, both smalltra di tional family enter prises and large com pa nies.Pres tig ious tra di tional com pa nies such as HatchoMiso Com pany and Sendai Com pany have anorganic line. Health food shops carry organics allover Japan and an increasing number ofsuper mar kets have included organic prod ucts in theirassort ments. The Jusko retail group car ries theFrench La Vie brand.

Japan has become a sub stan tial importer of allorganic con sumer prod ucts, but is extremelydemanding on quality aspects. One of the mainimported raw mate rials is soy, obtained from theUnited States and else where and proc essed into suchprod ucts as soy sauces and miso, partly for export.Large Japa nese com pa nies (for instance, Mit su bishi,Nissho Iwai and Kirin) are becoming increas inglyinvolved in the trade. The Organic Bank is a strongpro moter of the trade.


Certification

Japan’s offi cial regulations on organic foodpro duc tion are not clear and are often con fused withstan dards for low- input sus tain able agri cul ture.Pri vate organic stan dards are in use and the maincer ti fier is JONA, which frequently works togetherwith American and Euro pean cer ti fiers.

Useful addresses

Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO)2-5, Toranomon 2-chomeMinato-ku, Tokyo 105-8466Tel: +81-3-3582-570Fax: +81-3-3582-5670Web site: http://www.jetro.go.jp

JONA (Japan Organic and Natural Foods Association)Aomori-Ken Blas Plaza, Sumitomo Building 5F2-2-1, Yaesu, Chua-Ku, Tokyo 104-0028 Tel: +81-3-52017003 Fax: +81-3-32710701E-mail: [email protected](Inspection, certification)

Muso Company3-7-22 Nishitenma, Kita-ku, Osaka 530-0047 Tel: +81-6-6316-6021Fax: +81-6-6316-6016Email: [email protected](Import, export)

NOAPA (Nippon Organic Agricultural Products)Fukuroku Bldg, 2-7, Tsukasa-ChoChiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101Tel: +81-3-32955448Fax: +81-3-32592884E-mail: [email protected] page: http://www.yokohama.venture-web. or.jp/noapa/join.html(Control, development)

Organic BankShibata Building 3F, 1-5-16 Nihonbashi BakurochoTokyo 103-0002 Chuo-kuTel: +81-3-36601637Fax: +81-3-36601638E-mail: [email protected] page: http://www:iijnet.or.jp/organic/(Trade, development)

Kazakhstan

There are sev eral groups of organic farmers inKazakhstan. Among them are a group of 20 farmers inthe moun tainous region in the south- east and another

group north of Almaty. Prod ucts are sold locally andwithout cer ti fi ca tion. The Neth er lands Agro EcoCon sul tancy group provides tech nical assis tance.

Useful address

Zhana ZholAytiev Street 96, Almaty Tel/Fax: +7-3272-509266

Kyrgyzstan

There are sev eral uncer ti fied organic farm ers’ini tia tives. They carry out their own mar keting.

Lebanon

Organic agri cul ture in Lebanon has advanced to thestage of being able to export some prod ucts to theEuro pean Union and the United States. Someprod ucts are sold in local health food stores.

Lebanon is a member of the IFOAM Medi ter ra neangroup AgriBio Medi ter raneo (see Italy).

Useful address

MECTAT(Middle East Centre of Transfer of AppropriateTechnology)PO Box 113-5474, Beirut Tel: +961-1346465Fax: +961-1346465E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.mectat.com.lb/(Consultancy)

Malaysia

Organic agri cul ture and agro for estry are devel opingrap idly. Some national dis tri bu tion of organicprod ucts takes place and the export trade iscom mencing.

Useful addresses

CETDEMPO Box 382, 46740 Petaling Jaya Tel: +60-3-7757767Fax: +60-3-7754039E-mail: [email protected]

MOFAN(Malaysian Organic Farming Network)PO Box 382, 46740 Petaling Jaya Tel: +60-37757767Fax: +60-37754039


Myanmar

Some quan ti ties of grains (Bas mati rice) and canesugar are pro duced. A cer tain volume is exported, forinstance to Den mark and other EU coun tries.

Nepal

The Kanchajunga Tea Estate in Panchtar and otherfarms produce some green and black tea, which istraded by Highland Trading Co. (P) Ltd (located inBaneskwar, Kathmandu). Some organic herbs andspices are also produced. Local distribution is almostnon-existent, while the export trade is beginning.

Useful addressesECOSCENTRE(Ecological Service Centre)Maheswar GhimirePO Box 04, NEP-Nrayangarh, ChitwanTel: +977-56-23834Fax: +977-56-20165E-mail: [email protected](Production and research)

INSAN (Institute for Sustainable Agriculture Nepal)Bharat ShresthaGPO Box 8126, KathmanduTel: +977-1-481305Fax: +977-1-473276E-mail: [email protected]

Pakistan

According to the Paki stan Organic Farm ers’Asso cia tion (POFA), the country pro duces organiccotton; fruits, fresh and dried; grains (rice, corn andwheat); herbs and spices; nuts; and pulses(chickpeas).

In the domestic market, sales are made direct fromthe farms. The Paki stan Organic Farmers Food Ltd inLahore is the main exporter.

Useful addressesPakistan Organic Farmers Foods Ltd76 West Wood Colony, PAK-53700 Lahore Tel: +92-42-5221707Fax: +92-42-5220433(Exporter)

POFA(Pakistan Organic Farmers’ Association)78 West Wood Colony, PAK-Lahore 53700Tel: +92-42-5221707Fax: +92-42-5220433(Production)

Palestine

Pal es tine pro duces organic fruits and vege ta bles. It isa member of the IFOAM Medi ter ra nean groupAgriBio Medi ter raneo (see Italy).

Useful address

PARC(Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees)PO Box 25128 Shufat, Jerusalem Tel: +972-2833818Fax: +972-2831898

Quattro Department for Organic Agriculture POB 1080, Nablus Fax: +972-9382217

Philippines

The Phil ip pines is an impor tant pro ducer of organiccoffee, with an annual output esti mated at 2,000 tonsin the mid 1990s. Addi tional prod ucts include freshand dried fruits (man goes, bananas), grains (rice),sugar, herbs and spices (black pepper, cloves) andanimal prod ucts (dairy prod ucts).

Part of the sugar from the island of Negros is soldunder fair trade schemes. Local farmers deliver theirpro duc tion to the local refinery. Nearly 400 tons ofsugar are pro duced every year, half of which is sold to Euro pean fair trade organi za tions, the other half to aJapa nese entity. Exports of other prod ucts are alsoincreasing.

Useful addressATC (Alter Trade Corporation)BLK 6-A, Lily St., Bata SubdivisionRP-Bacolod City 6100 Tel: +63-34-4410051Fax: +63-34-4410057(Processing, trade)

OPTA(Organic Producers’ Trade Association)235 San Francisco del Monte AvenueRP-Manresa, Quezon City 1115Tel: +63-2-9391402Fax: +63-2-3617695E-mail: [email protected](Production, marketing, control)

Republic of Korea

The Republic of Korea has been prac tising organicfarming since the Korean Organic Farming


Asso cia tion (KOFA) was estab lished in 1978. KOFAhas more than 17,000 mem bers.

Sales of organic pro duce in the domestic marketaccount for less than 1% of the total trade in farmprod ucts. Organic prod ucts are sold either directly bypro ducers to con sumers or through super mar kets.Sales from super mar kets are usu ally proc essed foods. The export trade is just begin ning.

Useful addressesKOFA(Korean Organic Farming Association)4th Fl. Sungwon B/D 3-72 Garak Dong, Songpa GuSeoul 138-160Tel: +82-2-406-4462Fax: +82-2-403-4463(Production, development)

KSOA(Korean Society of Organic Agriculture)375-45, Seqyo-Dorig, Mapo-ku, Seoul 121-210Tel: +82-2-3975628Fax: +82-2-3975630(Development)

Saudi Arabia

Health food stores such as the Saudi Health FoodHouse in Riyadh have a long tra di tion of car rying(imported) organic prod ucts. Local organicpro duc tion is emerging.

Useful addressSunsmileSaudi Health GrowersPO Box 641, Shaka/Al-JoufTel: +966-46220511Fax: +966-46221100

Singapore

Organic agri cul ture is at its ini tial stages inSin ga pore.

Useful addressPureland Organic Health Farm50 Chin Swee Rd, 10-06, Thong Chai BldgSGP-Singapore 0316Tel: +65-7387748Fax: +65-7387749

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is one of the world’s leading sources oforganic tea. It also pro duces other cer ti fied organicprod ucts. These include the fol lowing:

q Cane sugar;

q Coconut products;

q Coffee;

q Fruits, canned;

q Fruits, fresh and dried (pineapples, papayas,bananas, mangoes);

q Fruits, juices and concentrates (from pineapple,mango, passion fruit, papaya);

q Grains (rice);

q Herbs and spices (pepper, cardamom, cloves,cinnamon, ginger).

q Nuts (cashew nuts);

q Oil-seeds (sesame seeds, coconut).

In the mid 1990s, 10 enti ties were con trolled according to EU rules; these cov ered around 15 plan ta tions andcoop er ated with more than 100 small holders. Manysmall holders have come together in the Lanka Organic Agri cul tural Move ment (LOAM).

The Need wood Tea Estate was con verted during themid 1980s and cer ti fied by Natur land and theNational Association for Sustainable AgricultureAustralia (NASAA). It is one of the oldest organic tea plan ta tions in the world. One com pany, StassenNatural Foods Ltd, started organic tea pro duc tion in1987; by 1995 it was cul ti vating 250 hec tares of land,with an annual output of around 150 tons. Thecom pany is cer ti fied by Natur land and the tea isexported to Ger many and other Euro pean coun tries,as well as to Aus tralia and Japan.

Sri Lanka exports its prod ucts mainly to Europe, theUnited States, Aus tralia and Japan. Nationaldis tri bu tion is mostly informal.

Around five Euro pean, American and Aus tra liancer ti fi ca tion agen cies are active in Sri Lanka,including IMO, NASAA and SKAL.

Selected addresses

Gami Seva SevanaOffice Junction, GalahaTel: +94-867201Fax: +94-8232343 and +94-467299E-mail: [email protected](Production, trade, development)

Needwood Organic Tea EstateHaldummulla


Tel: +94-57-8126Fax: +94-57-8242E-mail: [email protected]

SNF(Stassen Natural Foods Ltd)PO Box 1919, 833 S.B. Mawatha, Colombo 14Tel: +94-1-522871 and 522925Fax: +94-1-522913E-mail: [email protected]

Sri Lanka Export Development Board115 Sir Chittampalam A.PO Box 1872, 94-1 Colombo 2 Tel: +94-1-438517Fax: +94-1-438404(Trade)

Tropical Health Food (Pvt.) Ltd95 Castle Street, Colombo 8Tel: +94-1-683956Fax: +94-1-686670(Processor, exporter)

Taiwan Province (China)

The Organic World Cor po ra tion is an importer anddis tributor of organic food in Taiwan Prov ince(China). It imports organic prod ucts from all over theworld, including Aus tralia, France, Japan and theUnited States. It dis trib utes these imports through itsown stores. Organic production is in its first stages.

Useful addressesOrganic World CorporationNo. 60, Wu-Kung 5th Rd.Wu-Ku Industrial Area, Wu-Ku HsiangTaipei HsienTel: +886-2-2989186Fax: +886-2-2989315

Sheng Chung Industrial CorporationPO Box 32-22E, TaipeiTel: +886-2-7316099Fax: +886-2-7316096

Tajikistan

Although there are iso lated pro duc tion ini tia tives, nocer ti fied prod ucts are pro duced in the country.

Thailand

Thai land pro duces organic grains such as rice. It has a small domestic market and there are organic shops inBangkok and some other areas. Rice is among itsexports.

The Alter na tive Agri cul ture Net work (ANN),estab lished in 1984, car ries out development and

trade activi ties as does Green Net, created in 1994.ACT (Organic Agriculture Certification Thailand) isinvolved in certification.

Useful addressesBio-Safer 99/220 Tessagbarnsongkraoh RdLadyao, Jatujak, Bangkok 10900Tel: +66-2-9543120/6Fax: +66-2-9543128

Green Net 183 Regent House, Rajdamri RoadPatumwan, Bangkok 10330Tel/Fax: +66-2-6519055/56E-mail: [email protected](Development and trade)

SGS(Société générale de surveillance)GPO Box 429, Bangkok 10501Tel: +66-2-6781813Fax: +66-2-6781543E-mail: [email protected](Control, certification)

Turkey

Production

By the end of 1997, Turkey had 18,000 hec tares (with 7,500 farmers) under organic pro duc tion. It isbelieved that by the end of 1998 these fig ures hadincreased by roughly 25% and that annual exportsamounted to 50,000 tons. Pro duc tion is essen tiallyfor export and Euro pean organi za tions like the GoodFood Foun da tion (see the Neth er lands) have been atthe van guard of this devel op ment.

The most impor tant organic prod ucts are dried fruits(apples, apri cots, pears, figs, cher ries, mul ber ries,peaches, prunes, rai sins, cur rant). Turkey alsopro duces fresh and proc essed fruits and vege ta bles. Itsoutput includes fruit juices and juice con cen trates(from apple, apricot, pear, cherry), canned fruit, tomato paste, nuts (apricot ker nels, hazelnuts, pea nuts,almonds, pine- nuts, pis taccio nuts, wal nuts), oil crops(poppy-seed, olive, sesame), dried leg umes (chickpea,len tils), grains (wheat), dairy prod ucts (milk), herbs(bay leaf) and honey. Organic cotton is also pro duced.

The German whole saler Rapunzel has opened asub sidiary in the country. Turkey is member of theIFOAM group AgriBio Medi ter raneo (see Italy).

The main export mar kets are the Euro pean Union and the United States.


Turkey has had leg is la tion on organic agri cul turesince 1994, and its request for the grant ofequiva lency with EC Regu la tion 2092/91 ispending. A number of for eign inspec tion andcer ti fi ca tion bodies are active in the country,including INAC (Ger many), IMO (Swit zer land),BCS (Ger many), Eco cert (Ger many, France) andSKAL (Neth er lands).

Useful addresses

EGE Ihracatci Birlikleri Genel Sekreterligi1375 Sok. Nr 25 Kat.3, 35210 Alsancak-Izmir Tel: +90-232-4218699Fax: +90-232-4216560E-mail: [email protected]

ETKO(Ekolojik Tarim Kontrol Organzasyonu)160sk. No. 7 Bornova, 35040 Izmir Tel: +90-232-3397606Fax: +90-232-3397607 (Control, certification)

ETO(Ecological Agricultural Organization)Ekojolik Tarim Organizashyonu DemegiEge University, Faculty of Agriculture35100 Bornova-IzmirTel: +90-232-4637551Fax: +90-232-3881864E-mail: [email protected](Research, development)

Isik Tarim Ürünleri Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S.Sair Esref Bulvan No.6/605, 35230 Izmir Tel: +90-232-4415274Fax: +90-232-4411931E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.isiktarim.com(Production, processing and trade)

Turkmenistan

Although there are some local pro duc tionini tia tives, no cer ti fi ca tion takes place as yet inTurk meni stan.

United Arab Emirates

There are sev eral proj ects for the estab lish ment oforganic farming. Imported organic foods are sold inhealth food shops, mainly in Dubai.

Uzbekistan

While there are pro duc tion ini tia tives, cer ti fi ca tiondoes not yet take place in Uzbeki stan.

Viet Nam

Organic agri cul ture is just begin ning in Viet Nam.

Useful address

Ecological Economy Institute189 B. Tay-Son Street, Dong Da-HanoiTel: +84-48574400Fax: +84-48572697(Production, development)

REC(Renewable Energy Center)Do Ngoc QuynhCan Tho University, Can Tho Tel: +84-71838757Fax: +84-71839250E-mail: [email protected] anaerob@|netnam2.or.vn(Production, development)

Other Asian countries/areas

At the time of writing of this study (December 1998),there was appar ently no cer ti fied organic agri cul ture in the fol lowing coun tries: Afghani stan, Armenia,Bah rain, Bhutan, Brunei Darus salam, Cam bodia,Kuwait (import market), Lao Peo ple’s Demo craticRepublic, Mon golia, Oman, Qatar, Syrian ArabRepublic and Yemen.

How ever, ini tia tives may have been taken in some ofthese coun tries to develop organic farming.

Oceania

Australia

Aus tralia pro duces a large number of cer ti fiedorganic prod ucts for the domestic market and forexport. It has close to 1,800 organic farms, including

150 bio dy namic ones. It has ample manu fac turingand proc essing facili ties. Spe cial ized organic retailshops are found in the main urban areas as well as insome rural zones. One super market chain is testmar keting cer ti fied organic pro duce in two States.


The main export mar kets are Japan and the Euro peanUnion, the leading export product being fruits.

NASAA, which is accred ited by IFOAM, cur rentlycer ti fies 400 farms cov ering no less than 7.5 mil lionhec tares. These farms pro duce cereals (includingrice), pulses, fruits (apples, pears, bananas, avo cadosand citrus) and wine. They also raise live stock. About 20% of the farms hold 80% of the acreage, thefarming system being highly exten sive on arid orsemi- arid land.

Among the other cer ti fiers are the Bio dy namicResearch Insti tute, the Bio logical Farmers of Aus tralia,the Organic Vignerons Asso cia tion of Aus tralia, Inc.,and the Organic Herb Growers of Aus tralia Inc.

Aus tra lia’s organic stan dards are set out in theNational Stan dard for Organic and Bio dy namicPro duce. These are vol un tary for the domestic market (unless the prod ucts are labelled ‘ce rt ified organic’,but man da tory for the export market. How ever, theorganic industry strongly encour ages cer ti fi ca tionthat is equiva lent to Aus tra lia’s national stan dards. Ifan imported product is to be used in a proc essedexport product, it must be cer ti fied against stan dardsequiva lent to those of Aus tralia.

The Aus tra lian Quar an tine and Inspec tion Service(AQIS) enforces export stan dards, and accredits andsuper vises cer ti fi ca tion bodies. Imports may becer ti fied by a cer ti fi ca tion body abroad that has beenaccred ited by IFOAM or AQIS, or deter mined to beequiva lent by an AQIS- accredited cer ti fi ca tion body.Prod ucts from coun tries whose organic stan dards and inspec tion sys tems are rec og nized by AQIS asequiva lent to those of Aus tralia may be importedfreely.

Useful addresses

BFA (Biological Farmers of Australia)POB 3404, Toowoomba Village FairQueensland 4350Tel: +61-7-46393299 Fax: +61-7-46393755E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.bfa.com.au(Production, development)

Biodynamic Agricultural AssociationPoweltown, Victoria 3797Tel: +61-59667333Fax: +61-59667433(Control, certification)

NASAA(National Association for Sustainable AgricultureAustralia)PO Box 768, AUS-Stirling, South Australia 5152Tel: +61-883708455Fax: +61-883708381E-mail: [email protected](Control, certification)

RIRDC/OFA (Rural Industries Research and DevelopmentCorporation/Organic Federation of Australia)PO Box 4776, Kingston, ACT 2604Tel: +61-2-62724819Fax: +61-2-62725877E-mail: [email protected] Web site: http://www.rirdc.gov.au

Fiji

Organic agri cul ture (e.g. tropical fruit) is in its earlystages in Fiji.

Useful addressFijiAgTradeMinistry of Agriculture, Fisheries and ForestPrivate MailbagRaiwaqa, SuvaTel: +679-384-233Fax: +679-385-048E-mail: [email protected]

[email protected]

New Zealand

Organic agri cul ture is well devel oped in NewZea land. It pro duces the entire range of arable crops(e.g. cereals, pulses), meat and meat prod ucts(including lamb), fruits and vege ta bles, and honey,both for national con sump tion and for export. Thefarms include indige nous Maori coop era tives andinde pendent family farms. About 50 farms follow the bio dy namic method. New Zea land is experi mentingwith organic fish eries as well.

There are suf fi cient proc essing facili ties for prod uctssuch as dairy prod ucts, meat prod ucts, baby food,wine, proc essed and frozen fruits and vege ta bles,culi nary oils, sauces and herbal teas. Organic 100 inKau ka pakapa pro duces organic fer til izer.

Exports of kiwi fruit, pro moted by the New Zea landKiwi Board, are increasing, not with standing growing com pe ti tion from coun tries like France and Italy. Thecom pany Zespri Inter na tional exported more than3,000 tons of kiwi fruit in 1997. Among the otherimpor tant export items are apples, pears and lamb.


The main export mar kets are Japan (which absorbs78% of all exports), and the Euro pean Union.

Total exports rose from NZ$ 7.5 mil lion in 1994/95 to NZ$ 23 mil lion 1996/97. The leading exportersbelong to the Organic Prod ucts Export ers’ Group(OPEG).

Lin coln Uni ver sity of Christ church, an impor tantcentre for organic research, was the first Oceanianhost (in 1994) of the bien nial IFOAM Sci en tificCon fer ence and Gen eral Assembly.

BIO-GRO (Bio logical Pro ducers and Con sumersCouncil Inc.) cer ti fies 300 pri mary pro ducers andproc es sors; it has been accred ited by IFOAM.

Useful addressesBDFGANZ(Bio Dynamic Farming & Gardening Association in New Zealand, Inc.) PO Box 306, Napier Tel: +64-45895366Fax: +64-45895365(Production)

BIO-GROPO Box 9693, Marion Square, Wellington 6031Tel: +64-48019741Fax: +64-48019742E-mail: [email protected](Control, certification)

LEOLincoln University Biological Husbandry GroupPO Box 61, Lincoln University, Canterbury Tel: +64-33252811 Fax: +64-33253855E-mail: [email protected](Production, development)

Papua New Guinea

In the mid 1990s, Papua New Guinea had 4,265hec tares under organic farming. Its yearly output was

2,000 tons of coffee, 800 tons of copra, 100 tons ofpine apple, 500 tons of cocoa, 1.5 tons of vanilla and1.2 tons of pepper. Some roasting and packing forend- consumption takes place in the country. It alsopro duces pine apple juice and tea.

Some farms are man aged by Aus tra lian andEuro pean farmers. Ger many’s Pro trade/GTZ haspro moted the con ver sion of a coffee plan ta tion tobio dy namic farming. Among the cer ti fied proc essing com pa nies is a pineapple- juice pro ducer and variouscoffee proc es sors.

About 200 tons each of tea and coffee are exportedyearly. The main mar kets are Aus tralia and theEuro pean Union. Some traders arrange for thecer ti fi ca tion of the coffee pro duced by small holders.Aus tra lia’s NASAA is the main cer ti fier in PapuaNew Guinea.

Tonga

Tonga is a fairly sig nifi cant pro ducer of vanilla,which is mainly exported to Europe.

Useful address

TOAA(Tonga Organic Agriculture Association)PO Box 14, Nukualofa Tel: +676-22355Fax: +676-24271(Control, certification)

Other Oceania

Organic agri cul ture is in its ini tial stages in a fewother coun tries in Oceania, although cer ti fi ca tiondoes not yet take place in Kiribati, the Mar shallIslands, the Fed er ated States of Micro nesia, Nauru,Palau, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu andVanuatu.

Europe

Organic and bio dy namic agri cul ture had their cradlein Ger many (see country chapter) and the UnitedKingdom, spread rap idly to the Neth er lands,Swit zer land and the rest of Europe and from there, inthe late 1920s, to the United States and sub se quentlyto the rest of the world. The big devel op ment in

Europe came in the 1980s and today the Euro peanUnion is the leading pro ducer of, and the largestmarket for, organic prod ucts in the world. Over thelast decade and a half, EU organic farming devel oped extremely rap idly, with the area cer ti fied and undercon ver sion rising from 0.11 mil lion hec tares in 1985


to nearly 1.4 mil lion hec tares in 1998 or at annualgrowth rates some times exceeding 20%. In Cen traland Eastern Europe, growth rates in the 1990s wereeven higher; how ever, proc essing, manu fac turing,local dis tri bu tion and exporting are still heavilyunder de vel oped which can cause a slow down.

In EU and EFTA coun tries, organi cally man aged land made up 1.45% of the util ized agri cul tural area in1998, com pared with 1.4% for EU alone. The mostexten sive organi cally farmed areas are in Italy(550,000 hec tares), Ger many (351,062 hec tares) andAus tria (350,000 hec tares). In terms of per cent ages,Aus tria stands on top with more than 10% of the

util ized agri cul tural land man aged organi cally.Swit zer land comes next with almost 7%, fol lowed by Fin land with close to 6%, Sweden with 3.4% andItaly with 3.20%. In the southern Euro pean coun triesof Greece, Italy, Por tugal and Spain, the rise inorgani cally farmed areas has been par ticu larly highsince the early 1990s. For instance, in Spain, this areaexpanded more than four times between 1991 and1995. How ever, in that country as well as in Por tugaland Greece, the share of organic farming is still wellbelow 1%.

The total number of farms cer ti fied and undercon ver sion in Western Europe rose from 13,908 in


to nearly 1.4 mil lion hec tares in 1998 or at annualgrowth rates some times exceeding 20%. In Cen traland Eastern Europe, growth rates in the 1990s wereeven higher; how ever, proc essing, manu fac turing,local dis tri bu tion and exporting are still heavilyunder de vel oped which can cause a slow down.

In EU and EFTA coun tries, organi cally man aged land made up 1.45% of the util ized agri cul tural area in1998, com pared with 1.4% for EU alone. The mostexten sive organi cally farmed areas are in Italy(550,000 hec tares), Ger many (351,062 hec tares) andAus tria (350,000 hec tares). In terms of per cent ages,Aus tria stands on top with more than 10% of the

util ized agri cul tural land man aged organi cally.Swit zer land comes next with almost 7%, fol lowed by Fin land with close to 6%, Sweden with 3.4% andItaly with 3.20%. In the southern Euro pean coun triesof Greece, Italy, Por tugal and Spain, the rise inorgani cally farmed areas has been par ticu larly highsince the early 1990s. For instance, in Spain, this areaexpanded more than four times between 1991 and1995. How ever, in that country as well as in Por tugaland Greece, the share of organic farming is still wellbelow 1%.

The total number of farms cer ti fied and undercon ver sion in Western Europe rose from 13,908 in

Table 4.1 Europe (EU and EFTA) a/: organic agriculture in figures

Country

Agricultural land Number of farms

Organic(hectares)

% share in allagricultural

landRank Organic % share in

all farms Rank

Austria (mid 1998) 345 375 10.09 2 19 996 8 2

Belgium (end 1997) 6 418 0.48 14 291 0.38 17

Denmark (mid 1998) 64 329 2.37 7 1 617 2.19 6

Finland (end 1998) b/ 125 550 5.6 4 5 170 6 4

France (end 1997) 120 241 0.4 15 3 994 0.5 15

Germany (January 1998) 351 062 2.02 8 6 793 1.12 9

Greece (March 1998) b/ 6 000 0.09 18 1 065 0.67 12

Iceland (area: end 1997, farms mid 1998) 119 0.01 19 27 0.6 13

Ireland (early 1998) 23 591 0.53 12 808 0.51 14

Italy (mid 1998) b/ 550 000 3.18 6 29 500 1.19 8

Liechtenstein (mid 1998) 630 18 1 33 11.96 1

Luxembourg (mid 1998) 625 0.49 13 24 0.8 10

Netherlands (early 1998) 17 500 0.88 10 868 0.72 11

Norway (early 1998) 11 796 1.16 9 1 310 1.46 7

Portugal (early 1998) 11 584 0.29 17 321 0.07 19

Spain (1998) 152 105 0.61 11 3 526 0.25 18

Sweden (mid 1998) 118 175 3.44 5 2 733 2.97 5

Switzerland (late 1998) 71 790 6.7 3 4 768 7.6 3

United Kingdom (mid 1998) b/ 54 270 0.34 16 1 026 0.42 16

EU + EFTA 2 031 760 1.45 84 805 1.08

EU 1 893 155 1.4 78 667 1.02

Source: Stiftung Ökologie & Landbau (Erhebung, July 1998).

a/ European Free Trade Association.

b/ Estimates.

Note: There are some discrepancies between the figures in this table and those given in some country sections where more recent figuresmay be cited (for instance, in the section on Iceland).

1990 to an esti mated 85,000 in 1997-1998, up bymore than 600%. Gen er ally speaking, the market hasbeen growing faster in the north, pro duc tion faster inthe south. How ever, in the 1980s and 1990s,pro duc tion in the north devel oped rap idly and,espe cially the last five years, southern mar kets haveexpanded con sid erably. Today, the mar kets in Franceand Italy are booming and that of Spain is growing.

The com mit ment of indi vidual coun tries to organicfarming varies con sid erably. Some coun tries, such asSweden, have offi cially set a target of 10% of allagri cul tural land under organic man age ment by theyear 2000 (30% by 2010); Aus tria has alreadyexceeded this level. Other coun tries have moremodest or no tar gets for the devel op ment of organicfarming. Some EU regu la tions, espe cially ECRegu la tion 2078/92, sup ported by Regu la tion2092/91, are having a sig nifi cant impact on thegrowth of the organic sector. How ever, the lack ofmarket devel op ment and con sumer aware nessremain impor tant inhibi tors in cer tain sec tors, inpar ticular the market for organic live stock prod ucts.None the less the organic dairy, poultry and eggmar kets are well estab lished and the meat market,although still small, is growing strongly.

Although Euro pean pro duc tion has devel oped well,imports remain mas sive. While pro duc tion andproc essing facili ties are avail able in all food sec tors,many main stream food com pa nies have not yet joinedthe organic band wagon. Sup plying coun tries canthere fore realize much value added if they run theirproc essing and manu fac turing facili ties according tostrin gent Euro pean quality and service cri teria.

Despite the fact that many farms pro duce their ownanimal feed, there is a con tinuous shortage of thisitem and hence large imports. EU imports grains(wheat, millet, rice), oil crops (sesame, sun flower,saf flower, palm, coconut) and pulses (soy, beans) aswell as all tropical prod ucts. The main sup pliers arethe United States, Latin America and Eastern Europe. The lack of sup plies of organic seed for sowing isanother problem com monly faced by organicfarmers, and non- organic seed continues to be widely used. Ini tia tives to improve this situa tion are beingtaken, partly as a result of EU regu la tions.

Austria

Production and control

In terms of the area under organic farming, Aus tria is,

with 345,375 hec tares, third after Italy and Ger many.In terms of the shares of organic land and farms in theoverall agri cul tural fig ures, it is second afterLiech ten stein, with 10.1% of the land and 8.3% of allfarms.

Aus tria’s small and exten sive farms, aver aging 14hec tares, would have had great dif fi culty com petingwith cheap imports from the more inten sivepro duc tion sys tems in the Euro pean Union, andcon ver sion to organic pro duc tion with its value added was con sid ered a good way of defending its farms.The milk farms came first, and around 80% of thecer ti fied organic land area is grass land. By mid 1998,almost 20,000 farms (of which about a third were incon ver sion) were organic.

Roughly 152,000 milk cows (out of a total of 338,000 bovine heads) pro duce around 300 million kg of milkannu ally, equiva lent to almost 10% of all milkpro duced. Addi tion ally there are 40,000 heads ofbeef cattle, 40,000 pigs and 227,000 chickens.

While organic milk is cur rently over- produced, theoutput of grains, fruits, vege ta bles is still muchsmaller than demand, so imports have grown,espe cially from Ger many, Hun gary and Italy.

The con ver sion rate slowed down con sid erably in the two years to end 1998, par ticu larly because of thesatu ra tion point reached in the dairy sector. The Statecon tinues to sub si dize organic farms as part of apro gramme for fur thering ecol ogi cally soundagri cul tural sys tems (the ÖPUL pro gramme). In1996, the pro gramme paid around S 756 mil lion ($66mil lion) to organic farms; of this, half was financedby EU and the rest by the State. In addi tion, the Statesub si dizes organic farm ers’ asso cia tions and theirumbrella organi za tions ARGE and ÖIG. The national mar keting organi za tion AMA (Agrar Markt Aus tria)sub si dizes organic mar keting schemes out ofcon tri bu tions from organic farmers; more than a third of the coun try’s organic farmers are not asso ci atedwith the organi za tion.

As in Ger many, a large number of con trol bodies (22)operate according to EC Regu la tion 2092/91, theAus trian food law as well as pri vate stan dards (foranimal prod ucts). This number will be greatlyreduced when the State accredi ta tion systemcom pletes its task. The largest con trol andcer ti fi ca tion body, ABG (Aus tria Bio garantie),con trols almost 50% of all organic farms.


Processing and manufacturing

Aus tria has a large number of organic proc es sors,manu fac turers and whole salers. The German organicbaby food com pany Hipp has an Aus trian sub sidiaryin Gmunden. Molk erei Pinzgauer in Mais hofen is the domi nant organic dairy com pany. Agrana Stärke inGmünd pro duces organic starch and is an impor tantexporter.

Retailing and trading

The national organic retail turn over, cal cu lated interms of whole sale values, was esti mated at S 2bil lion ($170 mil lion). This was equiva lent to 2% ofthe overall food market. As indi cated above, someorganic prod ucts like milk have over 10% of theirrespec tive mar kets. Domestic prod ucts have aroundtwo thirds of the overall turn over, and imports a third.

The main super market mul ti ples Billa/Merkur (brand name: Ja, Natür lich!) and Spar (organic brand: NaturPur), together with some minor chains, sell 70% of all organic prod ucts. The share of Billa/Merkur alonewas cal cu lated in 1996 at close to S 1 bil lion. About10% of all prod ucts are dis trib uted through directsales and the catering sector; about 13% are soldthrough natural and health food shops. It is felt thatdis tri bu tion through these other out lets should bestrength ened.

EP (Engel bert Per linger) in Wörgl is an impor tantimporter, packer and whole saler. It also exports toGer many and Italy.

The farm ers’ asso cia tion Ernte für das Leben(Har vest for Life) and the umbrella organi za tionARGE are impor tant part ners of the food industryand the retail sector, and are extremely active inmar keting. Ernte für das Leben has cre ated ÖkolandÖster reich Ver triebs GmbH for mar keting pur poses.Ernte für das Leben is a partner of the nationalcer ti fi ca tion body ABG. These bodies can becon tacted by thirdcountry organic sup pliers.

Ernte für das Leben pub lishes a major maga zine onorganic farming.

Useful addresses

Agrana Stärke-Gesellschaft mbHConrathstrasse 7, A-3953 GmündTel: +43-2852-503381Fax: +43-2852-503361(Processing and trading)

ARGE-Biolandbau Wickenburggasse 14/9, A-1080 Wien Tel: +43-1-4037050Fax: +43-1-4027800(Umbrella organization of farmers’ associations)

Austria Biogarantie GmbHKönigsbrunnenstrasse 8, A-2202 Enzersfeld Tel: +43-2262-672212 Fax: +43-2262-674143(Control and certification body)

EP Naturprodukte Handels GmbHA-6300 Itter 300Tel: +43-5332-75654 Fax: +43-5332-75656E-mail: engelberts-naturprodukte@tirol [email protected] site: http://www.engelberts-naturprodukte.de (in Germany)(Packer and wholesaler)

Ernte für das Leben Europaplatz 4, A-4029 Linz Tel: +43-732-654884Fax: +43-732-65488440 (Farmers’ association, marketing and development)

Ja! Natürlich, Naturprodukte GmbHIZ-Süd Strasse 3, Objekt 16, A-2355 Wiener NeudorfTel: +43-2236-6007960Fax: +43-2236-6007690(Organic arm of the Billa/Merkur supermarketchain)

Belarus

There are sev eral prom ising organic ini tia tives and an organic farm ers’ organi za tion is being set up. TheGov ern ment is sup por tive of these ini tia tives.

Useful address

Beleko Ul. Terechkovoi 28, 230600 GrodnoTel: +375-152-472062; +375-152-449989Fax: [email protected](Production, development)

Belgium

Production

Whilst con sump tion of organic prod ucts in Bel giumrose con stantly over the past decade or so, pro duc tionremained under de vel oped and most prod uctscon sumed domes ti cally were imported. How ever, inmore recent years, notable changes have occurred inthe live stock and dairy sector in Wal lonia, mainly


bovine, in regard to the pro duc tion of both meat andmilk. To boost vegetable production, the FederalGovernment in 1999 tripled the hectare subsidy untilat least the end of 2000. The subsidy for grassland,however, was reduced.

In 1997 there were 107 organic farms on 820 hec tares in Flan ders and 184 farms on 5,598 hec tares inWal lonia, representing roughly 0.5% of the totalagri cul tural area in Belgium. In 1998 there was a riseto 1,099 hectares in Flanders and 10,745 hectares inWallonia.

The main out puts are cereals, milk and beef (pro -duced pre domi nantly in Wal lonia) and vege ta bles(grown mainly in Flan ders). Some quan ti ties ofchicken meat, pork and fruits are also pro duced.

While Bel gium imports all these prod ucts, it alsoexports substantial quan ti ties of green house productssuch as tomatoes, cucumbers and paprika as well assubstantial quantities of processed products like ricecakes, soy drinks and des serts, chocolate andcereal-based sweeteners.

Processing and wholesale trading

The value of the Bel gian organic market can beesti mated at BF 2.5 bil lion - BF 3 bil lion, which isroughly 0.3% of the overall food market. Bel gianproc es sors, traders and packers import the larger partof their raw mate rials. The company Lima, until the1980s one of Euro pe’s largest proc es sors of organicprod ucts, has since become mainly a packer.How ever, it con tinues to process rice cakes andvege tarian prod ucts. Lima exports a vast array of dryprod ucts to many coun tries all over the globe.

Among the other impor tant proc es sors are thefol lowing:

q Alpro nv (Wevelgem): soy drinks and desserts,margarine;

q Bioline Europe nv (Antwerp): ready meals.

q Cidre Stassen sa (Aubel) and Pajottenlander(Pepingen): juices;

q Delifrance Belgium sa (Nivelles) and La Lorraine NV (Ninove): industrially baked organic bread.

q Döhler/Citrusco (St Truiden): organic foodingredients (mainly from fruits);

q Callebaut nv/Kraft Jacobs Suchard nv (Halle):

organic chocolate;

q Meurens Natural sa (Herve): cereal-basednatural sweeteners;

q MIK nv/Indumel nv (Kruishoutem): yoghurtand other dairy products;

q Natural Bio Mills (Oudenaarde): milling;

q Ortis sprl (Elsen born) and Biolife (StGenesius- Rhode): medicinal herbs, and othermedicinal and nutri tional prepa ra tions;

q Soubry nv (Roeselare): pasta;

q Vondelmolen nv (Lebbeke): spice bread;

q Candico nv (Merksem): sugar.

There are a multi tude of smaller dairy plants,bakeries, makers of tofu- seitan and vege tari an burgers, and beer brew eries (e.g. Brasserie Dupont inTourpes). De Meer schaut in Ghent imports organicsalmon. Biomilk sa in Viel salm is the main milkcollector; it obtained 7 million - 8 million kilo gramsin 1998 and expects this figure to rise to 10 millionkilo grams in 2000.

Brava cvba (in Kampenhout) is a public fruit andvegetable auction dealing mainly with organicproduce. Groupement Viande Biologique OrigineBelge scrl (GBVBOB) in Libramont is the mainbovine producers’ group. Biomarché scrl(Sombreffe) and Biofresh nv (Sint Kathelijne Waver)are the dominant fruit and vegetable packers andimporters. Reformwaren nv (Maldegem), Natudis nv(Tienen) and Hagor nv in Lubbeek (of the FrenchDistriborg group) are the leading wholesalers- importers of grocery products. OAO in Brussels hasjust launched a gourmet assortment of organicproducts. Reformwaren and Lima, belonging to thesame owners, merged in late 1998 with Natudis, theBelgian subsidiary of the dominant Netherlandswholesaler of the same name. Ostara bvba(Horebeke) is a broker-importer of raw materials andprocessed products, as is Olans Agrotrade in StAmandsberg. Most of the above companies aremembers of the professional union Probila/Unitrab.

Retail trade

The retail trade is well devel oped. There are about400 natural food and Reform or health food shops,some of which are small super mar kets. Most of thelarger cities have farm ers’ mar kets. Del haize Le Lion, a leading super market chain, has been car rying for


over a decade an organic assort ment which nowcon sists of both fresh and proc essed foods, includingorganic smoked salmon. The largest mul tiple retailer,GB, car ries the French generic brand Le Goût de laVie for pack aged prod ucts as well as a range of freshprod ucts. The main dis counter, Col ruyt, sells a smallassort ment of dried goods as well as some fresh fruitsand vege ta bles. Smaller chains like Bat tard areincreas ingly intro ducing organic prod ucts. Mostmul ti ples are step ping up their organic pro grammes.

Control and certification

There are two State- accredited con trol bodies: Blikand Eco cert. The main farm ers’ organi za tions areBel bior in Flan ders and Unab in Wal lonia. There arealso a number of bio dy namic farmers and proc es sors. Velt in Flan ders and Nature et Pro grès (in Wal lonia),both asso cia tions of farmers and gar deners, are active at the con sumer level. Blivo in Flan ders and Crabe inWal lonia extend tech nical exper tise to farmers. Allthese organi za tions as well as Pro bila/Uni trab areunited in the umbrella organi za tion Bio Forum vzw.Bio garantie vzw groups the owners of the Bel gianorganic seal (Bio garantie).

Information source

Bel gium is the seat of Bio food.Net, a global organicinfor ma tion plat form on the Internet. Bio food.Net isbuilding up a con sumer sec tion, with infor ma tion inthe lan guage of the con sumer, as well as in Eng lish.The busi ness sec tion has an organic master guide,which allows one to find out who is who in the organicworld, an elec tronic news and infor ma tion service aswell as an elec tronic trade journal where offer anddemand can meet, without Bio food.Net inter fering asa broker or inter me diary. All access is free. Incomecomes from adver tise ments.

Useful addresses

Biofood.netChemin des Maréchaux 35, B-1300 Wavre-LimalTel/Fax: +32-10-410675E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.biofood.net(Organic information platform on the Internet)

BioForum vzwRue Saint Médard 4, B-1370 JodoigneTel: +32-10-814050Fax: +32-10-814346(Umbrella organization for farmers, processors,traders)

Biogarantie asbl(Biogarantie’s secretariat is located at Blik andEcocert, see below)(Owners of the organic label Biogarantie)

Blik vzw Uitbreidingsstraat 392D, B-2600 Berchem Tel: +32-3-2812152Fax: +32-3-2817469E-mail: [email protected](Control body)

Ecocert Belgium sprlChemin de la Haute Baudecat 1B-1457 WalhainTel: +32-81-600377Fax: +32-81-600313E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.ecocert.be(Control body)

Ets Delhaize Frères & Cie “Le Lion” saOsseghemstraat 53, B-1080 BrusselsTel: +32-2-4122111Fax: +32-2-4122194E-mail: jtgeelhand@delhaize-le-lion-beWeb site: http://www.delhaize-le-lion-be(Main supermarket chain carrying organics)

European Office of Preparators & Distributors ofOrganic ProductsBd Louis Schmidt, 119-bte 3B, B-1040 BrusselsTel: +32-2-27438202Fax: +32-8-5270104(European federation of organic processors andtraders)

Hagor nvAmbachtenstraat 4, B-3210 Lubbeek Tel: +32-16-620711Fax: +32-16-621421(Wholesaler)

Lima/Reformwaren NVIndustrielaan 11, B-9990 Maldegem Tel: +32-50-710564 (Lima); +32-50-713811 (Reformwaren)Fax: +32-50-710567 (Lima) (Packer-wholesaler)

Max Havelaar vzwLeopold II Laan 184D, B-1080 Brussels Tel: +32-2-4116462Fax: +32-2-4116005E-mail: [email protected] (fair trade)

Natudis nvHamelendreef 85, B-3300 Tienen Tel: +32-16-816156Fax: +32-16-821298(Wholesaler)


Ostara bvbaKerkplein 5, B-9667 HorebekeTel: +32-55-456734Fax: +32-55-456741(Importer)

Probila/UnitrabKerkplein 5, B-9667 HorebekeTel: +32-55-456734Fax: +32-55-456741(Organization of processors and traders)

Triodos BankVoskenslaan 97D, B-9000 GentTel: +32-922-04044Fax: +32-922-04875E-mail [email protected](Ethical banking, involved in organics)

WOSC(World Organic Supermarketing Club)Parvis Saint Roch 3, B-1324 Chaumont-GistouxTel: +32-10-681387Fax: +32-10-681112E-mail: [email protected](Group of supermarkets involved in organics)

Bosnia and Herzegovina

There are sev eral local ini tia tives, including organicmar keting activi ties mainly in Sara jevo. The countryis a member of AgriBio Medi ter raneo (see Italy).

Useful address

GBOFA B (Great Brijesnica Organic Farmers’ Association)Beta, S. Tomica 1, 10000 Sarajevo Fax: +387-71-652423E-mail: [email protected](Production, processing, development)

Bulgaria

Organic agri cul ture is at the ini tial stages ofdevel op ment. Some Western Euro pean com pa niesare attempting to pro duce herbs, fruits and otherprod ucts for export.

Useful addressAgricultural University PlovdivAgroecol Centre, 12 Mendeleev Street 4000 Plovdiv Tel/Fax: +359-32-265909(Development)

Bio-BulgariaIvan Vazov Str. 474300 Karlovo

Tel: +359-3358365(Organic producers’ association)

Foundation for the Development of SustainableAgricultureSlavekov Plz 9, App. 81000 SofiaTel: +359-2-9816498(Extension service)

Croatia

Production

BIOS, an asso cia tion for organic farming,envi ron mental pro tec tion and health improve mentfounded in June 1991, works for the pro mo tion ofpro duc tion and trade in organic prod ucts. It hasadopted pro duc tion stan dards that are based on theIFOAM basic stan dards, and has formed a con troland advi sory group.

By early 1995, eight family farms (cov ering 50hec tares) had con verted to organic farming, ena blingthem to label their prod ucts with the reg is tered trademark Bios Croatia. Another 10 farms total ling about70 hec tares were under con ver sion. The area iscropped as fol lows: 40% - 50% under grains and oilcrops (maize, soy bean, sun flower); 20% under forage crops (clover mix tures, mix tures of common vetch,peas and cereals, and some root crops); 10% - 15%under vege ta bles and other prod ucts that can bemar keted directly; and 5% - 10% under per en nialcrops (orchards and vine yards). The rest is mostlynatural grass land and woods.

Croatia is member of the AgriBio Medi ter raneo (seeItaly).

Trade

It is dif fi cult to sell organic prod ucts in Croatia as thecon sumers are not familiar with organic foodprod ucts and their pur chasing power is low. A smallchain of spe cial ized shops sup plying a range ofcon trolled organic prod ucts has been set up. Sales arestill mainly aimed at tour ists and the home marketalthough attempts to export are being under taken.

Useful addresses

BIOSc/o Trim-Rosa, A. Hebranga 5, 10000 Zagreb Tel/Fax: +385-1-4819276(Inspection, production, processing)


Eko LiburniaJelacicev 1/III, 51000 Rijeka Tel: +385-51-331184Fax: +385-51-212948E-mail: eko-liburnia&ri.Tel:hr(Producer, processor)

EKOP-ISTRAC. Huguesa, 52440 Porec Tel: +385-52-211672Fax: +385-52-232119(Producer, processor, trader)

Czech Republic

Production

In the begin ning of 1999, the farm ers’ and proc es sors’ asso cia tion PRO-BIO had 48,000 hec tares under itscoverage (up from 260 hec tares in 1989). Of these,6,500 hec tares were prairie land, 513 hec tares wereorchards, and the rest were under field crops (e.g.wheat and vege ta bles). Gov ern ment sup port since1998 has been boosting the growth of the sector.

Processing, distribution and certification

The country uses a growing number of raw mate rialsfor proc essing such prod ucts as buck wheat tea,bulgur, pasta and spelt coffee. The under de vel op ment of the domestic market remains a serious problem.Many prod ucts and vir tu ally all animal prod ucts arestill sold con ven tion ally. There are a number of health food and natural food stores in Prague, Kar lovy, Vary, Brno and other urban areas, including 40 run under aPro-Bio fran chise. Super mar kets have so far shownlittle interest in selling organic prod ucts, but thissitua tion is changing and two chains have picked uptheir first organic prod ucts.

Exports to the Euro pean Union, for example ofwheat, are con sid er able but stag nating because ofincreased competition. Around 80 organic items areimported from the Euro pean Union.

KEZ is the con trol body. Cer ti fi ca tion takes placethrough a mixed com mittee involving the Min istry of Agri cul ture.

Useful addressesFOA (Foundation for Organic Agriculture)Kubatova 1, 10200 Prague 10Tel: +420-2-751046Fax: +420-2-6849107E-mail: [email protected]

(Consulting, development)

NRFH(Nadace Rytire F. Horského)K. Netlukam 958, 10400 Prague 10 - UhrinévesTel/Fax: +420-2-67712143E-mail: [email protected](Consulting, development)

Pro-BioPO Box 116, 78701 Sumperk Tel: +420-649-216609Fax: +420-649-214586E-mail: [email protected](Union of producers and processors)

Denmark (see chapter 6)

Estonia

Production

In 1998 120 farms cov ering 3,000 hec tares wereunder cer ti fied organic and bio dy namic pro duc tion.The main prod ucts are dairy prod ucts (drinking milk,curd, butter and cot tage cheese), pota toes, grains,vege ta bles, herbs and honey.

Processing, trading

Most proc essing, packing and even sales are organ ized by the farmers them selves. An increasing number ofretail shops, including super mar kets, are picking uporganic prod ucts. There are no exports as yet.

An organic law was passed in 1977. The EestiBiodünaami kaühing Tartu Ökoin senerike skus(Esto nian Bio dy namic Asso cia tion Centre forEco logical Engi neering Tartu) is the maincer ti fi ca tion body.

Useful addresses

Estonian Biodynamic Association Centre forEcological Engineering TartuV. Jannseni 4, EE-2400 Tartu Tel: +372-7-422051Fax: +372-7-422746E-mail: [email protected](Production, development, certification)

Estonian Chamber of Agriculture & CommerceJ. Vilmsi 53B, EE-10147 Talinn Tel: +372-6419007Fax: +372-6419008E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.epkk.ee(Information)


Finland

Production

Fin land is one of the world’s most advanced organicpro ducing coun tries. At the end of 1998, there wereabout 5,100 farms, equiva lent to 6% of all farms.They cov ered 126,000 hec tares (5.9% of allagri cul tural land), of which 40,000 hec tares are stillunder con ver sion. The average size of an organicfarm is 24.3 hec tares, about 10% larger thancon ven tional farms.

The organic idea is old and was influenced by thegreat Fin nish bio chemist Art turi Vir tanen(1895-1973). Modern organic devel op ment started in the 1960s, accel er ated in the 1980s and exploded inthe 1990s. Between 1995 (the year Fin land joined theEuro pean Union) and 1996, the number of farms rose from 2,793 to 4,452. Since them, organic farming has spread from the exten sive sys tems in the middle ofFin land (Kainuu, Mik keli, Pirkanmaa, Vaasa) to themore inten sive sys tems in the south (Sata kunta,Uusimaa, Varsinais- Suomi).

About 45% of the area under cul ti va tion ispastureland; 40% is planted to cereals, par ticu larlybarley, oats and rye; 2% to pota toes; 2% to vege ta bles,2% to other crops. About 8% of the land is left fallow.Fruits are cropped on 960 hec tares, of which 16hec tares are planted to apples and the rest mainly tostraw ber ries and many other kinds of ber ries and small fruits. Herbs are cul ti vated on 30 hec tares.

Around 65,000 square metres of green housespro duce pri marily cucum bers and toma toes. Thereare 33,300 hec tares of grass land.

Roughly half of the organic farms carry live stock, but only a small number (350 in 1998) were cer ti fied foranimal pro duc tion. The rea sons are: total con ver sionis not obliga tory and, above all, facili ties for theproc essing and mar keting of organic animal prod uctsare not suf fi ciently devel oped. In 1996 35% of thecer ti fied animal pro duc tion units were dairy farms;24% raised beef cattle, 19% sheep, 15% poultry, 11% pigs and 1% goats. Many farms had mixed herds.About 12% of the farms also had api aries. As morefodder becomes avail able, more animal farms areexpected to con vert to organic sys tems.


By the end of 1998 about 500 organic food

proc es sors and manu fac turers were under inspec tionby the National Food Admin istra tion. More than halfwere cereal proc es sors (such as mills and bak eries).Many proc essing units are farm- based. Proc essing ismainly at the pri mary level in the bev erage, fruit,potato and vege table sec tors.

In the begin ning, the devel op ment of the domesticmarket was dif fi cult and pro gressed slowly from thefirst stage of onfarm sales and farm ers’ mar kets tolim ited suc cess in a few natural food stores in each ofthe larger towns. Super mar kets refused to take upunco or di nated product assort ments asso ci ated withinsuf fi cient service.

Nowa days there are a mul ti tude of mills and bak eries, and cereal prod ucts can be found in all the majorsuper mar kets, which also carry imported organicprod ucts. The supply of pota toes and vege ta bles isinsuf fi cient and increasing quan ti ties of theseprod ucts are obtained from abroad. In 1997, 5 mil lion kilo grams of organic milk were proc essed by 4 dairyplants into milk, yoghurt, cream, butter milk and arange of tra di tional Fin nish dairy prod ucts.

The mar keting of organic meat remains a problem.The Fin nish Asso cia tion for Organic Farming(Luomu- Liitto) is coor di nating the activi ties of 15regional producer- owned mar keting organi za tions inorder to improve this situa tion and a State- fundedpro mo tion organi za tion for organic prod ucts(Fin food) has been set up.

In gen eral, con sumer interest in organic foods is high. The moti vating fac tors are the absence ofcon tami nants and other health issues, taste, and theenvi ron ment. Insuf fi cient sup plies remain an obstacle to increased con sump tion. A few prod ucts areexported to Scan di na via and the Euro pean Union:baby food, bis cuits, liq uo rice, rape oil and rye bread.

Control, certification

Luomu- Liitto, the Fin nish Asso cia tion for OrganicAgri cul ture, pub lished stan dards in 1986 (vegetal),1988 (animal) and 1989 (proc essing) and was until1994 respon sible for cer ti fi ca tion. This respon si bilityhas since been taken over by the Min istry of Agriculture and For estry and the rele vant con trolbodies which func tion according to EC Regu la tion2092/91. The State has no organic seal and most Fin -nish organic prod ucts carry the seal of Luomu- Liittoor of the Bio dy naaminen Yhdistys/Bio dy na miskaFören ingen (Fin nish Bio dy namic Asso cia tion).


Useful addressesBiodynamic AssociationUudenmaankatu 25A4, FIN-00120 Helsinki Tel: +358-9-644160Fax: +358-9-6802591E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.biodyn.fi(Development, certification)

Kesko CorporationPO Box 152, FIN-0133001 VantaaTel: +358-105328774Fax: +358-105328704E-mail: [email protected](Retail trade)

Luomu-Liitto ry(Finnish Association for Organic Agriculture)Postbox 42, FIN-01301 Vantaa Tel: +358-9-41349600Fax: +358-9-41349601E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.luomulehti.luomu-liitto.fi(Development, certification)

Plant Production Inspection CentrePO Box 111, FIN-32201 Loimaa Tel: +358-2-76056436Fax: +358-2-76056220E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.ananda.fi/kttk/luomuvalvonta(Plant inspection, information)

France (see chapter 7)

Germany (see chapter 8)

Greece

Production

In March 1998, Greece had 1,065 organic farms(0.7% of all farms) on around 6,000 hec tares (0.1% of all agri cul tural land). In the 1980s, Western Euro pean traders such as Fer tilia (now Natudis) in theNeth er lands and Rapunzel in Ger many made itpos sible for Greece to estab lish its first organicproj ects, such as those for the pro duc tion of cur rantsby the Agri cul tural Coop era tives Union (ACU) inAeghion, and of olives and olive oil in Mani, thePelo pon ne sian pen in sula south of Kala mata. Sincethen numerous farmers have con verted to organics.About 60% of the output con sists of olives and oliveoil; 11% of wheat; 10% of cur rants, rai sins, and wine; 5% of citrus fruits; 3% of cotton; and 3% of wal nutsand almonds. Among the other organic pro duce are

other fruit (kiwi fruit, apri cots, apples), medicinal and aro matic herbs, pulses and vege ta bles.

Some green houses are run organi cally. There are nocer ti fied animal farms, although demand is growingfor organic feta cheese and honey.

Greece is a member of AgriBio Medi ter raneo (seeItaly).


Proc essing facili ties are basic and con sist mainly ofoil and grain mills, struc tures for drying fruit, andpacking plants.

Domestic dis tri bu tion is being built up gradu ally.Sales are made through farm ers’ mar kets and naturalhealth food stores, of which there are over 20 inAthens and 25 - 30 in the prov inces. Super marketchains such as Alfa Beta have started to intro duceorganic assort ments, espe cially of fruits andvege ta bles. A number of stores in the large cities,mainly Athens and Thes sa lo niki, also carry importedproc essed prod ucts. The con sumer asso cia tionDorippi in Athens, with more than 1,500 mem bers,facili tates the pur chase of organic prod ucts.

The bulk of the coun try’s organic output is exported,mainly to the Euro pean Union. Ger many is the mostimpor tant market, fol lowed by coun tries such asFrance and the Neth er lands. Com pa nies such asBio- Zeus in Kala mata (which han dles fruits and usesthe brand name Bio- Kyklos) and Bläuel GreekOrganic Prod ucts in Pyrgos Lefk trou near Kala mata(which deals in olive oil) have been estab lished tocoor di nate pro duc tion, proc essing and exporting forthe benefit of pro ducers from all over Greece.

Certification

SKAL has long been the most active for eign con trolorgani za tion in Greece. In con for mity with EC Regulation 2092/91, the State has accred ited threeGreek cer ti fiers: Soge Syl logos Oik olo gikis Geor -gias Elladas (Asso cia tion of Organic Agri cul ture ofGreece), DIO- Certification & Inspec tion Organi za -tion of Organic Prod ucts, and Fysi olo giki ForeasEleg chou kai Postop iisis Violo gikon Proionton.Soge has been active as a farm ers’ organi za tionsince 1985. Today, DIO cer ti fies more than 50% ofall organic farms. Fysi olo giki is active only inMace donia.


Useful addressesAlfa-Beta Vassilopoulos sa81, Sparta Avenue, GR-Gerakas-AthensTel: +30-1-6612501Fax: +30-1-6612675(Supermarket chain carrying organics)

Bio ForumPO Box 1028, GR-71001 Heraklion Tel: +30-81-752009Fax: +30-81-752651E-mail: [email protected](Processing, trade)

DIO (Certification & Inspection Organization of Organic Products)Aristonikou 23-25, GR-11636 Athens Tel: +30-1-9231466; 9232259Fax: +30-1-9224685E-mail: [email protected](Control, certification)

EEVE(Enosi Epangelmation Viokalliergiton Elladas)And. Metaxa 13-15, GR-10681 Athens Tel: +30-1-5905823Fax: +30-1-3304647(Production, development)

Fysiologiki (Fysiologiki Foreas Elegchou kai PostopiisisViologikon Proionton)24N Plastiras Street, GR-59300 Alexandria Tel: +30-333-22113Fax: +30-333-24444(Control, certification)

Soge(Association of Organic Agriculture of Greece) 26 Averof, GR-10433 Athens Tel: +30-1-2688227Tel/Fax: +30-1-2687027(Control, certification)

Hungary

Production

Organic agri cul ture has been car ried out in Hun garysince 1983 and has been devel oped in col labo ra tionwith Aus trian, German and Neth er lands importers.Hun gary was one of the first coun tries to obtainequiva lency to EC Regu la tion 2092/91 and this hasstepped up the interest of EU market players in itsorganic prod ucts. The cer ti fied area expanded slowlyuntil 1992, but increased sig nifi cantly in the mid1990s to an esti mated 23,000 hec tares in 1996.

In mid 1999, around 350 farms with about 25,000

hectares were reg is tered, but not all have asked forcer ti fi ca tion. The cer ti fied area con sists mainly ofpas tures and crop land. In a natural reserve inHortobágy, Hortobágy GG runs over 600 hectaresorganically, raising, among others, longhorn greycows, a threatened species, for meat production.

The live stock raised com prises goats, cows andchickens; honey is also produced.

The country’s main crops are grains (winter wheat:4,800 tons, maize: 1,800 tons, and spelt: 1,600 tons),barley, rye and oats. Millet and pumpkin seeds arepro duced, as are fresh fruits (ber ries, apples, melons), vege ta bles, mush rooms, paprika, peppers, herbs andnuts.

In 1990 Hungary hosted an IFOAM scientificconference and general assembly, the first EasternEuropean country to do so.

Processing

Proc essing is increasing. Among the out puts are fruitjuices (apple juice); frozen prod ucts (peas, onions,car rots, fruits); baby food; dehy drated vege ta bles and fruits; dried herbs; herbs and spices (paprika, redpepper). The proc essed output is mainly exportedalthough some baby food, for instance, is sold on thedomestic market. The German baby food producerHipp has a subsidiary in Budapest.

Trade

The main export mar kets are Aus tria, Ger many andthe Neth er lands. Among Hungary’s import productsare oil crops (sunflower: 2,300 tons, and soy).

The domestic market is extremely small with only afew natural food and Reform shops carrying a limitedrange of organic products. A weekly organic marketis organized by Biokultúra in Budapest. Some salestake place at the farm gate.

In the middle of 1999 the organic sector startedorganizing itself for entry into the supermarket sector.

Virtually all production is exported: 40% toGermany, 20% to Austria, 20% to Switzerland andabout 10% to the Netherlands. The Hungarianorganization Ökoszerviz and the Swiss company W.Kundig & Cie AG, which has a subsidiary inBudapest, have been instrumental in developingorganic exports.


Certification

The local body Biokontroll Hungária Kht and SKALare the two certifying bodies. Demeter cer ti fies tobio dy namic stan dards. Biokontroll, with theassistance of The Soil Association, is also active inneighbouring countries.

Useful addressesBiokontroll Hungária KhtPostbox 800H-1035 BudapestTel/Fax: +36-1-2123127; +36-1-2122379E-mail: [email protected](Inspection and certification)

Biokultúra EgysuletKitaibel P.u.4, H-1204 Budapest Tel/Fax: +36-1-2123127; +36-1-2122379E-mail: [email protected](Development)

Ökoszerviz KörnyezetvedelmiLöpormalom U3, H-1031 Budapest Tel/Fax: +36-1-2025192E-mail: [email protected](Trade)

Iceland

Production

In mid 1998 Ice land had 27 organic farms (0.6% ofall farms) on 1,150 hec tares (0.8% of the agri cul turalarea), mainly in the south- west. Its first organic farm(bio dy namic) was Sólhei mar, estab lished in 1930.Organi za tions like VOR (Verdnun og Raektum or the Ice landic Asso cia tion of Eco logical Farmers, cre atedin 1993) and Gróska (estab lished in 1996) have beeninstru mental in the recent growth of the sector.

Áform, the Ice landic Devel op ment Com mittee onNatural and Organic Pro duc tion, encom passing theMin is tries of Agri cul ture and the Envi ron ment, thefarm ers’ union and VOR, has the imme diate goal ofmaking all Ice landic food pro duc tion, be it land- orwater- based, sus tain able and of cre ating an‘eco -island’. Activi ties are gov erned by leg is la tionNo. 26 of 3 March 1995 on organic and naturalagri cul tural pro duc tion. Sub stan tial sums have beengranted by the Gov ern ment to sup port theCom mit tee’s work.

Most farms have exten sive live stock opera tions,pro ducing beef and lamb, dairy prod ucts and eggs.How ever, crop ping activi ties are more sig nifi cant. The

output includes barley, oats; cab bage, car rots,cau li flower, and other vege ta bles and herbs; fodderbeet and hay; pota toes and rape seed. Cucumber,paprika and toma toes are grown in geo thermicgreen houses. Sev eral cos metic firms, such as theBlue Lagoon, use organi cally grown raw mate rials,mainly herbs. Wild Ice landic moss is a world- famous product.


Proc essing is gen er ally at the pri mary level.

Agaeti, Ice land’s largest whole saler of fruits andvege ta bles, has a large assort ment of organic prod uctsand is cer ti fied. Prod ucts are sold either at the farmgate or in a few spe cial ized stores, mainly in the cities.The main super market chain Hag kaup offers a widearray of organic prod ucts, partly imported. There arecur rently no exports, but there is great interest inorganic Ice landic lamb. Fresh fruits and vege ta bles aswell as proc essed prod ucts are imported.

Certification

The Soil Asso cia tion (United Kingdom) and KRAV(Sweden) have helped set up local cer ti fi ca tionbodies. Today, the pri vate enti ties Tún (Ice landic for‘pra irie’) and Vist frae distofan carry out cer ti fi ca tionactivi ties.

Useful addresses

Áform Development Project c/o BaendahöllinPO Box 7080, Hagatorg 1, IS-127 Reykjavik Tel: +354-5-630300Fax: +354-5-628290(Development)

Birala Lifraent Átaksverkefnic/o BaendahöllinPO Box 7080, IS-127 ReykjavikTel: +354-5-630300Fax: +354-5-623058E-mail: [email protected] and [email protected](Development)

Tún (Vottunarstofan Tún)Myrarbraut 13, IS-870 Vik Tel: +354-4871389Fax: +354-4871205(Control, certification)

VistfraedistofanTheverás 9, IS-110 Reykjavik Tel: +354-5672244


Fax: +354-5682433E-mail: [email protected](Control, certification)

VOR (Verdun og Raektun)Akur, Biskupstungur, IS-801 Selfoss Tel: +354-4868983Fax: +354-5667035(Production, processing)

Ireland

Production

In early 1998, Ire land had 808 organic farms on23,600 hec tares. The sector has expandedenor mously in recent years. When growth started inthe early 1990s, the emphasis was on vege tablepro duc tion on small farms. The emphasis has sinceshifted to live stock pro duc tion, mainly bovine andovine, on larger farms of up to 100 hec tares. Thelatter has been due to encour age ment from the RuralEnvi ron ment Pro tec tion Scheme which pro videsfinan cial aid for con ver sion.

There are roughly 25 bio dy namic farms. WithNorway, Ire land is a pio neer in organic fish farming.The Irish Sea food Pro ducers Group Ltd (ISPG) inCon ne mara, County Galway, pro duces and trades inorganic salmon, raised according to Ger many’sNatur land stan dards and exported to sev eralEuro pean coun tries.


There are a growing number of proc essing andmanu fac turing plants for both animal and plantprod ucts. How ever, as a whole this sector remainsunder de vel oped.

Trading

Dis tri bu tion con tinues to take place largely throughspe cial ized sales chan nels: farm gate sales, con sumergroups, organic box sub scrip tion schemes (forvege ta bles) and, above all, natural and health foodstores. Nev er the less, with the expan sion of sup plies,super mar kets are increas ingly entering the trade.Super mar kets in urban areas like Dublin and Corkoffer organic fruits and vege ta bles, some driedprod ucts and meat.

Many farmers have joined coop era tives formar keting pur poses. Bal ly brado Ltd Organic

Farming, Trading & Con sulting (based in Kahir,County Tip pe rary) coor di nates pro duc tion,proc essing and trading in beef, flakes, flours, grains,lamb, and woollen fab rics. Bord Bia, the Irish FoodBoard, is showing increasing interest in organics. Itseems likely that Irish organic beef will be mar ketedin the near future in con ti nental Europe. Imports of all prod ucts are con sid er able.


Three cer ti fiers are active in the country: IOFGAwhich cer ti fies most of the farms, Bio- DynamicAsso cia tion of Ire land, and Organic Trust Ltd.

Useful addresses

IOFGA (Irish Organic Farmers & Growers Association)56, Blessington Street, IRL-Dublin 7Tel/Fax: +353-1-8307996E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.homepage.tinet.ie/-iofga(Inspection, certification)

Organic FoodsUnit 26, Hill Industrial EstateIRL-Liffey, Bridge, Lucan, County DublinTel: +353-1-6281375Fax: +353-1-6282997(Wholesaler)

Italy

Production

With 564,913 hec tares cer ti fied, dis trib uted over31,118 farms and equiva lent to 3.8% of allagri cul tural land, Italy is by far the largest organicpro ducer by area in the Euro pean Union. Of thecer ti fied land, 83,292 hec tares are in the north, 80,288 hec tares in cen tral Italy and 401,333 hec tares in thesouth (of which 261,699 hec tares are mainly in Sicilyand Sar dinia).

In 1998, the cer ti fied land was cropped as fol lows:45.4% fodder, 22.9% cereals (Italy is Euro pe’s largest pro ducer of organic durum wheat and rice), 10.4%fruits and vege ta bles for proc essing (such astoma toes), 9.4% olives, 7.7% fresh fruits andvege ta bles, and 2.7% vine yards. (The pro por tions interms of market value shift radi cally, with fruits andvege ta bles for proc essing having a share of roughly50%.) Italy is one of the few sig nifi cant pro ducers oforganic apple in Europe; much of this pro duce isgrown in the area around Trento in the north.


During recent years, the impor tance of Italy as asup plier of organic raw mate rials, semi- processed andproc essed organic prod ucts has grown dra mati cally.

Processing, manufacturing

Italy has more than 500 organic proc essing plants,pro ducing a large assort ment of prod ucts includingfruit juices and pulps, olives and olive oil, pasta,pas tries, rice, dairy products (including ice cream),tomato- based prod ucts and wine. Most of the foodproc es sors are estab lished in the north. How ever,large fac to ries such as Bar ba gallo (pasta) andDamiano (hazel nuts and almonds) as well as variouscitrus proc es sors (peel, candy, juice) are located inSicily. There are also a number of fruit and vege tablepackers.

Trade

The value of the domestic organic market isesti mated at between Lit 1,300 bil lion and Lit 1,500bil lion ($750 mil lion to $900 mil lion), equiva lent to0.5% - 0.7% of the overall food market. In the fouryears to 1998, the organic market expanded at the rate of 20% annu ally.

Close to 40% of the organic output is exported,mainly to Europe, Japan and the United States.Annual exports are valued at an esti mated Lit 500bil lion and Lit 700 bil lion ($300 mil lion - $400mil lion). Italian olive oils, pastas, tomato prod uctsand wines are mar keted suc cess fully in vir tu ally allinter na tional mar kets. Imports, par ticu larly ofproc essed prod ucts, are con sid er able.

Fruit and vege table packers such as Ara bios, Di Rosa& Can niz zaro and Salamita (all in Sicily), Mus tiolain Cesena, Elios in Trig giano (near Bari) and Brio inVicenza are the domi nant whole salers; they are alsoheavily involved in exporting and some times inimporting. Brio also car ries cheese, pasta, pre serves,wine and other prod ucts.

Il Fior di Loto (in Grug li asco near Torino), the KIgroup (Col legno near Torino), WBT (Set timoTori nese near Torino), La Selva (Orbe teno), Coop.Alce Nero (Isola del Piano) and Il Sar chio (Carpi,Emilia- Romagna) are a few of the well- knownwhole salers spe cial izing in dry foods. Like thepackers, they are mostly exporters, but they alsoimport occa sion ally. NBC (Torino) groups organicpro ducers and proc es sors, and coor di nates theirexports.

Fat toria Scalda sole (in Mon guzzo near Como),origi nally a dairy fac tory spe cial izing in yoghurt,now offers a large assort ment of goods car rying theScalda sole brand name, one of Italy’s best knownbrands. Masi nari (located in Mede, in the valley ofthe Po) is the domi nant rice mill.

There are about 900 natural food shops, mostly in thenorth (about 600) and cen tral Italy (about 190). These shops are gen er ally small (only about 25% haveprem ises larger than 100 square metres) althoughthere are a number of super ettes. Five fran chisesys tems have about 50 out lets. Many herbal stores(erboris terie, which sell herbs and cos metics) havesmall dry organic assort ments.

Super mar kets have taken on organics in recent years.It is reported that 95% of all Italian super mar ketscarry some organic prod ucts; how ever, only about300, or 20% of all super mar kets, carry fresh organicfruits and vege ta bles, mostly in the north and inTus cany. The super market chains more promi nentlyinvolved in organics are Billa, Coop, Esse lunga andEuromer cato. The best known organic brands areScalda sole, Céréal and Bjorg (the latter two areFrench brands), Alce Nero, La Danza, Ger minal andEuvita. Super mar kets such as Billa, Coop, andEsse lunga have their own organic labels.

Italy has about 100 organic res tau rants, mostly in thenorthern and cen tral regions, and in the larger towns.Organic catering in schools and cafe te rias is rising asis eco- tourism on organic farms. The latter takesplace in about 400 farms all over the country, with ahigher con cen tra tion in Tus cany. Some 1,500 farmssell their organic prod ucts off the farm. Organicfarming in natural reserves and parks is increasing.

According to the mar keting maga zine LargoCon sumo, the Italian organic con sumer is between 35 and 45 years old, lives mainly in the northern urbanareas, has average or aboveaverage edu ca tion, and is in the upper- middle or high income levels. Around70% of all Italian con sumers know organics, 40%buy them from time to time and 4% more regu larly.


Of the eight State- accredited con trol bodies, thefed era tion AIAB is the largest, cov ering about 9,700farms on close to 160,000 hec tares. The secondbiggest is Suolo e Salute with 6,500 farms and122,000 hec tares, and the third is Bio agri coop with4,300 farms and 120,000 hec tares. Of the other


con trol bodies, CCPE, Eco cert Italia, IMC and QC&I encom pass between 2,000 and 3,000 farms on 30,000 - 50,000 hec tares. The smallest, Codex- Demeter,con trols just over 1,000 farms (14,500 hec tares). It isbelieved that fur ther efforts to reduce the number ofcer ti fiers and cer ti fi ca tion logos will be made in order to increase con sumer rec og ni tion.

SANA

The SANA organic and natural prod ucts show inBologna, held every fall, has devel oped into one ofthe largest organic food shows in Europe. SANA willstage the 6th IFOAM Organic Trade Con fer ence inOctober 1999 in Flor ence.

AgriBioMediterraneo

AgriBio Medi ter raneo, IFOAM’s Medi ter ra neangroup, com prises Algeria, Bosnia and Her ze go vina,Croatia, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lebanon,Slovenia, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey. Por tugal is also amember though it is not on the Medi ter ra nean.

Useful addressesAgriBioMediterraneoc/o CiheamVia Ceglie 9, I-70010 Valenzano (BA)Tel: +39-080-7806254Fax: +39-080-7806268E-mail: [email protected](Federation of Mediterranean organic organizations)

AIABStrada Maggiore 29, I-40125 Bologna Tel: +39-051-272986Fax: +39-051-232011E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.aiab.it(Federation of certifiers)

Alce Nero Cooperativa/La CorticellaVia Montebello 1, I-61030 Isola del Piano (PS)Tel: +39-051-329411Fax: +39-051-703172E-mail: [email protected](Producer, processor, wholesaler: handles mainlydried products)

Ass. Suolo e SaluteP.A. Mentuccia Augusto, Via Abbazia 17I-61032 Fano (PS)Tel: +39-0721-830373Fax: +39-0721-830373(Controller, certifier)

BioagricoopVia Fucini 10, I-40033 Casalecchio di Reno (BO)

Tel: +39-051-6130512Fax: +39-051-6130224E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.bioagricoop.it(Control and certification)

Brio-I scrlVia del Comercio 8, I-36100 Vicenza Tel: +39-045-8731777Fax: +39-045-8731744(Wholesaler, exporter, importer)

CISS(Cooperazione Internationale Nord-Sud)Via Papale 41, I-95123 Catania Tel: +39-095-433799Fax: +39-095-439740E-mail: [email protected](Fair trade, education)

Di Rosa & CannizzaroContrada Grafalongo, I-97014 Ispica Tel/Fax: +39-0932-956887(Exporter and importer of fruits and vegetables)

Ecocert ItalyVia Baldvino 25, I-95128 Catania Tel: +39-095-442746Fax: +39-095-505094E-mail: [email protected](Control and certification)

Fattoria Scaldasole Via Donizetti 7, I-22040 Monguzzo (Como)Tel: +39-031-651501Fax: +39-031-617323(Producer and wholesaler: dairy products and driedproducts)

KI srlVia Marchesi 9, I-10093 Collegno (TO)Tel: +39-011-7791027Fax: +39-011-725983E-mail: [email protected](Wholesaler of dried products)

Mustiola scrlVia Ravennate 801, I-47023 Cesena (FO)Tel: +39-0547-384523Fax: +39-0547-631518(Producer and wholesaler: fruits and vegetables)

NBC (New Bio Concept)Corso Matteotti 12, I-10121 Torino Tel: +39-011-5178621Fax: +39-011-5178628E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.newbioconcept.com(Exporter, importer)

SANA Fiere & Comunicazioni srl


Via San Vittore 14, I-20123 Milano Tel: +39-028-6451078Fax: +39-028-6453506E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.sana.it(Yearly organic trade show)

WBT(Well Being Trade)Franz RivettiVia E. De Nicola 7 ter, I-10036 Settimo Torinese (TO)Tel: +39-011-8977493Fax: +39-011-8977575(Wholesaler and trader: rice, pasta and driedproducts)

Latvia

In 1998, there were approxi mately 200 farms androughly 19,000 hec tares under cer ti fi ca tion. Of these, about 50 were bio dy namic farms. The Bio dy namicAsso cia tion has a subsidiary in Grobina. Most farmsare in the 15- 30- and 45-hec tare range; a few arelarge units of 200 hec tares. Pro duc tion is exten siveand the main prod ucts are dairy meat, grains, fruits,vege ta bles and honey.

Proc essing takes place at the pri mary level. Theabsence of a domestic market is the main obstacle todevel op ment. There are no natural food shops in Rigaand other urban areas, and attempts to interest thesuper mar kets have so far failed. How ever, it isbelieved that domestic mar keting efforts may havegreater chances of suc ceeding when coherentassort ments of prod ucts become avail able. In themean time, prod ucts are sold – often with no pricepre miums – on farm, and to hotels, embas sies andschools.

Buck wheat and honey have a rea son able exportpoten tial.

Cer ti fi ca tion is car ried out by Ger many’s Demeter andby an inde pendent national cer ti fi ca tion body workingon the basis of pri vate stan dards. The national bodycol labo rates with the Min istry of Agri cul ture,inde pendent inspec tors and farmers. The Min istrysup ports the Lat vian organic move ment, althoughthere is no national law on organic pro duc tion.

Useful address

Latvijas Biologiskas Lausaimniecibas BiedribaKuldigas rajons, 3319 Renda Tel: +371-33-47280)(Production, development)

Liechtenstein

This tiny (160 square kilo me tres) inde pendentprin ci pality with 31,000 inhabi tants, squeezedbetween Swit zer land and Aus tria, has no less than 32organic farms (12% of all farms) on 605 hec tares(18% of all agri cul tural land). A large pro por tion ofthe organic area is grass land (for milk cows). Animalfodder and cereals are impor tant out puts. Roughly 5hec tares each are planted to vege ta bles and fruits(including grapes for raisin pro duc tion).

There are seven licensed proc es sors, mainly dairies,slaugh ter houses and bak eries. Mar keting issponsored by pri vate organi za tions. Organic prod ucts are mar keted by the slaugh ter houses and dairies, orare sold at the farm gate and by some health foodstores and a few super mar kets. The catering industryis another outlet. Some quan ti ties are exported toSwit zer land.

Farms are controlled by the Swiss body FiBLaccording to VSBLO guidelines, and are certified byVSBLO, another Swiss entity. Processors andtraders, on the other hand, are controlled by IMO(also Swiss) and are certified by theLiechtenstein- based VBO (Vereinigung BäuerlicherOrganisationen im Fürstentum Liechtenstein).VBO’s logo is an ear (Bio-Ländle-Produkt).

Useful addressIngenieurbüro für Agrar- & UmweltberatungPostfach 323, FL-9494 Schaan Tel: +41-75-2329614 Fax: +41-75-2329631(Information)

Lithuania

The number of organic farms in Lithuania rose from107 in 1997 to 140 in 1998 with a total area ofroughly 200 hec tares. They pro duce cereals,vege ta bles, milk and meat.

The market has yet to develop and prod ucts are partly sold on-farm. There are five proc es sors of cereals,including flour mills and bak eries. No dairyproc essing takes place. Prod ucts are also sold in foodshops, including super mar kets in cities such asVil nius and Kaunas.

EKOAGROS has for mu lated organic stan dards andcar ries out cer ti fi ca tion activi ties.


Useful addressesEKOAGROSLzüu, LT-4324 Kaunas Tel/Fax: +370-7-296844E-mail: [email protected](Control, certification)

GAJA (Lithuanian Society of Organic-BiologicalAgriculture)K. Douelaicio 2, LT-3000 Kaunas Tel: +370-7-205421Fax: +370-7-200423E-mail: [email protected](Production, development)

Luxembourg

This small country (2,586 square kilo me tres, 412,000 inhabi tants) had by mid 1998 around 625 hec tares(24 farms) devoted to organic farming, equiva lent to0.5% of all agri cul tural land and 0.8% of all farms.About a third of the area is bio dy nami cally farmed.

Dairy farming is the main activity; beef cattle, pigs,goats and poultry (for both meat and eggs) are alsoraised. Five farms pro duce organic vege ta bles, which while reaching a volume that is close to half of theoverall national vege table output, is not suf fi cient tocover demand. Organic fruit pro duc tion (includinggrapes) started in 1995 and is sup ported by the localnature con ser va tion asso cia tion Hëllef fir d’Natur.

Some proc essing of milk, meat and cereals (bak eries,pasta pro duc tion, proc essing of break fast cereals)takes place, and there is a packing plant for fruits andvege ta bles.

Organic con sump tion on a per capita basis is one ofthe largest in Europe. As a result, the import trade invir tu ally all prod ucts is considerable.

Sales are made through a number of natural andhealth food stores and at the farm gate. The big gestsuper market chain, Cactus, offers in its largehyper market in Ber trange one of the widestassort ments of organic prod ucts that can be found inmain stream mar kets in Europe. The coop era tiveBioG (Bio bau ere ge nosssen schaft Lëtze burg)pro motes national pro duc tion. Organic farmers haveestab lished a whole saling entity called Bio- Gros.

Vere negung fir Biologes che Landbau Lëtze burgcon trols and cer ti fies the majority of the farms andproc es sors. Veräin fir biologesch- dynamesch

Land wirtschaft Lëtze burg car ries these activi ties outfor farms fol lowing bio dy namic stan dards.

Useful addressesVeräin fir Biologesch-Dynamesch LandwirtschaftLëtzeburg13 rue de la Gare, L-5353 OetrangeTel: +352-350245Fax: +352-355961 (Control, certification)

Verenegung fir Biologesche Landbau Lëtzeburg asblKräizhaff, rue de LuxembourgL-1899 KockelscheuerTel: +352-290404Fax: +352-290504E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.luxnatur.lu(Control, certification)

Malta

Organic production, mainly of vegetables is beingorganized in Malta by Italian companies. Inspectionand certification will also be carried out by Italianentities.

Moldova, Republic of

Organic production in the Republic of Moldova isbeginning. Organic walnut kernels certified by theGerman entity Lacon and IMO are already exportedto EU by Reforma-Werk Andreas Stellisch.

Useful address

Reforma-Werk Andreas Stellisch GmbHStellauer Hauptstrasse 822885 Barsbüttel-StellauGermanyTel: +49-40-6757950Fax: +40-40-67579520(Production. trade)

Netherlands (see chapter 9)

Norway

In the begin ning of 1998, close to 12,000 hec tares in1,310 farms were farmed organi cally. These made up1.2% of all agri cul tural land and close to 1.5% of allfarms. Despite the rapid expan sion in organicfarming in recent years, demand still far exceedssupply. Nor we gian farms are gen er ally small familyfarms which are some times run in addi tion to otherpro fes sional activi ties. Some farms are bio dy namic.


Land for grazing and for the pro duc tion of foddertakes up the greater pro por tion of the area underorganic man age ment. Pro duc tion of cereals,vege ta bles, ber ries and herbs is sig nifi cant. Barleyand oats are pro duced in larger vol umes than wheatand rye because of the cli mate.

Milk and meat prod ucts are pro duced on live stockfarms on which cattle, sheep, goats and poultry areraised. The pro duc tion of eggs and pork is lim ited bythe lack of organic feed stuff.

Some proc essing of dairy, meat and cereal prod ucts is car ried out.

Norway was one of the very first coun tries to marketorganic fish. This con sists of salmon from farms inthe fjords run under closed farming sys tems.

Sales are made mainly on the farms, and alsothrough natural food stores. Super mar kets arestarting to show an interest in organic prod ucts andthis interest is likely to inten sify as the supplyincreases. The imbal ance between domestic supplyand demand has resulted in sub stan tial imports andminimal exports.

Norway is not a member of the Euro pean Union. Butas a member of the Euro pean Eco nomic Area (EEA),it applies EU Regu la tion 2092/91. The sole offi cialcer ti fier is Debio.

Useful addresses

DebioPO Box 50, N-1940 BjoerkelangenTel: +47-63-856305Fax: +47-63-856985E-mail: [email protected](Control and certification)

NOELL(Norsk Oekologisk Landbrukslag)Langeveien 18, N-5003 Bergen Tel: +47-55-320480Fax: +47-55-320345Web site: http://www.home.sd.no/organic.no(Information)

NORSOEK (Norsk Senter for Oekologisk)Landbruk, Tingvoll Gard, N-6630 TingvollTel: +47-7153-1342Fax: +47-7153-1339E-mail: nso@&post.nlh.no(Information, development)

Poland


In 1998, Poland had 185 farms (5,500 hec tares)cer ti fied by Ekoland and another 100 farms cer ti fiedby PTRE ((Polska Towarzyatwo Rol ni etwoEkologlcznego, the Polish Society of OrganicFarming.) As the fig ures for Ecoland indi cate, thestrong growth that began in 1990 (when there were27 farms and 300 hec tares cer ti fied) and con tinuedthrough to 1996 (236 cer ti fied farms on 6,855hec tares) came to an end in 1998. The retrench mentwas due to the wholly under de vel oped domesticmarket and the lack of export out lets.

Poland’s wide range of prod ucts includes fruits,grains, oil crops, pulses and vege ta bles. Live stockfarming and bee keeping are also under taken. Thereare some pri mary proc essing units pro ducing suchitems as coffee sub sti tutes. There are currently fourwholesalers.

Organic foods are sold in about 130 health food andnatural food stores, essen tially in the urban areas ofWarsaw, Krakow and other big cities. Super mar ketshave so far shown little interest in car rying organics,but this situa tion is changing. An example is thearrival of the French supermarket chain Carrefour,which offers a full organic assortment. Poland’sexport trade, mainly with the Euro pean Union, is also opening up.


Ekoland, the leading cer ti fier, spurred much of thesec tor’s growth in the 1990s. It pub lished its ownstan dards in 1994. To ensure a sepa ra tion offunc tions, it estab lished Agro Bio Test in 1996 as aninde pendent entity; Agro Bio Test is now thecoun try’s main con trol body.

PTRE, another con trol and cer ti fying body, has itsown stan dards. Among the for eign con trol enti tiesactive in Poland are SKAL and the German Eco cert.

A law on organic pro duc tion has been drafted, but it is awaiting pas sage by Par lia ment.

Useful addresses

Agro Bio TestUl. Nowoursynowska 166, PL-0287 WarszawaTel: +48-22-8439063


Fax: +48-22-8471562(Control)

Ekoland Przysiek/Toruniak, PL-87134 Zlawies WielkaTel: +48-56-6789239Fax: +48-56-6789239E-mail: [email protected] (Warszawa office)Web site: http://free.ngo.pl/ekoland(Certification, development)

Portugal

Production

In the begin ning of 1998, Por tugal had 321 farms(0.1% of all farms) on 11,584 hec tares (0.3% of thetotal agri cul tural area) under organic pro duc tion.Strong growth from 1993 was fol lowed by a fall in1996 and a resur gence there after. About 4,500hec tares are planted to olives; 1,800 hec tares to fruits, par ticu larly citrus; 1,500 hec tares to cereals; 600hec tares to grape vine; 170 hec tares to vege ta bles and110 hec tares to medicinal and culi nary herbs.Although there are 1,350 hec tares of cer ti fied pas tureland, there are very few cer ti fied animal prod ucts onthe market.

Por tugal is member of the AgriBio Medi ter raneo (seeItaly).

Processing and trading

Por tugal produces wine, port wine and otherprod ucts. It has some packing plants. Price is themajor obstacle to the devel op ment of the national and inter na tional mar kets, although there is con sis tentgrowth in the first and good poten tial in the second.

Large quan ti ties of organic prod ucts con tinue to besold as con ven tional items and without a pricepre mium. Urze, a whole saler of fresh prod ucts inMon tigo (near Lisboa) has built a strong organic line,as has the pro duc ers’ coop era tive Bio coop, also inLisboa.

Prod ucts are retailed by spe cial ized shops, mainly inthe urban areas, with growth par ticu larly strong inLisboa and weaker in Porto. Sales are also car ried outin farm ers’ mar kets as well as by super market chainssuch as Pingo Doce and Jumbo. Mark-ups in thesuper mar kets appear to be high, which slows downsales.

The export trade, mainly with Ger many and France,

is car ried out on an ad hoc basis. Por tugal’s poten tialas an exporter is essen tially good. It is a fairly smallimporter.

Certification

Socert Por tugal Cer ti fi cação Ecológica, thePor tu guese leg of Eco cert, is the onlyState- accredited cer ti fier. Its logo often appears withthat of Agrobio, a pro duc ers’ asso cia tion.

Useful addressesAgrobio(Associação Portuguesa de Agricultura Biológica)Calçada de Tapada 39 R/e Dto, P-1300 Lisboa Tel: +351-1-3623585Fax: +351-1-3623586(Production, development)

Socert Portugal Certificação EcológicaR. Alexandre Hergulano 68-1E Es, P-2520 Peniche Tel: +351-62-785117Fax: +351-62-787171E-mail: [email protected](Control, certification)

Romania

A significant volume of organic products like wheatis being produced by companies like Agigea sa inConstanta. Among the certifiers are the German body Lacon. The entire crop is exported to the EuropeanUnion, mainly to France and Germany. InTranssylvania the Bioterra organization is starting anorganic network.

Useful addresses

Asociatia Bioterra3442 Luna de Sus nr. 376, jud. ClujTel: +40-64-266606Fax: +40-64-266709(Production, development)

Eco RuralSos. Oltenitei 35-37, Room 4369656 Bucharest IVTel: +40-1-2408789Fax: +40-1-2408799(Production, development)

Russian Federation

Production

The first really suc cessful attempts to estab lish organic farming in the Rus sian Fed era tion were car ried out by


Ekoniva, an organi za tion with roots in Ger many. In1994 Ekoniva cer ti fied 11 farms working 3,609hec tares. By 1997, the fig ures had risen to 15 farmsand 4,647 hec tares. How ever, the main cash crops –buck wheat, barley, oats, wheat and flax – areessen tially traded as con ven tional prod ucts on thelocal market for various rea sons. These include theabsence of domestic demand for organic prod ucts,failure to meet require ments for the export trade, orfarmer specu la tion. Another organi za tion that hasbeen active in devel oping organic farming is Altagro.There are a few pockets of non- certified organic andbio dy namic pro duc tion throughout the Rus sianFed era tion, including the Irkutsk area in Siberia, butprod ucts are sold on the con ven tional market.

A number of pro ducers, proc es sors, whole salers andretailers are plan ning to work together to con vert anumber of mixed farms in one area (province of Örel) to organics. These pro duce cereals, fruits andvege ta bles, dairy prod ucts, meat, and poultry meatand other prod ucts. The inten tion is to dis tribute theorganic output to super mar kets in Moscow and to tapthe con sid er able export poten tial.

Processing, manufacturing and trading

The absence of an appro priate proc essing andmanu fac turing infra struc ture is one of the mainobsta cles to the devel op ment of organics in theRus sian Fed era tion. Ekoniva has built agrain- processing plant in Kaluga, pre domi nantly forhulling buck wheat. There is vir tu ally no nationalmarket, a situa tion which may change if theabove-mentioned conversion proj ect takes off.Moscow super mar kets carry a few imported organicitems, par ticu larly the Hipp baby food fromGer many. Buck wheat is so far the only export cropthat has encoun tered some suc cess. This too isexpected to change.


Ekoniva has been instru mental in lob byingPar lia ment for an organic law and has been appointed by Gos stan dard (the Com mittee of Rus sianFed era tion for Stan dardi za tion, Metrology andCer ti fi ca tion) as the cer ti fying organi za tion for avol un tary cer ti fi ca tion scheme. The cer ti fi ca tionwork of Ekoniva is super vised by the Swiss IMO. Inorder to ensure sepa ra tion of inter ests, cer ti fi ca tionactivi ties (Ekoniva MO) have been split frompro duc tion, proc essing and trading activi ties(Ekoniva AO).

Useful addresses

Altagro Paveletskaja Nabereshnaja 4/5 EtageDom 53, Moscow Tel/Fax: +7-095-9596236(Production, development)

Ekoniva AOPO Box 1, Nemchinowka-1, Moscow Oblast 143013Tel/Fax: +7-095-5918460E-mail: [email protected](Production, processing, trading)

Ekoniva MO PO Box 1, Nemchinowka-1, Moscow Oblast 143013Tel/Fax: +7-095-5918460E-mail: [email protected](Control, certification)

San Marino

In this tiny republic (61.2 square kilo me tres, 24,500inhabi tants), an enclave in Italy near the Adri aticcoast, there is no organic pro duc tion to speak of.Some organic herbs are pro duced for a localcos metics and food sup ple ment industry, but are notcer ti fied. The Italian organi za tion Mus tiola hasissued a fran chise for a natural food shop in SanMarino which sells an array of organic prod ucts.

Slovakia

The area under con ver sion in Slo vakia expandedfrom around 12,000 hec tares in 1992 to an esti mated17,000 hec tares in 1996. Some export trade with theEuro pean Union, for example in wheat, has alreadytaken place. The pos si bility for set ting up a schemefor organic sugar beet is being studied.

Useful addresses

Dimini spol sroPribinovaPOB 24, 92001 HlohovecTel: +421-804-7425829Fax: +421-804-7425827(Development, trade)

Natural Alimentaria sroL’Adová Ul.c.8, 81105 BratislavaTel: +421-7-399466Fax: +421-7-398109(Development, trade)

Slovenia

In 1998, Zdru zenje ekolokih kmetor Slovenije(SOFA) cer ti fied its first 22 farms (on 270 hec tares)


of mixed pro duc tion and 1,500 hec tares of high landpas ture. Another 12 farms in the north- east are beingcer ti fied by the Aus trian Bio garantie. The output isdiverse: fruits, grains, vege ta bles, meat and dairyprod ucts.

Slovenia is member of AgriBio Medi ter raneo (seeItaly).

Today vir tu ally all prod ucts are proc essed and sold onfarm. How ever, health food stores in Ljubl jana andother cities, which now import most of their organicprod ucts, are expected to pick up the national pro ducein the near future. It is also hoped that super mar ketswill soon show an interest in car rying Slove nia’sorganic prod ucts. No exports are as yet planned.

SOFA has estab lished stan dards and is the nationalcer ti fi ca tion body. The Min istry of Agri cul ture isfor mu lating national stan dards.

Useful addressesInstitut Za Trajnostni RazvojMetelkova 6, 1000 LjubljanaTel: +386-41-725991Fax: +386-61-1337 029E-mail: [email protected] (Development)

Mevi-Mediacor-VigredGlavni trg 10, 3000 Celje Tel/Fax: +386- 63412111E-mail: [email protected](Production, processing)

SOFA (Zdruzenje ekolokih kmetor Slovenije)Metelkova 6, 1000 LjubljanaTel/Fax: +386-61 1343 772E-mail: [email protected](Control, certification)

The Business Research CentreZadruzna 9, 1218 Komenska Tel/Fax: +386-841325E-mail: [email protected](Production)

Spain

Production

In 1998 Spain had 3,526 organic farms (0.3% of allfarms) working 152,100 hec tares (0.6% of allagri cul tural land), up from 1,200 farms and 28,130hec tares in 1995, and from 264 farms and 2,140hec tares in 1985. The land is cropped as fol lows:pas tures for cattle and sheep; fruits (pri marily citrus

but also grapes, kiwi fruit, peaches, nec tar ines andstraw ber ries); vege ta bles (car rots and most othervege ta bles); grain for animal fodder; herbs; nuts(hazel nuts, almonds); pulses; oil-seeds; olives; andrice. Pro duc tion takes place all over the country, witha larger con cen tra tion in Anda lucía, Aragón,Cata lonia and Valencia.

Although local con sump tion of organic prod ucts isgrowing, Spain is pri marily an exporter of organicpro duce. Its cli mate makes it pos sible to offerearly- season crops to Euro pean mar kets.

Spain is a member of AgriBio Medi ter raneo (see Italy).

Processing

There are sev eral hun dred, gen er ally small,proc es sors, including bak eries; cereal proc es sors;dairies; fruit and vege table packers; makers of tofu,other soy prepa ra tions and seitan; olive oil mills; andwine pro ducers. Most of the larger food proc es sorshave so far kept out of the organic sector althoughinterest is growing.

Some of the best- known proc es sors are as fol lows:

q Albet i Noya, Subirats-Barcelona: wine;

q Aliment Vegetal, Barcelona: cereals and babyfoods;

q Almendra del Sur sa, Málaga: almonds;

q Alter Vida, Valencia: fruits and vegetables;

q Bioartsa, Barcelona: bakery and fresh products;

q Cal Valls, Lérida: fruits juices and preserves;

q Central de Productos Biológicos sa, Barcelona:cereals, dry groceries, preserves;

q Eco-Llevant, Alicante: fruits and vegetables;

q Herbes del Moli sc, Alicante (herbal teas andspices);

q Luz de Tierra sc, Zaragoza: fruits, oil;

q Monsoya, Viladrau: organic rice drink and soyproducts;

q Natursoy and Vegetalia sl, Barcelona: vegetableprotein products;

q Nuñez de Prado CB, Córdoba: oils;

q Silvestre Alcolea sa, Huesca: rice, cereals, seeds, fruits;

q Vea sa, Lérida: olive oil.


Most organic proc es sors and traders now coop erateto improve their market access within the recentlycre ated FABIO, the Asocia ción Española deTrans for ma dores y Comer ciali za dores de Pro ductosBiológicos.

Trade

The Spanish organic market is under de vel oped and is cur rently valued at between Ptas 4.5 bil lion and Ptas5 bil lion ($32 mil lion - $35.5 mil lion). A large part ofthe market is sup plied by imports, espe cially ofproc essed prod ucts. The value of organic exports iscur rently esti mated at Ptas 7 bil lion ($50 mil lion);exports con sist mainly of fruits and vege ta bles, rice,nuts and oils.

There are over 2,000 her boris terías, shops sellingherbs, cos metic prod ucts and a small assort ment oforganic prod ucts, and some 150 well- establishednatural food stores with a full organic assort ment,excluding meat prod ucts. In cen tral Bar ce lona, on the Vía Laie tana, there is an organic super market with ares tau rant called Comme-Bio, and more of thesecom bined out lets are to be opened. Bar ce lona hasvarious other organic res tau rants. Sales at the farmgate and by con sumer asso cia tions and coop era tivesare sig nifi cant.

Entry into super mar kets con tinues to be ham pered by the lack of supply and the absence of a con sis tent andper forming supply system, although the mainSpanish retail organi za tion, El Corte Inglés, has beencar rying organic fruits and vege ta bles and a smallrange of dried prod ucts for many years. Con ti nenterecently took up the French La Vie organicassort ment. It is expected that with the offer of a fuller range of prod ucts and the estab lish ment of effi cientsupply struc tures the interest of the main streamdis tri bu tion system will grow rap idly.

Trade shows

The Asocia ción Vida Sana organ izes an annualexhi bi tion, Bio cul tura, both in Madrid and inBar ce lona.


EC Regu la tion 2092/91 is applied through con trolauthori ties linked to the depart ments of agri cul ture inautono mous com mu ni ties or the appro priate regionalbodies. These authori ties belong to CRAE (Comisión Regu la dora de la Agri cul tura Ecológica) and are

found, for instance, in Badajoz (Extre madura);Bar ce lona (Cata lonia); Zara goza (Aragón); LaCoruña (Galicia); Logroño (Rioja); Madrid(Madrid); Mur iedas Camargo (Cant abria); Toledo(Cas tilla la Mancha); Oviedo (Asturia); Palma deMal lorca (Baleares); Pam plona (Navarra); SantaCruz de Tenerife (Canary Islands); Sevilla(Anda lucía); Valencia (Valencia); Val la dolid (Cas tilla y León) and Vitoria (Basque Prov inces).

Useful addresses

Asociación Vida SanaClot 39, Bajos, E-0818 Barcelona Tel: +34-93-5800818 Fax: +34-93-5801120 E-mail: [email protected](Publisher, organizer Biocultura fair)

Central de Productos Biológicos saCtra. Sabadell a Granollers km 12,7 NE 3E-08185 Llica de Vall (Barcelona)Tel: +34-93-8436517Fax: +34-93-8439600E-mail: [email protected](Importer, exporter, wholesaler)

CRAE(Comisión Reguladora de la Agricultura Ecológica)Paseo Infante Isabel, 1, E-28014 Madrid Tel: +34-91-3475480Fax: +34-91-3475410(Coordination of control and certification bodies)

FABIO(Asociación Española de Transformadores yComercializadores de Productos Biológicos)Calle Bonavista 15-2E-5a, E-08012 Barcelona Tel/Fax: +34-93-4157184E-mail: [email protected](Association of processors and traders)

Sweden (see chapter 10)

Switzerland (see chapter 11)

The former Yugoslav Republic ofMacedonia

Organic agri cul ture is just begin ning in this country.The Neth er lands estab lish ment SKAL cer ti fiesherbs.

Ukraine

The number of organic farmers in Ukraine isincreasing. Their output includes grains (wheat) andfruit.


Proc essing is lim ited to pri mary onfarm proc essing.The domestic market has yet to be devel oped.How ever, exports to Western Europe, largely ofwheat, are increasing.

Export con trol and cer ti fi ca tion are car ried outmainly by SKAL. The Rus sian cer ti fier Ekoniva isalso active in Ukraine.

United Kingdom (see chapter 12)

Yugoslavia

Pro duc tion is con cen trated around Blace (which hasabout 500 fruit pro ducers working 4,000 hec tares),and in Gadzin Han (with another 500 fruit pro ducersand 4,000 hec tares). The cur rent output includesapples, cher ries, pears, prunes, quinces, rasp ber ries,black ber ries, rose hips and straw ber ries. Thepro duc tion of cereals and animal prod ucts is beingplanned.

Fruit is frozen as well as proc essed into juice,con cen trates and mar ma lade. There is no domesticmarket as yet. The existing pro duc tion has beendevel oped mainly in coop era tion with a trader in the

Neth er lands.

Yugo slavia is member of the AgriBio Medi ter raneo(see Italy).

Cer ti fi ca tion is cur rently done by the Neth er landsbody SKAL. Ter ra’s Natural Food Asso cia tion isset ting up a national cer ti fication body.

Useful addressesDen JuroProte Mataje 25a, YU-11000 Beograd, Tel: +381-11-451603Fax: +381-11-4462129(Trade, development)

Terra’s Natural Food AssociationTrg. Cara Jovana Nenada 15, YU-24000 Subotica Tel: +381-24-24699Fax: +381-24-553116E-mail: [email protected](Control, certification)

Other European countries

As of December 1998, there was appar ently nocer ti fied organic agri cul ture in Albania, Andorra andMonaco, though plans are being discussed in Andorra.

The Americas (excluding NAFTA countries)

Most coun tries in the region have an organicagri cul tural sector though at widely varying levels ofdevel op ment. The greater part of pro duc tion isexport- oriented, but numerous farmers, women’sorgani za tions and NGOs prac tice organic agri cul tureto attain self- sufficiency in food for them selves ortheir mem bers and for envi ron mental rea sons.Among the leading plant prod ucts are cane sugar,cocoa, coffee, cotton, fruits (a wide variety of exoticfruits, bananas), grains (including the tropical grainsama ranth and quinoa), maté (also known as Para guay tea, obtained from the leaves of the shrub Ilexpara guay ensis), medicinal and culi nary herbs, nuts,oil- seeds (sesame, sun flower and saf flower), olives,pulses (soy and other beans), spices (vanilla), tea,wine and honey. Live stock prod ucts include dairyprod ucts, meat, honey and wool.

In most coun tries cer ti fied organic pro duc tion andtrade expanded steadily in the 1990s, the latterdespite the lack of proc essing and packing plants.The unde vel oped national mar kets are a huge

problem. Farmers’ groups organize local and national markets and some of them are mem bers of thenet work RELACC (Red Lati noameri cana deComer ciali za ción Comu ni taria) under which theywork together to make their prod ucts avail able toother coun tries in the region through a commondis tri bu tion system.

National mar kets are mostly unde vel oped, as a resultof which farmers are largely dependent on the exporttrade for their live li hood. Many pro ducers lack theinfra struc ture for direct exporting and have to rely onexploi tive inter me di aries popularly called coyotes.Access to tech nical assis tance and rea son able creditremains dif fi cult.

Argen tina has a struc tured national dis tri bu tionsystem as well as a con trol and cer ti fi ca tion systemthat has obtained equiva lency with EC Regu la tion2092/91. In the other coun tries for eign con trol andcer ti fi ca tion bodies con tinue to be active, eitherdirectly or through branch offices or sub sidi aries. In


gen eral, how ever, the ten dency is to set up nationalbodies. The umbrella organi za tion Bio- Latina groups Bolivian, Colom bian, Nica ra guan and Peru viancer ti fiers under its wing. The strin gent EU rules onthe accredi ta tion of con trol bodies in third coun triesputs a great deal of pres sure on con trol andcer ti fi ca tion bodies in these coun tries to organizethem selves in such a way as to qualify.

Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas,Barbados, Belize

Organic agri cul ture is in its first stages in all thesecoun tries, with Belize begin ning to pro duce cocoaand fruits.

Argentina

Production

Organic agri cul ture took off in Argen tina in the late1980s and early 1990s and soon became atre men dous suc cess. The early pas sage of nationalleg is la tion and its attain ment of equiva lence with ECRegu la tion 2092/91, the export pro mo tion efforts ofPromex and the con cur rent devel op ment of thenational and export mar kets con trib uted in a largemeasure to this suc cess.

In 1996, 346,978 hec tares were being organi callyfarmed by over 900 farmers. Less than 10% of thisarea was used for crop ping; the rest was mainlydevoted to live stock farming: 211,000 hec tares forbeef cattle, 4,600 for milk cows, 864 hec tares forsheep, 21 hec tares for poultry. Some land was also set aside for api cul ture, woods and fallow fields.

Of the land under crop ping, 23% was planted tosun flowers, 16% to olives and about 14% to wheat.Soy pro duc tion is expanding rap idly as is fruitpro duc tion. Argen ti na’s organic prod ucts include thefol lowing:

q Alfalfa;

q Cotton and cotton textiles;

q Fruits, dried (prunes, raisins);

q Fruits, fresh (apples, blackcurrants, cherries,citrus, elderberries, grapes, melons, mulberries,pears, raspberries, strawberries);

q Fruits, processed (apple concentrate, fruit pulp,grape juice, marmalade, purée);

q Grains (buckwheat, maize, millet, oats, rye,sorghum, wheat) and bread;

q Herbs (basil, dill, parsley, oregano, rosemary,sage, savory, tarragon, thyme) and spices (pepper);

q Legumes, dried (beans and soy beans for milk,oil and fodder);

q Maté;

q Meat (beef, lamb, chicken), dairy products(milk, cheese), other poultry products (eggs);

q Nuts (peanuts);

q Oil crops and oil (flax, olive, safflower,sunflower);

q Roots and tubers (carrots, potatoes);

q Sweeteners (cane sugar, honey);

q Tea;

q Vegetables, fresh (artichokes, asparagus,cucumbers, eggplants, garlic, onions, tomatoes);

q Wine.

Argen tina has a large output of organic olive oil,esti mated at around 2 mil lion litres annu ally. Thelive stock sector is growing rap idly. The cer ti fiedapi cul tural sector (com prising three proj ects in 1995)pro duces about 40 tons of honey yearly. The output of cotton is small but rising.


Expan sion has been par ticu larly high for bak eries(bread) and for proc es sors of olive oil, wine,sun flower seeds, tea, maté, herbs, polenta, cane sugar(in the Misiones prov ince), fruit, meat, applecon cen trate and grape juice. The dairy com pany LaSeren is sima pro duces organic milk.

The major super mar kets in Argen tina such as Jumbo,Norte, Car re four, and the vast majority of the naturalfood and health food stores offer some organicprod ucts. The first two mul ti ples have fairly largeassort ments including fruits and vege ta bles, dairyprod ucts, meat and dry prod ucts. Some of the smallersuper mar kets offer vege ta bles and canned prod ucts,and one of them retails beef and bread. Domesticsales are increasing as a result of efforts to developthe domestic market.

Almost 70% of Argen ti na’s organic pro duce isexported; exports are rising strongly at an annualgrowth rate of about 25%. In 1996, more than 7,000


tons of organic prod ucts were sold abroad. TheEuro pean Union is the most impor tant market, takingabout half of Argen ti na’s export volume. The UnitedStates absorbs most of the remaining half, with someexports going to Canada, Mexico and Japan.

The leading export prod ucts (and some of theexporters) are apples and pears (exported by PAI,Agro Roca and Expofruit in Río Negro Prov ince);citrus (Ecoc itrus); can ta loupes; small fruits (fresh and proc essed); garlic (El Tre boll del Sur in Men dozaProv ince, Argentbio in Buenos Aires); onions andother vege ta bles; grains; oil- seeds, soy; cane sugar;honey; and wine.

Argensun in Buenos Aires is the domi nant exporterof hulled sun flower ker nels and grains. Agro pecuariaPaso Viejo (Cór doba Prov ince), Bioolive sa (BuenosAires), Viñedos San Nicolás sa (which has 1,200hec tares planted to olives) are olive oil pro ducers andexporters. Eco siembra (Buenos Aires) is a fruit andvege table packer and exporter

The export proc essing of meat involves slaugh tering,butch ering and vacuum- packing, which are sub ject to inter na tional inspec tion. Eco- Pampa sa (BuenosAires) exports some organic beef to Europe.Avri green sa exports organic poultry. Tierra Libreand Sol de Acuario in Buenos Aires are whole salersand exporters which also offer assort ments undergeneric brands in super market and hyper marketchains like Disco Jumbo, Norte, Car re four, and inaround 600 health food stores.

Certification

Argen tina has its own national stan dards for organiccrop and live stock pro duc tion. SENASA, theArgen tina Agri- Food and Quality National Service,admin is ters these stan dards. Argen tina is on the EUlist of approved third coun tries as far as organicstan dards and cer ti fi ca tion are con cerned.

There are around nine cer ti fi ca tion bodies in thecountry. In 1995, three agen cies were accred ited forcer ti fi ca tion: Argencert, OIA (Organi za ción Inter na -cional Agro pecuaria) and APROBA (Asocia ción dePro duc tores de Buenos Aires). OIA is mainlyinvolved with the cer ti fi ca tion of animal prod ucts.Argencert is the main cer ti fier and is IFOAM- accredited.

Reso lu tion IASCAV No. 82/92 sets out spe cificrequire ments for national as well as for eign

cer ti fi ca tion agen cies. Cer ti fi ca tion agen cies arerequired to reg ister annu ally with the NationalReg ister of Cer ti fying Com pa nies for OrganicPro duce. Cer ti fi ca tion bodies that do not comply with the Reso lu tion are sub ject to sanc tions. Organicimport prod ucts must origi nate from coun tries having organic regu la tions equiva lent to those of Argen tina;these regu la tions must be accepted by SENASA andthe name of the cer ti fi ca tion body must appear on theNational Reg ister. Addi tion ally, each ship ment musthave a cer tifi cate iden ti fying the product as organic.As of June 1997, no country had asked for approvalof its organic stan dards by the Argen tine authori tiesand no for eign cer ti fi ca tion agen cies were on theNational Reg ister.

Argen ti na’s pro ducers, proc es sors, traders, andcon trol and cer ti fi ca tion bodies are united in theumbrella organi za tion MAPO. This organi za tioncoor di nated the 12th IFOAM Sci en tific Con fer ence in Mar del Plata in November 1998.

Useful addresses

AGROINVESTTel/Fax: +54-11-43936934/38E-mail: [email protected](Producer, trader)

APROBA(Asociación de Productores de Buenos Aires)Vicente López 2698, RA-Quilmes 1878Provincia Buenos AiresTel: +54-11-42542222Fax: +54-11-44320448(Control, certification)

ArgencertBernardo de Irigoyen 760, piso 10, Of. BARG-1072 Buenos Aires BATel: +54-11-43421479Fax: +54-11-43317185E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.argencert.com(Control, certification)

Ecofarmers saBernardo de Irigoyen 8, 6 pisoARG-1379 Buenos AiresTel/Fax: +54-11-43343124E-mail: [email protected](Producers, traders)

MAPOSarmiento 1562, 7º piso, Dept. 6ARG-1059 Buenos AiresTel/Fax: +54-11-43825562E-mail: [email protected](Umbrella organization for the organic sector)


OIA(Organización Internacional Agropecuaria)Av. Santa Fe 830ARG-1641 Acassuso, Buenos AiresTel: +54-11-47989084 and +54-11-47934340Fax: +54-11-47934340E-mail: [email protected](Control, certification)

Sol de Acuario Av. Belgrano 355, piso 11ARG-1092 Buenos Aires Tel/Fax: +54-11-47618482E-mail: [email protected](Processor, wholesaler)

Tierra Libre Biodiversidad SABernardo de Irigoyen 190, Piso 8ARG-1072 Buenos Aires Tel/Fax: +54-11-43429001E-mail: [email protected](Processor, trader)

Bolivia

Production

Bolivia is one of the world’s leading pro ducers oforganic cocoa and is an impor tant pro ducer oforganic coffee. With sup port from Swit zer land,Agruco (Agroe cológica Uni ver sidad Cocha bamba)has been instru mental in the growth of the organicsector in the country.

The umbrella organi za tion, Asocia ción deOrgani za cio nes de Pro duc tores Ecológicos deBolivia (AOPEB), was founded in 1991. It has sevenmember organi za tions. It focuses mainly on cocoaalthough it also deals with prod ucts like coffee andBrazil nuts.

Cen tral de Coop era tivas Agro pecuarias (El Ceibo),was the first pro duc ers’ asso cia tion to adopt organicprac tices. It groups coop era tives pro ducing 1,500tons of cocoa on 8,000 hec tares of land. Half of thecocoa pro duced meets organic stan dards. Among themem bers pro ducing other crops such as par anuts,quinoa, coffee and hibiscus are Anapqui, Cam pesinoand Minga.

Bolivia’s other organic prod ucts include fresh fruits(cher ries, egg fruit, goose ber ries, grape fruit, guavas,limes, man darins and oranges, man goes, papayas,pas sion fruit, pine ap ples, plums, tama rind,water melons), dried fruit (apples, bananas, fruit teas); proc essed fruit (juices and purées); nuts (Brazil nuts); oil crops (sesame) and oils; dried leg umes

(soy beans); grains (ama ranth and quinoa);sweet eners (sugar, honey); and other proc essed food.

Trade

Bolivia started to export organic cocoa in 1987. In amore recent year, organic cocoa made up about 75%of all of its exports of cocoa and nearly 4% of itsexports of non- traditional prod ucts. Most exportswere sold in fair trade mar kets. There appears to besome export of sugar to France.

Anapqui (in La Paz) exports coffee and hibiscus, ElCeibo (also in La Paz) exports cocoa, and Natu raleza(Cocha bamba) exports dried fruits.

GTZ is involved in an organic trade promotionproject in cooperation with the Bolinvest. (The GTZAdviser is attached to the Bolinvest Santa CruzOffice.)

Certification

Bio- Latina and Boli cert are the national con trol andcer ti fi ca tion bodies. They are seeking accredi ta tion at IFOAM and EU levels. Bio- Latina is also active inColumbia, Nica ragua and Peru. For eign con trol andcer ti fi ca tion bodies con tinue to work in Bolivia. Anexample is IMO, which has a sub sidiary in thecountry.

Potential

The organic agri cul tural tech niques used in Boliviaare similar to the coun try’s tra di tional cul ti va tionprac tices. As mecha ni za tion and the use ofhigh- yield, input- dependent varie ties have not yetspread exten sively, the con ver sion of farms toorganic agri cul ture can be car ried out with relativeease and within short periods.

Useful addresses

AGRUCO(Agroecológica Universidad Cochabamba)Casilla 3392, CochabambaTel: +591-4-252601Fax: +591-4-252602E-mail: [email protected](Development)

AOPEB(Asociación de Organizaciones de ProductoresEcológicos de Bolivia)J.J. Pérez 268A, Casilla 1872, La Paz, Zona CentralTel/Fax: +591-2-333331


E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.rds.org.bo/aopeb(Production, development)

Bio-LatinaEdificio Cámara de Comercio, of. 406Avda Mariscal Santa Cruz, La Paz Tel/Fax: +591-2-377338(Control, certification)

BolicertCasilla 13030, General Gonzálves 1317, La Paz Tel/Fax: +591-2-310846(Certification)

BOLINVESTCalle Abdón Saavedra 2120PO Box 141La PazTel: +591-2-411717Fax: +591-2-414535E-mail: [email protected] site: http://bolinvest.org/main/contact.htm

Santa Cruz Regional OfficeTel: +591-3-473754Fax: +591-3-471808E-mail: [email protected]/

FIDES (Fundición Integral de Desarrollo)Casilla 1911, Avda. Santa Cruz 187Santa Cruz de la Sierra Tel: +591-3-472278Fax: +591-3-472279E-mail: [email protected](Production, trade)

SIBIO SA (Sociedad Impulsora de Productos Ecológicos deBolivia)Barrio Hamacas, Calle 1 OestePasillo 3, No. 46 Casilla 4299Santa Cruz de la SierraTel: +591-3-438641Fax: +591-3-438120E-mail: [email protected](Trade)

Brazil

Production

Rio de Janeiro hosted the UNCED Earth Summit in1992 (which issued the famous Agenda 21 onsustainable agriculture). In the same year São Pauloplayed host to the 9th International ScientificConference of IFOAM.

Brazil has a strong tradition in organic andbio dy namic agri cul ture dating back to 1973. Today, it

has a large number of coop era tives, small holders, and firms prac tising organic agri cul ture. Pro ducers areusu ally mem bers of a regional asso cia tion whichpro vides training and assis tance in pro duc tion andmar keting, and pro motes cer ti fi ca tion. Incol labo ra tion with other organi za tions, the Insti tutoBiodinámico runs an organic seed bank.

Among Bra zil’s organic output are the fol lowing:

q Cane sugar;

q Cocoa;

q Coffee;

q Cotton;

q Essential oils;

q Fruits, fresh (apples, grapes, banana, citrus);

q Grains (quinoa, wheat);

q Herbs and spices (pepper, cloves);

q Honey;

q Legumes, dried (soybeans, black beans);

q Maté;

q Nuts (cashew, Brazil nuts);

q Oil crops (sesame);

q Oils and fats (palm oil, palm kernel oil and fat);

q Processed fruit (banana puree);

q Tea;

q Vegetables, fresh (e.g. garlic).

Processing

There are at least two asso cia tions coor di nating theactivi ties of pro ducers for proc essing pur poses. Oneis AOPA (Asso ciação de Agri cul tura Orgánica doParaná) which deals with pro ducers of onions,pota toes and pump kins. The other is Terra Pre ser vada Ali mentos Orgánicos in Colombo, Paraná, whichhan dles acerola, coffee, mango, maté, pas sion fruit,soy beans and tea.

Among Bra zil’s proc essing enter prises are Pro dutosNatu rais Planeta Verde Ltda in Lucélia (São Paulo),better known as Fazenda Jacutinga, which is one ofthe oldest organic canesugar pro ducers andexporters in the world. Duas Rodas Indus trial Ltda inJaraguá do Sul (Santa Catarina) is a promi nentproc essor of fruits, pro ducing banana purée for


example. Ecoc itrus in Mon te negro (Rio Grande doSul) is a fruit packer, and Agro palma SA in São Paulo (São Paulo) is a palm-oil proc essor. Latsis Ltda inCuri tiba (Paraná) is a honey pro ducer.

In addi tion, there are numerous small proc essingfacili ties.

Trade

Although the national Bra zilian market is in its earlystages of devel op ment, an increasing number ofprod ucts are sold domes ti cally. Exports aresig nifi cant and were recently esti mated at around3,000 tons annu ally. The most impor tant cer ti fiedprod ucts are: fruits (such as grapes and apples);vege ta bles; wheat; tea; coffee; sugar; nuts; sesame;palm oil and essen tial oils.


The Insti tuto Biodinámico is an IFOAM- accreditedcer ti fier. A number of for eign inspec tion bodies areactive in the country.

Useful addresses

AAO(Associação de Agricultura Orgánica)Av. Francisco Matarazzo 455, Caixa interna 2405001-900 São PauloFax: +55-11-2638013E-mail: [email protected] page: http://www.muitosmeios.com.br/aao(Production, development)

Instituto BiodinámicoCaixa Postal 321, 18603-970 Botucatu (São Paulo)Tel: +55-14-8225066Fax: +55-14- 8223648E-mail: [email protected] site: www.laser.com.br/ibd(Certification, development)

Chile

Production and processing

While organic agri cul ture in Chile began in the1970s, the major break through took place in the1990s. In 1998, there were around 200 farms with2,700 hec tares under organic pro duc tion. Cropsincluded fresh fruit for export (rasp ber ries, apples,and espe cially kiwi fruit), fresh vege ta bles (greenbeans, asparagus), proc essed fruit (frozen purée, e.g.of rasp berry, and apple con cen trate), wine, grains(e.g. quinoa), materials for herbal teas (e.g. camomile

and rosehip), and spices (chillies).

Trading and certification

There is vir tu ally no domestic market although thereare a few spe cial ized stores in San tiago which are runjointly with the Asocia ción Tierra Viva.Super mar kets are expected to start car rying organicprod ucts as the supply grows.

Exports to Europe and the United States aredevel oping steadily. Agro- Frio sa in San Felipe,Afodech Ltda in Osorno, Sur fruit Ltda in San tiagoand Com er cial Frutícola sa in San tiago are promi nent exporters of organic fruits and vege ta bles. SociedadAgrícola y For estal Casino Ltda in San tiago exportsdehy drated wild fruit (rose hips) and aro matic herbssuch as cedrón (ver bena). Cam biaso Her manos sa(San tiago) and Índex Salus Ltda (Vil lar rica) exportherbal teas and medicinal herbs respec tively.

The domestic enti ties CCO and PROA carry outcon trol and cer ti fi ca tion activi ties, as do variousfor eign bodies.

Useful addresses

CCOAlmirante Riberos 43, Providencia-SantiagoTel/Fax: +56-2-6353051E-mail: [email protected](Control, certification)

CLADES (Consorcio Latinoamericano sobre Agroecología yDesarrollo)Casilla 97, Correo 9, Santiago Tel/Fax: +56-2-2338918E-mail: [email protected](Development)

Enec Consultores AsociadosSargento Aldea 902, Chillán Tel/Fax: +56-42-210752E-mail: [email protected](Development)

PROA (Corporación de Promoción Orgánica Agropecuaria)Simón Bolívar 7305K, La Reina-SantiagoTel/Fax: +56-2-2775995(Control, certification)

Colombia

Production

Colom bia’s organic output includes the fol lowing


prod ucts: fresh fruits (bananas, guavas, papayas,man goes, pine ap ples), nuts (Brazil nuts), oil crops(palm, coconut), coffee, sugar cane, honey, herbs andspices (mint, cori ander, thyme), aloe vera and cotton.There are also some organic nurs eries and organicflower pro duc tion may be ini ti ated.

Processing, trade and certification

Proc essing facili ties are insuf fi cient but Columbiahas an organic palm oil refinery and has long been amajor sup plier of organic palm oil to Euro peanorganic mar ga rine pro ducers and other proc essingindus tries. Com pañía Envasa dora del Atlán tico Ltdain Bar ran quilla pro duces con cen trates and purées ofmango and goyave. Agro in dus trial Hun zahua Ltda in Cundi na marca processes sugar cane.

Exports of other prod ucts to the Euro pean Union andthe United States are increasing. The Dav illaCom pany exports bananas to France and Ger many.There is as yet no formal national dis tri bu tion system, but groups of organic farmers make their prod uctsavail able to the local com mu ni ties.

Con trol and cer ti fi ca tion are car ried out mainly byfor eign enti ties. The national cer ti fi ca tion bodyBiomuisco col labo rates with Bio- Latina in Bolivia,Nica ragua and Peru.

Useful addressesCETEC (Corporación para Estudios Interdisciplinarios yAsesoría Técnica)PO Box 26279, Cali Tel: +57-23-577018Fax: +57-23-560496(Production, processing, development)

Corporación Colombia InternacionalCalle 16, No. 6-66, P6, Santa Fe de BogotáTel: +57-1-2834988Fax: +57-1-2867659E-mail: [email protected](Inspection, development)

Fundación para el Desarrollo Rural ComunitarioPO Box 58-04, CaliTel: +57-23-835829Fax: +57-23-835284(Production, development)

Costa Rica

Production

In 1995, Costa Rica had more than 1,500 cer ti fied

organic pro ducers, working on farms ranging from0.5 hec tares to 150 hec tares. The area under organicfarming is now esti mated at 3,500 hec tares. The main pro duce is bananas. Other prod ucts include cocoa;coffee, raw and toasted; fruits – fresh (black ber ries,rasp ber ries, man goes), dried and proc essed; grains(rice); herbs and spices (vanilla); honey; oil crops(coconut); roots, proc essed (such as manioc chips);spirits (rum); sugar cane; tea; and vege ta bles, freshand proc essed.

There were around 550 hec tares of cer ti fied organiccoffee in the mid 1990s, pro ducing 250 - 300 tons ofcoffee annu ally. As pro duc tion is on the rise, the output could reach 1,000 tons by the turn of the cen tury.

Farmers gener ally belong to produc ers’ groups orcoopera tives. APPTA (Asocia ción de PequeñosProduc tores de Talamanca) is a produc ers’ organization with around 1,500 members, of which1,050 have certi fied farms; the rest of the farms areunder conver sion. APPTA claims that it covers about2,000 hectares of certi fied farms; among their outputs in 1996 were 160 tons of cacao and 1,000 tons ofbananas. The associa tion is estab lishing afruit- processing plant.

In gen eral, there is strong interest in organicagri cul ture in the country and the organic food sectoris devel oping fast.

The Uni ver sity of San José has a research pro gramme (Pro grama de Agri cul tura Orgánica) on organicagri cul ture and sev eral other proj ects on aspects oforganic farming are being car ried out in the country.

Processing, trade, certification

In 1995, there were a few coffee- processingenter prises and two plants pro ducing banana purée.Small quan ti ties of dried fruit, noo dles and cookieswere also pro duced. The product range has sinceexpanded to include hot sauces, pasta and maniocsnacks and bev er ages.

Organic prod ucts are pro duced mainly for export tothe United States and the Euro pean Union. How ever,some uncer ti fied vege ta bles are retailed by thesuper market Mas por Menos, and dried fruit, tea andmedicinal herbs are sold in health food shops.

One com pany, Eco ex port, pro duced and exported200 tons of raw coffee annu ally in the mid 1990s inaddi tion to roasted coffee and other organic prod ucts.


The com pany farm was cer ti fied in 1993; thecom pany also coop er ates with 126 local growers.

An organic depart ment has recently been estab lishedin the Min istry of Agri cul ture and a law on organicpro duc tion and label ling, inspec tion and cer ti fi ca tionhas been drafted. The pro duc er’s asso cia tion, ANAO(Asocia ción Nacional de Agri cul tura Orgánica),founded in 1995, has a national pro gramme and hasestab lished a national cer ti fi ca tion agency, Eco- Lógica. ANAO and Icafé, the national coffee institute, are col labo rating in a proj ect for the development of the pro duc tion and proc essing oforganic coffee.

Biofair

During the period 1995 to 1997 the Costa RicanChamber of Commerce organized, with the supportof GTZ, a yearly international fair for organicproducts, BIOFAIR, an initiative that is expected tobe revived.

Useful addresses

ANAO(Asociación Nacional de Agricultura Orgánica)Apdo 132-2020 Centro Postal, CR-San José Tel/Fax: +506-2240911E-mail: [email protected](Control, certification)

APPTA (Asociación de Pequeños Productores deTalamanca) Bribri, Talamanca, CR-Limón Tel: +506-7584445Fax: +506-7584972E-mail: [email protected]

Cuba

Con ver sion to organic farming began in the 1980sand food pro duc tion took off in the 1990s. Onecon di tion favouring this devel op ment was the fallfrom 1990 onwards in imports of arti fi cial fer til izersand pes ti cides by as much as 70% -80% from theirpeak levels. Con ver sion has not been lim ited to therural areas, and a large number of fami lies in urbancen tres have been con verting their gar dens intomini- farms since 1991. It is believed that a large partof the coun try’s output of sugar and rice will beorganic within a decade. Organic spirits, like rum, are also pro duced.

The Cuban Asso cia tion of Organic Agri cul ture(ACAO) is run ning mixed livestock- crop trials. The

overall aim is to develop sys tems to enable theaverage small farm er to pro duce enough food for hisor her family.

Useful address

INCA, Grupo de Agricultura SostenibleCaseta Postal 1San José de las Lajas , La Habana Fax: +53-64-63867(Production and development)

Dominica

Organic agri cul ture in Dominica is in its early stages.

Dominican Republic

Production, trade and certification

The Dominican Republic has engaged in organicfarming since 1982 and the area devoted to organicpro duc tion con tinues to rise. It is an impor tantpro ducer of organic cocoa and bananas in theirvarious forms. In the 1995/96 season, the coun try’soutput of cer ti fied coffee was esti mated at 250 - 300tons; an increase to 1,000 tons is expected in the twoto three years from 1998.

A more detailed list of prod ucts fol lows: cocoa (beans,butter, liqueur and powder); coffee; fruit, proc essed(banana paste for baby food, mango purée, shreddedcoconut); fruits, fresh, other (man goes, pas sion fruit);honey; neem (a natural pes ti cide) prod ucts; oil crops(coconut); roots and tubers, fresh (manioc); spices(ginger);sugar cane; and vege ta bles, fresh.

There are nine enti ties pro ducing and/or mar ketingorganic prod ucts. They are Apícola Tropical (honey);Con acado (cacao, coffee); Gran (coffee, ginger);Hori zontes Orgánicos (bananas, cacao, coffee); Liga;Planta cio nes Tropi cales (bananas); Pro ce sa dora deCaña Orgánica Cruz Verde (cane sugar); Savid(bananas); Cooperativa “Francisco de RosarioSánchez” (bananas).

Gran is an NGO that sup ports sus tain able ruraldevel op ment as well as organic and bio dy namicagri cul ture. In 1997 it cov ered 12 vil lages with about1,000 farmers, pro viding credit, tech nical assis tance,cer ti fi ca tion serv ices and mar keting assis tance. Itsexports of coffee started in 1992 and are on the rise.Con acado com prises 2,000 small and medium- sizedfarmers organ ized in nine cacao and two coffeecoop era tives. The Min istry of Agri cul ture has


recently given sup port to cer tain organic proj ects,including those pro ducing cacao and sugar cane.

The small domestic market is open mainly to fruitsand vege ta bles, and the bulk of the coun try’s organicoutput is exported to Europe and North America. The Dominican Republic is believed to be the majorsup plier of fresh organic bananas to the Euro peanUnion. Some coffee is exported to Sweden.

Sev eral for eign con trol and cer ti fi ca tion bodies areactive in the Dominican Republic. They includeBCS, Demeter Asso cia tion, Eco cert, FVO (FarmVerified Organic), KRAV and SKAL.

Potential

While a large pro por tion of the coun try’s coffee ispro duced without agro- chemicals, only smallquan ti ties have been cer ti fied organic. Rep re sen ta tives of the National Coffee Board believe that in order toraise this volume, efforts to increase aware ness oforganic farming methods, con ver sion pro ce dures andmarket oppor tu ni ties should be made.

According to ADAO, a national umbrella organi za tion for com pa nies and other bodies inter ested in thedevel op ment of organic agri cul ture, the number ofcoffee farmers wanting to learn about organic farmingmethods and to receive assis tance in con ver sion isgrowing. Gran sees providing access to credit as one of the most impor tant tools for assisting farmersattempting to engage in sus tain able organicagri cul ture. There seems to be a good poten tial for thepro duc tion of sev eral herbs and spices for fla vouringand medicinal pur poses; they include prod ucts fromaloe vera, citrus peel and neem.

Useful addressesADAO(Asociación Dominicana de Agricultura Orgánica)Benigno del Castillo 4, 2º Planta, Apt. No. 22263San Carlos, Santo DomingoTel: +1-809-2210012Fax: +1-809-6899013E-mail: [email protected](Production, development)

Cooperativa “Francisco de Rosario Sánchez”Calle 19 de Marzo 166Azua DCMTel/Fax: +1-809-5214322E-mail: [email protected]

Horizontes Orgánicos C&AApartado 15, Azua DCM

Tel: +1-809-5213571Fax: +1-809-5213925(Production, trade)

Plantaciones Tropicales saCesar Nicolas Penson 116Santo Domingo DCM Tel: +1-809-2212727Fax: +1-809-6860755E-mail: [email protected](Production, trade)

Savid sa Calle Colón 125, Azua DCMTel: +1-809-5213568Fax: +1-809-5212310E-mail: savid.sa@codeTel:net.do(Production, trade)

Ecuador

The organic output of this country includes fresh andproc essed fruit (banana powder, banana flakes andpurée), grains (ama ranth, quinoa) and sugar cane.The advi sory service, Pro me cados, pro videspro duc tion and mar keting sup port. GTZ has assistedin the par tici pa tion of rep re sen ta tives of the sector inthe Bio fair in San José and Bio fach in Frank furt. Theaim is to gen erate interest in Ecua dor’s organic fruits,which are not well known in the main mar kets fororganic prod ucts.

A struc tured national market for organic prod ucts doesnot exist. MCCH (Maquita Cushunchic, which means‘Tra ding Like Broth ers’) is typical of the farm ers’organi za tions which work together to build their owndis tri bu tion struc tures. MCCH has over 220 salespoints throughout the country. Inter na tion ally theseorgani za tions have formed RELACC (RedLati noameri cana de Comer ciali za ción Comu ni taria).Exports are increasing.

It appears that Ecuador has good con di tions for thepro duc tion of cacao, bananas, tra di tional grains likequinoa and ama ranth, sugar cane and various kinds of citrus fruits. In 1998, it was thought that these itemscould be pro duced and cer ti fied to EU rules withintwo years, and first steps were expected to be takentowards the pro duc tion of banana purée, cacao butterand citrus peel oil.

Useful addressCentro de Agricultura BiológicaBolívar 13-30, entre Juan Montalvo y Estévez de ToralCuencaTel: +593-7-838293(Production, development)


El Salvador

In 1996, around 4,900 hec tares were devoted to thecer ti fied pro duc tion of organic coffee. The Germanentity Pro trade pro vides assis tance in the pro mo tionof organic agri cul ture and the estab lish ment of acer ti fi ca tion body. The Good Food Foundation(Netherlands) has proj ect activi ties in the country;their output includes coffee, honey, nuts (cashew,pea nuts), oil crops (sesame seed).

Exports are aimed mainly at the North Americanmarket.

Useful address

Agrodesa sa de cvUrban. Buenos Aires27 Av. Norte, ES-1221 San Salvador Tel/Fax: +503-2252547E-mail: [email protected](Production, trade)

Grenada

Gre nada has the begin nings of organic agri cul ture.

Guatemala

Production

In the mid 1990s, around 7,000 hec tares were planted to organic coffee. Organic coffee is an impor tantnational export; it is traded both raw and roasted.

Gua te ma la’s other organic prod ucts include cocoaand cocoa prod ucts (cocoa butter); fruits, proc essed(purée of frozen ber ries); fruits, fresh (bananas);fruits, dried; honey; nuts (cashew); oil crops(sesame); spices (all spice, car damom, pepper,vanilla); and vege ta bles, fresh.

Sam ples of some prod ucts – dif ferent varie ties ofcoffee, spices and dried fruits – were exhib ited atBio fach 1997 and 1998 in Ger many. Prod ucts in theprocess of cer ti fi ca tion were also shown at this fair;they included flowers, chewing gum and sugar.

Gua te mala has four large pro ducers of cer ti fiedorganic coffee: two coop era tives (Asocia ción Aderso and Grupo de los Catorce) and two pri vate com pa nies (Único and Diver sica). Another pro ducer is theAsocia ción Cha yulense Val Vaq Quyol, cer ti fied byNatur land. There are also a large number ofsmall holders who have started to pro duce organic

coffee; much of their output is cer ti fied by OCIA.

Organi za tions like Ag ex pront, Altertec and Cemathave been pro moting organic agri cul ture for manyyears. Anacafé, which over sees the Gua te malan coffee sector, pro motes organic farming through infor ma tionactivi ties, semi nars and devel op ment proj ects.

Trade

In 1997, large quan ti ties of coffee and sesame as wellas some fruit and spices were exported to Canada, theUnited States and the Euro pean Union. Trade sources esti mate overall exports of cer ti fied organic coffeeduring the 1996/97 season at 600 tons; this volume isexpected to rise in the near future. Some vege ta blesare mar keted domes ti cally as well as inter na tion ally.

GTZ imple ments a trade pro mo tion proj ect, whichfinances par tici pa tion in fairs and sup ports thecrea tion of a cer ti fi ca tion body and the training ofcer ti fi ca tion agents.

Useful addressesAg ex pront (or: Gremial)15 Avenida 14-72, Zona 13, Guatemala CiudadTel: +502-3-622002Fax: +502-3-621950E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.agexpront.com(Association of exporters of non-traditional products)

Altertec Boulevard los Próceres 18, Calle 9-31Guatemala City-10Tel: +502-3683181Fax: +502-3683181E-mail: [email protected](Development)

Asociación Chajulense Val Vaq Quyol14005 San Gaspar Chajul-El QuicheGuatemala CiudadTel/Fax: +502-2-340085(Production, trade)

Cemat 28, Ave.18-80, Zona 10, Apdo 1160Guatemala CiudadTel: +502-2-3631280Fax: +502-2-3394804E-mail: [email protected](Development)

Guyana

The nas cent organic sector in this country has startedpro ducing rice, among other prod ucts.


Haiti

Haiti pro duces fresh fruit (mango) and proc essedfruit (mango purée and chutney), coffee and honey.OGBA (United States) cer ti fies some mango puréeand chutney.

Honduras


Organic agri cul ture has been prac ticed in Hon durassince the early 1990s. Prod ucts include fresh fruits(pine ap ples, bananas, man goes), dried fruit (bananas, man goes, pine ap ples) and proc essed fruit (pine applejuice and con cen trate, banana and pine apple purée),sesame, pea nuts and cashew nuts (marañón), oilcrops (coconut) and cocoa.

There is a model organic farm at a pri vate uni ver sity(Escuela Agrícola Panameri cana) in Zamo rano.FHIA (Fun da ción Hon dureña de Inves ti ga ciónAgrícola) in San Pedro Sula is the world authority onbanana research and has devel oped sev eraldisease- resistant banana varie ties, which bear itsname and are of par ticular interest to organicgrowers. NGOs like CINDES (Con sul taría para lasInicia ti vas de Desar rollo Económico y Social) inCholu teca are intro ducing the organic pro duc tion ofcoffee and nuts.

Hur ri cane Mitch heavily dam aged organicpro duc tion units in 1998. Nev er the less, it is believedthat there are good pos si bili ties for devel oping thesector fur ther, as impor tant ini tia tives towards thishave already being taken.

Trade and certification

National dis tri bu tion is in its infancy, although thereare sev eral health food shops car rying organics. Thesuper market chain La Colonia retails what everorganic prod ucts are avail able and has expressedinterest in other organic goods.

Most of Hon du ras’ output is exported. It mar kets itsdried fruit in Europe.

A net work of envi ron mental and rural devel op mentorgani za tions, called the Red Nacional deAgri cul tura Orgánica, works on stan dards andcer ti fi ca tion, and col labo rates with the Nica ra guancer ti fier Cenipae.

Useful addresses

FHIAApartado 2067, San Pedro Sula Tel: +504-68-2030; +504-68-2078Fax: +504-68-2313E-mail: [email protected]:hn(Banana research)

Red Nacional de Agricultura OrgánicaVecinos MundialesApartado Postal 3385, TegucigalpaTel: +504-30-2003Fax: +504-30-2004(Development)

Jamaica

Jamaica has the begin nings of organic farming. Itsprod ucts include cane sugar and ginger.

Useful address

Jamaica Organic Growers Association16 Windsor Avenue, Kingston 5 Tel: +1-809-978-1721

Martinique

The island has the begin nings of an organicagri cul tural sector. The Boris Challe Com panypro duces and exports bananas.

Nicaragua


By 1998, organic agri cul ture had been prac ticed inNica ragua for more than 10 years. It is esti mated thatin the mid 1990s it pro duced around 500 tons oforganic coffee annu ally on about 1,400 hec tares ofland. Among its other out puts are cocoa, cotton, dried leg umes (beans, soy beans), fresh fruits (bananas),honey, nuts (cashew), oil crops (sesame, referred to as ajon jolí), spices (ginger) and spirits (rum). It also hassome proc essed organic prod ucts (vinegar).

The national market is unde vel oped. Some healthfood stores and cer tain out lets of the La Coloniasuper market chain sell organic prod ucts.

Organic coffee, sesame and beans are impor tantexport prod ucts and are sent mainly to the UnitedStates and the Euro pean Union. Clusa (Coop era tivasLigue USA), which has the sup port of the UnitedStates Agency for Inter na tional Devel op ment


(USAID), is an effec tive organi za tion whichcoor di nates the activi ties of farmers, proc es sors andpackers, and pre pares prod ucts for export.

Certification

There are no gov ern ment regu la tions on organicagri cul ture. Inspec tion and cer ti fi ca tion are mainlycar ried out by the local inspec tion body Cenipae(Centro Nica ragüense para la Inves ti ga ción yPro mo ción de la Agri cul tura Ecológica). Cenipaewas founded in 1994 by mem bers of Nica ra guanenvi ron mental pro tec tion organi za tions. It nowworks within the umbrella organi za tion Bio- Latinawhich also covers Bolivia, Colombia and Peru.

Useful addresses

Cenipae/Bio-Latina Colonia del Periodista no.232, ManaguaTel: +505-2787060Fax: +505-2787090(Control, certification)

Fishnet (Farmers International Self-help Network) Apartado Postal 40, Masaya Fax: +505-5226018Web site: http://www.leibi.de/fishnet(Development, information)

Panama

The nascent organic sector in Panama produces cocoaand herbs. The Panama Herbs Group helps to marketherbs in the European Union and the United States.

Useful addressVacarúGrupo de Consumidores de Productos OrgánicosBox 2223, Zona 9A, Panama-City Tel: +507-2633464Fax: +507-2139151E-mail: [email protected](Development, information)

Paraguay

Production includes cotton, nuts (peanuts), driedlegumes (soy beans), oil (safflower oil), oil crops(sesame, sunflower and safflower seeds) and sugarcane.

Processing facilities are limited, but Otisa inAsunción is a large sugar processor and exporter,trading predominantly with the United States.

Various other products are marketed in the UnitedStates and the European Union. The national marketis insignificant.

Useful address

MAELA(Movimiento Agroecológico en América Latina yEl Caribe)Cas. Correos 1730Manuel Domínguez 1040, AsunciónTel/Fax: +596-21-201512E-mail: [email protected](Production, development)

Peru


In 1998, about 2,000 organic farmers, mainlysmallholders, belonged to farmers’ groups andcooperatives and worked an estimated 12,000hectares. Production includes nuts (cashew), oil crops (sesame), dried legumes, grains (amaranth andquinoa), coffee, honey, herbs, cotton and woollenfabrics. Processing is limited.

Much of Peru’s organic produce is sold in the UnitedStates. The European Union is the second market.There is a nascent domestic market, and organicproduce is sold in supermarkets, for instance.

Peru Naturtex in Vallecita (Arequipa) and Raymisa sa in Lima produce woollen and cotton fabrics.

Certification

The local inspec tion and certi fi ca tion body, Inka Cert, was founded in 1994, supported by NGOs withinPeru’s Red de la Agri cul tura Ecológica. Guide linesand a control programme meeting the require mentsof EU regu la tions were devel oped with the support of a GTZ project. Inka Cert carries out its inspec tion and certi fi ca tion activi ties throughout the country.However, prod ucts destined for North Americacontinue to be inspected and certi fied mainly byNorth American inspec tion bodies.

Inka Cert and similar ini tia tives in Bo livia, Co lumbiaand Nica ragua have formed an as so cia tion calledBio- Latina. The as so cia tion sup ports or ganicag ri cul ture in its member coun tries. In for ma tion isex changed, in spec tion work is co or di nated andcer ti fi ca tion is car ried out at prices that small holderscan af ford.


Useful addressesBio-LatinaAv. Arenales 645PO Box 11-0170, PE-Lima 1 Tel: +51-14-247773Fax: +51-14-331073E-mail: [email protected](Control, certification)

Red de la Agricultura EcológicaAv. Arenales 645PO Box 11-0170, PE-Lima 1Tel: +51-14-247773Fax: +51-14-331073E-mail: [email protected](Development)

Puerto Rico

Some production of processed fruit (banana purée,for example) takes place in Puerto Rico.

Useful addressAPARI(Asociación de Pequeños Agricultores de Rabonbal, Inc.)PO Box 1656, Cidra 00739Tel/Fax: +1-809-7390222

Trinidad and Tobago

The Trinidad and Tobago Organic AgricultureMovement Ltd (TTOAML) had in the beginning of1999 about 80 members, of which the CoffeeIndustry Board is the largest. Five members cultivateavocados, ginger, hibiscus, mangoes and pineapples.The Movement also produces herbs like basil, chives, mint, parsley and thyme.

Its efforts are directed towards converting hillfarming, largely mono-cropping, into sustainableorganic systems. Much of the farming in the countryis organic by neglect. Four agronomists are beingtrained in proper organic farming techniques.

Proc essing (of coffee and herbs) is at the pri mary level. There are many health food stores, and super mar ketsare begin ning to show interest in organic prod ucts.Export des ti na tions are the United States and theUnited Kingdom. As the prod ucts have not beencer ti fied to inter na tional stan dards, they are labelled‘nat ural’ rather than ‘organic’. Nego tia tions forco- certification by the Swiss IMO are taking place.

Useful addressTTOAML(Trinidad & Tobago Organic Agriculture Movement Ltd)

PO Box 1229, Port of Spain Tel/Fax: +1-868-6259223(Production, development)

Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and theGrenadines

These countries have the beginnings of an organicsector.

Suriname

Suriname has 250 hectares under organic(uncertified) cropping. It produces fruits, vegetablesand grains (rice), which were intended to be exportedto the Netherlands, but this has not happened so far.

Useful addressWinston WirhtMadeliefjesstraat 14, Paramaribo Tel: +597-400785Fax: +597-410555E-mail: [email protected](Production, development)

Uruguay

Since 1985, Uru guay has taken ini tia tives to pro motethe pro duc tion and the domestic and inter na tionalmar keting of organic pro duce. A National Pro grammefor Organic Pro duc tion, estab lished in 1997, iscoor di nated by the Pro gramme for the Mod erni za tionand Devel op ment of the Hor ti cul tural Sector of theMin istry of Agri cul ture and has the strong sup port ofGer many’s GTZ. Today, more than 150 organicfarmers work under the national pro gramme. Theiroutput includes beef and dairy prod ucts; fruits, fresh(apri cots, small fruits); grains (brown and white rice);honey; medicinal and aro matic plants; oil- seeds(sun flower); and vege ta bles, fresh. Most farmersbelong to the Uru guayan Asso cia tion of OrganicPro ducers (APODU).

There are a number of processing units producingdairy products, meat and meat products, andprocessed fruit. Biosur, a wholesaler, buys organicproduce from smallholders for onward sale to retailoutlets like supermarkets. Biosur also providesassistance in cultivation and trade promotion.

A national market is developing, with interest amongdomestic consumers increasing rapidly. As early as1995, test sales of organic fresh fruits and vegetableswere carried out in the Disco supermarkets. TheDevoto supermarket chain is entering the organicfield.


Export potential is believed to be highest for freshplant products, beef, and processed meat products.

As indicated above, the Uruguayan Governmentstrongly supports the organic movement, has its ownlegislation on production and control, and has filedfor equivalency with EC Regulation 2092/91. TheAsociación Rural del Uruguay (ARU), the Societyfor Consumers of Organic Products, and Urucert areinvolved in inspection and certification. Foreigncertifiers, including the Argentinean Argencert, arealso active in Uruguay.

Useful addressesAsociación Rural del UruguayAvda. Uruguay 864, 11.100 Montevideo Tel: +598-2-920484Fax: +598-2-9020489E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.aru.com.uy/(Control, certification)

Biosur21 de Setiembre 2873/101Montevideo Tel: +598-2-7103957Fax: +598-2-7112539(Trade, development)

Venezuela

Venezuela produces organic fresh fruits (such as

mangoes) and coffee.

Useful addresses

CENDA (Centro de Desarrollo y Ambiente)PO Box 17183, Caracas 1015-ATel: +58-2-5717648Fax: +58-2-5717648(Development)

FUNDAGREA (Fundación para el Desarrollo de la AgriculturaEcológica)PO Box 60848, Caracas 1060Tel: +58-2-4963569Fax: +58-2-2838519E-mail: [email protected](Development)

IPIAT (Instituto para la Producción de la AgriculturaTropical)Apartado 84, 5101A Edo. Mérida Tel: +58-74-523779Fax: +58-74-523779 (Production, development)

Other countries/areas

In December 1998, there was apparently no certifiedorganic agriculture in Aruba, the NetherlandsAntilles, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.

NAFTA countries

Canada, Mexico and the United States, the threemembers of the North American Free TradeAgreement (NAFTA), are substantial producers of awide range of organic products. Canada and theUnited States have well-developed domestic organicmarkets. All three are large exporters, and Canadaand the United States are substantial importers.

Canada

Production

By the end of 1997, there were 1,830 certified organic and biodynamic farms in Canada, covering roughly1 million hectares (more than 0.6% of all farmland).The farms are distributed as follows: 429 in Quebec,399 in Saskatchewan, 344 in Ontario, 288 in BritishColumbia, 178 in Alberta, 119 in Manitoba, 33 in

New Brunswick, 20 in Nova Scotia, 18 on PrinceEdward Island and 2 in Yukon Territory.

The main crops are grains (buckwheat, millet, rice,wheat,), oil crops (flax, safflower) and dried legumes(beans, soy, various kinds of peas and lentils). Largeareas are utilized for grazing and forage. Canadaproduces fresh fruits (e.g. apples), fresh vegetablesand maple syrup (in 1995 it had 1,500 hectares ofmaple woods). Ginseng is also grown organically (inBritish Columbia). Many dairy farmers workorganically and there are some organic poultry farms. Beef producers are slow to convert to organicfarming.

Processing, trading

By the end of 1997, Canada had 164 certified organic


processors and manufacturers. To date, processinghas concentrated on primary processes such ascleaning, grading and milling, baking, processing ofmaple syrup and dairy products, and so on. However,the volume of further-processed organic products isrising rapidly. In 1995 the farm-gate value of organicproducts was estimated at 1% of the value of allagricultural production. About 80% of the organicoutput was exported in 1995. Canada imports organic raw materials and finished products; these importswere valued at an estimated Can$ 75 million in 1995.

There are roughly 1,000 retail outlets in the healthfood and natural food sectors which carry organicproducts in addition to their main items.Supermarkets are taking up organic assortments; forinstance, all new Loblaws and Sobey’s supermarketscarry organic products.

Legal status and certification

All domestic and imported products marketed asorganic in the province of Québec will have to becertified from 1 March 1999 (domestic) and 1 January2000 (imports) in accordance with the QuébecAccreditation Program. A demand for equivalencewith the EC 2092/91 Regulation is to be filed in 1999.

In the rest of Canada, products marketed as organichave to be produced according to organic standardsbut without any formal need for certification. Thereare several dozen certifiers in the country, bothCanadian (see useful addresses below) and American (OCIA, FVO, QAI and OGBA) (see section on theUnited States).

Useful addresses

COG (Canadian Organic Growers)PO Box 116, Collingwood, ON L9Y 3Z4Tel: +1-705-4440923Fax: +1-705-4440380E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.gks.com/cog/(Development, certification)

MAPAQ (Québec Organic Network)200 chemin Ste Foy, 11e, Québec G1R 4X6Tel: +1-418-6468371Fax: +1-418-6443049E-mail: [email protected](Production, certification, trade)

Nature’s Path Foods, Inc.7453 Progress Way

Delta, BC V4G IE8Tel: +1-604-9400505E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.naturespath.com(Cereal processing and trading)

OCIA Saskatchewan Chapter 1Box 83 Socoro, Carlyle, SK S0G 0R0Tel/Fax: +1-306-4532884(Control, certification)

OCPP (Organic Crop Producers & Processors Ontario)RR 1 KSV 4R1, Lindsay, OntarioTel: +1-7053242709Fax: +1-7053244829(Control, certification)

Mexico

Production

Mexico is Latin America’s biggest producer oforganic coffee and one of the region’s largest organicproducers and exporters overall. Organic(biodynamic) coffee production in the country wasstarted by Finca Irlanda in 1950. A boom in thisparticular sector occurred in the 1980s and continuedthrough most of the 1990s.

The country, like many others in the region, wasseverely affected by the consequences of El Niño in1998. For instance, flooding in Chiapas totallydestroyed the crop of UDEPOM, one of the country’s main exporters of organic coffee.

The national output of organic coffee from a total of30,000 hectares is currently estimated at more than30,000 tons annually. Mexico is also a majorproducer of organic cocoa and honey. Among itsother products are agave juice (a sweetener); chicle(the milky juice of the sapodilla tree which is a rawmaterial for chewing gum); cotton, loofa and woodproducts; fruits, processed (fruit juices); fruits, dried(mango); fruits, fresh (apples, avocados, bananas);grains (amaranth); legumes, dried (beans); medicinalherbs; nuts (peanuts); oil crops (sesame, pumpkin,coconut); roots and tubers, fresh (potatoes); spices(cardamom); and vegetables, fresh.

FSC (Forest Stewardship Council ac, whose headoffice is in Oaxaca, certifies sustainable forestry andits products, which are increasingly re-certified byorganic certifiers such as The Soil Association(United Kingdom) and SKAL (the Netherlands),


Producer groups like ISMAM (Indígenas de la SierraMadre de Motozintla, in Tapachula, Chiapas);Productores Orgánicos del Pacifico sc (Atoyac deAlvarez, Guerrero); UCIRI (Unión de ComunidadesIndígenas de la Región del Istmo, in Ixtepec,Oaxaca); UDEPOM (Unión de Ejidos Profesor Otilio Montano in Motozintla, Chiapas); Unión de EjidosSan Fernando (San Fernando, Chiapas); Yeni Navan(San Francisco Tutla, Oaxaca) and others areimportant producers of certified organic coffee andother products, both of which often also qualify asfair trade products. They have their own processingplants and sales organization and are no longerdependent on exploitative intermediaries.

Some large coffee fincas (farming estates) are run byEuropean families. They include Finca la Patria (inTapachula, Chiapas) and Finca Irlanda.

Access to technical assistance and reasonable formsof credit remains difficult. Cooperatives like theUnión de Ejidos Maravillas Tenejapa (in Comitán,Chiapas) and CESMACH (Campesinos Ecológicosde la Sierra Madre de Chiapas (in Angel A. Corzo,Chiapas) and others are struggling to gain entry intoexport markets.

CNOC (Coordinadora Nacional de Organiza cio nesCafetale ras) is a national network of 125 peasantorgani za tions, many of whose members growcertified organic coffee. CEPCO (CoordinadoraEstatal de Produc tores de Café de Oaxaca ac) coordi -nates organic coffee growers and sells their outputthrough CAEO (Comerciali za dora Agropecuaria delEstado de Oaxaca sa de cv).

SSS Costa de Tabasco (in Comalcalco, Tabasco) is alarge cooperative of cocoa growers. Pronatura(Mérida, Yucatán) and Nectar de Campeche SA deCV (Chulon, Yucatán) are among the leading tradersof honey, which comes mainly from nature reservesin Yucatán.

A new product on the organic market is concentratedagave juice, a natural sweetener, produced on largeestates in Jalisco, Guadalajara, and traded by IIDEA(Industrializadora Integral del Agave sa de cv) inMexico City.

Not all intermediaries take advantage of the farmers.AMSA (Agroindustrias Unidas de México sa de cv),also known as the Esteve Group, works closely withfarmers’ groups and provides them with processingand exporting facilities.

Productores Orgánicos del Cabo (in San José delCabo) packs and exports large quantities of fresh anddried organic vegetables, mainly to the United States.Huertas de Guadalupe (Chihuahua) produces organic apples and apple juice and exports them to the UnitedStates under the brand name Pomitas. Asociación deProductores de la Tarahumara in Guachochi, whichproduces large quantities of organic apples, isstruggling to access processing facilities and to reachexport markets.

Official support

The Ministry of Social Development (Secretaria deDesarrollo Social, Sedesol) is particularly supportiveof the organic movement in Mexico. One of itssections, FONAES, has the task of fighting the oftenextreme poverty of the small farmers and of 80% ofMexico’s indigenous people. It supports manyproducer groups involved in organics.

Trade

Most of Mexico’s organic produce is exported. Thedomestic market is growing very slowly. Only a fewnatural and health foods store carry organicproducts. Farmers’ markets are developing wheresmall producer-owned cooperatives andassociations make their products available to thelocal communities.

Legal basis and certification

In 1992, AMEA (Asocia ción Mexi cana deAgri cul tores Ecológicos AC), the sec tor’s firstumbrella organi za tion, was founded; it took steps tohave offi cial organic rules adopted by the Direc ciónGen eral de Sanidad Vegetal (DGSV), a sec tion of theMin istry of Agri cul ture (Secre taria de Agri cul tura,Ganad ería y Desar rollo Rural, SAGAR). Rules(Norma Ofi cial Mexi cana NOM- 037- Fito- 1995)were estab lished in 1995 and amended in 1997.These are incom plete, are con sid ered insuf fi cient and have not achieved equiva lence with EC Regu la tion2092/91.

Some years ago a large number of farmersdependent on foreign certifying entities createdEcomex AC (Campesinos e Indígenas Ecológicosde México) to represent their interests and toestablish a national certification body. Ecomex spun off AMIO (Asociación Mexicana de InspectoresOrgánicos), an inspection body, and Certimex, acertification body.


A certification initiative of the University of Colimais CUCEPRO (Centro Universitario Certificador deProductos Orgánicos).

Among the foreign certification agencies working inMexico are OCIA (which has a Mexican chapter) and Oregon Tilth (United States), IMO (Switzerland,Bolivia), BCS and Naturland (Germany).

Potential

Mexico’s organic sector has a high potential forgrowth. Market demand is growing, the infrastructureis improving and the business community at all levelsis becoming aware of the expanding market forcertified organic products.

Useful addresses

AMSA (Esteve Group)Bosques de Alisos 45-A2 Bosques de las Lomas, Cuajimalpa05210 Mexico-DF Tel: +52-5-2576500Fax: +52-5-2597785(Processor, trader)

CEPCO/CAEOH. Esc. Naval Militar 708, Col. Reforma68050 Oaxaca (Oaxaca)Tel: +52-452-34001 or +52-452-34996Fax: +52-452-33904E-mail: [email protected](Production, trade)

CertimexAntonio M. Ruiz 11U. Isste. CP 56231, Chapingo, MéxicoTel/Fax: +52-595-42060E-mail: [email protected](Certification)

CNOCTabasco 262Desp. 301 Col. Roma, CP 06700 México-DFTel: +52-5-5140205Fax: +52-5-2070508(Trader)

FONAESAv. Parque Lira 65San Miguel Chapultepec, 11850 Mexico DF Tel: +52-5-2726205Fax: +52-5-2725939(Ministry of Social Development)

FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) Hidalgo 502, Centro, 68000 OaxacaTel/Fax: +52-983-71145

E-mail: [email protected](Sustainable forestry certification)

ISMAM18 Calle Poniente No. 2, 30700 Tapachula, ChiapasTel/Fax: +52-962-52404(Producer, trader)

UCIRIAp. Postal 60, 70110 Cd. Ixtepec, OaxacaTel/Fax: +52-971-30426E-mail: [email protected](Production, trade)

UDEPOM3ta Norte 41030900 Motozintla de Mendoza, ChiapasTel/Fax: +52-964-10271E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.udepom.com(Production, trade)

United States

Introduction

The United States market, estimated at $4.2 billion in1997, had another year of over 20% growth in 1998.The most phenomenal growth has taken place in thesnack and candy sector, very important in the UnitedStates, with annual growth rates of far over 100%.The United States is not only a major importer, bothof raw materials mainly from developing countriesand of processed products from developed countries,but it is also an important exporter, mainly of cereals,soy and pulses as well as of some processed products, predominantly to Europe and Japan.

Production

Close to 5,000 cer ti fied or ganic pro ducers farmed atotal of 369,000 hec tares in the United States in 1995.More land may be man aged with or ganic farmingmethods but is not cer ti fied. Fed eral regu la tionsre quiring the cer ti fi ca tion of foods sold as or ganic arenot yet in place, and most States do not oblige or ganic farmers or food manu fac turers to be cer ti fied in orderto market foods as such. Fur ther more, proc es sorsmay be pur chasing in gre di ents claimed to have beenpro duced in ac cor dance with the Cali fornia Or ganicFoods Act of 1990 but not cer ti fied. Nev er the less, inthe grain- producing States with the largest areasunder or ganic pro duc tion, most or ganic farms arecer ti fied or ganic.

The acreage cer ti fied organic in 1995 was down onthe figure for 1992, a result of the with drawal of


organi cally man aged range- land from cer ti fi ca tion.Because the U.S. Depart ment of Agri cul turedis al lows the organic label ling of meat prod ucts,organic beef pro ducers have no incen tives formain taining vast range- lands under costlycer ti fi ca tion pro grammes. The number of hec taresused as pas ture or range- land declined by 36% toabout 112,000 hec tares between 1994 and 1995. Beef cattle, dairy cattle, chicken and turkey for meat, layerhens, sheep, pigs and ducks are among the cer ti fiedlive stock.

Certified organic crop-land, on the other hand,continues to expand at a double-digit rate. It rose toabout 258,000 hectares in 1995. Output includesgrains, pulses, cotton and other products. About aquarter of the land produces livestock feed, the needfor which is rising rapidly with the heavy demand fororganic dairy products in the United States.

The labelling of dairy products and fresh eggs is thepurview of the Food and Drug Administration ratherthan the Department of Agriculture; these productscan be labelled organic and have strong markets.Nevertheless, beef cattle and meat poultry, as well asswine, lamb, goats, and other meat animals continueto be certified organic, in some cases for export toforeign markets.

The area under certified organic fruit and vegetableproduction amounted to around 43,000 hectares in1995, making up about 12% of all certified land. Thecertified area planted to fruits, vegetables, nuts, aloevera and mushrooms account for around 24% of allland under food crops. In 1994, more than 1% of theland under vegetables was certified organic. TheStates of California and Texas have the largest areasunder organic vegetable production.

In 1996, the acreage under cer ti fied organic vege table pro duc tion and the cer ti fying authori ties were asfol lows: 7,300 hec tares, Texas Depart ment ofAgri cul ture; 5,313 hec tares, Cali fornia Cer ti fiedOrganic Farmers (CCOF); 500 hec tares, FloridaCer ti fied Organic Growers and Con sumers; 350hec tares each in Idaho and Wis consin, cer ti fied by the States’ main cer ti fying bodies. The cer ti fied areas inall these States expanded between 1993 and 1996.Subsequent fig ures are not avail able.

The United States has a sig nifi cant output of organicgrains (barley, buck wheat, corn, millet, wheat), andpro duces sev eral organic rice varie ties. Anassort ment of dried leg umes (all kinds of beans,

len tils, soy beans) are also pro duced organi cally;soy beans have a par ticu larly lucra tive market in theUnited States and abroad. Some 102,000 hec taresplanted to grains were cer ti fied organic in 1995, aswere about 25,000 hec tares under leg umes fordrying. Almost 20,000 hec tares of soy beans werecer ti fied organic in 1995. Ole agi nous crops (flax,sun flower) are also impor tant.

The largest farmers’ organization is the Organic CropImprovement Association (OCIA), with roughly40,000 farmers. It has chapters in many LatinAmerican and Asian countries.


The United States has proc essing and manu fac turingfacili ties for all types of organic items. Its proc essedfood prod ucts include baby food, baked goods,cereals, con ven ience foods (snacks, frozen meals,side dishes), cooking and salad oils, flours, herbs,liq uo rice, meat and dairy prod ucts, nuts (almonds,pea nuts, wal nuts), proc essed fruits (apples, avo cados, citrus fruit, pears, prunes, rai sins), wines andproc essed vege ta bles (canned beans, proc essedtoma toes, soy sauce, sprouts).

Well- known proc es sors and manu fac turers areArrow head Mills (cereal prod ucts), now belonging to the Hain Food Group in Boulder, Colorado;Cascadian Farm Inc. in Sedro-Woolley, Washington(fruit and vegetable-based products, includingdeep-frozen products and ready meals); ColemanNatural and Organic Meat in Denver, Colorado(meat); Earth’s Best in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania (babyfood), belonging to the Heinz Group; Florida Bottling Inc. in Lakewood, Florida (juices); Florida Crystals,Palm Beach, Florida (sugar); Horizon Organic Dairyin Boulder, Colorado (dairy products and juices);Knudsen in Chico, California, part of the SmuckersGroup (juices); M & M Mars in McLean, Viriginia(confectionary); Made in Nature, part of theVacu-Dry Company in Santa Rosa, California (fruits,dried fruits, juices); Montana Flour & Grains in FortBenton, Montana (cereals, specializing in the wheatgrain Kamut); Muir Glen in Petalumna, California(tomato products); National Raisin Company inFowler, California (dried fruits); Pavich FamilyFarms in Terra Bella, California (fruits, includingdried fruits, and nuts); San-J(irushi) International Inc. in Richmond, Virginia (soy sauces); Organic Valleyin La Farge, Wisconsin (dairy); Spectrum NaturalsInc. in Petaluma, California (oils) and WholesomeFoods in Tigard, Oregon (sugar). Celestial


Seasonings in Boulder, Colorado is a renownedprocessor, importer and exporter of tea and herbalteas. Lily of the Desert in Irving, Texas (aloe vera) isan example of an organic producer and processor also active in the supplement and personal care field.

Trade

The United States is an important exporter of cerealsand legumes; its main markets are the EuropeanUnion and Japan. It is also a significant importer oftropical and processed products.

It is the second largest organic market in the worldafter the European Union. Continuing its pattern ofdouble-digit growth rates for six years running, thedomestic market was valued at an estimated $4.2billion in 1997. However, this was only a little over1% of all of the country’s food sales in that year. Sales of natural products, including organics, throughmainstream outlets rose by 8% between 1996 and1997. Retailers of natural products and health foods,of which there are close to 13,000, had an averagesales increase of 9%.

About 62% of retail sales take place at naturalproduct stores, 31% at super- and hypermarkets ofwhich 50% now carry organics, and 7% throughclubs, food box systems and food service outlets.

A wide array of organic products can be found inconventional supermarkets. These are fighting average profit margins of 10% or less, and are facingincreasing competition from mass-market discountersas well as natural food supermarkets. They aretherefore seeking to add to their customer base, createnew sales and enhance profits.

Natural food supermarkets are a special feature of theUnited States market. The largest supermarket chaindealing in organics is run by Whole Foods Market,Inc., based in Austin, Texas. In 1998, it had 85supermarkets selling natural food and non-foodproducts in about 20 States, where it is known undervarious names including Fresh Fields, WellspringGrocery, Bread & Circus, Bread of Life, Merchant ofVinoland and Mrs. Gooch’s. From $92.5 million in1991, its turnover rose to $401.7 million in 1994; inthe third trimester of 1998, its turnover was no lessthan $325 million, 25% up on the corresponding1997 period.

Another important chain with over 50 stores inwestern United States is Wild Oats, which is based in

Boulder, Colorado. Alfalfa’s had about 10 stores in1996, including two in Canada.

Prod ucts of organic cotton and other fibres, per sonalcare prod ucts, vita mins and herbal reme dies areimpor tant to the United States organic industry. LeviStrauss, Nike and Gap buy organic cotton and mix itwith con ven tional cotton. The niche market for 100% organic cotton is growing despite high prices.

Other than a small amount of organic coffeepro duced in Hawaii, most organic coffee sold in theUnited States is imported. How ever, most roastingand bag ging of cer ti fied organic coffee beans takeplace within the country.

There are numerous organic traders, brokers,wholesalers, processors and manufacturers, many ofthem members of OTA (Organic Trade Association,the former OFPANA) through which they can becontacted. Two of the oldest and best-knownwholesalers (and importers) are Tree of Life in StAugustine, Florida and Eden Foods Inc. in Clinton,Michigan. Another well-known wholesaler isRapunzel (Kinderhook, New York) a subsidiary of theGerman company Rapunzel. One of the oldest brokers is Mercantile Food Company (Philmont, New York),which has set up organic projects in developingcountries, including the Dominican Republic.

Recent studies have shown that 12% of Americanshoppers are naturalists inclined to buy organicproducts.

Food laws and regulations, control andcertification

The Organic Foods Pro duc tion Act (OFPA) wasadopted as part of 1990 Farm Bill in order to estab lisha National Organic Pro gram (NOP). OFPA has threepur poses: to estab lish national stan dards gov erning the mar keting of cer tain agri cul tural prod ucts asorgani cally pro duced; to assure con sumers thatorgani cally pro duced foods meet a con sis tent stan dard; and to facili tate inter- State com merce in fresh andproc essed food that is organi cally pro duced.

On 16 December 1997, a proposed regulation toestablish the National Organic Program waspublished in the Federal Register for public commentuntil 16 March 1998. It included detailedrequirements and guidelines for the production andhandling of organic agricultural products, both cropsand livestock. However, it was withdrawn after more


than 275,000 comments on various controversialissues were received by USDA, which is nowworking on a revision. It is hoped that a new draftregulation can be published before the end of 1999.

In the meantime there are no clear rules or regulations on organic products. About 30 States have some laws(for instance, labelling laws governing the use of theterm ‘organic’); about 20 States have no legislationwhatsoever on organics. There also appears to begreat differences in what the laws cover in each State.About 13 States operate organic certificationprogrammes. Other States have standards, but nocertification programmes. As a result, the UnitedStates market for organic products accepts bothcertified and uncertified products. There are morethan 30 private certification bodies in the country.

Further information on the USDA NationalOrganic Program can be obtained athttp://www.ams.usda.gov/nop.

Information

AgriSystems International (e-mail: [email protected])publishes a newsletter on organic trends. NaturalBusiness Communication ([email protected]) issuesa natural business newsletter. New HopeCommunications ([email protected]), the organizerof the annual Expo West (Anaheim) and East(Baltimore), publishes the Organic Times, a version ofits Natural Food Merchandiser focusing on organicproducts.

Useful addresses

CCOF(California Certified Organic Farmers) 115 Mission Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060Tel: +1-408-4232263Fax: +1-408-4234528E-mail: [email protected](Control and certification in California)

FVO (Farm Verified Organic)RR #1, Box 40-A, Medina, ND 58467Tel: +1-701-486-3586Fax: +1-701-486-3580E-mail: faremvo@dakTel:com(Control, certification)

IOIA(Independent Organic Inspectors Association)

Rt. 3 Box 162-C, Winona, MN 55987Tel/Fax: +1-507-4548310E-mail: [email protected](International organization of organic inspectors)

OCIA (Organic Crop Improvement Association)1001 Y. Street Suite B, Lincoln, NE 68508-1172Tel: +1-402-4772323Fax: +1-402-4774325E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.ocia.org(Control, certification)

OFRF(Organic Farming Research Foundation)P.O. Box 440Santa Cruz, CA 95061Tel: +1-831-4266606Fax: +1-831-4266670E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.ofrf.org

OGBA (Organic Growers and Buyers Association)7362 University Ave, NE Suite 208, Fridley, MN55432Tel: +1-612-5721967Fax: +1-612-5722527E-mail: [email protected](Control, certification)

OTA (Organic Trade Association)50 Miles StreetPOB 1078, Greenfield, MA 01302Tel: +1-413-7747511Fax: +1-413-7746432E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.ota.com(Association of organic traders and manufacturers)

OTCO (Oregon Tilth Certified Organic)860 Hawthorne Ave NE, Suite 200Salem, Oregon 97303Tel: +1-503-3780690Fax: +1-503-3780809E-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.tilth.org(Inspection, certification)

QAI(Quality Assurance International)12526 High Bluff Drive, Suite 300, San Diego, CATel: +1-619-7923531,Fax: +1-619-7928665E-mail: [email protected](Control, certification)


Rodale Institute222 Main Street, Emmaus, PA 18049Tel: +1-610-6831400Fax: +1-610-6838548E-mail: [email protected](Production)

USDA - Foreign Agricultural ServiceHorticultural & Tropical Products DivisionOrganics Staff1400 Independence Ave., SW, AG Box 1049Washington, D.C. 20250-1049

Tel: +1-202-7201176Fax: +1-202-7203799Web site: http://www.fas.usda.gov

USDA - National Organic Program14th & Independence Ave., SW 2510SPO Box 96456Washington, D.C. 20090-6456Tel: +1-202-7208405/3252Fax: +1-202-2057808Web site: http://www.ams.usda.gov


Chapter 5

WORLD SUPPLY BY PRODUCT GROUP

This chapter gives an overview of the world supply of organic products by major product group. The listsgiven of products and supplying countries are farfrom complete, but they do give an indication of the

world supply situation. The countries are notnecessarily cited in the order of their importance assuppliers of the products under review.

Animal products

Meat, dairy products, eggs

The European Union and the United States areimportant producers of organic meat and dairyproducts. Organic meat is likewise produced inArgentina, Uruguay and New Zealand (lamb).

The European Union and the United States aremajor producers of milk and a wide range of dairyproducts. Among the leading European producersare Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany,Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and theUnited Kingdom. Other producers and theirproducts include: Argentina, milk, cheese and eggs;Egypt, cheese; and Turkey, milk.

Honey

Mexico is an important producer of organic honey.Among the other developing country producers areArgentina, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Colombia, CostaRica, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador,Guatemala, Haiti, Madagascar, Turkey, Uganda,the United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay andZambia. In Europe, the Balkan States, Hungary andPoland are producers, as is New Zealand in Oceania.

Fish

Some organic fish farming takes place, includingsalmon farming in Ireland and Norway. Organic fishand shellfish projects exist in the UnitedStates, Brazil, the Netherlands and the UnitedKingdom.

Vegetable products

Vegetables, roots and tubers

Both the European Union and the United States aremajor producers of vegetables, roots and tubers,including potatoes, carrots, onions and tomatoes.Israel is also an important supplier. Some developingcountries (e.g. Argentina and Egypt) offer a variety of

items in this product group. Several other countriesproduce certain quantities of vegetables for domesticconsumption.

Among the other producers are Brazil, Chile, CostaRica, Ghana, India, Mexico, Poland, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda and Uruguay.

Legumes (pulses)

The United States is a major producer of driedbeans. Other producers include Argentina, Brazil,Egypt, Honduras, India, Mexico, Nicaragua andPeru. Turkey produces some chickpeas and lentils,and Egypt grows peas. The output of the EuropeanUnion includes peas, lentils, brown and white beans, and chickpeas. (For soya beans, see the section onoil-seeds below.)

Spices and herbs

Egypt is an important supplier of a variety of herbsand spices. Substantial production also takes placein India, Malawi and the United Republic ofTanzania. Many other developing countries offerherbs and spices, including Argentina (which growsa wide range of herbs), Brazil, Chile, China,Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic,Guatemala, Indonesia, Jamaica, Mexico, Morocco,Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Togo,Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Someherbs and spices are produced in the EuropeanUnion, especially herbs like sage and parsley. It alsoproduces organic lavander.

Vanilla is produced in the Comoros, Costa Rica,Guatemala, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mexico, PapuaNew Guinea, Tonga and Uganda, among otherdeveloping countries.

Fruits and nuts

Fruits, fresh

The European Union, the United States, Israel andAustralia are some of the major producers of various kinds of organic fruits. Among the other producersare Chile and Argentina, countries around theMediterranean (for instance Egypt), and many othercountries particularly in Latin America and theCaribbean, and Africa. The Dominican Republic isan important supplier of bananas. This fruit isproduced in many other countries in the LatinAmerican and Carribean region, as are mangoes.New Zealand has a significant crop of kiwi fruit, ashave Chile, France and Italy. Berries are producedfor instance in Argentina and Hungary.

Brasil, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada,Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, the DominicanRepublic, Ecuador, Egypt, Ghana, Guatemala,

Haiti, Honduras, India, Madagascar, Mexico,Morocco, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Poland,Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Togo,Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, the United Republic ofTanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela and Zimbabweproduce fresh fruits.

Fruits, dried

Turkey is an important source of a wide variety ofdried fruits. A large volume is also produced in theUnited States (raisins in California, for instance),and in the Mediterranean (dates in Egypt, Algeriaand Israel). Among the other suppliers are LatinAmerica and the Caribbean (Argentina, Colombia,Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and theDominican Republic), Africa (Togo, Tunisia,Morocco, Uganda), Asia (Sri Lanka and India) andEastern Europe (Poland and Hungary).

Raisins, dates, apricots, apples, figs, bananas andother tropical fruit are typical dried fruit products.

Nuts

Turkey is a major producer of nuts, including hazelnuts. The United States (producing almonds; forexample) and the European Union also offer organic nuts (Italy and Spain: hazelnuts and almonds;France: walnuts). Cashew nuts are produced inLatin America (Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala,Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru), Africa (Madagascar,Mozambique, United Republic of Tanzania) andAsia (India and Sri Lanka). Peanuts are grown inArgentina, Ghana, India, Israel, Mexico, Paraguayand the United Republic of Tanzania, and Brazilnuts in Brazil and Colombia. China (walnuts), theRepublic of Moldova (walnuts) and Tunisia alsooffer nuts.

Cocoa, coffee, tea and maté

Coffee is one of the most important organic products exported by developing countries. It is producedmainly in Latin America, where the largestproducing country is Mexico. Among the otherproducers are Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, CostaRica, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia,Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia,Madagascar, Malawi, Nicaragua, Papua NewGuinea, Peru, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Togo,Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, the United States(Hawaii) and Venezuela.

134 CHAPTER 5 – WORLD SUPPLY BY PRODUCT GROUP

India is the biggest producer of organic tea, followedby Sri Lanka. Tea is also produced in countries likethe United Republic of Tanzania (which offersseveral varieties), Argentina, Brazil, China (greentea), Costa Rica, Egypt, Japan, Nepal (green tea) andPapua New Guinea.

Bolivia is a major producer of cocoa. Among theother producers are Belize, Brazil, Costa Rica, theDominican Republic, Gabon, Ghana, Guatemala,Honduras, Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Mexico,Nicaragua, Panama, Papua New Guinea and Togo.

Maté is produced in Argentina and Brazil, for instance.

Cereals

For human consumption

Cereals are an important organic staple foodproduct. They include wheat, durum wheat, spelt,rice, rye, barley, oat, maize, millet, buckwheat,quinoa and amaranth.

The European Union and the United States are largeproducers of wheat, as are Canada and Australia.Among the other producers are Argentina, Brazil,China, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Hungary,Poland, the Russian Federation, Slovakia andTurkey.

Rice is mainly produced in Asia, for instance inChina, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, thePhilippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. It is also grown in Canada and the United States; France, Italy andSpain; and Costa Rica, Guyana, Suriname andUruguay. Supplies are increasing in a number ofcountries. The three European countries mentionedare by far the largest suppliers of organic rice to theEuropean market.

Old varieties of cereals like amaranth are gaining inimportance. Amaranth and quinoa are produced inLatin American countries like Bolivia, Brazil,Mexico and Peru. Kamut, a very old wheat variety,is mainly produced in the United States.

Millet and buckwheat are grown in the UnitedStates, Canada, the Russian Federation andArgentina.

Seed grain

Some seed grain is produced in the European Union(for instance in Germany and the Netherlands),Switzerland and the United States. This sector isbecoming crucial in efforts to create a food chainthat is totally free of genetically modifiedorganisms.

Oil-seeds and oleaginous fruits

Some of the most important oil crops are sunflower,safflower, pumpkin, sesame, flax, coconut, oliveand soya bean.

Many developing countries produce oil-seeds, as doEurope and North America. Examples of producersworldwide are listed below:

q Coconut: Colombia, Costa Rica, DominicanRepublic, Honduras, India, Madagascar, Sri Lanka;

q Linseed: Russian Federation;

q Olives: Mediterranean countries, Argentina;

q Pumpkin seeds: China, Hungary, Mexico.

q Safflower seeds: Canada, Argentina, Paraguay;

q Sesame seeds: Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso,China, El Salvador, Gambia, Guatemala, India,Malawi, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, SriLanka, Sudan, Turkey and Uganda.

q Soya bean: United States (an importantproducer), Argentina, Austria and France.

q Sunflower seeds: Hungary, United States,Argen tina, China, Croatia, France, Para guay,Uganda, Uruguay.

Soya bean is an important item as it goes into theproduction of food items that replace meat and dairy products, for instance soy milk, tofu and cheese. Ashas been mentioned, the United States is a largeproducer of soya beans. Production also takes placein Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Croatia,Nicaragua, Paraguay, Uganda, Zimbabwe and theEuropean Union. The search for GMO-free soy andsoy products (such as lecithin) for use in theproduction of organic and conventional products isgrowing strongly.

CHAPTER 5 – WORLD SUPPLY BY PRODUCT GROUP 135

Prepared foodstuffs

Vegetable oils and fats

A large volume of oil is produced in countriesimporting oil-seeds. However, some developingcountries also produce oil. Examples are Argentina,which has a considerable output of olive oil andsunflower oil; Benin (palm oil and coconut oil);Bolivia; Brazil (palm oil, and palm kernel oil andfat); China; Colombia (a large output of palm oil);Madagascar; and the United Republic of Tanzania.

Sugars and sugar confectionery

Cane sugar is pro duced in many devel opingcoun tries/areas, including Argen tina, Brazil,Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the DominicanRepublic, Gua de loupe, India, Mada gascar, Mau ri tius,Mexico, Para guay, Myanmar, the Phil ip pines,Réunion, South Africa and Sri Lanka. Pro duc tion oforganic beet sugar (in Europe) is in its infancy.

Other sweeteners

Mexico produces agave juice as a sweetener,Belgium offers cereal-based sweeteners, and Italymakes a citrus-based product.

Among the other sweet eners are maple syrup(mainly from Canada) and date syrup (largely fromthe Middle East). Con cen trated apple and pearjuices, basi cally from the Euro pean Union and theUnited States, are also used as sweet eners. Steviarebau diana, a plant from the jun gles of Brazil andPara guay, is the source of a con cen trated juice withpotent sweet ening prop er ties.

Preparations of vegetables, nuts andother parts of plants

Vegetables

Both the Euro pean Union and the United States aremajor pro ducers of proc essed vege ta bles, of whichtoma toes are a common example. Among the otherpro ducers are Aus tralia, Costa Rica, Hun gary,Turkey and the United Republic of Tan zania.Dehy drated vege ta bles are pro duced by Argen tina,Ger many, Hun gary and the Neth er lands. Bel gium,Den mark, Ger many and Swit zer land pro ducefrozen vege ta bles.

Fruits

Some coun tries/areas offer a wide range ofproc essed fruit prod ucts, including Argen tina, theEuro pean Union, Sri Lanka, the United States andTurkey. Others offer a smaller range of prod ucts. Alevel of proc essing takes place in places like India(mango con cen trate), Brazil (banana purée) andPuerto Rico (banana purée).

The developing countries/areas producing juices,purées or pulps and concentrates include Bolivia,Brazil, China, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic,Honduras, Hungary, India, Israel, Madagascar,Mexico, Papua New Guinea and Puerto Rico.

Alcoholic beverages

Organic wine is produced in France, Germany,Greece, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Spain, as wellas in Argentina, Chile, the Russian Federation and the United States. France, Germany and Italy also makeorganic champagne or champagne-type wines.Organic beer is produced in the European Union,mainly in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, theNetherlands and Switzerland.

There is some output of rum in Cuba, Costa Ricaand Nicaragua. Organic grappa (a brandy distilledfrom the skins, pips, and stalks of the grapes afterthey have been pressed for wine-making) isproduced in Italy, organic cognac in France andorganic whisky in Scotland.

Food additives

The supply of organic food additives isunderdeveloped. One of these additives is annatto, anatural food colourant produced from the pulpsurrounding the seed of the tropical American treeBixa orellana. It is produced in Malawi, other EastAfrican countries and in tropical America. Guargum (obtained from a legume with the samecommon name) and carob gum (from theleguminous carob or locust bean tree) and othergums are produced in the Mediterranean basin, EastAfrica and Asia. Among the numerous otherproducts in this category are alginates (obtainedfrom marine brown algae like kelp) and carrageenin(from red algae).

136 CHAPTER 5 – WORLD SUPPLY BY PRODUCT GROUP

Other processed food products

The European Union, North America (United States,Canada) Japan, Australia and New Zealand, andArgentina are the main producers of this category ofproducts.

For more detailed information on producingcountries and product groups, the reader should referto the country chapters. Denmark, Germany, the

Netherlands and Switzerland, and increasingly alsoFrance, offer an almost complete range of processedfoods, as does the United States. Their outputincludes cereal products, meat products, preserves,dried and frozen food, ready meals and otherconvenience foods. The United Kingdom offers, forinstance, jams, marmalades and cereal products; Italy pasta, jams and marmalades; Belgium pasta and other cereal products including cereal-based sweeteners.Germany is the largest supplier of organic baby food.

Miscellaneous products

Feedstuff

Individual farms produce fodder, and severalcountries have set aside areas for animal forage.However, countries with considerable livestockfarming operations (as in Demark, France and theNetherlands) import proteins. These include soyabeans and fodder-quality grains from the UnitedStates and other countries. Argentina produces soyabeans for fodder.

Cotton

Organic cotton is an important agricultural item formany developing countries. The United States is themain producer, but it is also produced in India, Egypt, Turkey, Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay, Pakistan,East and West Africa, Tunisia, Nicaragua and Peru.

Natural pesticides and repellents

The natural pesticide pyrethrum is obtained from thepowdered flower-heads of Chrysanthemum (or

Tanacetum) cinerariifolium or C. coccineum; it isproduced in East Africa and elsewhere. Neem, fromthe East Indian tree, Azadirachta indica (MeliaAzadirachta), is produced in India, Africa andMexico. Rotenone (from Derris elliptica), quassia(from the South American tree Quassia amara) andryania (from the tropical South American shrubRyania speciosa) are produced in various parts of thetropics. Products from such species as Albiziagummifera, Cassia fallacina, Cassia didymobotra,Euphorbia tirucalli and Tephrosia vojellia, producedand used for example in Malawi and other EastAfrican countries, and many other products have notyet found their way into the market place.

Other non-food products

Organic products such as cut flowers and pot plants,hemp, jute, leather, sisal, wood and wood products,wool, and ingredients for cosmetics and cleaningproducts are likely to enjoy a growing market in thefuture.

CHAPTER 5 – WORLD SUPPLY BY PRODUCT GROUP 137

Part III

MAJOR MARKETS

Chapter 6

DENMARK

Introduction

Though a small country, both in population and ingeographical size, Denmark has become one of thepioneers in promoting organic agriculture, and in theproduction and marketing of organic food andbeverages. Since the first organic legislation wasintroduced in Denmark in 1987, it has been theGovernment’s policy actively to promote organicfarming. The rapid development of the sector inrecent years is to a great extent a result of strongcooperation among three parties, i.e. governmentauthorities, organic farmers and the retail trade, inparticular FDB (Coop Denmark), which have allbeen working towards a common goal.

In 1993, FDB made a policy decision to lower theretail prices of organic products drastically; thisstimulated sales enormously. In 1995, theGovernment issued an Action Plan for the

Advancement of Organic Food Production inDenmark, most of the recommendations of whichhave been implemented. In January 1999, theMinistry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheriespublished Action Plan II to support organicdevelopment during the period 1999-2003. Itprovides policy guidelines and recommendations onorganic farming (e.g. conversion), product andquality development, marketing and distribution,export marketing, training, research, etc.

It is also significant that an association of suppliersand processors of organic food and beverages(Øgruppen -Dansk Økologileverandørforening) wasestablished in 1998. One of its major objectives is topromote sales of organic products, and it is expectedto play a major role in the Danish organic trade.

Supply and demand

Production

Organic farming accounted for 2.3% of the totalDanish farmland (corresponding to about 64,300hectares) in 1997. By 1998, these figures had risen to3.6% and 99,000 hectares. The number of organically run farms increased from 677 in 1994 to 2,228 in1998. In 1999, the number of farms is expected to rise to 3,300 in addition to about 800 farms in conversion.

Though, generally speaking, most Danish farmershave been reluctant to go into organic farming, asignificant switch has taken place during the last fewyears. This is partly a result of market pressure and

partly due to government policy. The Governmentstarted to grant subsidies to organic farmers andvarious organic projects in 1988. Organic farminghas also been subsequently subsidized under EUenvironmental programmes.

The Government continues to promote organicfarming. The 1995 Action Plan for the Advancementof Organic Food Production – put forward by theMinistry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries – set atarget of 200,000 hectares, corresponding to 7% of all farmland, for the year 2000. The Action Plan IIobjective is 300,000 hectares by 2003, or about 10%of all farmland.

The dairy industry is the most important producer oforganic food and has played a major role inpromoting overall sales of organic food in Denmark.According to Ecoguide5, production of organic milkhas grown rapidly from 33,300 tons to 134,700 tons(estimates) annually during the five-year period1992/93-1996/97. In the latter year, organic milkaccounted for an estimated 3% of total milkproduction (including milk used for producingorganic cheese and other dairy products); organicmilk also accounted for 16% of all table milk sales inDenmark. Organic cheese, on the other hand, has amarket share of only about 2%, according to tradesources. The two major suppliers of organic milk areMD Foods and Kløver Mælk (recently merged),though a number of smaller dairy companies are alsoinvolved. In 1998, the total intake of organic milkwas estimated at about 157,000 tons. It was forecastroughly to double by the year 2000. Organic milk isexported, e.g. to Germany. Imports of milk and milkproducts are insignificant.

Beef production has been overshadowed by milkproduction and consumption of beef has been slow totake off, though it has increased considerably since1993. Less than 0.5% of all cattle slaughtering isorganic. No exact figures exist for organic beef, butaccording to some estimates, production increasedfrom about 100 tons in 1992 to just over 800 tons in1997. It is sold partly as fresh meat and partly asprocessed meat (sausages and other charcuterie). Thenumber of slaughtered cattle was about 10,000 in1998, forecast to rise to 15,000 - 20,000 in 1999. Themain suppliers are Hanegal Økologisk Kød A/S andFriland Food A/S. Imports of organic beef productsare relatively insignificant, though some sausagesand other meat products are made from raw materialsimported from the Netherlands.

The organic production of pigs is comparatively littledeveloped. Exact figures are not available, butproduction of pig meat is thought to have increasedfrom just over 100 tons in 1992 to just under 350 tonsin 1996. Sales have been poor owing to insufficientsupply, but both production and consumption are onthe increase. Pork is sold both as fresh and as frozenmeat and is used in charcuterie. The biggestdistributors are Hanegal Økologisk Kød A/S andFriland Food A/S. In 1998, 20,000-25,000 organicpigs were slaughtered, a figure expected to rise to

50,000 pigs in 1999. Imports of pig meat amount toless than 50 tons yearly, according to trade sources.

There is also organic production of mutton and lamb(3,200 tons in 1998), poultry (insignificant butgrowing) and eggs (over 5,000 tons in 1998). Imports of these items are insignificant.

Production of organic cereals roughly tripled duringthe five-year period 1992-1996, from about 7,000tons to 21,000 tons. The most common species ofgrain grown and used in Denmark are wheat, rye,barley and oats. It is not known exactly how much isused as animal feed by farmers and how much goesfor human consumption. Drabæks Mølle A/S is animportant organic flour mill. Producers of organicanimal feeds include Skjern Å Andel and DLGØkologi. Imports of cereals are significant andgrowing.

Domestic production of vegetables, roots and tubersamounted to an estimated 23,000 tons in 1996(potatoes: 8,000 tons, carrots: 7,000 tons, others:8,000 tons) according to Ecoguide. Production hasincreased considerably since 1992. It is mainly soldas fresh produce, though some quantities are used forprocessing. In early 1999 there were plans to set up aprocessing plant for red cabbage (initially 50 tons)and beetroot. Production of fruit and berries is smalland probably amounted to less than 100 tons in 1997.The main crop was blackcurrants, followed by pears.In some years, certain quantities of apples andcherries have been produced, as have various types of jams and marmalades.

Market size

The Danish retail market for organic food andbeverages was estimated at close to DKr 2,000million in 1997 (exclusive of 25% VAT),corresponding to about 2.5% of the total market. Thefigures do not cover the institutional and cateringmarket for organic food, which is believed to be stillsmall. It is significant that retail sales of organic foodand beverages have increased sharply since 1993 andthat the high growth rates are likely to continue in thenext few years. Preliminary trade estimates for 1998indicate total sales of organic food and beverages ofclose to DKr 3,200 million (exclusive of VAT), or3.5% - 4% of total food sales.

142 CHAPTER 6 – DENMARK

5 Økoguide 1997/1998 - 1999 (Ecoguide), Michael Borgen, ed. Denmark’s ØkoWeb page is accessible at http://www.ecoweb.dk. (See alsohttp://www.ecoguide.dk.)

Since official production and foreign trade statisticson organic food and beverages are either incompleteor non-existent, an attempt to provide estimates ofmarket size and imports (on the basis of fragments of

statistics and information from trade sources) for themain product groups is given whenever possible inthe section that follows.

Import and market requirements by major product group

Imports of most consumer-packed organic food andbeverages are currently insignificant. This is mainlybecause only products that are processed or packaged in Denmark are allowed to use the government Ølogo (see below). As a consequence, imports oforganic foodstuff are largely in the form ofunprocessed or semi-processed raw material, thoughthere are some exceptions. The product groupsdiscussed below are likely to be the most interestingfor exporters in developing countries.

Fresh fruits and vegetables

Fresh fruits and vegetables constitute one of the mostimportant organic product groups. Though mostdemand, in particular for vegetables, is currently metby domestic producers, there appears to be goodopportunities for imports. However, it must be notedthat Danish consumers are less confident about theorganic origin of imported products.

An esti mated 5,200 tons of vege ta bles, roots andtubers were imported in 1998, the main items beingcar rots, pota toes, onions, cucum bers, cab bage andtoma toes (including cherry toma toes from Israel).Herbs and salads were also imported. TheNeth er lands is the main sup plier of most of theseprod ucts, fol lowed by France, Italy and Spain. Freshtoma toes and cucum bers are in high demand duringthe summer, whereas cab bage, beet root, leeks, etc.are sold mainly during the winter.

Only a small volume of fruit is cur rently imported. In1998, imports amounted to an esti mated 3,000 tons,including 900 tons for proc essing by Danishcom pa nies. The main imports are avo cados (fromIsrael, South Africa), bananas (the DominicanRepublic, Colombia, Costa Rica, Hon duras andUganda), apples (Israel and Ger many), lemons(Israel), grape fruit (Israel), clementines (Spain),oranges (Spain), pears (Italy), kiwi fruit (France),papaya (Israel) and litchis (South Africa). There isvery little demand for tropical fruit, though there aresome sales of papaya (Israel).

Re gard less of origin, most im ported fresh fruit isob tained through traders in the Neth er lands. TheIs raeli trading com pany Agr exco has a sales of fice inRot terdam, which sup plies the Benelux coun tries and Scan di navia. Al most all fresh or ganic pro duce,in cluding im ports (re packed in Den mark), ismar keted under the Ø logo.

In 1998, exports of vegetables (mainly carrots)amounted to 6,500 tons.

Dried fruits and nuts, seeds and kernels

This is an important product group, and demand ismet almost entirely by imports. The range of products include temperate-zone, subtropical and tropicaldried fruits, as well as various types of nuts, kernelsand seeds. The following main items offered byimporters are some of the products available:

q Fruits: raisins, figs, dates, mangoes, bananas,peaches, apricots, plums, apples (e.g. rings andflakes), candied peel, diced orange, pineapple.

q Nuts: hazelnuts, pea nuts, almonds, wal nuts,almonds, cashews, coconut chips, des si cated coconut.

q Seeds and kernels: sunflower, pine kernels,pumpkin, sesame, linseed, white and blue poppy seed.

Other varieties are also seen in shops, and consumersappear to be interested in most dried items, ifavailable. Most retail packs are sold under the Ø logo.

Processed fruits and vegetables

One of the main items in this product group appearsto be tomato products (peeled tomatoes, tomatopaste/purée, tomato ketchup, pasta sauce), which arecurrently supplied by Urtekram A/S, for example.However, there is no doubt a demand for severalother products, e.g. the most common canned fruitsand vegetables, including pineapple.

CHAPTER 6 – DENMARK 143

Fruit juices also offer inter esting oppor tu ni ties.Cur rently, four com pa nies sell organic fruit juices inDen mark. Nutana A/S, for example, offers two 100% fruit juices (apple and orange) in one- litre T-packscar rying the Ø logo. There is cer tainly a market forother juices as well, but for sales to increasesig nifi cantly, prices will probably have to fall. Retailprices may be up to twice those of con ven tional fruitjuices in some cases, and con sumers gen er ally findthese too high.

Import requirements are for bulk-packed juice (e.g. in concentrated form), which is then packed or bottledin Denmark. There is likewise a demand for otherforms of semi-processed fruit, e.g. block-frozen orindividually quick frozen (IQF) fruits and berries, forthe manufacture of marmalade and jam (e.g.strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, blackcurrant,orange, apricot). There is also a market for variousspreads made from vegetables and figs.

In 1998, an estimated 700 tons of processed fruitwere imported, whereas imports of processedvegetables were insignificant.

Several retail packs of frozen vegetables are sold inthe country, e.g. peas, carrots and corn, processedfrom fresh Danish produce or from imported fresh orfrozen vegetables (processed or repacked andrelabelled in Denmark). In general, consumers havebeen less interested in frozen organic vegetables,though demand is on the rise.

Grains, flour and bakery products

Flour, cereals and bakery products are among themost popular food products sold in the Danishmarket. Though most of the demand is met bydomestic production, there is a significant importbusiness, which supplies Danish food manufacturersand packers.

According to Ecoguide, imports of cereals for humanconsumption rose from about 400 tons in 1992 toabout 7,300 tons in 1996 (wheat: 4,367 tons, oats:1,746 tons, rye: 1,167 tons, barley: 15 tons). Themajor suppliers are Germany, the United Kingdomand France. Barley is used for brewing organic beer(e.g. by A/S Thisted Bryghus). The other cereals aremainly used in the preparation of breakfast cereals,like oatmeal, muesli (which has a strongly growingmarket) and corn flakes, and for milling flour forbakeries and home baking. Millet, quinoa, amaranth

and other cereals are also imported. Though nostatistics are available, organic rice is an importantproduct, obtained mainly from Italy but also fromdeveloping countries.

There is a considerable retail market for differenttypes of flour and bakery mixes used for homebaking. The market for bread and other bakeryproducts is large, and is principally supplied by themajor supermarkets, though the institutional marketis growing. During 1998, most of the FDB-ownedKvickly bakeries (numbering around 75) wentorganic and stopped selling conventional bread.

Pasta (mainly of Italian origin) is imported in bulk for repacking in Denmark to obtain the Ø logo, but somequantities are imported in retail packs and sold undera label certified in Italy. Tholstrup Pastella A/S is amajor Danish producer of fresh pasta from importeddurum wheat.

Coffee, tea and cocoa

All major retail organizations offer a selection oforganic coffee and tea, mostly packed under amanufacturer’s brand name and carrying the Ø logo.Some packs are also marked with the Max Havelaarlogo for fair trade. Suppliers of organic coffee include Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Peru. The organic teas and infusions found in the Danishmarket include tea (Darjeeling, Earl Grey, Kashmirand Japanese), lemon grass, mango and orange.Organic cocoa powder and chocolate are also sold.

Herbs and spices

Dried culinary herbs constitute an important productgroup. Urtekram A/S, to cite an example, offers closeto 100 different herbs and similar items, as well asabout 50 herbal teas and various tea mixes. Several of these products are imported, mainly in bulk forrepacking in Denmark. Important items includevanilla, cinnamon, cardamon, clove, ginger, caraway, fennel, garlic and oregano.

Sweeteners

These products include the following: honey,currently supplied by Mexico and New Zealand; beetsugar; cane sugar (white, golden and brown), mainlyobtained from Mauritius through a Netherlandscompany; agave syrup; maple syrup; beet syrup andglucose.


While Denmark manufactures a large volume ofconventional sugar (from beetroot), it does not as yetmake organic sugar. However, Danisco Sugar isplanning to start production sometime in 1999.

Dried legumes/pulses

Imported products include dried beans such as aduki(or azuki), kidney beans, brown beans, white beans,chickpeas, and red and green lentils.

Oil-seeds and oils, starch, soy

A large variety of seeds is imported, includingsesame, sunflower and flax to mention a few. Soyabeans and soy products are important as they form the basis for a large number of different food items fromsoy drinks to tofu and vegetal burgers. Various formsof starch, e.g. from wheat and maize, are alsoimported.

Several cooking oils are on the market, e.g.sunflower, sesame, soya bean, grape, rape, thistle and olive. Cooking oils are among the few productsimported in retail packs, since no bottling of thisproduct group takes place in Denmark. Sales oforganic oils, in particular olive oil, are increasingstrongly.

Other food and beverage products

A large number of other organic products areimported into Denmark, either because they are not

produced locally or because domestic production isunable to meet demand. Virtually all food andbeverage items consumed by the average household– whether fresh, dried, canned, frozen or otherwiseprepared and even convenience foods – can easily bebought in organic form on the Danish retail market.This includes all sorts of beverages, including milk,juice, coffee, tea, soft drinks, beer and wine. In 1998,an estimated 150,000 litres of wine were imported.

Most of the above-mentioned products are usuallyprocessed or packed in Denmark and canconsequently be sold under the Ø logo. However, inmany cases the raw material is imported, e.g.coffee beans, tea leaves, fruit juice concentrate andmalt.

Organic baby food, an important product, is imported in retail packs, mainly from Germany. Wine, mostlyfrom France, Italy and Germany, is usually importedbottled. Other suppliers of organic wine includeArgentina and California. Urtekram imports anorganic whisky from Scotland.

Animal feed

Imports of animal feed have been allowed only since1990. On the basis of information from trade sources, Ecoguide estimates that imports of cereals used asanimal feed have increased from 1,900 tons in 1992to 6,400 tons in 1996. Imports of other forms ofanimal feed, e.g. soya-bean products, rose from about 100 tons in 1992 to about 4,100 tons in 1996.

Market characteristics

Market segments

From the point of view of a devel oping countryexporter, the food proc essing industry is the mostimpor tant market seg ment, as most imports con sist of fresh pro duce or raw mate rial which is repacked orfur ther proc essed by Danish com pa nies. Thoughreli able sta tis tics are unavail able, the retail trade has by far the largest share in total sales to the ulti matecon sumer. How ever, the insti tu tional and cateringtrade is growing in impor tance.

It is interesting to note that in Denmark over 70% ofall organic products are sold by supermarkets anddiscount stores; only a small percentage is handled by

health and speciality shops. Most supermarketsexhibit organic products next to conventional items in order to offer the consumer a real choice, thoughsome stores also have an organic corner or shelf.

Organic food and beverages are usually easy to find,not least because most of them are marked with thewell-known Ø logo. Furthermore, the shelves areclearly marked økologisk to facilitate the consumer’schoice.

Consumer habits and productpreferences

According to a note on consumption (compiled by


Infood in August 1997), 1% - 2% of consumers buyonly organic foodstuff and about 8% claim they buymainly organic products if available. Another 22%are frequent buyers, and about 38% buy occasionally. Around 32% apparently never buy organic foodstuff.

The share by area of consumers who buy organicproducts (with various degrees of frequency) is highest in the Copenhagen region (about 90% of allconsumers). The proportion in the rural districts isabout two-thirds. A more recent Infood note (datedSeptember 1998) states that about 80% of allconsumers claim they buy organic products; thecorresponding figures for the big cities are aboveaverage. Non-buyers cited indifference (58%) andhigh prices (23%) as reasons for not buying organicfood. Over 10% of Danish households spent more than 10% of the food budget on organic products in the year covered by the note.

The typical con sumer of organic food stuff is gen er allyinter ested in new food prod ucts and is like wise highlyquality and health con scious. It should also beempha sized that con sumers expect organic foodprod ucts to be at least of the same quality ascon ven tional prod ucts, pref erably better. Recentresearch indi cates that health rea sons, fol lowed byenvi ron mental con sid era tions, are the main motivesfor pur chasing organic food. For meat and meatprod ucts animal ethics also play an impor tant role.

Price considerations are significant for mostconsumers, in particular for the higher priced items. As a rule of thumb, a price premium of 20% - 30% overconventional products seems to be the maximumacceptable in most cases. In terms of specific fooditems, it appears that milk, followed by eggs, ryebread, carrots and potatoes, are the products mostfrequently bought by consumers. For the time being,most sales consist of products with a lower rather thana higher degree of processing, though the latter marketsegment is growing.

The relative importance of various product groups canalso be illustrated by the following breakdown of salesof the biggest retailer (FDB) in 1997: dairy products

and eggs accounted for 47.3% of total sales oforganic food and beverages, followed by fruits andvegetables (mainly carrots, onion and potatoes) with16.4%, groceries (11%), bread and bakery products(8.4%), meat and meat products (6.7%), frozen food(1.5%), wine (1.4%) and others (7.3%). At the time of the survey dairy and meat products had the highestgrowth rates.

Finally, it may be interesting to look at the marketshare of organic food in relation to overall sales(organic and conventional) of a particular item. Againin the case of FDB organically grown carrotsaccounted for 30.8% of total carrot sales in 1997,followed by eggs (20.9%), butter (20.9%), milk(15.5%), onions (10.1%), potatoes (9.4%) and bread(7.8%). Some products had much smaller shares, e.g.fruit (2.4%), vegetables other than carrots, onions andpotatoes (2.1%), cheese (5.1%) and frozen food(1.5%).

As mentioned elsewhere, consumer confidence in the organic origin of the product is of paramountimportance. In the Danish market this is stronglyillustrated by the role played by the State-controlledØ logo,which enjoys a high recognition value and isconsidered by most buyers of organic foodstuff as animportant product guarantee.

Sales promotion and advertising

As mentioned at the beginning of this chapter,organic food is promoted jointly by the agriculturalsector, the food industry, the retail sector and even the Government. Though FDB, the biggest organicretailer, has sold organic food since 1981 on a smallscale, sales really took off only in 1993. The retailgroup decided to cut the prices of organic productsdrastically at the same time as it broadened itsproduct range substantially. A nationwide marketingcampaign, including advertising in nationalnewspapers and television as well as the group’s ownweekly promotion leaflets, was successfullyundertaken. Consumer information campaigns andadvertising by other major retail organizations alsohelped to develop the market to its present level.

Market access

Customs duties

Denmark applies the EU common external tariff. The same tariffs apply to both conventional and organic

food and beverages. Most products from the 71African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countriessignatories to the Lomé Convention, as well as fromoverseas countries and territories associated with EU,


are granted duty-free access or preferences. Inaddition, the EU Generalized System of Preferencescovers some products, and duty-free access is granted to LDCs for most products. Non-organic productsenjoy the same preferences.

Food laws and regulations

In 1987, the first Danish legislation on organicfarming and organic food was introduced with the Act on Organic Farming. Since 1991, however, theproduction and sale of organic products have beenregulated by EU through Council Regulation (EEC)No. 2092/91 of 24 June 1991 and its subsequentamendments. EU regulations are dealt with in detailin chapter 2.

Pro duc tion and sale of organic food of animal origin,e.g. meat, milk, eggs and honey, are cur rently gov -erned by Danish leg is la tion: Min istry of Agri cul tureRegu la tion No.753 of 2 Sep tember 1992 on Con di -tions for Mar keting of Organic Foods, as amended.The regu la tion has pro vi sions on the prepa ra tion,importing and label ling of organic foods. Whetherthe organic food of animal origin is imported fromEU or from other coun tries, it must meet the require -ments of this law. This regu la tion will be sup planted

by the newly adopted EU rules on animal pro duc tion.

Only farms approved by the Danish authorities maymarket and sell their products as organic. They arecontrolled by the Danish Plant Directorate. Processors, importers and packers must likewise be inspected andapproved to handle organic products, which is theresponsibilty of the Danish Veterinary and FoodAdministration. There are strict rules for processingorganic food, in particular regarding the use ofadditives, auxilliary substances and non-organicingredients.

The Ø logo is a State guar antee that the final prepa ra -tion and pack aging of the organic food in ques tionhas been car ried out by a com pany in Den markapproved by the Danish authori ties. If imported rawmate rial is used, the nec es sary per mits and cer tifi -cates, etc., are checked. Imported ready- packagedorganic food and bev er ages, whether from EU orfrom third coun tries, are not usu ally allowed to carrythe Ø logo. This explains why most organic food stuffis imported in bulk form for proc essing, prepa ra tionor repacking in Den mark. How ever, an importerclaims to have the per mis sion to use the Ø logo on apack of spray- dried coffee, although it has beenpacked in and imported from Mexico.


Agents, importers, repackers,processors

The import of fresh fruits and vegetables, whetherorganic or not, is in the hands of a few companies.Biodania AmbA specializes in organic produce andoperates as a wholesaler for Danish products, but isalso a large importer. Other large importers are H.Lembcke A/S (50% owned by Fyffes plc of Ireland)and Th. Olesen A/S, which both import organic andnon-organic produce.

The import of other organic food and beverages islikewise dominated by a few companies, includingthe following:

q Urtekram A/S (partly owned by Gaia TrustAmbA) is the largest importer and packer of organicfood and non- food prod ucts in Den mark and has been in the busi ness for more than 25 years. The com pany

offers more than 2,500 organic items, most of whichare food and bev erage prod ucts. But the company isalso a specialist in natural shampoos and othercosmetic products with organic ingredients. Themain product groups include: dried fruits and nuts,herbs and spices, grains and break fast cereals,cookies and crackers, cooking oils (e.g. olive oil) andvine gars, tea, pasta, rice, beans, len tils, sugar andother sweet eners and wine. The com pany worksdirect with a number of pro ducers in devel opingcoun tries and packs under the Ø logo. It is involvedwith the Organic Group of Scan di navia as regardsdis tri bu tion, and is a founding member of the GoodFood Foun da tion. Urtekram is asso ci ated withMcGrail’s Natur ma gasin, a food and non- foodorganic shop in Copen hagen.

q Unikost A/S (owned by JAN Import A/S) is animporter and packer of both conventional and organic food. It packs under the Ø logo and its own label


Green Valley. The company currently offers about 30 organic food items, including dried fruits and nuts,pasta, rice, seeds, sugar, grains and flour.

q Bio Trading A/S is an importer and trader inorganic food raw materials for the bakery and foodindustry in Denmark and other Nordic countries. Itoperates either direct or through wholesalers. Amongits important product groups are sugar, malt, starch,eggs and egg powder, seeds, dried fruits and nuts,cocoa and chocolate, fats and oils, and spices. Thecompany also trades in other organic food products,e.g. processed fruit (jam and jelly).

Among the other importers are the following:

q U-landsimporten. Importer/whole saler of food -stuff, including organic prod ucts, e.g. coffee, tea andcocoa; a non- profit organi za tion working on the fairtrade prin ciple.

q Sunprojuice Denmark ApS. An importer andproducer of organic semi-processed fruits andberries, purée, concentrates, IQF, and others; supplies the food industry.

The names and addresses of these and the othercompanies importers are given in the annex to thischapter.

Food and beverage manufacturers

With the exception of the dairy and meat industries,the major Danish food manufacturers are generallylittle involved in organic food production. The largest Danish food manufacturer, Danisco Foods A/S, forexample, produces very little organic food (e.g.frozen peas). However, there are a number of smallercompanies, whose organic products are well knownby consumers, including the following:

q Drabæks Mølle A/S. Recently bought by HavneMøllerne A/S, owned by the Swedish concernCerealia AB. Processes cereals and sells a range offlour and breakfast cereals under its brandKornkammeret.

q Nutana A/S. Owned by Kavli A/S of Norway.Produces vegetarian products and has a policy of notusing any additives, preservatives, artificial colouring or flavouring. Its organic assortment currentlyincludes juices, patés, baked beans, chilli beans,frozen ready-meals, frozen vegetables (e.g. sliced

carrots, green beans, peas, spinach, mixedvegetables) and a wide range of products like muesli,rice, pasta, other beans, seeds, kernels, flour andfruits.

q Svansø Food A/S. Produces various organicmarmalades and jams. It uses domestic as well asimported raw material. It has just acquired Scan AgraA/S in Odense, which is a trader and importer offrozen fruit and vegetables. Svansø also imports pasta and olive oil.

q Schulstad Brød A/S. Produces a range oforganic bread and bakery products, including thetraditional Danish rye bread.

q De Danske Brødfabrikker A/S. Owned by FDB(see below). Produces a range of bread and bakeryproducts.

q Mølle Skovly. Produces organic chocolate andalso sells imported natural sweets.

q Natur Frisk Brewery. Bottles a range of organicfruit juices and fruit juice drinks.

Retail organizations

q FDB (Coop Den mark) is the largest retail groupin Den mark with about 33% of the overall foodmarket. It com prises the super market chainsBrugsen, Lokal Brugsen, Dagli’Brugsen, Super -Brugsen and Kvickly (with a total of about 925 retailout lets) and around 12 OBS! hyper mar kets. All thechains carry out high- profile mar keting of organicprod ucts.

FDB also owns IRMA (see below) and the discountchain Fakta (which handles a small volume oforganic products and has more than 200 outlets).Most organic products are marketed under the Ølogo, though some items are sold under other(non-Danish) organic logos. The FDB group marketsproducts carrying various manufacturer’s or packer’sbrands, but it is also building up a range of productsunder its own Natura label. In all, about 800 organicitems are sold through FDB stores.

Generally speaking, FDB’s imports of foodstuffs arehandled by NAF-Intergroup, which coordinatesimports for members (cooperatives) in Denmark,Sweden, Norway, Finland, Italy and the UnitedKingdom.


FDB owns De Danske Brødfabrikker (manufacturerof bread and bakery products) and DanskKaffekompagni (packer of coffee and tea) as well asvarious non-food retailers and other companies. DeDanske Brødfabrikker obtains its organic rawmaterials from Danish millers, e.g. Drabæks Mølle;Danske Kaffekompagni imports raw materialsthrough NAF.

q IRMA, owned by FDB, is an upmarketsuper market chain with about 55 retail outlets in theCopen hagen area. Its organic assort ment consists ofabout 400 items. It is the Danish retail organi za tionwith the highest percentage of organic food andbever ages. For example, it has decided to sell onlyorganic milk and is phasing out conven tional milk. Itsells a wide range of prod ucts carrying its own label(e.g. IRMA coffee and IRMA tea) andmanu fac tur er’s or pack er’s brands. In general itobtains its imports through NAF-Inter group. InJanuary 1999, organic food and bever ages accountedfor 12.5% of total sales, the most impor tant prod uctsbeing rye bread (making up 70% of all rye breadsold), fresh pasta (67% of all pasta sold), milk (62%),flour (44%), vege ta bles (24%) and fresh meat (13%).

q Dansk Supermarket A/S is the second largestretail group in Denmark with about 22% of the totalfood market. It comprises the following supermarketchains: føtex (a supermarket chain with over 50outlets throughout the country); Bilka (over 10hypermarkets selling food and everyday goods);NETTO (a chain of discount shops with about 240outlets in Denmark in addition to stores in the UnitedKingdom, Germany and Poland, which is promotingorganic food aggressively). Of those, føtex iscurrently the most important as far as organic foodand beverages are concerned. It offers a broad rangeof organic items, including fresh produce, dairyproducts, meat products, dry goods and beverages.

Dansk Supermarket has no food manufacturingoperations of its own, and obtains all its requirementsfrom Danish and foreign manufacturers. Though itimports some food products direct, it buys organicproducts only from Danish companies whichmanufacture or pack under the Ø logo. Likewise, thegroup does not use its own label on organic products,but sells these under manufacturer’s brands.

q DAGROFA A/S is a major wholesalersupplying a number of independent supermarkets and other retailers, including the supermarket chainFavør. It handles a range of organic food products.

q Matas A/S, a health and body care shop ratherthan a food store, retails a range of organic dried fruits and nuts, beans, seeds, ker nels, rice and pastas. It hasalso intro duced a ‘su bscri ption serv ice’under whichfresh fruits and vege ta bles are deliv ered tohouse holds on a weekly basis. It has roughly 290stores.

q ISO is a supermarket chain in Copenhagen witha fairly broad range of organic food products.

Catering and institutional trade

Though organic food and beverages are still ofrelatively low importance in this sector, the cateringand institutional trade is expanding and considerablegrowth is expected in the future. A governmentprogramme is actively promoting the use of organicproducts by municipal and other public institutions.

The Government’s Action Plan II, prepared by theOrganic Food Council, likewise pays specialattention to developing sales of organic products tothe catering and institutional sector. One of theproblems cited was the lack of special distributionchannels for this sector.

Market prospects

With a population of just over 5 million people,Denmark is a fairly small market for most food andbeverages. However, as shown earlier in this chapter,total sales of organic food and beverages in 1997 may be estimated at about DKr 2,000 million,corresponding to about 2.5% of the total retail market for foodstuff. This places Denmark in the top league

among world markets with the highest per capitaconsumption of organic foodstuff. Furthermore,consumption has been growing rapidly in recentyears, including 1997 when retail sales increased byabout 25% according to trade sources. Preliminaryfigures for 1998 seem to indicate total sales of closeto DKr 3,200 million (exclusive of 25% VAT).


There are very strong indications that the Danishmarket for organic foodstuff will continue to expandfor a considerable number of years. Firstly, consumerinterest in healthy food and environmentally friendlyproducts continues to grow and more and morepeople are purchasing organic products. Secondly,the major retailers are promoting organic foodstuffquite aggressively, inter alia, through heavyadvertising and competitive pricing. FDB, forexample, has set ambitious sales targets for specificorganic products (as a percentage of total sales of agiven item) to be reached by the year 2001. For someof these products the lack of supply seems to be themajor problem. Thirdly, Danish farmers as well asfood manufacturers are increasingly becoming aware of the opportunities that exist in satisfying consumerexpectations. Finally, government policy continously aims at promoting the production and consumptionof organic foodstuff. Trade sources and industrypeople believe that sales may reach 10% of total foodsales by the year 2005.

Market opportunities exist for most product groups

listed in the section on market and importrequirements (see above), in particular those that arenot produced in Denmark. There also seems to be alatent demand for a number of products that arecurrently unavailable to the consumer. Continuoussourcing of new products by importers and productdevelopment by food processors, as well as consumer confidence in the authenticity of the organic origin ofthe product are necessary conditions for the marketpotential to be fully realized.

In conclusion, interesting prospects exist forexporters in developing countries who can supplyquality products at competitive prices. Importers andfood processors are interested in obtaining moresupplies direct from source (rather than throughintermediaries in other EU countries) depending onthe product in question and provided there isconfidence in the certification procedure applied. Imports will probably continue to consist mainly ofunprocessed or semi-processed products forrepacking or processing in Denmark.


Annex

Denmark: selected addresses*

IMPORTERS, PACKERS, ETC.

Bio Trading A/SÅbenråvej 9Kiskelund6340 KrussåTel: +45-70 23 15 15Fax: +45-70 23 15 16E-mail: [email protected]://www.biotrading.dk

Biodania AmbAGrønttorvet 6, 1.sal2500 ValbyTel: +45-36 30 24 78/36 30 24 29Fax: +45-36 30 24 79

Cofradex ApSSkelstedet 162950 VedbækTel: +45-42 89 17 67Fax: +45-42 89 03 13(Importer of rice, etc.)

F-I MejerifrugtHestehaven 35260 Odense STel: +45-66 13 13 70Fax: +45-66 13 44 10(Fruits and berries for the dairyindustry)

Jakobsen & Hvam A/SHovedvejen 227490 AulumTel: +45-97 47 39 27Fax: +45-94 47 39 27(Honey)

H. Lembcke A/SGrønttorvet 244-260PO Box 4272500 ValbyTel: +45-36 15 62 22Fax: +45-36 15 62 23

Mortensens Kaffe Vejle A/SUlvehavevej 587100 VejleTel: +45-75 82 01 99

Fax: +45-75 82 07 66(Coffee)

NAF International AmbAFanøgade 152100 Copenhagen ØTel: +45-39 16 90 00Fax: +45-39 16 90 80

Natur-Drogeriet A/SNydamsvej 13-158362 HørningTel: +45-86 92 33 33Fax: +45-86 92 33 43http://www.natur-drogeriet.dk(Importer and wholesaler of cereals,including rice, and flours)

Th. Olesen A/SFrugtmarkedet 172500 ValbyTel: +45-36 30 61 11Fax: +45-36 30 79 53

SolhjuletStorhedevejen 32, Taul8850 BjerringbroTel: +45-86 68 64 44Fax: +45-86 68 62 75http://www.solhjulet.dk(Supplies the catering sector)

Sunprojuice Denmark A/SHuginsvej 2-44100 RingstedTel: +45-57 67 11 77Fax: +45-57 67 11 45E-mail: [email protected]://www.ecoweb.dk/sunprojuice

Svanholm ImportSvanholm Allé 24050 SkibbyTel: +45-47 56 66 56Fax: +45-47 56 66 77(Importer of wine, beer, otheralchoholic drinks and foodstuff)

Tørsleff & Co. A/SHelseholmen 7-92650 Hvidovre

Tel: +45-36 34 30 00Fax: +45-36 34 30 01http://www.toersleff.dk(Importer and packer of vanilla)

U-landsimportenRolstrupbakken 67900 Nykøbing MorsTel: +45-97 72 57 88Fax: +45-97 72 53 54E-mail: u-landsimporten@vip. cybercity.dk(Trade)

and

Skindergade 241159 Copenhagen KTel: +45-33 91 90 90Fax: +45-33 91 90 97E-mail: [email protected]://www.u-landsimporten.dk(Information)

Unikost A/SOver Hadstenvej 588370 HadstenTel: +45-86 98 01 44Fax: +45-86 98 00 48E-mail: [email protected]://www.jan-import.dk

Urtekram A/SKlostermarken 209550 MariagerTel: +45-98 54 22 88Fax: +45-98 54 23 33E-mail: [email protected]://www.urtekram.dk/

FOOD PROCESSORS ANDMANUFACTURERS

BKI KaffeAxel Kiersvej 48270 HøjbjergTel: +45-86 29 22 99Fax: +45-86 29 10 89(Coffee importer and wholesaler)

___________________________* List not exhaustive.

A/S Crispy Food InternationalBlommeskoven 24281 GørlevTel: +45-58 86 05 05Fax: +45-58 86 00 22(Producer of muesli, owned by MD)

Danisco Foods A/SFredensgade 75800 NyborgTel: +45-65 31 11 30Fax: +45-65 31 58 30

Dansk Kaffekompagni A/SRoskildevej 25a2620 AlbertslundTel: +45-43 86 33 33Fax: +45-43 86 40 09

De Danske Brødfabrikker A/SKorsdalsvej 1012610 RødovreTel: +45-43 86 41 70Fax: +45-43 86 41 69

Drabæks MølleØstparken 1-56640 LunderskovTel: +45-75 58 52 66Fax: +45-75 58 58 30E-mail: [email protected]://www.kornkammeret.dk

Friland Food A/SØstersgades Butikstorv 7, Jebjerg7870 RoslevTel: +45-97 57 47 99Fax: +45-97 57 41 99E-mail: [email protected]://www.ecoweb.dk/friland(Slaughterhouse and distributor ofmeat and meat products)

Hanegal Økologisk Kød A/SResenbrovej 29, Voel8600 SilkeborgTel: +45-86 85 36 72Fax: +45-86 85 36 73E-mail: [email protected]://www.hanegal.dk(Slaughterhouse and distributor ofmeat and meat products)

Kløver Mælk AmbAVejlevej 107000 FredericiaTel: +45-75 92 49 88Fax: +45-75 91 05 95(“Harmonie”: organic milk)

Kohberg Rugbrød A/SIndustrivej 7-96392 BolderslevTel: +45-74 64 62 30Fax: +45-74 64 63 81

MD Foods AmbASkanderborgvej 2778260 Viby J

Tel: +45-89 38 10 00Fax: +45-86 28 16 91http://www.mdfoods.dk

Merrild Kaffe A/SLærkevej6000 KoldingTel: +45-79 31 31 31Fax: +45-79 31 31 90(Coffee importer and wholesaler)

Mølle SkovlyLyngvej 21, Skringstrup8832 SkalsTel: +45-86 69 49 66Fax: +45-86 69 50 86E-mail:[email protected]://www.ecoweb.dk/skovly

Natur Frisk BreweryLillehøjvej 188600 SilkeborgTel: +45-86 80 37 67Fax: +45-86 80 24 55

NUTANA A/SRingstedvej 5314632 BjæveskovTel: +45-56 86 96 00Fax: +45-56 86 96 16

Peter Larsens Kaffe A/SÆrøvej 15-178800 ViborgTel: +45-86 62 67 33Fax: +45-86 62 62 67(Coffee importer and processor)

Rynkeby Foods A/SVestergade 305750 RingeTel: +45-62 62 11 35Fax: +45-62 62 48 49(Juice producer)

Schulstad Brød A/SHammerholmen 21-312650 HvidovreTel: +45-36 39 71 00Fax: +45-36 77 01 65

Svansø Food A/SStrandvejen 15800 NyborgTel: +45-65 31 41 00Fax: +45-65 30 10 41

A/S Thisted BryghusBryggerivej 107700 ThistedTel: +45-97 92 23 22Fax: +45-97 91 18 98http://www.thisted.bryghus.dk(Beer; imports malt and hops)

Tholstrup Pastella A/SLille Strandstræde 20b

1254 Copenhagen KTel: +45-33 12 22 77Fax: +45-33 12 60 77

RETAIL ORGANIZATIONS

Dagrofa A/SGammelager 11-132605 BrøndbyTel: +45-43 22 82 82Fax: +45-43 22 84 04

Dansk Supermarked A/SBjødstrup 188270 HøjbjergTel: +45-89 30 30 30Fax: +45-86 27 65 63

FDB (Coop Denmark)Roskildevej 652620 AlbertslundTel: +45-43 86 43 86;

+45-43 86 48 11Fax: +45-43 86 42 09;

+45-43 86 33 86E-mail: [email protected].//www.fdb.dk

Irma A/SKorsdalsvej 1012610 RødovreTel: +45-43 86 38 22Fax: +45-43 86 38 09

ISO SupermarkedVermlandsgade 512300 Copenhagen STel: +45-31 54 84 11;

+45-32 69 76 00Fax: +45-31 54 31 42;

+45-32 69 76 01E-mail: [email protected]://www.iso.dk

Matas A/SRørmosevej3450 AllerødTel: +45-48 16 55 55Fax: +45-48 16 55 66http://matas.dk/VOKOLOGI.HTM

CATERING ANDINSTITUTIONAL SALES

MN CateringFuglebakkevej 942000 FredeiksbergTel: +45-38 34 38 12Fax: +45-38 34 38 22


SUPPLIERS

Animal feed

A/S Carl RasmussenFrigaardsvej, Gamby5471 SøndersøTel: +45-64 83 11 00Fax: +45-64 83 11 87

Carl Høfner I/SHesteskoen 12880 BagsværdTel: +45-44 44 27 00Fax: +45-44 44 64 00

DLG ØkologiNørrevang 23, Skave7500 HolstebroTel: +45-97 46 84 88Fax: +45-97 46 85 65E-mail: [email protected]

Ecological seeds and plants

KFKGrøndalsvej 18260 Viby JTel: +45-89 47 70 00Fax: +45-86 14 10 85E-mail: [email protected]://www.kfk.dk(Animal feed, seeds, etc.)

Skjern Å Andel a.m.b.a.Storegade 366900 SkjernTel: +45-97 36 44 44Fax: +45-97 36 63 40http//:www.ecoweb.dk/skjern

SolsikkenSkellerupvej 89Linå8600 SilkeborgTel: +45-8684 1546

Fax: +45-8684 1746E-mail: [email protected]://www.solsikken.dk

GOVERNMENT OFFICES,OTHER ORGANIZATIONSAND ASSOCIATIONS, ETC.

Danish Import Promotion Officefor Products from DevelopingCountries (DIPO)Danish Chamber of CommerceBørsen1217 Copenhagen KTel: +45-33 95 05 00Fax: +45-33 12 05 25

Danish Veterinary and FoodAdministrationMørkhøj Bygade 192860 SøborgTel: +45-33 95 60 00Fax: +45-33 95 60 01E-mail: [email protected]://www.vfd.dk(Administers organic productionrules on labelling and inspection)

Demeterforbundet(The Demeter Association)Birkum Bygade 205220 Odense SØTel: +45-65 97 30 50Fax: +45-65 97 30 50

Det Økologiske Fødevareråd(The Organic Food Council)Strukturdirektoratet,UdviklingskontoretToldbodgade 291253 København KTel: +45-33 63 73 00Fax: +45-33 63 73 33

InfoodLangballevænget 1028320 Mårslet

Tel: +45-86 12 86 38Fax: +45-86 12 86 37E-mail: [email protected]://www.ecoweb.dk/infood(Consultancy)

Landsforeningen ØkologiskJordbrug (LØJ)(The Danish Association for Organic Farming)Økologiens HusFrederiksgade 728000 Århus CTel: +45-87 32 27 00Fax: +45-87 32 27 10E-mail: [email protected]://www.ecoweb.dk/oekoland

Max Havelaar Fondenc/o Folkekirkens NødhjælpNørregade 131165 Copenhagen KTel: +45-33 11 13 45Fax: +45-33 11 13 47E-mail: maxhavelaar@dkhttp://www.maxhavelaar.dk

Øgruppen - DanskØkologileverandørforeningUdgården 30, Lading8471 SabroTel: +45 86 12 77 66Fax: +45 86 12 77 41E-mail:: [email protected]://www.ecoweb.dk/gruppen/(Association of suppliers andprocessors of organic food andbeverages)

Økologisk Landscenter (ØLC)(The Danish Organic ServiceCentre)Økologiens HusFrederiksgade 728000 Århus CTel: +45-87 32 27 00Fax: +45-87 32 27 10E-mail: [email protected]://www.ecoweb.dk/ecoinfo(Information centre for themarketing of organic food)


Chapter 7

FRANCE

Introduction

Offi cial sta tis tical infor ma tion on the French marketfor organic prod ucts is lim ited and com pares poorlywith that avail able in some EU coun tries. Althoughthe market started to develop during the 1970s, theneed to estab lish a per ma nent moni toring system hasonly recently been made a pri ority. The rapid devel -op ment of pro duc tion and con sump tion which tookplace in the mid 1990s moti vated three key organizations – the Asso cia tion per ma nente descham bres d’agri cul ture (APCA), Asso cia tion d’agri -cul ture biolo gique regrou pant des transformateurs- industriels et dis trib uteurs français de pro duits biologiques (BIO CONVERGENCE) and Direc tiongéné rale de l’ali men ta tion au Min istère de l’agri cul -ture, de la pêche et de l’ali men ta tion (DGAL)6 – tocoop erate in set ting up a frame work for analysis and

fore casting, which should gradu ally lead to a policyfor guiding, devel oping and pro moting organic agriculture in France.

Ini tially, the organi za tions agreed to under take thepre limi nary studies nec es sary to estab lish such aframe work and to organize their work through asteering com mittee, which would draw together allstake holders at both the national (gov ern mentauthori ties, APCA, BIO CONVERGENCE, theFédé ra tion nationale de l’agri cul ture biolo gique desrégions de France or FNAB, and the Fédé ra tionnationale des cen tres d’in for ma tion et devul gari sa tion de l’agri cul ture or FBCIVAM)7 and theregional level (regional organic agri cul turestruc tures).

Supply and demand

Domestic production

Agriculture

Although France is a major pro ducer and asig nifi cant exporter of a wide range of food andbev erage prod ucts, organic farming has failed tokeep pace with devel op ments in con sump tion on the home market and with the accel er ated rate of

con ver sion to organic agri cul ture in neigh bouringEuro pean mar kets. Over the last 10 years France haslost its lead er ship role: in 1997 only 0.3% to 0.4% ofagri cul tural land was being farmed organi cally orwas ‘in con ver sion’, com pared to over 7% in Aus tria, Sweden and Swit zer land, and 2% in Ger many.

Con ver sion to organic agri cul ture has increasedsteadily since 1993 and a gov ern ment policy is in

6 The names of these organizations in English are: APCA, Permanent Association of Agricultural Chambers; BIO CONVERGENCE, associationof organic agriculture grouping French industrial processors and distributors of organic products; DGAL, Directorate General for Food at theMinistry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

7 FNAB is the National Federation of Organic Farming and is made up of all of France’s organic farmers. FBCIVAM is the National Federation ofInformation and Advice Centres for Agriculture.

place to sup port and pro mote more rapiddevel op ment over the next five years. By 1996 thearea farmed organi cally had reached 137,000hec tares, including 20,000 hec tares ‘in con ver sion’.

The number of agri cul tural pro ducers quali fied tocarry the national AB logo for organic food (see thesec tion on cer ti fi ca tion fur ther below) increased from 3,600 in 1985 to 3,850 in 1996 and, at a much fasterrate, to 4,500 at the end of 1997. The 1997 figurecor re sponded to 0.5% of all French farmers, 2,300 ofwhich were involved in crop pro duc tion and 2,200 inmixed crop ping and animal raising.

The most dynamic regions for organic pro duc tion inFrance are Midi- Pyrénées, Pays de la Loire,Languedoc- Roussillon, Rhône- Alpes and Bre tagne(Brit tany), where farmers have invested heavily inorganic farming.

The number of organic livestock farms increasedstrongly between 1995 and 1996, as shown in table7.1 below.

Processed products

Organic processing in France has to date concentratedlargely on the primary processing of domestic rawmaterials, but the last few years have seen increasinggrowth in imports of raw materials for processing.Cereals dominate the processing sector, and bread andbakery products have a large share in the total output.Following in order of importance are dairy products,fruits and vegetables, condiments, poultry, aromaticand medicinal plants, soya-based products, meat,prepared dishes and coffee.

The fig ures below show the approxi mate break downby product group in 1996, as revealed by a study car -ried out by INRA-UREQUA (Unité de recherche spécialisée sur l’é conomie des quali fi ca tions agro- alimentaires or the spe cial ized research unit on theeco nomic aspects of agro- food speci fi ca tions) in 1997.

Although cereals continue to lead the sector, their share has fallen in recent years,particularly relative to that of dairyproducts, which has increased strongly. Theeggs and poultry sector has also grownsteadily.

The processing sector is dominated by a large number of small, medium-sized and, often,artisan companies, which account for about40% of the total turnover of the organicbusiness. However, increased investment inlarger-scale production and the involvementof some major food groups (e.g. Besnier,Bourgoin, Danone/Bio Vivre) have meant

CHAPTER 7 – FRANCE 155

Table 7.1 France: organic livestock and livestock products,1995 and 1996

Sector 1995 1996 % increase1996/1995

Dairy productsFarms (units) 361 451 25

Dairy cows (head) 9 500 13 655 45

Milk (’000 litres) 41 000 58 644 43

Beef Farms (units) 255 409 60

Milk cows (head) 5 637 10 178 81

MuttonFarms (units) 35 73 109

Sheep (head) 3 831 8 402 119

Pork a/Farms (units) 77

Meat pigs (head) 6 047

Breeding sows (head) 275

EggsFarms (units) 173 209 21

Laying hens (head) 103 162 135 762 32

Eggs (’000) 23 000 30 000 30

Honey b/Farms (units) 60

Hives (units) 13 058

Source: Ministère de l’agriculture, de la pêche et de l’alimentation, Observatoireeconomique national de l’agriculture biologique.a/b/ In the absence of national regulations in 1995, no production was recorded asorganic or in process of conversion.

France: output of the organic processingsector (including exports), 1996

Product group FF millionCereals 1 301

Dairy products 1 051

Fruits and vegetables 750

Condiments 187

Poultry 160

Aromatic and medicinal plants 139

Meat 82

Prepared dishes 78

Coffee 45

Source: INTA-UREQUA (Unité de recherchespécialisée sur l’économie des qualificationsagro-alimentaires), Le Mans, October 1997.

that the sector is now evolving into a moreindustrialized and efficient manufacturing sector.Recent estimates have put the average annual growthrate at close to 20%. Primary processors are on thewhole more important than secondary processingcompanies.

Retail sales

Although France, with its population of over 58million people, is one of the largest markets fororganic foods in the European Union, per capitaconsumption and the penetration of the sector intomainstream food consumption is low. Organicfoodstuffs account for less than 0.5% of totalexpenditure on food products.

According to information provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and professional organizations of organic producers, processors and distributors, the retailmarket for organic products can be estimated at about FF 4 billion in 1997. Consumption doubled between1991 and 1997, as follows:

1991 FF 2 billion1994 FF 2.4 billion1995 FF 3 billion1996 FF 3.6 billion1997 FF 4 billion

The cur rent annual rate of growth is esti mated at 20% or 25% and this explo sion indemand is expected to con -tinue in the next few years.Cereals (about 33%), dairyprod ucts (25%) and freshfruits and vege ta bles (20%)together account for overthree quar ters of the totalturn over. Meat and poultryaccount for about 5% andothers for the bal ance.

Within the non- fresh organic food seg ment, research car -ried out by one of France’sleading super market chains(Car re four), in June 1997indi cated that the items ingreatest demand were bis -cuits, crisp bread, gal ettes,fruit juices and jams, cereals, flour, pastas and rice.

Imports

Domestic production of organic foods has not keptpace with consumer demand. Therefore, there hasbeen a sharp rise in imports, not only of producewhich cannot be grown in France, but also of organicproducts where local supplies are not sufficient tomeet demand. Import-export traffic between member countries of EU is not recorded in official tradestatistics, but the increase in imports from outside EUcan be seen from the fast-growing number of requests to the French authorities for authorization to importorganic produce. In 1994 extra-EU importsamounted to 1,300 tons, but by 1997 this figure hadrisen to somewhere between 13,000 and 20,000 tons.

The range of products imported from third countrieshas also steadily widened and reached almost 70different items by 1997. These are mainly fresh fruitsand vegetables, dried fruits and nuts, spices, edibleoils, tea, coffee, cocoa beans and cane sugar. Themain products imported from non-EU third countriesbetween 1993 and 1997 are set out in table 7.2.

Intra-EU imports are sourced mainly in Germany, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Italy. Non-EUimports in 1997 came mainly from: Algeria,Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cameroon,Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, the DominicanRepublic, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Guinea, Hungary,

156 CHAPTER 7 – FRANCE

Table 7.2 France: imports of organic products from non-EU countries, 1993-1997

1993 1994 1995 1996 1997

BananasCocoa beansFresh and dried pineappleOrangeSesame seed

Fresh and driedbananasFresh and dried pineappleMangoQuinoa

ApplesArabica coffeeBeet sugarBrown cane sugarCocoa beansDatesDried chicoryEssential oilsFresh and dried bananasFresh pineappleFresh mangoMilletOrangeQuinoaSesame seed

Cane sugarCourgettesDried figsDried grapesFresh and dried bananasFresh pineappleDatesGreen beansMaple syrupMilletPotatoes Soya beansTomatoes

ApplesBeet sugarCane sugarCarrotsChickpeasClementinesCocoa beansDried bananasDried chicoryDried grapesGrapefruitGreen coffee LemonsLentilsMango OrangesPalm oilPearsPeeled nutsQuinoa

Source: Trade information.

Madagascar, Mexico, Morocco, Paraguay, Poland,Senegal, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Togo,Tunisia, Turkey, the United States and Zimbabwe.

Supplies from Asia were insignificant.

Annex II gives more detailed information on importsof organic food from non-EU countries in 1997.

Exports

It is difficult to assess the size of the export tradebecause EU foreign trade statistics do notdifferentiate between organic and conventional foodproduce. INRA-UREQUA estimated France’sexports in 1994 at about FF 600 million. Researchfindings indicate that, by 1997, exports had droppedby over 50%. The main reasons are the substantialincrease in domestic French consumption of organicfoods and the growing self-sufficiency in organicproducts of Germany, France’s major export market.

Between 1994 and 1997 the professional andregulatory framework for organic productiondeveloped considerably and processing industriesexpanded. By the end of 1997 the range of productsexported had changed significantly. Exports of rawmaterials and semi-processed organic products, suchas cereals, had declined whilst exports of processedproducts increased owing to the efforts of dynamicprocessors, some of which have subsidiaries in otherEuropean countries. One-third of France’s processing enterprises were exporters in 1997.

France’s main export markets for processed organicproducts are in Western Europe, mainly Germany,Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, the UnitedKingdom, Spain, Italy and Scandinavia. Exports tothe United States and Japan are less significant.Major increases in exports of fresh fruits andvegetables and wine to Germany, the UnitedKingdom, Austria and Scandinavia have beenrecorded. Organic eggs and poultry are alsoimportant export products.


Consumer patterns

Con sumers in France are tra di tion ally healthcon scious and asso ciate organic foods with a gooddiet and a healthy life style. How ever, research hasshown that, com pared with other Euro peanpopu la tions, the French tend to prefer to resort tomedi cines to cure health prob lems rather than to takepre ven tive action in terms of a posi tive diet and lifestyle. Moreover, con sumers often have dif fi culty indis tin guishing between the dif ferent types of health,diet and natural food prod ucts on sale, which include:

q Certified organic products (bio is the term usedto signify organic);

q Products purchased direct from farmers,whether organic or not;

q Products labelled as farm produced, whetherorganic or not;

q Natural (naturel) products, free from additives;

q Dietetic and slimming products;

q Products with the red quality label;

q AOC products (appellation d’origine contrôléeor registered designation of origin);

q ‘Para-pharmaceutical’ food (food supplements).

For these rea sons, despite clear evi dence that bothretail turn over and con sumer interest in organic foodhave been increasing strongly since the early 1990s, itis dif fi cult to esti mate the real level of pene tra tionamong food pur chasers. According to a survey car riedout in Feb ruary 1998 by Louis Harris for Eco cert andVivez Nature, the trade exhi bi tion for organicagri cul ture, 10% of those ques tioned claimed to buyorganic prod ucts regu larly and 38% occa sion ally.

A survey by Pole Qualité du Maine, in collaborationwith INRA-CRISALIDE, in 1995 distinguished fourmain types of consumers of organic food, accordingto a multi-criteria analysis of attitudes and behaviour.These were:

q ‘Nosta lgics’: a conser va tive segment of thepopu la tion, concerned primarily with welfare andproducing some of its own organic food require ments;


q Ideologists: revolutionary militants withaltruistic views;

q Health-conscious consumers: new generation of consumers of organic foodstuffs, who are primarilyconcerned with their state of health;

q The fashionable crowd: new consumers oforganic foodstuffs, interested in buying only what isperceived to be the best quality, in paying greatattention to their appearance, and in showing off theirways to other people.

The first two segments of consumers have declinedconsiderably in significance and the major growthhas come from the third and fourth types ofconsumers profiled, which correspond roughly to thecategories of regular and occasional buyers oforganic foods. The main characteristics of these twotypes of customer are described below.

Regular long-term buyers

q Are mainly intel lec tuals, managers andself- employed profes sionals with higher than average incomes.

q Attach high importance to the official ABorganic logo and the labels of traditional organicorganizations like Nature et Progrès for a guaranteeof organic quality.

q Are faithful to established distribution channelsfor organic food (direct purchases, markets, Biocoopcooperative shops, etc.).

q Are concerned about the ecological or envi ron -mental aspects of food produc tion, consump tion andbuying. The AB logo backs up their socio- politicalworld view.

q Are prepared to accept price differentials forcertified organic foods of 50% or more over theconventional alternatives.

New occasional buyers

q Are mainly from the middle and lower social orincome groups.

q Are most concerned about the product itself andits measurable characteristics (taste, freshness,quality, etc.).

q Want safe food, free from chemical residues and other pollutants. Recent food scares, like BSE

(bovine spongiform encephalopathy, the mad cowdisease), nitrates in water, pesticide residues and high dioxine levels in milk, and concern about geneticallymodified food have made this factor moresignificant).

q Favour pre-packaged products.

q Attach great significance to the (known) brandor label of the supplier as the principal guarantee ofthe foodstuff.

q Are more occasional, less faithful purchasers.

q Are generally not prepared to pay more than20% above the price of conventional products.

Occa sional buyers are expected to fuel the maingrowth in the organic market in the coming years.Social and envi ron mental issues are exerting anever- increasing influ ence on con sumers and there isgrowing scope for indus trial com pa nies to developranges of proc essed and pre- packaged prod uctssimilar to die tetic prod ucts. Moreover, assuper mar kets and hyper mar kets gradu ally expand the variety of organic foods stocked, pur chasing by thislatter group of cus tomers will increase, because theytend to do a major part of their gro cery shop ping inthese out lets, rather than in spe cialist shops, organicmar kets, etc.

The most important expectations of the French in theirfood purchasing, both individually and collectively,and the required responses in terms of food productionare summarized in the box on page 159.

According to INRA (Institut national de la rechercheagronomique), the French agricultural researchinstitute, half of the consumers choose organic foodprimarily for health reasons, one third areecologically motivated and about a fifth purchase forthe better or fresher taste of organic food. Despite thestrong potential demand and a good certificationsystem, there are obstacles to the development of theFrench market; these are as follows:

q High prices. Organic products are expensive and can be priced at between 30% and several hundredper cent higher than the conventional alternatives,depending on the product and the sales outlet.

q Inadequacy of communication with theconsumer. Despite much improvement in thesituation since the early 1990s, French consumers


still have great difficulty in understanding exactlywhat constitutes an organic product. It is estimatedthat about 50% of consumers can now correctlydefine organic products.

The product range on offer is too restricted.

q Appearance of the products.

q Long, inefficient chains of distribution. A large

number of intermediary distributors sell smallquantities of a wide range of products, again leadingto high costs and prices.

q Inconvenience. Shops selling organic foods areoften too far away. The more multiple chains become involved in selling organic foods the better, becauseof the habit of French households of doing one majorweekly shopping visit to the hypermarket.

Product and market requirements

In France, professionals (farmers, processors anddistributors) and consumers generally distinguishbetween the following major groups of organic foodand beverage products:

q Products derived from cereals and oil-seeds;

q Fruits and vegetables (fresh, preserved,dehydrated, dry, juices, deep-frozen, concentrated);

q Coffee, tea, cocoa;

q Dairy products;

q Meats, meat-based products, poultry, eggs,pork-based products;

q Spices, aromatic and medicinal plants;

q Sugar, honey, sweeteners;

q Edible oils;

q Wine, beer, vinegar;

q Prepared and pre-cooked dishes.

A detailed list of most of the organic foodstuffsconsumed in France can be found in Annex III. It hasbeen compiled from catalogues issued by producers,processors and distributors, from data supplied byvarious types of shops and from the Annuaire vert1998.

Since 1990, French consumption of organic foodproducts has grown dramatically, and the trade expects an average annual rate of growth in consumption ofabout 20% in the coming years. This demand will bemet by the steady increase in French production and by


France: consumer expectations and responses required

Consumer expectations Response required from food producers

Good for health, fitness and status Absence of chemical pollutants of agricultural and industrial origin (pesticides,nitrates, artificial colours). Products richer in natural micronutrients. Balancedoverall approach to nutrition and food hygiene.

Good taste and enjoyment Products grown with less water, maturing more slowly and with a stronger taste.

Authenticity Search for more rustic varieties and for more suitable growing areas. Bettertasting crops which may be less productive. Genuinely natural products withoutunnecessary gimmicks in production or processing (e.g. use of artificialflavourings).

Guarantees and confidence in certification/labelling Products defined by a national or EU regulation and certified by a competent,approved, independently registered body. Confidence of the retailer (local shops, Biocoop stores, markets, etc.). Involvement of professional organizations.

Collective concerns Response required from food producers

EnvironmentEcology Protecting the earth

Cultivation without inorganic fertilizers or pesticides.Exclusive use of natural fertilizers and in small quantities.Preservation of the soil, water table, fauna, flora and ecosystems. Preservation of the countryside.

Social concernsHuman factorsEmployment/unemployment Migration from the countryside

Family farming – roots.Individual and motivated approach of farmers.Dialogue between the various participants in the branch.Maintenance and rebuilding of rural structures, management of soil and space.

Source: Syndicat européen des transformateurs de produits de l’agriculture biologique (SETRAB), Les Produits de l’AgricultureBiologique, 1996 - 1997.

imports both from EU member States and from thirdcountries. Domestic production will not be able tomeet the demand for a large number of products,either because they cannot be produced locally insufficient quantities or because they cannot beproduced in France at all, e.g. tropical products.

In recent years, the most rapidly developing sectorshave been fresh fruits and vegetables, cereals andcereal-based products and beverages. These threeproduct groups together currently represent about halfof the total organic market and are expected to growfrom 10% to 20% annually. Dairy products, meat,meat products, prepared and pre-cooked dishes areamong the products for which demand will probablygrow the fastest over the next five years, at an expected annual rate of over 20%. Pork is an interestingexample: while there is currently an oversupply ofconventional pork, the organic pork industry is unableto meet demand and imports are growing. Growthprospects of about 20% per year are also forecast for athird group of products, comprising dried fruits,legumes, edible oils, coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, honey,aromatic and medicinal plants, and spices.

The main product groups showing a strong importpotential, which can be supplied by developingcountries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, either asraw materials or as semi-processed or fully processed products ready for consumption, include:

q Cereal products such as soya beans, quinoa,sesame seed, amaranth;

q Rice and derived products;

q Dried legumes: flageolet, chickpeas, brokenlentils, green lentils, yellow lentils, soya beans, adukibeans;

q Fresh tropical and Mediterranean-type fruits and vegetables;

q Concentrates, juices and nectars of tropical andMediterranean-type fruits;

q Dried tropical and Mediterranean-type fruits and nuts;

q Deep-frozen and concentrated fruit purées andpastes for the processing industry;

q Coffee, tea, cocoa in all forms, raw orsemi-processed.

Developing countries, which already export a largenumber of organic products that have been certifiedfor sale in other European markets, can investigatethe possibilities for exporting these products toFrance.

The development of sales of deep-frozen andconvenience organic foods has been slower in Francethan in some neighbouring countries but is nowcatching up rapidly.

With regard to organic fish, there are no EU or French regulations on either ocean or aquaculture fishproducts. However, since 1997 the French authorities have been working on the certification of aquaculture products according to an agreed set of specifications.A project for the aquaculture sector in France is under review.

Most food supplements such as vitamins, mineralsand trace elements, proteins and some dieteticproducts fall outside the categories of organicallycertifiable products. It should be noted, however, thatthey constitute, together with products that can becertified organic (such as herbal teas or infusions,medicinal plants, essential oils and others), afast-growing market segment. Trade sources estimate the yearly growth rate at over 20%.

Organic animal feed has developed well in Franceand is marketed by half a dozen producing anddistributing companies. Organic pet-food products,which are sometimes imported (mainly from theNetherlands) have recently taken off, but are not yetcovered by EU regulations.

Market access

Regulations on organic foods

France was the first Euro pean country to adopt anational regu la tion on organic farming (in 1980).Since Council Regu la tion (EEC) No. 2092/91 came

into force in 1991, France has con tinued to adoptregu la tions on animal prod ucts. At the end of the1997, these com prised speci fi ca tions issued and rati -fied by the Min istry of Agri cul ture, Fish eries andFood and by the Min istry of Economy, Finance and


Plan ning in accor dance with the 1980 law and its ena -bling decree of 1996. The speci fi ca tions are mod elled on IFOAM’s Basic Stan dards of Organic Agri cul tureand Food Proc essing. EU regu la tions on animal prod -ucts came into effect in June 1999.

Regulations on organic production methods for cowmilk and other dairy products, veal and beef, dairycows, rabbits, eggs, sheep, poultry, etc. were ratifiedby an inter-ministerial decision in 1992. Since then,regulations have also been adopted on pork, honey,goat milk, sheep milk and other dairy products.Additional specifications are planned for all forms ofprocessed meats.

Organic ingredients of animal origin that are inconformity with existing French regulations may beused in the manufacture of essentially plant-derivedorganic products. These rules will now be supplantedby the EU regulation on animal products, thoughFrance may maintain a more stringent nationallegislation.

Certification

France oper ates a system of pri vate inspec tion bodiesapproved by law. The system meets the require mentsof the Asso cia tion française de nor mali sa tion (French Stan dards Asso cia tion) and EU Regu la tion 2092/91.COFRAC (Comité français d’ac crédi ta tion) is theoffi cial body for the accredi ta tion of cer ti fi ca tionorgani za tions, estab lished in accor dance with Euro -pean stan dard EN 45011 and its inter na tional equiva -lent ISO/IEC Guide 65. Five organi za tions have sofar been accred ited by COFRAC as cer ti fi ca tionbodies: Eco cert SARL, Qual ité-France, AFAQ- Ascert- International, QNPC and ULASE.

Ecocert is by far the most important body, certifyingaround 80% of all French organic products. Ecocertalso has offices in Belgium and Germany and carriesout certification in many countries outside EU, forinstance in Africa.

There is one legally designated symbol, AB, whichsignifies that a food product conforms with Frenchnational and EU regulations on organic agriculturalproduction. It is an official certification mark, and isthe exclusive property of the Ministry of Agriculture.The control of the use of the logo is entrusted to theapproved certification bodies. The logo is protectedin Europe and in countries such as Japan and theUnited States.

Importers wishing to use the AB logo on importedorganic food products are subject to a mandatorycontrol procedure. Under the procedure, importersmust provide the following:

q A complete description of premises and importactivities with, as far as possible, details of the pointsof entry of the imported products into the EuropeanUnion;

q Evidence of a commitment to carry out importoperations in accordance with what the EuropeanUnion authorizes and through a competent authorityin an EU member country;

q Banking information on credit transactions;

q Information on the certifying body for eachconsignment imported into the Union.

The importer must obtain one certificate for eachproduct to be imported and apply for importpermission (unless the exporting country is on the EU Regulation 2092/91 Article 11 list of approvedcountries). The permit is valid for one year.

In the past there were over 20 associations operatingtheir own organic labelling schemes. Some of thesetraditional labels (such as Nature et Progrès and, to alesser extent, ABF), although no longer officiallyrecognized, are often still found next to the officialAB logo on French organic products and continue toappeal to many French consumers.


Retail structure

The level of penetration of organic foods intodifferent types of retail outlets is a key factor in thedevelopment of consumption. Between 1985 and

1994 retail distribution developed much more slowlythan in neighbouring countries to the north and east of France, as sales by specialist organic retailersstagnated and the multiple retail chains (grandessurfaces) made only very limited efforts to enter the


organic market. A high proportion of sales still tookplace direct from producer to consumer throughweekly organic markets (marchés bio), throughconsumer cooperatives buying direct from producersand through farms selling to the public.

Since 1994 the situa tion has changed rap idly. Organic prod ucts are now avail able in most of France’s majorsuper mar kets and hyper mar kets and, by 1997, themarket share of these mul ti ples had risen to nearly40% of total sales. Spe cialist shops selling organic,die tetic, naturel prod ucts and food sup ple mentsaccounted for around 30% of con sumer expen di tureon organic prod ucts. Tra di tion ally, bread and bakeryprod ucts and, there fore, bakery out lets have had asig nifi cant share of organic sales in France, but theirposi tion has been eroded by the growing super market involve ment. Bakery sales and direct sales by farmsand organic mar kets now have a market share ofbetween 25% and 30%.

The first retail chain to intro duce a coherent organicassort ment was Mono prix under its ownMonoprix-Bio brand. Car re four also intro duced itsown Carrefour-Bio brand, which is used on both dryand fresh prod ucts other than fresh fruits andvege ta bles. Organic fruits and vege ta bles as well asdairy and bakery prod ucts are now being sold bymost chains, although some times only in a lim itednumber of out lets. Assort ments are avail able at Cora,Auchan, Leclerc, Casino, Con ti nent, Super U andPrisunic. The fact that three quar ters of Frenchhouse holds are said to do one large weekly pur chaseof gro ceries at a hyper market and the growinginvolve ment of these mul ti ples in organic food salesshould be a major stimu lant to demand in the nearfuture.

There are an estimated 1,800 specialist retailers oforganic, dietetic, naturel products and foodsupplements in France. After a long period ofstagnation, they started to reorganize in purchasinggroups, cooperatives and franchising systems, suchas Naturalia, Croque Nature, Bio Markus, Satoriz,L’Eau Vive, Biocoop, Aux Rayons Verts and La VieClaire. Their sales started to grow again, althoughtheir relative market share has diminished because ofincreasing competition from the grandes surfaces.

There are over 25 organic markets (marchés bio) and140 cooperative (Biocoop) outlets. Box schemes,which have been established successfully in other EU markets, have developed more slowly in the Frenchmarket.

Catering and institutional sales have not expandedsubstantially to date.

Processors/packers and wholesalers

The distribution of organic products to retail outletsand sometimes, in the case of direct farm sales,straight to the consumer, is handled by the following:

q About 4,200 producers (farmers);

q About 40 importers (some of which are alsowholesalers) trading with non-EU countries;

q About 500 processors/packers;

q Five national wholesalers;

q 30 regional wholesalers distributing freshproducts and dry groceries.

The huge geo graphical size of France means thatwhole salers play a sig nifi cant role in dis tri bu tion,from the col lec tion of pro duce to sup plying proc es -sors and retailers and the han dling of for eign trade.Until very recently the domi nant force in the dis tri bu -tion of organic foods has been Dis tri borg, a nationalwhole saler of organic and diet foods, which had aturn over in 1997 of FF 1,478 mil lion. Dis tri borg sellsto spe cialist shops and dis trib utes many health foodbrands and for eign deli ca tessen prod ucts to the super -market or hyper market trade. Its major brand Bjorg is sold suc cess fully, not only in France, but also in Bel -gium and Italy; its other labels include La Vie Claire,Equili brance, Ven do mine, Thé Tuocha, Evernat andBon ne terre. Dis tri borg con trols the chain of healthfood shops Dame Nature (8 organic super mar kets);the fran chise group of spe cialist shops La VieClaire/Dame Nature (about 150 out lets), pur chased in 1996; and the chain Aux Plaisirs de Fleurance. Dis tri -borg is also active abroad: in addi tion to Dis tri borgcom pa nies in Italy and Bel gium, it has sub sidi arieslike the Bel gian groups Prona, Hagor and Genucchi;the Italian firm GB TRE; and Bre whurst Health Food Sup plies (UK), Tasty Food, and Nicholson & Evansin the United Kingdom.

Since the mid 1990s Dis tri borg has met fierce com -pe ti tion from a new market entrant Le Goût de la Vie,which was set up in 1995 and now sup plies a fullrange of fresh, dry and frozen organic foods. Thecom pany, with its main com mer cial base at Sablé- sur- Sarthe (Loire), sells its prod ucts under threebrands: Le Goût de la Vie in super mar kets and hyper -mar kets, and Favri chon and Pro- Sain in spe cialistshops. Le Goût de la Vie organic foods are now


stocked by many super market chains, includingMono prix, Auchan, Leclerc, Inter marché, Cham -pion, Prisunic, Con ti nent, Cham pion, Cora, Match,Système U and ATAC. Le Goût de la Vie hasacquired some of the fore most organic proc es sorsand its indus trial units now include La Cepad et lesDomaines de la Nature at Bagues, which pro ducespre served vege ta bles, fruits and jams; a proc essingplant for cereals; and two bakery and bis cuit fac to -ries. Le Goût de la Vie has a Bel gian sub sidiary andhas con sid er able exports, mainly to other Euro peancoun tries.

The other major national oper ating whole salers whichalso handle imports include Bon ne terre, NatouringFrance, Lima, Celnat, Céréales Wander Nutri tion,Borsa, AEDA, Bio prim and Roussillon. There is also a net work of regional whole salers. It should be notedthat whole salers are facing increas ingly strongcom pe ti tion from the organic assort ments devel opedby the big retail chains them selves.

Imports

The most usual channel of distribution for importedorganic foods is through a specialized importerand/or a processor/packer, then through a wholesalerto the retail outlet, which makes the final sale to theconsumer. Direct sales from foreign exporters tocentral purchasing units of retail chain stores are stillrare. However, these sales are likely to be of growinginterest to the multiples as their organic volumes andtheir uptake of new organic products increase. Thereis a rising tendency towards sourcing supplies moreglobally and developing partnerships at all levels.

Food manu fac turers tend to buy their imported sup -plies either direct from importers or from spe cial ized(Euro pean) proc es sors, which can meet speci fi ca -tions and ensure con ti nuity of supply. The manu fac -turers do not often import direct from out side Europe, though it is likely that this will increase, espe cially asthe more con ven tional food manu fac turers becomeinvolved and set up organic product lines.

Future trends

According to trade sources the following developmentsare likely to take place over the next few years:

q Supermarkets and hypermarkets will increasetheir dominant market share to about 50% of allFrench retail sales of organic food and beverages.

q At the time of the prepa ra tion of this survey, themajor retail organi za tions (like Carre four, Promodès,Auchan, Leclerc, Cora, Mono prix, Prisunic andSuper U) were plan ning to launch signifi cant newproduct ranges in 1998 and there after, subject to theavail ability of produce and the regu larity of deliv eries,which are expected to improve. In these outlets, part of each product shelf will be reserved for fresh organicprod ucts (dairy prod ucts, meat and meat prod ucts,fruits and vege ta bles) and dried fruits. In the case ofdry groceries, organic prod ucts will either remain inthe diet product assort ment or be inte grated into therele vant special ized product shelf (e.g. jams, fruit andvege table preserves, coffee, tea, biscuits, etc.).

q Catering and institutional sales, as well as mailorder and box schemes, are likely to grow.

q Specialist retailers will continue to reorganizeand consolidate in chains, cooperatives and franchiseorganizations (Naturalia, Croque Nature, BioMarkus, Satoriz, L’Eau Vive, Biocoop, Aux RayonsVerts, La Vie Claire, etc.). However, their marketshare may decline vis-à-vis supermarkets andhypermarkets. The speciality shops are alreadysuccessfully developing the mini-market concept.

q Processors/packers and wholesalers will grow in size and capability in order to meet the increasingrequirements of the retail sector and consumers fororganic products.

The names and addresses of major importers,processors and packers and retail organizations canbe found in Annex I.

Competition, prices and margins

Although the retail prices of many organic productshave fallen in the last few years because ofeconomies of scale, better management and the

increasing penetration of supermarkets in organicfood sales, price remains a major brake on the growthof consumption. Prices are still typically far above


those of comparable conventional products, andfrequently higher than what many consumers areprepared to pay.

Premiums vary according to distribution channelsand are generally highest in specialist shops. Theyrange from 25% to 80% and sometimes moreaccording to the product range and the type ofshop.

The price dif fer en tial in super mar kets and

hyper mar kets tends to be lower and varies between10% and 50%. Aver ages are between 10% and 40%for dairy prod ucts, over 50% for fresh fruits andvege ta bles, and between 5% and 25% for dry goods.Increasing vol umes of turn over and the intro duc tionof pri vate label ranges of organic prod ucts shouldgradu ally make it pos sible to reduce the dif fer en tial,but the key ques tion is whether con sumers arepre pared to pay the pre mium which will usu ally benec es sary to cover the higher costs of raw mate rialsand of proc essing cer ti fied organic prod ucts.

Prospects and opportunities

Overall prospects

The prospects for the further development of theFrench market for organic food products depend onthree closely linked factors: supply and consumerdemand, official policy, and growing professionalism in the organic trade.

Supply and consumer demand. Since 1990 Frenchconsumption of organic food products has increaseddramatically, and the trade expects an average annualgrowth rate of 20% in the coming years. This demand will be met partly by the steady increase in domesticproduction and also by imports both from EUmember States and from third countries.

Domestic production will not be able to meet demandfor a large number of organic products, which cannotbe locally produced in sufficient quantities or whichare not produced at all in France, e.g. tropical products.

In recent years, the most rapidly developing sectorshave been fresh fruits and vegetables, cereal-basedproducts and beverages. These three product groupstogether currently account for about half of the totalorganic turnover and are expected to have an annualgrowth rate of between 10% and 20% over the nextseveral years. Other products with excellent growthprospects are:

q Dairy products, meat, meat products, preparedand pre-cooked dishes: demand for these productcategories will probably grow by over 20% annuallyover the next several years;

q Dried fruits, legumes, edible oils, coffee, tea,cocoa, sugar, honey, aromatic and medicinal plants

and spices, sales of which should increase by about20% annually.

Offi cial policy. Between 1985 and 1995 France lost itslead er ship role in the Euro pean organic food market. A major objec tive of offi cial national policy now is toclose the gap, par ticu larly with Aus tria, Den mark,Ger many and the Neth er lands. At the end of 1997, theMin istry of Agri cul ture, Fish eries and Food launchedan ambi tious five- year plan (1998-2002) for thedevel op ment and pro mo tion of organic farming.

France has a number of advantages which have notbeen sufficiently exploited to date:

q A favour able home market based on theconsump tion criteria of health, the envi ron ment andflavour;

q Committed farming leaders and a network oforganic farming advisers;

q Large areas with low population densities where extensive farming methods are similar to those oforganic farming, and other more populated areas butwhose farmers, nonetheless, are aware of theexcesses of certain intensive methods and thesizeable potential of the organic market;

q A strong and pioneering regulatory and controlframework with rigorous national specifications, anda control system set up in conformity with Europeanstandard EN 45011, which ensures the independence, impartiality and efficiency of controlling bodies, anindispensable condition for accreditation.

The five-year plan comprises six key priority actions


which, within five years, should lead to the doublingof public financial assistance. It is hoped that thesepriorities (listed below) will give a new growthimpetus to organic food production and trade:

q The harmonization and strengthening ofregulatory and control measures within the Europeanframework to avoid distortion of competition;

q The enhancement of territorial advantages byincreasing financial aid for conversion to organicagriculture and product development;

q The strengthening of the distribution system atregional and local level;

q Product promotion: quality, availability,information;

q New efforts to improve product quality andpricing;

q The strengthening of public assistance and jointaction with the trade.

One of the key elements of this plan involvesincreasing the number of organic farmers from 4,500at the end of 1997 to 25,000 by the year 2005.

Growing professionalism in the organic trade. Since1995 changing attitudes to the organic business haveresulted in:

q Increased investments by the major food groups(e.g. Besnier, Bourgoin, Danone), processors andpackers;

q Heightened industrial transformation with theappearance of genuine manufacturer’s brand namesas well as a stronger presence of the large retailersmarketing manufacturer’s brands and/or privatelabels;

q Improved presentation of organic products bysupermarkets and hypermarkets with a view tonarrowing the price difference between organicproducts and conventional products. This has theeffect of broadening the product range to includeitems which previously were sold only by certainspecialist chain stores.

Consumption will be stimulated by the new trendswhich have emerged since 1995. These include thefollowing:

q Large-scale supply and improved supplyregularity.

q Improved logistics between producers andprocessors to retail outlets.

q Greater proximity to consumers owing to therapid multiplication of supermarkets and specialistshops.

q The modernization of processing methods,adaptation of product quality by processors anddistribution to new groups of consumers, includingthose who want products which are both modern andorganic.

q Satisfactory storage conditions.

q Mass communication on the concept of organicproducts (and the AB logo) aimed at improvingconsumer awareness.

q Improved packaging of, and information on,products on the shelves, especially with regard to theguarantee of quality; quality and taste characteristics:health, nutrition, security, absence of residues,flavours; respect for the environment; appearance;freshness; and identification of place of origin.

q A simultaneous increase in sales to regularbuyers and growing numbers of occasional buyers.

Specific market opportunities

Developing countries in Africa, Asia and LatinAmerica, which already export a large number ofproducts that are certified organic in EU, can increasetheir exports to France. As said earlier, the mainproduct groups showing a strong import potential,whether as raw materials or as semi-processed or fullyprocessed products ready for consumption, include:

q Cereal and other products derived from soyabeans, quinoa, sesame, amaranth;

q Rice and rice-derived products;

q Dry legumes such as lentils, beans, flageolets,chickpeas, broken lentils, green lentils, yellow lentils, soya beans, aduki beans;

q Fresh tropical and Mediterranean-type fruits and vegetables;


q Concentrates, juices and nectars of tropical andMediterranean-type fruits;

q Dried tropical and Mediterranean-type fruits and nuts;

q Deep-frozen fruits and concentrated fruit puréesand pastes for the processing industry;

q Coffee, tea, cocoa in all forms, raw orsemi-processed.

France is largely self-sufficient in meat and meatproducts, including beef and lamb, as well as dairyproducts, and is even an important exporter of poultry products. The market potential for aromatic andmedicinal plants and essential oils is limited, except,of course, for those growing only in tropical areas.There are better prospects for honey, cane sugar andsome edible oils and fats, including palm oil, soy,

cocoa, peanut, sesame and even olive oil.

For most of these products, penetration of the Frenchmarket will usually be through importers or throughprocessors/packers. Direct sales to the centralpurchasing units of the chain stores are still rare.

The development of partnerships with or withouttransfer of technology between suppliers in developing countries and importers and processors/packers ismaking progress in a large number of EU countries,including France, and should help in the furtherpenetration of the French market. Overall there is atendency to source supplies more globally. Thecreation, development and strengthening of certifyingauthorities for organic products in developingcountries, which meet the standards required by EUand French regulations, will strongly increase theopportunities for exporters in these countries to gainaccess to the French market.


Annex I

France: selected addresses*

IMPORTERS

Arcadie SA1115 route d’Uzès30100 AlèsTel: +33-4 66 56 99 33Fax: +33-4 66 30 62 61(Importer of organic spices, freshand dehydrated aromatic herbs,dehydrated vegetables, herbal teas, infusions)

Bioprim530 Av. de Milan ZI du Grand Saint Charles66000 PerpignanTel: +33-4 68 54 79 79Fax: +33-4 68 54 57 68Email: [email protected](Importer, packer and wholesaler offruits and vegetables)

Dynamis France54 avenue de la Vilette94637 Rungis CedexTel: +33-1 45 60 43 44Fax: +33-1 46 87 44 05(Importer of organic fresh fruit andvegetables)

Euro Breizh8 rue des Martyrs29270 Carhaix-PlouguerTel: +33-2 98 99 25 20Fax: +33-2 98 99 25 21(Importer, processor and wholesaler of cereals and pulses)

ExodomCentre Commercial le Chateau108 rue Jean FournierBP 902569261 Lyon Cedex 09Tel: +33-4 78 43 83 85

Fax: +33-4 78 43 87 70E-mail: [email protected]://www.atgi.fr/exodom.htm(Importer of organic exotic fruits and vegetables, fruit juices, dried fruits,cocoa and coffee)

Fimex10 rue du Perche75003 ParisTel: +33-1 48 04 54 07Fax: +33-1 42 71 83 84(Importer of organic tea)

IMAGOMarché St. CharlesBP 512966031 PerpignanTel: +33-4 68 68 40 40Fax: +33-4 48 68 40 48Email: [email protected](Importer, packer and wholesaler offruits and vegetables)

Jean Jacques Boutrou67 rue Robespierre93558 Montreuil CedexTel: +33-1 42 87 70 21Fax: +33-1 48 51 52 73(Agent for Tradin Organic BV,Netherlands)

JK NatureZI La Saussaye124 rue du Rond d’Eau45590 OrléansTel: +33-2 38 25 00 70Fax: +33-2 38 25 00 77(Importer, packer and wholesaler offruits and vegetables)

Les Rois Mages210 rue Louis Arnaud13794 Aix-en-Provence Cedex 3

Tel: +33-4 42 24 42 57Fax: +33-4 42 24 36 62(Importer of organic tea and coffee)

Pimpexport103 boulevard Mac Donald75019 ParisTel: +33-1 45 91 05 88Fax: +33-1 45 91 05 78(Importer and trader in organic teas, aromatic plants, herbal tea plants,plant extracts, spices)

PronaturaMIN 68 84953 Cavaillon CedexTel: +33-4 90 78 73 04Fax: +33-4 90 78 73 14(Importer and trader in organic fruits and vegetables, citrus fruits, driedfruits)

René DevalanceDomaine de Choisel51120 QueudesTel: +33-3 26 80 53 85Fax: +33-3 26 81 35 02(Importer and trader in organiccereals, flour, edible oils, driedlegumes, legumes, oil-seeds,oil-seed/protein products, salts,semolina, preserves, rice)

Sté Arcada FranceDomaine du Blazy47130 Port-Sainte-MarieTel: +33-5 53 87 20 24Fax: +33-5 53 87 26 18Email: [email protected](Importer-distributor of organic fruitand vegetables)

___________________________* List not exhaustive. For additional names, see for example:

Annuaire Vert, La Vie Au Natural, OCEP Editions11 rue Sainte Ambroise75011 ParisTel: +33-1 47 00 46 46Fax: +33-1 47 00 24 91http://www.vert-world.com

PROCESSORS ANDPACKERS **

BIO Planete SarlRoute de Limoux11150 BramTel: +33-4 68 76 51 27Fax: +33-4 68 76 54 73(Cooking oils)

CelnatZI de Blavozy43700 Saint-Germain-LapradeTel: +33-4 71 03 04 14Fax: +33-4 71 03 54 31(Processor and distributor oforganic cereals, cereal-basedproducts, tea, etc.)

Distriborg France217 chemin du Grand Revoyet69561 St-Genis-LavalLyonTel: +33-4 72 67 10 20Fax: +33-4 72 67 10 57(Processor and distributor oforganic products)

Florame34 boulevard Mirabeau13210 Saint-Rémy-de-ProvenceTel: +33-4 90 92 48 70Fax: +33-4 90 92 48 80(Essential oils, etc.)

Fytosan - La Drome ProvençalZA de Cocause26150 DieTel: +33-4 75 21 09 09Fax: +33-4 75 22 18 70(Essential oils, etc.)

Le Goût de la Vie s.a.83 boulevard Montparnasse75006 Paris Tel: +33-1 53 63 24 70Fax: +33-1 53 63 24 71E-mail: [email protected](Importer, processor, wholesalerand exporter of grocery items anddairy products)

MarkalZA Les Plaines26320 St-Marcel-lès-ValenceTel: +33-4 75 58 72 20Fax: +33-4 75 58 81 85(Processor and distributor oforganic cereals, cereal-basedproducts, rice, grains and legumes)

Nutrition et Soja-SoyChemin de l’Horte31250 Revel

Tel: +33-5 62 18 72 50Fax: +33-5 62 18 72 51(Processor and distributor oforganic soya-based products)

Sté Bio d’ArmorLa Croix RougeErgué - Gabéric29556 Quimper Cedex 9Tel: +33-2 98 59 58 00Fax: +33-2 98 59 69 99(Processor and distributor oforganic fresh produce and groceryproducts)

Sté Biovivre Diepal-NSABP 43269654 Villefranche-sur-SaôneCedexTel: +33-4 74 62 63 64Fax: +33-4 74 62 61 96(Processor and distributor oforganic condiments, bakeryproducts, cooking cereals, pasta,rice, biscuits, pre-cooked dishes,sauces, juices, infusions, coffee,breakfast foods, flours)

Sté Bonneterre (GroupDistriborg)1 place des Planteurs94538 Rungis CedexTel: +33-1 49 78 25 00Fax: +33-1 46 87 91 68(Distributor of organic dairyproducts, fresh fruits andvegetables, cereals, edible oils,flours, jam, dried fruits)

Sté Brugier Sillon (Group Distriborg)ZI en Tourré11400 CastelnaudaryTel: +33-4 68 94 52 10Fax: +33-4 68 94 02 80(Processor and distributor oforganic dried fruits)

Sté Favrichon(Group Le Goût de la Vie)BP 242470 Saint-SymphorienTel: +33-4 77 64 75 09Fax: +33-4 77 62 74 11(Organic muesli, cornflakes, rusks,biscuits, dried legumes, creamedcorn, infant cereals)

Sté Hervé Produits Biologiques36700 Clion-sur-IndreTel: +33-2 54 38 66 03Fax: +33-2 54 38 66 04(Processor and distributor oforganic dried fruits, purées anddried fruit sweets, lacto-fermentedcereals, instant beverages)

Sté Prosain (Group Le Goût de la Vie)Les Mates66670 BagesTel: +33-4 68 21 60 23Fax: +33-4 68 21 80 36(Jams, purées, vegetablepreserves: organic peas, beans,lentils, gazpacho, tomato orpiperade, ratatouille, juices, nectars, syrups)

Sté Provence Régime SAZI La VerrerieBP 9930130 Pont-Saint-EspritTel: +33-4 66 90 54 54Fax: +33-4 66 39 42 31(Processor and distributor of edibleoils, speciality products from thesouth of France, oil-seeds,vinegars, organic sauces andcondiments)

Viver SALe Marchon47130 BazensTel: +33-5 53 87 27 76Fax: +33-5 53 87 21 69(Processed tomato product, fruitjuices, jams, marmalade, fruitpurée, etc.)

SPECIALIZED RETAILCHAINS FOR ORGANIC AND NATURAL PRODUCTS ANDFOOD SUPPLEMENTS

Aux Rayons Verts (60 shops)41 rue Léon BlumZA La Neuvillette51100 ReimsTel: +33-3 26 87 22 90 Fax: +33-3 26 04 88 79

Biocash Distribution (Central buying)281 avenue du Marché GareMIN Espace No. 1334047 Montpellier Cedex 1Tel: +33-4 67 58 68 58Fax: +33-4 67 58 59 70

Biocoop (180 shops)22 cours Gambetta65000 TarbesTel: +33-5 62 34 10 37Fax: +33-5 62 44 15 96


___________________________** Of which some are also importers.

Biothiclub46 rue Pierre Germain11000 CarcassonneTel: +33-4 68 72 09 00Fax: +33-4 68 25 48 48

La Vie Claire(Group Distriborg - 120 shops)35 avenue du 1er mai91127 Palaiseau CedexTel: +33-1 64 53 83 00Fax: +33-1 64 53 83 01

SUPERMARKET/HYPERMARKET CHAINS

AuchanCentrale d’achats200 rue de la Recherche59656 Villeneuve-d’Ascq CedexTel: +33-3 20 67 55 78Fax: +33-3 28 37 61 39E-mail: [email protected]

CarrefourBP 75Zae de Saint Guénault1 rue Jean Mermoz91002 Évry CedexTel: +33-1 60 91 37 37Fax: +33-1 60 79 44 98

Centres Leclerc149 rue Saint Honoré75001 ParisTel: +33-1 46 62 52 00Fax: +33-1 46 62 96 00

Cora/Loceda HyperselectionBP 81Domaine de Beaubourg77183 Croissy-sur-BeaubourgTel: +33-1 64 62 65 00Fax: +33-1 64 80 40 51

Monoprix SA3 rue Paul Cézanne75008 ParisTel: +33-1 40 75 15 15Fax: +33-1 40 75 11 16

Prisunic SA67-69 boulevard Gal. Leclerc92110 ClichyTel: +33-1 41 17 85 000Fax: +33-1 41 27 88 77

PromodèsZI, Route de Paris14120 MondevilleTel: +33-3 17 06 060Fax: +33-3 18 35 619

Système U Centrale Nationale SAImmeuble Créteil Expansion9-11 rue George Enesco

94000 Créteil CedexTel: +33-1 45 17 92 00Fax: +33-1 45 17 92 20

ACCREDITATION ANDCERTIFICATIONORGANIZATIONS

AFAQ-ASCERT International 116 avenue Aristride BirandBP 8392225 Bagneaux CedexTel: +33-1 46 15 70 60Fax: +33-1 46 15 70 69(Certification)

COFRAC37 rue de Lyon75012 ParisTel: +33-1 44 68 82 58Fax: +33-1 44 68 82 48(Accreditation and certificationorganization)

ECOCERT SARL BP 4732600 L’Isle-JourdainTel: +33-5 62 07 34 24Fax: +33-5 62 07 11 67E-mail: [email protected](Certification)

QNPC (QualitéNord-Pas-de-Calais)241 avenue de la République59110 La MadeleineTel: +33-3 28 38 94 84Fax: +33-3 28 38 90 87(Certification)

Qualite France 18 rue Volney75002 ParisTel: +33-1 42 61 58 23Fax: +33-1 42 60 51 61(Certification)

ULASEPlace du Champ de Mars26270 Loriol-sur-DrômeTel: +33-4 75 61 13 00Fax: +33-4 75 85 62 12(Certification)

GOVERNMENT OFFICES,RESEARCH CENTRES,TRADE AND INDUSTRYASSOCIATIONS

MINISTRIES

Ministère de l’agriculture, de lapêche et de l’alimentation

(Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheriesand Food)30 rue Las Cases75340 Paris Cedex 07Tel: +33-1 49 55 57 03Fax: +33-1 49 55 56 01(Responsible for planning thedevelopment of the organicagricultural sector)

Direction générale de l’alimentationBureau des labels et descertifications de produits175 rue du Chevaleret75646 Paris Cedex 13Tel: +33-1 49 55 80 03

Ministère de l’économie, desfinances et du plan (Ministry of Economy, Finance andPlanning) (General Directorate of Competition, Consumers Affairs and FraudRepression)Bureau H459 boulevard Vincent AuriolTélédoc 05175073 Paris Cedex 13Tel: +33-1 44 87 17 17Fax: +33-1 44 97 30 43

RESEARCH CENTRES

CREDOC - Centre de rechercepour l’étude et l’observation desconditions de vie(Research Centre for the Study andObservation of Living Conditions)142 rue du Chevaleret75013 ParisTel: +33-1 40 77 85 61Fax: +33-1 40 77 85 09

CRITT-CRISALIDE - Centre detransfert de technologie dans lesecteur végétal(Centre for the transfer oftechnology in the crop sector)2 rue Henri Becquerel49070 BeaucouzéTel: +33-2 41 48 13 50Fax: +33-2 41 48 07 87

INRA - Institut national de larecherche agronomique147 rue de l’Université75338 Paris Cedex 07Tel: +33-1 42 75 90 00Fax: +33-1 47 05 99 66http://www.inra.fr

INRA-UREQUA - Unité derecherche spécialisée surl’économie des qualificationsagro-alimentaires (Specialized research unit on theeconomic aspects of agro-food


specifications) 8 avenue Laënnec72000 Le MansTel: +33-2 43 39 94 00Fax: +33-2 43 39 94 09

PROFESSIONALORGANIZATIONS

APCA - Association permanentedes Chambres d’agriculture(Permanent Association ofAgricultural Chambers) 9 avenue Georges VParisTel: +33-1 53 57 10 05

Association Demeter FranceBP 28667606 Sélestat CedexTel/Fax: +33-1 30 71 11 24

BIO CONVERGENCE -Association d’agriculture

biologique regroupant destransformateurs- industriels etdistributeurs français de produits biologiques(Association of Organic Agriculturecomprising processors,manufacturers and distributors oforganic products)1 avenue de Verdun33500 LibourneTel: +33-5 57 51 96 82Fax: +33-5 57 51 97 28

Fédération française de ladiététique(French Dietetic Federation)(Federation of several professionalunions organizing the DIETEXPOtrade show in Paris)14 terrasse Bellini92807 PuteauxTel: +33-1 47 75 03 09Fax: +33-1 47 55 03 09

FNAB - Fédération nationale del’agriculture biologique des

régions de France(National Federation of OrganicFarming of the French Regions)40 rue de Malte75011 ParisTel: +33-1 43 38 38 69Fax: +33-1 43 38 39 70

Mouvement de CultureBiodynamiqueJean Michel Florin5, Place de la Gare68000 ColmarTel: +33-3 89 24 36 41Fax: +33-3 89 24 27 47E-mail: [email protected]

SETRAB - Syndicat européen des transformateurs de produits del’agriculture biologique (European Union of Processors ofOrganic Agriculture)40 avenue des Terroirs de France75611 Paris Cedex 12Tel: +33-1 44 74 53 56Fax: +33-1 44 74 52 76


Annex II

Individual import authorizations for organic food productsoriginating in third countries in 1997

(According to the procedure set out in article 11 paragraph 6 of EU Regulation No. 2092/91, including amendments)

Products Estimatedtonnage Origin

Apples 100 PolandPears 50Apples 500 PolandPears 50Dried cinnamon 13 MadagascarDried cloves 4.2Avocado pears 30 MexicoLate oranges 34 MoroccoDried apricots 70Dried figs 100Fig pieces 5Fig cream 20Raisins 200Raisin cream 10Peeled hazelnuts 80Green walnuts 10Pine pips 2Chickpeas 5Lentils 5Palm oil 7 700 ColombiaGreen coffee 69 MexicoGreen coffee 35 Costa RicaMangoes 30 Dominican RepublicOranges 250 United StatesLemons 70Grapefruit 150Nutmegs 4.5 MadagascarGreen walnuts 25 IndiaTomatoes 20 MoroccoCarrots 90Melons 15Zucchini 20Cucumbers 25Pistacchio nuts in shell 1 United StatesSesame 40 EthiopiaDried chicory 150 HungaryFresh lychees 8 MadagascarFresh pineapple 2Fresh rambutans 1.5Peppers 0.2Deep-frozen blackcurrants 40 CanadaEucalyptus oil 1 ZimbabweTea tree oil 1Green walnuts 25 India


Dried apricots 30 TurkeyDried figs 60Fig pieces 5Fig cream 5Raisins 150Raisin cream 10Shelled hazelnuts 15Green walnuts 15Pine nuts 10Chickpeas 330Lentils 270Beet sugar 100 SlovakiaCocoa beans 90 Dominican RepublicRaisins 5 United StatesRaisins 15 United StatesBeet sugar 240 South AfricaQuinoa 200 BoliviaBlack tea 7 Sri LankaBlack, white and green tea 2 IndiaOranges 2.4 MoroccoLemons 0.3Sweet mint 1Marjoram 0.5Citronnella 0.2Sage 0.5Basilic 0.2Rosemary 0.2Olives 0.2Molasses 0.3Nettles 0.1Parsley 0.2Deep-frozen apricots 5 TurkeyDried apricots 0.275 TurkeyPine pips 0.1Hazelnuts 0.16Sultanas 0.2Dried figs 0.2Black vanilla 0.5 MadagascarCocoa beans 18 Dominican RepublicPeeled almonds 2 United StatesPeeled almonds 2 United StatesPeeled almonds 10 United StatesDates 10 United StatesCocoroll dates 2


Dried apples 2 United StatesDried pears 1 United StatesDried apples 0.5 United StatesDried pears 0.5 United StatesDates 4 United StatesCocoroll dates 1.5 United StatesDates 1.3 United StatesCocoroll dates 3 United StatesDried bananas 10 ColombiaFresh mangoes 1Fresh pineapples 2Dried pineapples 1


Fresh coconuts 2Dried coconuts 1Apples 100 MadagascarTea tree oil 0.75 ZimbabweDried figs 60 TurkeyLate oranges 422.5 MoroccoNavel oranges 240Tampla oranges 60Valencia oranges 80Lemons 147.5Clementines 339.5Grapefruits 20


PROVISIONAL TOTAL IMPORTS OF ORGANIC FOOD PRODUCTS IN 1997: 13 288.18 metric tons

Annex III

Commercial organic products sold in 1997

CEREAL PRODUCTS ANDPULSES

Cereals

BarleyBuckwheatMilletOatsPopcornRyeSpeltWheat

Seeds

AmaranthBulgur (pre-germinated and crushed wheat)ColzaGreen or yellow soyaLinseedLucerne (alfalfa)QuinoaSafflowerSesamum seedsSquashSunflowerSheat bran

Rice

Basmati riceBrown riceGlutinous rice (red brown)Indian ricePrecooked white riceRice cakesUnder-milled riceWild rice

Cereal by-products

BiscuitsBranBread for sandwichesCereals, breakfastCereals for babiesCereals made of vegetable pasteCereals, puréesCereals, steaks

Cereals, germsCorn flakesCrackersCream of barley, cream of riceFlour, rye flour, barley flour, cornflour, soya flour, buckwheat flour, quinoa flourGingerbreadMuesliOat flakes, cereal flakesPasta: all types and varietiesPastryRusks and toastsSoya, oats, rice, wheat, maltdrinksViennoiserieWheat, corn, bulgur semolinaWhite wholemeal couscous

Dried seeds (pulses)

Azuki beansBlack, white, red, brown, mung, ingot beansChickpeasGreen peasSoya beansSplit peasWhite, green, red and ‘coral’ lentilsWhite, pink, red, black kidneybeansYellow peas

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

Fresh

AppleBaby bananaBananaBanana, redCarobGrape, red and whiteGrapefruitKiwi fruitLemonMandarinMangoOrange

PapayaPearPineapple

ArtichokeAvocadoBeans, green, butter, mungBeetrootBroccoliBrussels sproutsCabbage, ChineseCabbage, greenCabbage, pak-choïCabbage, redCarrotCauliflowerCeleriacCeleryCourgetteCucumberEggplantEndive, curlyFennelGarlicHorseradishKale, curlyLeekLettuceLettuce, lamb’sLettuce, WebbOnion, yellowParsleyPepper, green, red, yellowPotatoesPumpkinTomatoes, Roma, roundSpinachTurnip, white, yellow, purple

Canned

Dried fruit puréeFruit in syrupFruit purée and compoteJams: strawberry, blackcurrant, raspberry, bilberry, fig, chestnut, kiwi, pear, plum, apricot, peachCanned vegetables: peas, green beans, lentils, chickpeas, beetroot salad, whole tomatoes in juiceTomato saucesVegetable soups

Candied hazelnuts in sugar cane juice/in honeyCandied almonds in sugar cane juice/ in maple syrupWhite sesamum in sugar cane juicePurées: hazelnut, almond, sesamum, peanut, cashewChocolate, karouba, kokolospread

Dried fruits (loose orpackaged)

AlmondAmazonia nutsAppleApricotBilberryCashew nutsCherryCurrantsDeglet nour dateDried bananaFigGrapeGrenoble nutsHazelnutMangoMedjool jumbo dateMedjool supreme datePapayaPearPine nutPineapplePistachio nutShredded coconutSultanasThompson grape

Juices, nectars and syrups

AppleBlackcurrantCarrotCeleryCerealsGrapefruitLemonMint (syrup)OrangePlumPotatoRadishRed and white grapeTamariTomato

Frozen fruits andconcentrates

Acarillo puréeAppleApple concentrateApricot

Apricot puréeBanana slicesBanana puréeBanana pasteFrozen bananaBilberryElderberryGooseberryGuava puréeMango puréeMaracuya juiceOrange concentrateOrange juicePeachPearPineapplePineapple juicePlumRaspberryRaspberry puréeRedcurrantSour cherryStrawberry puréeTomato concentrateWild bramble

COFFEE, TEA, COCOA

Raw coffee100% pure arabica ground coffeeFreeze-dried coffeeTeaInstant chicory100% pure cocoa drinking chocolateCocoa beansCocoa creamBlack, milk coatingCarob powder

DAIRY PRODUCTS

ButterCheese: Emmenthal, Comté, gouda, tofu (soya cheese), Camembert, fresh cheeseFresh creamFaisselleIce creamMilk desserts : cocoa, soya and caramel, natural yoghurt, stirred yoghurt, fruit flavour, with fruitMilk: cow, soya, rice/soya, vanilla/soya, almondPowdered milk, whey powder

OILS

AlmondCoconut

ColzaCorn germGroundnutHazelnutMarsh thistle almondNutOlivePalmSafflowerSesamumSoyaSquash seedSunflowerWheat germ

WINE, BEER, VINEGAR

French and imported wineFrench and imported beerWine vinegar, cider vinegar, raspberry vinegar

PREPARED, COOKEDDISHES

Aubergine niçoiseAubergine caviarCourgette puréeCouscousCreamsFresh sprouts/germs: soya bean, alfalfa, lentil, radish, wheatMixed soyaMixed salads with germinated seedsMixed saladsMousselines (whipped purées)PiperadeRatatouilleRavioliSeitan (preparations of wheat gluten)TabboulehVegetarian cooked dishes

MEAT, MEAT PRODUCTS,POULTRY, EGGS,PREPARED MEATPRODUCTS

Beef, veal, muttonPoultryEggsPrepared meat products


HERBS, SPICES, SALTSAND CONDIMENTS

VanillaTea treeBasilLemonCloveCypressEucalyptusJuniper berriesGeranium rosatFine lavenderLavandinPeppermintPunk treeSweet orange

Green oreganoScots pineRavensaraRosemaryTurpentineThymeYlang-ylangSaltsTomato concentrateTomato coulisPeeled tomatoSalted ketchupTomato sauce à la Provençale with basilSoya sauce: shoyu (made with soya and wheat, salted)Tofu sauce: tamari (made with soya and wheat, salted)

HarissaOlives

SUGAR, HONEY,SWEETENERS

Brown cane sugar, unrefinedHoney: black alder, chestnut tree, lavender, mountain, mixed flowers, sunflower, acacia, heather, dandelion pollen royal jellyHoney sweets, agave syrupMaple syrupBeetroot syrupGlucose syrup


Chapter 8

GERMANY

Organic farming: historical development

Organic agri cul ture com menced in Ger many at thetime of the organ ized land and food reform move ment(1893-1925), when Reform shops (Reform häuser inGerman) were estab lished. As early as 1903 GustavSimons of the Reform Colony in Eden- Oranienburg,near Berlin, wrote a booklet about the rela tion shipbetween the health of the soil, the growth of plants andthe health of man kind. Bio dy namic agri cul ture startedin 1924 with Rudolf Steiner’s “Agri cul tural Course”,given in Kober witz. His pupil Ehren fried Pfeiffer wasinstru mental in spreading aware ness of bio dy namicagri cul ture in Ger many, the Neth er lands and theUnited States. From the mid 1930s onwards theMüller- Rusch biological- organic method devel opedstrongly, but organic (and bio dy namic) agri cul tureremained mar ginal, and organic prod ucts were soldonly in Reform shops. Well- known brands of naturalbody care prod ucts and natural medi cines likeDr Hauschka (Wala) and Weleda and the Reform food

brands Eden (estab lished in 1893 and now owned byDeVauGe and Gra no vita) date from that period.

This situa tion lasted until the 1960s and 1970s, whenthe natural food move ment gained impor tance andcre ated its own cir cuit of farmers, proc es sors,whole salers and natural food stores (Natur kos tlädenin German). Major growth started in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when con ven tional food retailers becameinvolved. Their entrance into the market forced thestag nating natural food stores to reor ganize andmod ernize.

Today Ger many as a market for organic prod ucts isEuro pe’s largest and the world’s second largest afterthe United States. How ever, despite the fact that itcon tinues to grow, there are also rea sons for seriouscon cern about its future devel op ment, as will be seenin the sec tion on sum mary and market pros pects.

Supply and demand

Domestic production

The area under organic pro duc tion increased sharplyfrom 45,000 hec tares in 1989 to 416,500 hec tares bythe end of 1998. Con ver sion to organic farming hasbeen stimu lated partly by political and finan cialsup port. Public funding has been espe ciallysuc cessful in eastern Ger many, where at the time ofreuni fi ca tion in 1990 cer ti fied organic farming wasvir tu ally non- existent. Today a higher per centage ofagri cul tural land is used for organic farming in theNeue Bun desländer (new fed eral States), where

farms are gen er ally larger and have lower pro duc tioncosts than in western Ger many (see table 8.1).

Until about 10 years ago Ger many could easilyabsorb any organic sup plies offered even at highprices. How ever, the country has now become largely self- sufficient in many basic organic food items, likecereals, vege ta bles, milk and meat, and has evenstarted to export prod ucts like pota toes, somevege ta bles and cereals. Sur pluses in these sec tors areno longer excep tional, which can have a nega tiveeffect on price levels.

Table 8.1 only covers farms that are mem bers of oneof the nine member asso cia tions of AGÖL (Arbe its -ge mein schaft Ökolo gischer Landbau), the GermanFed era tion of Organic Agri cul tural Asso cia tions.There are about 1,500 organic farms with an estimated 100,000 hec tares which are not mem bersof an AGÖL- affiliated asso cia tion.

According to esti mates, domestic pro duc tionsup plies over 60% (DM 2.2 bil lion) of all retail sales

of organic prod ucts in Ger many. The most impor tantcate go ries are bread and bakery prod ucts (over 90%of the raw mate rials used to pro duce these items areof domestic origin), dairy and tofu prod ucts and eggs(about 80% domestic), fruits and vege ta bles (45%)and meat (99%). A sig nifi cant pro por tion of thewhole grains, cereals, muesli and drinks con sumedare also locally pro duced. The two key growthsec tors are meat, meat prod ucts and poultry, and dairy prod ucts, whilst organic seed and plant production

CHAPTER 8 – GERMANY 177

Table 8.1 Germany: number of farms and areas under organic farming, 1 January 1998

Federal State No. of organicfarms % of all farms Area (hectares) % of all

agricultural landTotal, western Germanyof which:

5 898 1.19 185 734 1.59

Bayern (Bavaria) 2 572 1.47 69 476 2.06Baden-Württemberg 1 277 1.58 32 894 2.28Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) 467 0.62 22 496 0.84Schleswig-Holstein 283 1.17 19 619 1.88Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westphalia) 541 0.81 16 209 1.05Hessen (Hesse) 369 1.08 14 563 1.89Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate) 330 0.95 8 193 1.15Saarland 31 1.41 1 505 2.02Hamburg 21 2.27 686 5.04Bremen 7 2.49 93 1.01

Total, eastern Germany of which:

888 2.83 166 640 3.00

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Mecklenburg-WesternPomerania)

443 8.65 85 599 6.35

Brandenburg 185 2.48 46 052 3.42Sachsen-Anhalt 83 1.58 14 153 1.21Thüringen (Thuringia) 48 0.91 10 542 1.32Sachsen (Saxony) 122 1.50 10 145 1.13Berlin 7 8.54 149 7.84

TOTAL, GERMANY 6 786 1.29 352 374 2.05

Source: AGÖL and ITC compilation.

Table 8.2 Germany: AGÖL member organizations, 1 January 1999

Name No. of farms Area (hectares) Date founded Characteristics

ANOG 85 3 287 1962 Small organization; produces fruits and vegetables.

Biokreis Ostbayern 200 3 397 1979 Regional Bavarian group.

Bioland 3 385 116 739 1971 Largest group.

Biopark 587 107 754 1991 Located in eastern Germany.

Demeter 1 333 48 065 1928 Follows biodynamic farming principles; also involvedin imports.

ECOVIN 198 877 1985 Wine producers.

Gäa 313 35 254 1989 Located in eastern Germany.

Naturland 1 125 57 440 1982 Regional Bavarian group, dynamic and gaining inimportance; also imports.

Ökosiegel 23 1 296 1986 Small regional group in northern Germany.

Source: AGÖL.

are also on the increase.

Meat, meat products, poultry

To date meat has had a minor place in organic foodsales but, according to Frost & Sul livan (1997), it isnow the fastest growing sector. One reason for itsslow devel op ment in the past was the high cost ofpro duc tion. This is espe cially true of pork andpoultry, the organic fodder for which is expen sive.Another reason was the absence of econo mies ofscale: the stocking, slaugh tering, proc essing andmar keting of small quan ti ties of organic pro duce iscostly. Finally, tra di tional whole food con sumers didnot and still do not eat meat or eat only smallquan ti ties of it.

This situa tion is changing as con ven tional fooddis tribu tors, which appeal to a wider range ofcon sumers, are begin ning to carry organic meat andmeat prod ucts in a lim ited number of out lets. Thedomi nant mul tiple Rewe has formed a part ner shipwith the pro duc ers’ asso cia tion Natur land, with theobjec tive of obtaining more stan dard ized meatsup plies to suit con sumer demand for uni formprod ucts. Under the auspices of Bund, the GermanLeague for Environmental Protection and NaturePreservation, the supermarket chains Edeka andTegut also entered the organic meat sector in 1999. Itis expected that the exten sion of the EU regu la tion onorganic food to animal prod ucts, which took place inJune 1999, will fur ther stimu late pro duc tion and trade in organic meat.

Dairy products

Dairy prod ucts are impor tant to both con ven tionaland spe cial ized trade chan nels, and make up about18% of all food prod ucts sold in the country. A largevolume of organic milk is pro duced domes ti cally, and apart from the typical cheeses from Den mark, Franceand the Neth er lands, the German dairy market offersno real oppor tu ni ties for organic imports. The leading organic dairies are Ande chser Molk erei ScheitzGmbH in Andechs and Molk erei Söbbeke inGronau-Epe.

Retail sales

Ger many has about 82 mil lion inhabi tants and totalretail food sales in 1997 amounted to approxi matelyDM 300 bil lion. Organic food accounts for anesti mated 1.2% of the market, or about DM 3.6bil lion. Ger many is the second largest organic market

in the world after the United States.

Fruits and vege ta bles are the most sig nifi cant salesitem and accounted for 18% of sales in 1996. Sincethen this share has undoubt edly increased ascon ven tional super mar kets have con sid erablywid ened their range of organic pro duce. Otherimpor tant product groups are dairy and tofu prod ucts(16% of sales in 1996), bread and bakery prod ucts(14%) and baby food (13%).

Table 8.3 gives a break down of sales of organic foods in Ger many by product cate gory. For this pur pose theBNN clas si fi ca tion has been used. BNN orBun des ver band Natur kost is the umbrellaorgani za tion for the spe cial ized natural food retailtrade. Organic baby food has been added at the end of the table because, although it is of little sig nifi canceto overall sales in natural food shops, it is animpor tant product cate gory in total organic sales.

Fruit and vegetables are the most significant segmentof sales and accounted for 18% of sales in 1996.Since then this percentage has undoubtedly increased as conventional supermarkets have considerablywidened the range of organic produce sold. Otherimportant product groups are dairy and tofu products(16% of sales in 1996), bread and bakery products(14%) and baby food.

Imports and exports

Although domestic organic pro duc tion has growndra mati cally during the last decade, exports remainsmall, with some excep tions like the baby food ofwhich Hipp is a large exporter. Vege ta bles and evenwheat and other cereals have recently been exported.Ger many remains, how ever, by far the largestimporter in Europe, and imports a wide assort ment oforganic prod ucts. In table 8.3, the typical dis tri bu tion, proc essing and pack aging mar gins have beendeducted from the retail value of each organic foodcate gory and an esti mate has been made of theper centage level of imports (column H) in order todeduce an approxi mate import value per productgroup (column G).

Overall, imports account for an esti mated 38% of thevalue of raw mate rials for the German organic market (table 8.3, bottom of column H), equiva lent to aboutDM 307 mil lion (bottom of column G), or about 10% of total sales at retail level. About 44% (valued atabout DM 135 mil lion) of these imports are fruit andvege table prod ucts – of which DM 93 mil lion in fresh

178 CHAPTER 8 – GERMANY

fruits and vege ta bles, DM 21 mil lion in dried fruits,DM 12 mil lion in vege ta bles for can ning and con ven -ience foods (mostly toma toes), DM 9 mil lion in fruitjuices and prepa ra tions, and dairy prod ucts (e.g. fruityoghurts), jams and fruit spreads. Imports of nuts andnut butter (peanut and almond spreads and the like)

are esti mated at DM 32 mil lion, which seems ratherhigh and is plau sible only if it includes dried fruitmix tures and nuts for use in cakes, muesli, choco late,bis cuits and other prod ucts. Imports of organic tea,coffee and cocoa (util ized mainly in the pro duc tion of choco late), typi cally from devel oping coun tries,


Table 8.3 Germany: sales of organic foods, by product group(in millions of deutsche mark)

Product group Sales at retail levelDistribution

margins:45-60%

Processing/packagingmargins

Imports of rawmaterials

A B C D E F G H

Value % Value Value % Value %1 Bread and bakery 515 14 289 58 20 3 52 Dairy, tofu products; eggs 589 16 327 262 80 52 203 Fruits and vegetables 662 18 294 206 70 93 454 Meat, sausages, snacks 110 3 55 41 75 0 15 Wholegrain, seeds, nuts

Wholegrain 110 3 55 28 50 3 10Seeds 37 1 18 9 50 9 100Nuts 74 2 37 22 60 22 100

6 Pasta, dried fruit, cereals, muesliPasta 74 2 37 11 30 9 80Dried fruit 74 2 37 22 60 21 95Cereals, muesli 110 3 55 28 50 8 30

7 Bread spreads, honey, nut butterBread spreads 37 1 18 6 30 2 30Jam, fruit spreads 37 1 18 6 30 5 90Honey 37 1 18 7 40 7 90Nut butter 74 2 37 11 30 10

8 Spices, oils, fatsSoups, cans, convenience foods 129 3.5 64 19 30 12 60Spices 18 0.5 9 3 30 2 90Oils 37 1 18 6 30 5 95

9 Sweets, biscuits, puddingSweets 37 1 18 4 20 3 80Chocolate 37 1 18 4 20 4 100Biscuits 37 1 18 4 20 1 15Sweeteners, baking ingredients 37 1 18 6 30 4 80

10 Tea, coffee, cocoaTea 74 2 37 11 30 10 90Coffee, cocoa 74 2 37 11 30 10 95

11 DrinksFruit, vegetable juices 74 2 37 11 30 6 50Alcoholic drinks 110 3 55 11 20 7 60

12 Non-food products: body care, etc. 13

Total 3 200 100 1 628 804 49 307 38

Baby food 400 - - - - -

TOTAL 3 600 - - - - -

Source: Trade estimates.

A Main categories at Naturkostshops (1-12). C % of total sales of organic products (DM 3,200 million). D Estimated average distribution margin of retailers and wholesalers: 50% (from a range of 45% -60%) of sales.E Estimated value of raw materials before processing and packaging. F E as percentage of sales to wholesalers.G Approximate import value per product group.H Estimated percentage level of imports.

amount to about DM 24 mil lion. About half of theseimports are mar keted with the Trans Fair seal in con -ven tional gro cery out lets and the other half in naturalfood shops by com pa nies like Rapunzel, Lebens -baum, Allos and others. Imports of spices, oils, fats,sweets, sweet eners and baking ingre di ents, of whichlarge shares also come from devel oping coun tries, are valued at about DM 14 mil lion. Sub stan tial quan ti ties are imported by indus trial sup pliers like Care, Davert

Mühle, Georg Rösner and Übelhör but proc es sorsalso import direct. Imported oils, like palm oil, are the main ingre di ents for organic mar ga rine, which is pro -duced by the margerine fac to ries Mün ster land andSaarwerke.

Fur ther infor ma tion on organic prod ucts obtainedfrom devel oping coun tries is pro vided fur ther belowin the sec tion on market char ac ter is tics.


Consumer categories

The key influ ences on food pur chasing by Germancon sumers are con ven ience, health and enjoy ment.How ever, these and other influ ences are oftencon tra dic tory. For instance, health cannot easily beobtained by con ven ience, demand for the best pos siblequality is not com patible with demand for low prices,and the keen interest in exotic foods (from dis tantpro ducing coun tries) con flicts with the growing interestin and the redis covery of locally grown pro duce.

Con sumers in the 1990s have become increas inglymul ti di men sional and can no longer be definedaccording to socio- economic cri teria alone. Typicalorganic con sumers used to be char ac ter ized as having higher than average edu ca tional back grounds but notnec es sarily higher incomes (many stu dents buyorganic food), belonging to small fami lies, and so on.Market research by Ger many’s largest con sumerresearch organi za tion GfK has shown that theGer mans of today often simul ta ne ously dis playappar ently con tra dic tory behav iour in their foodcon sump tion: their pref er ences and actions can varynot only in the long term but even within the day. Forexample, it would not seem absurd for an indi vidualcon sumer to have a healthy break fast with muesli,yoghurt and fruit, a fast- food lunch, and a cele bra torydinner with lob ster and cham pagne.

In a survey in 1991, the Sinus Institut fürLeben swelt for schung cate go rized natural food storecus tomers according to socio- economic cri teria andvalues as fol lows:

q 44% came from a technocratic-liberalenvironment. This group accounts for 10% of theoverall population.

q 27% came from an alternative environment (2%of the overall population).

q 14% came from a hedonistic environment (12%of the overall population).

q 6% came from a conservative environment (8%of the overall population).

q 9% came from all other backgrounds (68% ofthe total population).

According to the Sinus Institut, at least 77% of thecus tomers of natural food stores come from thehigher and middle social classes.

Other studies con clude that the organic foodcus tomer more often than not has a higher level ofedu ca tion, but not nec es sarily a higher income. Dataon age and family size are often con tra dic tory.

The ever more com plex cate go ri za tion of con sumersrequires a shift from the more tra di tional focus oncon sumer behav iour to a much more finely tunedview of the con sum ers’ dis po si tions, state of mind,desires and expe ri ences.

In a market study car ried out in 1996 by CMA (theGerman Mar keting Agency for Agrarian Prod ucts)and Rewe, one of Ger many’s largest food retailers,74% of organic buyers claimed that healthcon sid era tions were the key influ ence on pur chasing.The other most impor tant rea sons were making aper sonal con tri bu tion towards improving theenvi ron ment (51%), better nutri tional value (29%)and better taste (20%). The survey also found that56% of organic con sumers were ready to pay anorganic pre mium of more than 15%, 33% a pre mium


of less than 15%, and 11% were not pre pared to payany pre mium. A more recent survey shows a dif ferent pic ture: only 20% of all con sumers are willing to payany pre mium on organic foods.

Consumer confusion about organicproducts

It is a matter of con tro versy whether con sumers really under stand what organic prod ucts are. TheCMA-Rewe market study revealed that 95% of allGerman fami lies claim to know what organicagri cul ture is and that organic prod ucts are pur chasedby no less than two- thirds of them. Half of thesepur chasers buy at least once a week. About 32% of all fami lies never buy organic prod ucts. The knowl edgelevel would sug gest that the market share of organicprod ucts should be much higher than the cur rentesti mated 1.2% share of total gro cery sales. Itempha sizes the fact that pas sive con scious ness of theneed to pre serve the envi ron ment is not trans latedinto the action of buying more envi ron men tallyfriendly food stuffs. Around 6% of German adults are‘green’ voters but they do not actively live a ‘green’life. In many peo ple’s minds ‘bu ying organic food’seems to mean buying, for example, the occa sionalloaf of organic bread, a bag of organic car rots, onionsor pota toes, a bottle of organic milk or a jar of organic baby food.

Even the organi cally com mitted con sumers eat farless organi cally than they think they do. In a survey of devoted natural food con sumers Brom bacher andHamm found that, while these cus tomers esti matedthe organic share of their food spending at 75% ormore, the real figure was only about 40%. In 1998many hard- core natural food con sumers, and ofcourse many more con ven tional food pur chasers,were unaware of the EU regu la tion on organic foodsand were com pletely con fused by the numerous‘nat ural food’ and ‘organic’ labels and logosappearing on the market.

The generic bio-label

After almost 10 years of prepa ra tions, AGÖL andCMA jointly launched a long due German genericbio- label in early 1999. The label can be used on allprod ucts, domestic or imported, which are pro ducedin accor dance with AGÖL stan dards. A jointlicensing com pany, Ökop rüfzeichen GmbH – alsoknown as ÖPZ GmbH – was estab lished and fundswere made avail able for mar keting pur poses. Thescheme is expected to contribute considerably to the

growth of the German organic market. However, therule limiting the use of the generic logo only incombination with the logo of one of the AGÖLmember associations is considered by many to be arestricting factor.

Purchasing organic foods: the criteriaused

German con sumers con sider a wide variety of quali -ties and other cri teria, rightly or wrongly, in decidingwhether or not to pur chase organic foods. Theyinclude the fol lowing: fresh ness, espe cially of fruitsand vege ta bles; tasti ness; food safety (e.g. absence ofcon tami nants); organic guar an tees; buying con ven -ience; product con ven ience; external appear ance;con tri bu tion to health; product image in rela tion tothe con sumer’s values and life style; appear ance ofthe point of sale; nutri tional value; ‘nat ura lness’;whole- food quality; absence of geneti cally modi fiedorgan isms (GMOs); absence of addi tives; absence ofaller gens; origin of the product and the trans par encyof its journey from field to shelf; quality man age -ment; animal- friendly hus bandry; eco logical packing and logis tics; social impact (e.g. fair trade cri teria).

Three critical aspects have a par ticu larly strongimpact on organic food pur chasing in Ger many.

Authen ticity and con fi dence in source. In theCMA-Rewe study referred to ear lier, 40% of therespon dents who did not buy organic foods citeddoubts about their authen ticity as the main reason fornon- purchase. Because people are unable todis tin guish organic prod ucts from non- organic ones,they tend to trust farm shops and weekly farm ers’mar kets more than other points of sale, though thepro duce they buy there may not even be organic. Theyoften do not realize that cer ti fied organic pro duce isavail able from other shops and, to a growing extent,from super mar kets. Major retailers such asTengel mann, Rewe, Edeka, Metro and Globus aregradu ally step ping up their cam paigns but the resultshave not been spec tacular to date. The smaller retailerTegut (Hawege) has been more suc cessful and itsorganic sales account for pos sibly as much as 3.5% ofits turn over. It is esti mated that a high pro por tion of theorganic pur chases in con ven tional super mar kets isattrib ut able to con sumers whose main pri ority is, notspe cifi cally to eat organi cally, but to buy food whichthey per ceive to be fresh, tasty, nutri tious, con ven ient,envi ron men tally friendly, not too expen sive andwhich, by chance, also hap pens to be of cer ti fiedorganic quality.


Fresh ness and the need for rapid turn over. The moreorganic food enters main stream chan nels, the greaterthe appli ca bility of the cri teria cus tomers gen er allyreserve for con ven tional food. Fresh ness is a pri maryrequire ment, espe cially for per ish ables. Direct sales by farmers do guar antee abso lute fresh ness, as they offerfruits and vege ta bles har vested only a few hoursbefore; how ever, this sales method reaches only a verysmall per centage of the poten tial organic con sumers inGer many. The logis tical costs of sup plying regularquan ti ties of fresh pro duce to natural food and Reformshops are high and have been a major obstacle to salesgrowth. If deliv eries are too slow or too infre quent,shops can offer only a small range of prod ucts, whichoften are not fresh enough and have to be thrown away. It is esti mated that, in order to offer a good range offresh pro duce, a German food shop needs to haveannual sales of more than DM 1.5 mil lion. Only about20% of natural food and Reform shops havemod ern ized and improved their turn over of freshorganic pro duce suf fi ciently to meet this require ment.

Rapid turn over is critical for suc cess. Major mul tiplesuper mar kets have effi cient logistic sys tems and arein a posi tion to dis tribute organic fresh food along side con ven tional pro duce, pro vided the mer chan dise issold quickly. This has been the major problem forGerman super mar kets: because fresh pro duce movesoff the shelves too slowly, con sumers have per ceivedorganic quality as old. It is pre cisely because car rots,onions and pota toes have a longer shelf life that theseorganic prod ucts often attain a double- digitper centage share in total sales. A higher turn over ofthe whole range of fresh foods including milk anddairy prod ucts, bread and even meat and sau sages isessen tial. The quality of the pro duce depends on theamounts sold, but these in turn depend on the qualityper ceived by the con sumer.

Per cep tion and impulse. A con sumer’s deci sion topur chase a par ticular food product in the super market,which stocks 8,000 or more food items, is madeagainst the back ground of the above list of qualityrequire ments. How ever, he or she is basi cally lookingto buy some good food, pos sibly organic and not tooexpen sive. The actual act of buying is made largely onimpulse based on the cus tomer’s existing per cep tions.

Clear iden ti fi ca tion, good mer chan dising andcom mu ni ca tion are the key to pro moting any foodproduct, whether organic or not. It has beensug gested that for organic foods to make a realbreak through in con ven tional super mar kets, the same amount of money spent on launching the major

con ven tional brands, typi cally at least DM 30mil lion, needs to be set aside to pro mote organicfoods. A generic mar keting cam paign sup portedjointly by all market par tici pants would seem to bethe best way for ward.

Fair trade and its relationship withorganics

Fair traded prod ucts are widely rec og nized inGer many. The country has an impor tant niche marketfor a growing number of product groups like coffee,tea, cocoa, honey and bananas. The pri mary con cernof the fair trade move ment is with the social andeco nomic situa tion of farmers and pro ducers in theSouth rather than with organic farming as an ideal, butthe two move ments are tending to con verge, as bothcon tribute to genuine sus tain ability. Devel op mentwhich proves sus tain able over gen era tions iscom pel lingly linked to the use of organic methods ofcul ti va tion, proc essing and pro duc tion. Because oftheir tra di tional expe ri ence, pro ducers often have asound basis for such con ver sion, it leads to addi tionalemploy ment and, most sig nifi cantly, cer ti fied organicpro duc tion raises the market poten tial of the prod ucts.

In Ger many, three main organi za tions are involved inthe fair trade move ment.

Fair Trade eV. This is the reg is tered asso cia tion forthe pro mo tion of fair ness in world trade. It is anon- profit organi za tion, funded largely by a numberof churches and other bodies like Bread for the Worldand Mise rior. Its main pur pose is to helpdis ad van taged pro ducers improve their prod ucts tomeet the strin gent quality require ments of theEuro pean market through research, product andproj ect devel op ment. Public rela tions, and theini tia tion and sup port of cam paigns, such as forexample against child labour, are also impor tantactivi ties of Fair Trade.

Anyone with a social com mit ment can apply for FairTrade assis tance in researching the chances of a productin the Euro pean market and devel oping it accord ingly.About 25% of the prod ucts Fair Trade develops arecer ti fied organic when the organi za tion starts handlingthem, and 85% are cer ti fied organic when Fair Trade’sjob is fin ished and the product is handed over to GepaGmbH for mar keting (see below).

Fair Trade does not work exclu sively with smallpro ducers. Its prin ci ples are being extended to sec tors pre vi ously not touched by it, including large pri vate


con cerns. Fair Trade can give its ready- to- marketprod ucts to any trader, but to date common pur poseand a his torical close ness as well as the fact that theyshare the same prem ises has resulted in Fair Tradehanding over all its prod ucts to Gepa.

Trans Fair. This is an inde pendent non- profitorgani za tion which issues a licence to use theTrans Fair seal, con trols the con di tions of fair trade, and works in edu ca tion, public rela tions and thedis semi na tion of infor ma tion. Together with 15national Trans Fair and Max Have laar sisterorgani za tions, it is part of FLO Inter na tional, the FairTrade Label ling Organi za tion. FLO has its sec re tariatin Ger many and car ries out a dia logue with IFOAM on issues like joint cer ti fi ca tion. FLO’s motto is: fairwages rather than chari table dona tions.

All prod ucts mar keted by Gepa carry the Trans Fairlabel. So far the Trans Fair label can be obtained forcoffee, tea, cocoa and choco late, honey, and freshbananas. A growing number of prod uctssimul ta ne ously carry both the Trans fair label and anorganic label. Gepa coop er ates closely with twoGerman organic farm ers’ asso cia tions, Natur land and Demeter, in organic cer ti fi ca tion. At pres ent about25% of Trans Fair coffee, 60% of its tea and 50% ofits bananas are cer ti fied organic. Very little cocoa iscer ti fied organic. Gepa aims at 100% organic for each proj ect; about 65% of its food prod ucts are cer ti fiedorganic at any given moment.

Gepa GmbH . A lim ited com pany, this is the mainimport and mar keting organi za tion in Ger many for fair trade prod ucts. It has pro fes sion al ized the move mentand today sup plies not only non- profit parish salesout lets but also any mar keting channel that seemssuit able for the fair trade aim. Other organi za tions have entered the fair trade field as well and fair tradeprod ucts can now be found in many dif ferent retailout lets, including super- and hyper mar kets.

Gepa’s sales to the con ven tional food retail sector nowaccount for 15% of its total sales; the sector is Gepa’sfastest growing market. It con tinues to sell 63% of itsprod ucts to activist groups and One World Shops.Some prod ucts are exported to similar organi za tions in other Euro pean coun tries. (The Euro pean fair tradeasso cia tions coop erate in the Euro pean Fair TradeAsso cia tion.) Gepa’s annual sales amount to DM 55mil lion. Of this 90% is attrib ut able to food, of whichalmost 60% is coffee, 8% tea, 7% choco late andsweets, 6% honey and nut spreads; the remainder

com prises nuts and dried fruit, sugar and cocoa, wine, cereals and spices. Spices, choco late and sweets arethe fastest growing product cate go ries. Gepa’ssources include almost every Latin American country as well as quite a few African and Asian coun tries.

The market pene tra tion of key Trans Fair prod ucts has been sig nifi cant. Trans Fair coffee, intro duced into the German market in spring 1993, is now sold in about25,000 super mar kets and its market share, whichcon tinues to rise, is cur rently 4%. Con sumers canchoose from over 50 varie ties of coffee sup plied bymore than 30 Trans Fair licen sees. Tea was intro duced at the end of 1994 with the par tici pa tion of nearly allGerman tea traders. Within one year, Trans Fair blacktea had gained a market share of about 3%. Firstpre sented at the Inter na tional Sweets and Bis cuitsFair in Cologne at the begin ning of 1996, Trans Faircocoa and choco late are now avail able in more then10,000 shops in the country. Honey was intro duced in Sep tember 1996, and fresh bananas were launched inthou sands of super mar kets in early 1998. Trans Fair is readying other major product cate go ries for marketentry. Its mar keting efforts have been so suc cessfulthat between 1993 and 1996, its annual sales grewfrom just over DM 50 mil lion to DM 100 mil lion.

Bananas, a case of col labo ra tion between fair trade,organics and con ven tional dis tri bu tion. The bananastory illus trates Trans Fair’s rela tion ship with organicfarming. For sev eral years, a German banana growerin Costa Rica had experi mented with using pes ti cidesat a much lower level than was cus tomary in thebanana plan ta tions owned by the big mul ti na tionals.He replaced her bi cides com pletely and cut down oninsec ti cides and fun gi cides but could not abolish thementirely without losing his crop. He treated hislabourers well and tried to find a way of mar keting togain a pre mium for his pro duce. This was very dif fi cult as his bananas could not be offi cially sold as organic.How ever, he got Trans Fair involved and he was soonable to receive a pre mium and find stable cus tomersamong main stream German food dis tribu tors.

In another instance, Rewe AG, a German foodmul tiple with some 7,000 out lets, wanted Trans Fairorganic bananas from the Dominican Republic to bemar keted under its organic pri vate label Füll horn.Trans Fair inspected pro duc tion and trade con di tionsin the Republic and issued its licence. Today, organicbananas from the Republic are being imported byTradin of the Neth er lands, a com pany that calls itselfthe “No. 1 Im porter of Organic Bananas since 1988”.


Market segmentation

As has been said, the value of the German market fororganic foods is esti mated at approxi mately DM 3.6bil lion, or 1.2% of the overall food retail market. Table8.4 shows a break down of the organic trade by maintype of retail outlet. The catering and export seg mentsare not cov ered by the table.

The largest seg ment is the organ ized food retail sector (Lebensmitteleinzel- handel, LEH, in German) whichhas overall annual sales of about DM 230 bil lion, ofwhich about 78% or DM 180 bil lion, is real ized bythe seven largest chains. Two- thirds of the LEHcon sist of dis count stores and hyper mar kets, each ofwhich has a market share of almost one- third and

which are con tinu ously involved in price wars. Theremaining one- third com prises the classicsuper mar kets and other sales out lets, includingtra di tional neigh bour hood stores, which suffer fromthe fierce price com pe ti tion. Their supply system andrele vance for organic foods and espe cially importsare dis cussed in the sec tion on dis tri bu tion chan nels,fur ther below.

Direct sales, mainly by farmers, make up 20% of allorganic sales. Catering is becoming impor tant,espe cially in the region of Hessen where the localgov ern ment has obliged offi cial insti tu tions likehos pi tals, uni ver si ties and the admini stra tion to offerat least one organic menu.

Market requirements

This sec tion describes the main product groupsimported into Ger many. The major focus is onprod ucts which are not avail able to Germanimporters from Euro pean sources and/or can besup plied by devel oping coun tries. There are goodimport oppor tu ni ties in Ger many, sub ject to thelimi ta tions described in various sec tions in thischapter, espe cially for the fol lowing prod ucts:

q Grains and cereals like durum wheat, rice,millet, buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa.

q Tropical and subtropical fruits like citrus andbanana and, in much smaller quan ti ties, avocado,pine apple, mango, etc.; fruit like apples, pears from the southern hemi sphere in spring, when no fresh

Euro pean produce is avail able; also fruit forproc essing into juices, purées, concen trates, and dried or frozen prod ucts.

q Dried fruits and nuts, and by-products.

q Vegetables in winter and spring, when no freshEuropean produce is available.

q Herbs, spices and medicinal plants, essential oils.

q Fruit juices and fruit preparations, not only oftropical and subtropical fruit, but also of berries andother fruits which grow in Germany but of whichproduction and collection are labour intensive andtherefore expensive.


Table 8.4 Germany: turnover of the organic trade, by main distribution channel, 1997

Trade channelNo. of outlets

carrying organics(estimates)

Estimated turnover% share in totalorganic market(DM ’000 000 )

TOTALof which:

3 600 100

Natural food shops 1 700 1 200 35

Mainstream supermarkets, hypermarkets, discount shops, drugstores 3 000-4 000 800 24

Direct sales, mainly by farmers 750 20

Reformhäuser (Reform shops) 2 000 300 9

Organic bakeries 400-500 250 8

Organic butchers 80 60 2

Sources: Lebensmittelzeitung 30 (24 July 1998) and trade sources.

q Wines especially from France, Italy and Spainwhich taste differently from the much appreciatedGerman organic (white) wines.

q Oleaginous seeds such as sesame, sunflower,safflower, pumpkin.

q Oils and fats for table oil and processing, such as palm oil for margarine.

q Cane sugar and other natural sweeteners.

q Honey: demand for imported organic honey islikely to increase substantially when the EU regulation on certification is extended to animal products,including honey. Allos, the dominant importer ofhoney for the natural food trade, has its own privatestandards for organic honey. TransFair has not placedmuch emphasis on the organic certification of thisproduct but this is likely to change.

q Tea, coffee, cocoa and by-products.

Importers’ requirements

It is no longer as easy as it was in the past threedec ades to export any organic product of any qualityand at any price to Ger many. The exis tence of manyorganic items which are typi cally imported does notimply by any means that auto matic entry for theseprod ucts is guar an teed. The German organic marketis char ac ter ized by heavy com pe ti tion and hasbecome extremely demanding in terms ofquality/price ratios, quan tity and con ti nuity of supply, logis tics, serv ices and com mu ni ca tion.

Prior to seeking market entry, the exporter shouldcarry out thor ough market research, obtain a basicknowl edge of the German organic market and itsrequire ments, and under stand that it may beperi odi cally satu rated, at least for some prod ucts.This will help to pre vent unnec es sarydis il lu sion ment. The export ers’ organic cer ti fi ca tion(see sec tion on cer ti fi ca tion, fur ther below) must bewater tight and exporters must ensure that they

comply, not only with the com pul sory Euro peanregu la tion, but also with spe cific pri vate stan dards.To enter the German organic market it is essen tial toassess one’s assets, par ticu larly one’s USP (uniqueselling propo si tion), i.e. “What can I offer better orcheaper than others? I can only be suc cessful in thelong run in fields where I know I can com pete.”

The search for a com pe tent importer- partner isquin tes sen tial. The partner should be a suc cessfulcom pany, which is effi cient, reli able and sol vent, andwhich takes a long- term view rather than that ofmaking money quickly. The partner should also havesuf fi cient under standing of the spe cific situa tions and prob lems facing sup pliers in devel oping coun tries.Assis tance in finding and con tacting a partner can besought through Pro trade’s Green Trade Net. If fur therinvest ment to develop the proj ect or the product isneeded, Pro trade or Fair Trade eV can be con tactedfor assis tance.

Competition and prices

This sec tion describes the critical role played bycom pe ti tion and pricing in the organic food market inGer many and the way in which pricing policy affectsfuture pros pects for the trade.

For organic prod ucts, the highest growth rate occursin the main stream super market channel which isdomi nated by fierce com pe ti tion and price pres sure.Although the natural food shops, direct onfarm salesand the catering industry con tinue to grow, the mainexpan sion of organic sales is in the mainstream foodmarket, which is domi nated by price com pe ti tion.

The food market tends to reflect upward anddown ward trends in the gen eral eco nomic situa tionand, as time goes on, house holds are spendingpro por tion ally less of their budgets on food. Hard and soft dis count store groups have been con stantlygrowing and eroding the market shares of the othersuper- and hyper mar kets. Com pe ti tion is so fierce,that large food dis tribu tors are happy when their netprofits exceed 1% of their sales. Organic food has todevelop within this extremely dif fi cult eco nomicenvi ron ment; sales have been affected by theprice- cutting tech niques imposed by hard dis counters


like Aldi and Lidl on the entire German main streamdis tri bu tion.

Pricing, mer chan dising and com mu ni ca tion will bedeci sive in any effort by super mar kets to suc ceed inmar keting organic food. To date the major strategy ofthe super- and hypermarket mul ti ples in dealing withorganic pro duce has often been to put a higher margin on organic food by com parison with regular food.They saw a chance to make more money by sellingsmall quan ti ties of organic food in niche sec tors thatdid not seem to be driven as much by com pe ti tion.This still applies to most slow- selling organic dryfood ranges in super mar kets. How ever, theexpanding volume of fresh organic prod ucts enteringsuper mar kets is changing pricing policy. As statedear lier, a store has to sell con sid er able quan ti ties offresh pro duce quickly in order to sell it at all, as freshpro duce ages rap idly and then becomes impos sible to sell. To create the nec es sary demand, pricing mustalso be attrac tive. In addi tion, there has to be acoherent assort ment, well mer chan dised and clearlyiden ti fi able, and with more than average efforts tocom mu ni cate with the cus tomer. The key mes sage isthere fore that to cap ture a larger share of themain stream gro cery channel, the organic industry has to become more com peti tive, effi cient and able todeliver the best quali ties at lower prices.

New chal lenges and oppor tu ni ties for the natural foodshops. As the market expands, there is a spe cialistmarket oppor tu nity for smaller quan ti ties of upgradedorganic prod ucts which can sell at higher prices. Thisstrategy is being adopted by most natural food shops,and the more suc cessful and bigger out lets are able toposi tion them selves as spe cialist retailers with a widerrange of organic prod ucts, sup ported by com pe tentservice and advice. The major chal lenge for them is todevelop more effi cient and less costly pro duc tion anddis tri bu tion sys tems. How ever, the natural food tradeas a whole is still highly frag mented at all levels and,even though mar gins are high, very few par tici pantsmake enough profit to pro vide for future devel op ment. Bank ruptcy rates have been high and mergers andacqui si tions will con tinue until effi cient and viablestruc tures are estab lished.

The tra di tion ally frag mented German agri cul turalsystem and its prob lems in coping with freer trade.When in the late 1980s the system that protected EEC agriculture became too expensive to support, andwith GATT and WTO pur suing the policy of freetrade and globali za tion, pres sure was put on theEuro pean Union to open its bor ders and to reduce

sub si dies for farmers. In the last 10 yearscon ven tional grain prices in Ger many have fallen to40% of their 1988 price levels.

Over supply causes price col lapse. Prices, not only ofcon ven tional grain since the late 1980s, but also oforganic grain (par ticu larly wheat) in the 1990s, havecol lapsed to some times less than 50% of their formerlevels. The reason for this is that the push of organicgrain pro duc tion grew faster during this time than thepull of organic demand. According to ZMP, theCen tral Price Infor ma tion Office for Agri cul ture,For estry and the Food Industry, the prices of organicrye, barley, oats and spelt fell by 30% - 40% in thefour years to 1998. The drop for organic wheat wasless spec tacular but was nevertheless con sid er able. In all cases the drop during this period was even steeperthan that for con ven tional cereals. Con verting toorganic pro duc tion was sub si dized by EU and,espe cially in the former East Ger many, many largerfarms turned organic. Cheap imports from otherformer Eastern block coun tries, like Romania, theCzech Republic, Poland and Ukraine, often had adev as tating effect.

A more rele vant example for devel oping coun tries ofthe effects of over supply is that of organic vanilla.Until the mid 1990s Mada gascar was the sole sup plierand prices were high. To take advan tage of thedemand Tonga, Indo nesia, Mexico and other coun tries started to pro duce organic vanilla. Very quickly anunder- supply situa tion turned into over supply andprices fell to about half their former level.

The posi tive side of this devel op ment is, of course,the move ment of many organic prod ucts away fromtheir former unre al is ti cally high price levels.

ZMP pro vides cur rent prices for some basic Germanorganic agri cul tural prod ucts. Con tact details can befound in annex I.

Bal ancing increasing supply with demand requireswell- adapted sales chan nels. When supply exceedsdemand, as has been the case for organic grain, milkand vanilla in Ger many, prices fall. When demandout grows supply, the price tol er ance rises. Withgrowth in real demand (not what people say but whatthey do and buy) for organic pro duce, dis tri bu tionsys tems become more effi cient and farmers are ableto receive higher organic price pre miums. Withoutthe par tici pa tion of the main stream retail food chains, the for mi dable growth of German organic pro duc tion can never be absorbed. It is expected that the


situa tions of over supply described above willdis ap pear in the middle to long term.

These simple truths had not been suf fi cientlyunder stood by many organic pio neers in Ger many.Super market mul ti ples were seen as a threat ratherthan an oppor tu nity by small farmers. To marketorganic food to super mar kets was con sid ered by theorganic pio neers to be a sin against their vision of abetter world in gen eral and of organic agri cul ture inpar ticular. Their view was to keep the organicmove ment small but beau tiful. This atti tudeunavoid ably slowed down all efforts to estab lish

appro priate mar keting struc tures as well as a singleorganic seal in Ger many, and change is taking placeat a snail’s space.

Con sid ering organic food as a service productdis rupts organic pricing. The atti tude of con ven tional super market out lets towards selling organic prod uctsis critical. Some impor tant chains have dam agedorganic price struc tures by car rying organic foods asservice prod ucts on which they do not make anyprofit. This makes it extremely dif fi cult to raise prices at a later stage and can there fore cause lastingprob lems for the trade.

Organic certification and food laws and regulations8

EU Regulation 2092/91

The most impor tant regu la tion for the organic marketis the EU Regu la tion 2092/91 on organic farming and its amend ments. This regu la tion applies to the wholeof the Euro pean Union and is described in Part I ofthis book.

Organic certification for the Germanmarket

In Ger many many cer ti fying bodies (pri vate) areaccred ited according to the EU regu la tion. Sev eral ofthese are active in the cer ti fi ca tion of organic importsand the sup plying pro duc tion units. They also pro videassis tance and super vi sion for set ting up nationalcer ti fying bodies in coun tries out side the Euro peanUnion, espe cially in devel oping coun tries. The mostactive German cer ti fying organi za tions abroad areBCS Öko- Garantie GmbH, Eco cert Inter na tional,Natur land Ver band, Lacon and INAC (Inter na tionalNutri tion and Agri cul ture Cer ti fi ca tion).

The cer ti fying bodies are organ ized in two groups:Kon ferenz der Kon troll stellen (Con fer ence ofCer ti fying Bodies) which is currently under theaus pices of GfR, and the Arbe its ge mein schaft derKon troll stellen (Working Group of Cer ti fyingBodies). The chairmanship of these Groups rotatesamong their member certifying bodies.

In each of the 16 fed eral States, a dele gatedcom pe tent authority is respon sible for super visingthe activi ties of cer ti fi ca tion bodies as well asauthor izing imports from third coun tries (i.e.non- members of the Euro pean Union). (One fed eralState has as many as four dele gated authori ties.) Aworking group named Län der ar be its ge mein schaftder Öko- Kontrollbehörden (LÖK) coor di nates theactivi ties of all com pe tent autho rities.

As indi cated ear lier, the stan dards required byGerman organic importers are fre quently higher thanthose of the basic EU regu la tion. It is there fore oftennec es sary for imports from third coun tries to beinspected by a local German con trol or cer ti fyingbody even if they have obtained equiva lency at theEU level.

Harmonization of EU food laws

Most food laws and regu la tions are being har mo -nized in the Euro pean Union. How ever, in somecases per mis sible residue levels (e.g. in baby food),con tami nant or pol lutant levels (e.g. afla toxins) ormicro- organic counts (e.g. of micro- organisms inspices) are set dif fer ently in indi vidual EU coun tries.This is such a wide field that infor ma tion rele vant tospe cific prod ucts should be obtained from com pe tentcom pa nies or con sult ants. Labor Dr Wiertz, an ana -lytical labo ra tory for organic foods, is expe ri enced in


8 The full names and addresses of many of the organizations and companies mentioned in this section (and throughout the chapter) are provided inannex I.

residue detec tion even at the low levels needed forbaby food.

Permissible agricultural ingredients ofnon-organic origin

It may be of interest to exporters to know that someagri cul tural ingre di ents of non- organic origin maysome times be tem po rarily imported into the Germanorganic sector if suf fi cient quan ti ties of theseingre di ents in cer ti fied organic forms are notavail able. When enough sup plies of a cer ti fiedorganic ingre dient become avail able, theBun de san stalt für Land wirtschaft und Ernährung isinformed; it then with draws the allow ance for the

non- organic product and makes the use of thecer ti fied ingre dient com pul sory.

The list of per mitted non- organic ingre di ents iscon tinu ously updated. The list dated 31 July 1998 ispro vided in annex II to give an indi ca tion of the typeof ingre di ents cov ered.

Since the EU regu la tion on cer ti fied pro duc tion hasnow been extended to animal prod ucts, it will coverorganic honey as well. This product plays asig nifi cant role in the natural food sector and has been one of three items that does not have to be organic,water and salt being the other two. Honey has alwaysbeen par ticu larly impor tant because of its whole-food quali ties and its use as a sub sti tute for sugar.


The major sup pliers of organic foods to the retailtrade in Ger many are whole salers/packers. The larger com pa nies tend to import direct from organic pro duc -tion units abroad; others may obtain their sup pliesfrom spe cial ized importers. Major organic foodmanu fac turers are often directly involved in organicproj ects abroad for the supply of raw mate rials, butmany manu fac turers obtain their imported sup pliesfrom importers and spe cial ized proc es sors. The lattercom pa nies pro vide require ments according to themanu fac tur ers’ speci fi ca tions and ensure con ti nuityof supply.

The major players in the dis tri bu tion of organic foodsin the German market are described below.

Traders, importers, packers, processors and wholesalers

Rapunzel Natur kost AG, with a turn over of DM 70mil lion, is the largest importer, packer and whole saler of gro cery prod ucts. Its wide product assort mentranges from nuts and dried fruits to cereals and millprod ucts, sugar, cocoa and choco late, pasta, tomatoprod ucts, oils and fats, spreads and nut butt ers,bis cuits, coffee and vanilla. It recently added frozenfood and ice- cream lines. The Rapunzel brand isnamed after a girl in a well- known German fairy tale.Inter na tion ally, Rapunzel is one of the leadingcom pa nies involved in organic proj ects in thedevel oping world; it has sub sidi aries in Turkey andthe United States. Together with Allos, it recently

intro duced the generic organic Le Gourmet brand.

Dennree Ver sorgungs GmbH, with a reportedturn over of DM 130 mil lion, is mainly active in freshpro duce: dairy, fruits and vege ta bles.

Both Dennree and Rapunzel supply spe cial izedchan nels, as do similar com pa nies like Byodo Natur kost GmbH (dry prod ucts), and Bio garten Han dels GmbHand its sub sidiary Arche Natur pro dukte GmbH.

Bio- Zentrale GmbH, with a turn over of DM 73mil lion in 1998 (partly owned by the Cologne- basedDelvena Lebens mit telk ontor GmbH, an offshoot ofthe sugar com pany Pfeifer & Langen) owns theorganic brand Gut & Gerne. The brand can be found in many super market chains in Ger many, including some mul ti ples like Rewe which have their own pri vateorganic labels. Delvena also sup plies the dry organicassort ment for the pri vate label ranges Füll horn ofRewe, Grünes Land of Metro, Bio-Wertkost of Edekaand Terra Pura of Globus. Delvina is increas inglyinvolved in the dis tri bu tion of per ish able goods(including dairy prod ucts).

Alna tura Pro duk tions- und Han dels GmbH sup pliesprod ucts (including fresh pro duce) car rying itsgeneric label Alna tura to Tegut and toDM- Drogeriemarkt. It also runs its own retail chain.

Auris Natur kost Ver triebs GmbH mar kets a range oforganic prod ucts under the label BIO.


Rila Feinkost- Importe GmbH & CO KG, based inStemwede- Levern, puts together and sells theZon natura assort ment, which was origi nally aNeth er lands brand. How ever the range has a highpro por tion of non- organic prod ucts of Reform quality(i.e. without chemical addi tives and mostlyunre fined).

Leh mann Natur GmbH and its partner organi za tionBio tropic are the largest importers/packers andwhole salers of organic fruits and vege ta blessup plying super mar kets.

Bergquell Agrar- Naturprodukte GmbH & CO KGsup plies a large assort ment of fresh pro duce,including fruits and vege ta bles, eggs, meat andpoultry to super mar kets and spe cial ized stores. It isactively involved in proj ects in devel oping coun tries.

Among the other impor tant fruit and vege tablepackers and whole salers are Natur kost Schramm,Lan dlinie and Ernst Weber Natur kost. Thelast- named com pany also car ries dates, seeds, tea and juices. The baby food manu fac turer Hipp also runs afresh fruit and vege table pro gramme.

Addi tional traders, importers and packers selling toboth spe cial ized and main stream retail out lets areCare Natur kost GmbH & CO (grains, seeds, driedfruits), Grüner Punkt Natur kost GmbH (fruitprepa ra tions), Georg Rösner Ver triebs GmbH (nuts,seeds, flakes, dried fruits), Übelhör KG (cereals,pulses, nuts, dried fruits) and Euro Bio Korn (cereals,fruits, seeds, sweet eners). Gepa GmbH, describedear lier in this chapter, imports and dis trib utes coffee,tea, honey, choco late, nuts, rice and other prod ucts.

Landlinie Lebensmittel-Vertrieb GmbH & CO KGmarkets a range of fresh products, including importsfrom developing countries, to specialized shops andsupermarkets.

Mühldorfer Naturkornmühle GmbH (commonlyknown as Prima Vera) and its sister company, CeraliaGetreideprodukte GmbH, process, pack and trade ina large assortment of products, in part imported fromdeveloping countries. Products include rice, millet,sugar, oleaginous seeds and nuts.

Byodo Naturkost GmbH packs and trades in anassortment of products (including oils) largelyimported from developing countries.

As has been men tioned ear lier, con tact details for allthe com pa nies men tioned in this chapter are pro vided in annex I.

Food manufacturers

The number of purely organic manu fac turers inGer many is lim ited. The best known is the baby foodcom pany Hipp. By making organic quality its uniqueselling poi nt and by insisting on an organic con tent ofover 80% long before the regu la tions demanded ahigher per centage, Claus Hipp strength ened hismarket lead er ship for wet baby food (in jars), andobliged other big baby food pro ducers like Alete(Nestlé) and Milupa (Nutricia) to follow. It is pos sible that soon all of Ger many’s baby food in jars will beorganic. Hipp employs over 2,000 indi viduals, has an annual turn over of more than DM 300 mil lion, andhas fac to ries in Aus tria and France. Hipp is pos siblythe largest organic manu fac turer world wide and hasbeen instru mental in devel oping proj ects in coun trieslike Costa Rica.

Since 1995 the baby food com pany Gerber in CostaRica (a sub sidiary of Gerber USA, itself a sub sidiaryof Novartis Swit zer land, for merly Sandoz) has beensup plied with organic bananas, not from monocul ture plan ta tions, but from forest inter crop ping sys temsrun by indige nous farmers in the Tala mancaRes er va tion. In the first years, the Res er va tion’sbanana purée was exported exclu sively to Germanbaby food pro ducers but Gerber has recentlyintro duced it to the American market. This proj ectwas started by Milupa, the first con ven tional babyfood pro ducer to launch an organic line. Even thoughnei ther Milupa nor Alete rely on organics as a majormar keting mes sage, they push organic ingre di ents for two major rea sons. The first is that Hipp has set astandard for consumer expectations of baby food.The second has to do with the fact that German foodregulation, by setting maximum levels at 10 ppb(parts per billion), in effect allows no pesticideresidues in baby food. From 1 January 2000 a similarregulation will be applicable to the whole of theEuropean Union. As detection at such low levels isvery difficult and expensive, is not possible at all forsome pesticides and growth regulators, and demandsextensive auditing of the suppliers, it is often moreconvenient to go organic.

Südzucker, Germany’s largest sugar group, isinvolved in the organic sector through its subsidiariesCandico in Belgium and Renco in the Netherlands.


Other major organic manu fac turers or proc es sors arelisted below:

q Ludwig Stocker Hopfisterei GmbH, the breadspecialist, processed 15,570 tons of cereals in 1997. It has an annual turnover of DM 93 million and runsover 100 retail outlets, mostly in ‘pre-cashier’ outletsof supermarkets.

q Döhler GmbH – deals in food ingredients,particularly those that are fruit based.

q Kanne Brottrunk GmbH & CO KG – a ‘breaddrink’ specialist. (This drink is derived fromfermented old bread, hence its name.)

q Neumarkter Lammsbräu – produces 60,000hectolitres of beer per year and two organic soft drinks.

q Beutelsbacher Fruchtsaftkelterei – a juiceproducer.

q Voelkel – a juice producer.

q Lebensbaum Ulrich Walter GmbH – deals withcoffee, tea, spices and herbs.

q Davert Mühle – handles milling products.

q Allos Walter Lang Imkerhof GmbH – deals withfruit and amaranth products, cakes, fruit bars, etc.

q Bruno Fischer GmbH – a major processor ofvegetarian products such as soy milk, vegetarianburgers and sausages, and soups.

q Bauck Demeter Naturkost – handles cereals,coffee, oils, spreads and specializes in biodynamicproducts.

q Barnhouse Naturprodukte GmbH – deals withbreakfast cereals.

q Münsterländische Margarine-Werke J. LölfGmbH and Margarinwerk Saar – produce margarine.

Lebens baum, Davert Mühle and Allos have beeninstru mental in set ting up large organic proj ects indevel oping coun tries and their brands are among thebest known in Ger many.

Specialist organic retail outlets

Organic farmers and spe cialist retail out lets, which

deal exclu sively with organic food proc essing andtrading, con tinue to hold the lion’s share ofdis tri bu tion in Ger many, although super mar kets andother mul tiple food retailers are starting to eat away at this share. These strictly organic out lets have theadvan tage of not being in direct price com pe ti tionwith the main stream food retailers, of being able tocom mu ni cate the prin ci ples of organic farming totheir cus tomers and of not depending on only a fewextremely pow erful cus tomer com pa nies. Ide ologyforms an inte gral part of their product concept. Theyhave the dis ad van tage of reaching pri marily a coreminority of already con vinced or mili tant organiccon sumers.

Natural food shops (Naturkostläden)and organic supermarkets

There are about 1,700 natural food shops inGer many, mostly united in the umbrella organi za tionBNN (Bun des ver band Natur kost waren). They hold35% of Ger many’s organic market, equiva lent to DM 1.2 bil lion in sales. These out lets want to supply theirmain cus tomers not only basic prod ucts but also anyimag in able food item in organic quality, whether it isa spice (for example, organic pepper in all its varie ties is required) or a con ven ience food with manydif ferent ingre di ents. How ever, quite often themarket can absorb only small, some times barelyeco nomi cally viable, quan ti ties. The larger naturalfood stores now carry 2,000 or more items.

A key and recent devel op ment has been that oforganic super mar kets. The first chain of organicsuper mar kets was cre ated by Götz Rehn under hisAlna tura brand which, as early as 1985, formed thebasis for an organic shop- in- theshop in the Tegutsuper mar kets. Alna tura first opened its own organicsuper market in the late 1980s in Mann heim and nowruns a total of eight out lets in Mann heim, Karls ruhe,Freiburg and Darm stadt; these have a gross turn overof about DM 4 mil lion. Between 280 and 500 squaremetres in size, these modern stores have anassort ment of 6,800 arti cles (including non- foodorganic items like clothing, natural cos metics andtoys) and run small res tau rants. Michael Radau’sBio garten Natur kost Han dels GmbH has threeout lets, two in Osn abrück and one in Mün ster. DieterDreher runs Tausend Körner (620 square metres) andArkaden Natur kost (170 square metres), both in Kiel.

In the whole of Ger many there are now about 30organic super mar kets, the newest of which is Basic(400 square metres) in Munich, a pilot unit for a


fran chise system. Whereas some experts fore castrapid growth to some 150-200 out lets by 2000, theentre pre neurs men tioned here believe in more‘organic’ growth. The choice of site, in towns with apopu la tion of at least 100,000, is critical for thesuc cess of a new outlet, as are the com pe tence andmoti va tion of its per sonnel. An invest ment of at leastDM 300,000 and a turn over of over DM 2 mil lion arealso needed. It is believed that the majority ofcus tomers of organic super mar kets are new organiccon sumers.

Farm shops, food boxes and otherdirect selling methods

Direct sales account for about 20% of organic sales in Ger many (see table 8.4). A high pro por tion of thesesales con sists of direct farm sales, but during the1990s new direct selling methods have beenintro duced and have grown fast in popu larity. Foodbox or sub scrip tion sys tems (Abo- Kisten in German)offer con sumers the pos si bility of a weekly homedelivery of a given range of prod ucts (e.g. fruit andvege ta bles) at a set price (e.g. DM 30/delivery).There are now believed to be between 250 and 300sub scrip tion sys tems for organic food boxes, whichusu ally offer fruit and vege ta bles as the main product. The minimum value per delivery is typi cally DM 25.The system is run by farmers or by spe cial izedorgani za tions, 40 of which allow for online orderingvia the Internet. The growing impor tance of homeshop ping must not be under es ti mated and sales areexpected to grow rapidly over the next decade.

Reform shops

Tra di tional health food shops, known as Reform shopsor Reform häuser in Ger many, have been in opera tionsince 1893. The roots of the Reform Move ment lay in a reac tion to the nega tive side effects of the Indus trialRevo lu tion, as well as in natural medi cine and thevege tarian move ment. Nowa days Reform shops sellmany die tetic prod ucts or prod ucts with health claims,but no meat or alco holic bev er ages. They have alwaysstocked organic prod ucts and the emphasis was onwhole food (Vollwert kost) in keeping with the motto“Keep our food as natural as pos sible.” Until the end of the Second World War organic quality was the rule,but then the rule became the excep tion, though theemphasis on whole food remained. Even with strongand ongoing devel op ments during the last 10 years orso, the organic pro por tion of sales by Reform shopsdoes not yet exceed 20%. In fact, the rela tive absenceof organic food was the major reason for the

estab lish ment and growth of natural food stores in the 1950s and 1960s. Reform shops have a major asset intheir com pe tence in health food advice. A problem forthem are their high prices. Many ill- informedcon sumers, who do not know what ‘organic’ reallymeans, assume that all food sold by Reform shops iscer ti fied organic and, because they are not pre pared topay the pre mium for pro duce in these shops, they arethen inclined to reject organic food as being tooexpen sive.

Other specialist outlets; catering

The other spe cialist com pa nies involved in organicfood proc essing and trading in Ger many includeweekly mar kets, whole food bak eries, organicbutchers, tofu and other vege tarian product makers,and catering serv ices for can teens and res tau rants.Catering is rising in impor tance as an outlet fororganic food, espe cially in the region of Hessenwhere the local gov ern ment has obliged offi cialinsti tu tions such as hos pi tals, uni ver si ties and theadmini stra tion to offer at least one organic menu.

Major retail chains

The growth of organic farming and the shift in demand for organic prod ucts from a lim ited number of mili tantor highly moti vated con sumers to a wider seg ment ofthe popu la tion con cerned with health and food secu rity mat ters have made mar keting through the main streamsuper market channel logical and inevi table. Thischannel requires much larger and more con tinuoussup plies of uni form quality and usu ally demandsmar keting extras from its sup pliers. Mul ti ples aremuch less tol erant than the natural food stores ofdevia tions from external quality speci fi ca tions, areextremely price sen si tive, and so tightly organ ized thatfrom the first con tact to delivery sup pliers have toper form to the highest stan dards in all ways.

When main stream retailers first entered the organicfield, they had no real under standing of organics andmerely put some prod ucts on the super marketshelves, which often failed to sell. They failedbecause they had no master plan, because their staffhad not been edu cated on mat ters like the ori gins ofthe organic prod ucts, their legal status, thephi losophy and mar keting strategy behind them, andbecause no in- house or external exper tise was madeavail able. The result was inade quate and badlymer chan dised organic assort ments. Theircon ven tional thinking on com pe ti tion, market shares, easy access to many sources of supply, etc. was


incom patible with the method of opera tion of organic sup pliers. The retailers were con fronted with a lack of effi cient organic sup pliers, with the excep tion of thebaby food manu fac turer Hipp. They had tounder stand that car rying organics can suc ceed onlywhen lasting part ner ships with organic sup pliers arebuilt, so that new prod ucts of the right quality and insuf fi cient quan ti ties are made avail able. Moreoverthe prices must be such as to allow suf fi cient mar ginsfor all involved to make the whole processsus tain able, and the prod ucts afford able for thecon sumer. Many existing organic sup pliers refused to supply super mar kets for ideo logical rea sons, orbecause they were afraid to lose their existingcus tomers. Others did a very poor job because theyfailed to under stand that the require ments of thecon ven tional super market/gro cery trade are muchstricter in terms of external product quality,con ti nuity of supply, logis tics and price.

This situa tion gradu ally changed. Tegut, acom para tively small and regional super market chainwith 300 out lets and overall food sales of DM 2bil lion, was the first mul tiple really to under standorganics and rap idly became a suc cess in the late1980s. As early as 1985 Tegut cre ated an organicshop- in- theshop con cept under the Alna tura brandand trained and edu cated its staff on organic farmingand ways of com mu ni cating the con cept tocon sumers. Tegut’s organic sales have growndra mati cally and are now esti mated to account for4% of its total sales. The shop- in- shop, oftencon sid ered an organic ghetto, has been aban donedand Tegut has set up an organic bakery.

Table 8.5 pro vides some infor ma tion on theinvolve ment of Ger many’s top 10 food retailorgani za tions as well as Tegut in the dis tri bu tion oforganic food.

Rewe, Ger many’s largest food super market mul tipleowns the pri vate organic label Füll horn (‘co rn uc opia’in Eng lish). Although the share of the Füll horn label inRewe’s sales is less than 0.5%, this is equiva lent to avalue of about DM 200 mil lion (com pared to a totalturn over of close to DM 40 bil lion), making Rewe oneof the largest dis tribu tors of organic prod ucts inGer many. Rewe takes par ticular care in set ting uporganic pro duc tion pro grammes. As a con se quence,the Füll horn organic fruit and vege table sec tion isgrowing rap idly and is likely to make Füllhorn thefore most organic label. Rewe was also the first majormain stream group to intro duce organic meat, which itdid in col labo ra tion with the farm ers’ asso cia tionNatur land.

Edeka, no smaller than Rewe but still in the processof building a more cen tral ized group, has just decided to launch its own organic pri vate label nation wide.

Aldi, the third largest food market mul tiple anddis count market leader, has so far car ried only a feworganic prod ucts. In one of the smaller regions, it hasreplaced con ven tional car rots with organic car rots andis now selling over 1,000 tons of this product per year.

Metro is the largest overall retailer in Ger many, butonly the fourth largest in food. It owns the Makroout lets, known in various coun tries around the world.Metro’s pri vate label for organics is Grünes Land(Green Land).


Table 8.5 Germany: major food retailers and their involvement in organic food sales

Company Main outlets Organic assortment,fresh Own label, dry Labels

Rewe Minimal, Toom, Rewe Yes Yes Füllhorn, a/Gut & Gerne b/

Metro Real, Extra, Metro, Kaufhof Yes Yes Grünes Land a/Edeka Edeka, AVA Neukof, E-center, Marktkauf Yes Yes Bio-WertkostAldi Aldi 1 or 2 products No NoTengelmann Tengelmann, Kaiser, Grosso Yes Yes Naturkind a/Spar Spar Various productsLidl & Schwarz Kaufland A few productsSchlecker Schlecker Only baby foodDohle Group Dohle, Marktfrisch Different productsGlobus Globus Yes Yes Terra Pura a/Tegut Hawege, Okay, Top Market Yes Yes Alnatura b/

Source: Trade information.

a/ Own label/private label.

b/ Manufacturers’ brand.

Tengel mann is the fifth largest food mul tiple and wasthe first super market chain to launch a com pletelyorganic pri vate label, Naturkind (child of nature). Itwas launched nation wide in 1993 and has been heavily pro moted by the owner, Erivan Haub, a keenenvi ron men talist.

Each of the top five super market mul ti ples has morethan DM 20 bil lion in annual food sales, but so farnone of them has an organic share of more than 0.5%. Image has played an impor tant role up to now, but the super mar kets are expected to step up their efforts topro mote organic prod ucts. In early 1998 the regionalsuper market mul tiple Krieg baum in Baden- Württemberg intro duced a line car rying its pri vateorganic label Natur zeit (nature’s time), in coop era tion with a farm ers’ asso cia tion of Bioland. As Krieg -

baum has recently been sold to Metro, the future ofthe line is uncer tain. In summer 1998 anotherregional super market mul tiple, Globus of Saar landand Rheinland- Pfalz launched its organic pri vatelabel Terra Pura with a big mar keting drive. Spe cialmen tion should also be made of the DM Droger ie -markt, a national drug store chain with 410 out lets allover Ger many and some out lets in Aus tria, which has been selling the Alna tura organic range suc cess fullyfor more than 10 years.

In due course organic foods are expected to bedis trib uted through the new sales chan nels which arequickly becoming a fea ture of food retailing inGer many. They include gas sta tions, railway sta tions,cinemas and other lei sure out lets, auto mats and evenbanks.

Summary and market prospects

Ger many appears to offer tre men dous oppor tu ni tiesfor organic pro ducers, both domestic and for eign, formany rea sons, including the fol lowing:

q Its population of 82 million is environmentallyaware.

q 6% of its electorate are green voters.

q Germany is the cradle of organic agriculture andhosts the General Secretariat of IFOAM as well asBIOFACH, the biggest organic trade show in theworld.

q The German import promotion organizationProtrade/GTZ runs the GreenTradeNet Web site, aformidable tool linking organic farmers indeveloping countries with the German market.

The German organic market is second in size only tothat of the United States. In 1998 it had about 8,200organic farms (1.6% of all farms) and over 400,000hec tares (2.3% of the total agri cul tural area) whichwere organi cally cer ti fied or under con ver sion. In1997 organic food sales amounted to roughly DM 3.6 bil lion, only 1.2% of total food sales. The organicmarket is expected to con tinue growing for manyyears, if not at the double digit fig ures of the last 10years, cer tainly at a rate of 5%-10% per year. This isremark able because the gen eral food market isgloomy and expen di ture on food within the

house hold budget will con tinue to decline inimpor tance rela tive to expen di ture on other goods.

The key words used to describe food trends for theyear 2000 are con ven ience, health and enjoy ment.Ger many has a long tra di tion in natural medi cine,cure resorts and health food. The health- consciousGerman con sumer increas ingly relates health to foodsecu rity and a healthy envi ron ment, a sce nario within which organic food obvi ously has very strongargu ments. The organic food sector is dis cov eringcon ven ience foods, including frozen foods and readymeals, opening up sales far beyond the people whohave tra di tion ally been mainly con cerned withbuying “whole food” (Vollwert in German). Thefuture seems to hold out prom ising pros pects for theorganic food trade. None the less many people feelthat there is, at the same time, reason for seriouscon cern.

q Jobs have outstripped environmental awarenessas primary preoccupations and influences spending.

q Oversupply, structural or occasional, isoccurring.

q Oversupply, heavy competition and cheapimports have devastating effects on prices.

q Super- and hypermarkets continue to haveproblems in marketing organics and often apply


conventional purchasing practices.

q There is, as far as readiness to buy organics isconcerned, a huge gap between what the consumersays and what he does.

Indeed, the prices of many organic prod ucts aredrop ping, some times steeply, because of over supply,cheap imports, and mer ci less com pe ti tion.Con ver sion rates are slowing down. Some organicfarmers, as well as traders and other sup pliers, aredis cour aged. Devel oping country sup pliers arefinding it increas ingly dif fi cult to enter the Germanmarket and have to be much better pre pared than inthe past to do so. Some observers are wor ried because of the tre men dous gap between what Germancon sumers say about their readi ness to buy organicsand the pre miums they are pre pared to pay com paredto what they actu ally do. If people pur chasedaccording to their stated prin ci ples the share oforganic prod ucts in total gro cery expen di ture should

be at least 10% instead of the cur rent 1.2%. Otherobservers are wor ried by the fact that core organicvalues are being increas ingly eroded by the push of agrowing market and that mini mal istic approaches aregaining ground on farms, in proc essing plants and intrade. Social values, including lasting part ner shipsfrom field to shelf, are more and more under attack,as is the eco logical prin ciple of region ality.

For the near future, as the involvement of themainstream supermarket trade increases, it will becrucial that the organic movement does not squanderits ideological message, which is an integral part ofefforts to improve organic techniques as well qualityissues in general. Price monitoring systems are likelyto be established. Both the specialized and themainstream supermarket channels must continue toimprove their organic impact, further lowering thethreshold for the new consumer. These developments should help to make Germany’s organic futurebrighter than its past.


Annex I

Germany: selected addresses

TRADERS/IMPORTERS/PACKERS/PROCESSORS

Allos Walter Lang ImkerhofGmbHZum Streek 5 D-49457 MariendrebberTel: +49-5445 9899-0Fax: +49-5445 9899-14E-mail: [email protected]://www.allos.de(Honey, fruit preparations, cereals)

Alnatura Produktions- undHandels GmbHDarmstädter Strasse 3D-64404 BickenbachTel: +49-6257 93 220Fax: +49-6257 932 244E-mail: [email protected]

Andechser Molkerei ScheitzMolkereistrasse 5D-82346 AndechsTel: +49-8152 370 60Fax: +49-8152 370 690E-mail: Scheitz@Andechser- Molkerei.de(Dairy processing and trade)

Auris Naturkost Verbriebs GmbHD-28091 BremenTel: +49-421 396 0180(Owns the brand BIO)

Bergquell Agrar-NaturprodukteGmbH & CoKlosterhof 5D-38312 DorstadtTel: +49-5337 92 510Fax: +49-5337 925 123E-mail: BergquellNaturhoefe @t-online.de(Eggs, poultry, fruits and vegetables,milk products, dried goods)

Bio-Frost Westhof GmbHZum Westhof 6D-25764 FriedrichsgabekoogTel: +49-4839 9101Fax: +49-4839 9105E-mail: [email protected](Wholesaler of deep-frozen food)

BIOTROPIC See Lehmann Natur GmbH

Byodo Naturkost GmbHEdisonstrasse 3D-84453 MühldorfTel: +49-8631 32690Fax: +49-8631 326950E-mail: byodo-naturkostgmbh@ t-online.de

CARE Naturkost GmbH & CoRudolf-Diesel-Str. 30D-28876 OytenTel: +49-4207 914 444Fax: +49-4207 7185(Grain, seeds, dried fruits, nut pips)

Davert MühleAscheberger Str. 2D-48308 SendenTel: +49-2598 6928Fax: +49-2598 6961(Cereals, pulses, oils, pasta, rice)

De-Vau-Ge GesundkostwerkGmbHLüner Rennbahn 18D-21336 LüneburgTel: +49-4131 98501Fax: +49-4131187135E-mail: [email protected]://www.de-vau-ge.de(Group of organic and Reformmanufacturers, traders andimporters; brands: Granovita, Eden, Bruno Fischer, Martin Evers andLinusit)

Delvena Lebensmittel KontorGmbH Linnicher Strasse 48 D-50933 KölnTel: +49-221 498 0387 Fax: +49-221498 0399 (Runs the own Gut & Gerne generic label and organizes several others)

Dennree Versorgungs GmbHHofer Str.11D-95183 TopenTel: +49-9295 180Fax: +49-9295 1850E-mail: [email protected](Full organic food range, includingfruits and vegetables)

Döhler GmbHRiedstrasse 7-9D-64295 DarmstadtTel: +49-6151 3060Fax: +49-6151 306339E-mail: [email protected](Fruit-based ingredients)

Ernst Weber NaturkostPostfach 75 09 54D-81339 MünchenTel: +49-89 746 3420Fax: +49-89 746 34222E-mail: [email protected](Fruits and vegetables, dates,seeds, tea, juices)

Georg Rösner Vertriebs GmbHRegensburger Str. 32D-94315 StraubingTel: +49-9421 23619Fax: +49-9421 81736(Nuts, seeds, flakes, dried fruits,almonds)

Gepa GmbHBruch 4D-42279 WuppertalTel: +49-202 266 830Fax: +49-202 266 8310(Coffee, tea, honey, chocolate, nuts, rice, etc.)

Grüner Punkt Naturkost GmbHSchwanenkirchnerstr. 28D-94491 HengersbergTel: +49-9901 1842Fax: +49-9901 1875E-mail: [email protected](Fruit preparations)

Hipp-WerkMünchener Str. 58D-85276 Pfaffenhofen a.d. llmTel: +49-8441 757 481Fax: +49-8441 757 492(Baby food)

Landlinie Lebensmittel-VertriebGmbH & Co KGAn der Hasenkaule 24D-50354 Hürth-KalscheurenTel: +49-2233 974510Fax: +49-2233 9745199(Trader, packer and importer offresh produce)

Lebensbaum U. Walter GmbHMaschstr. 31D-49356 DiepholzTel: +49-5441 98560Fax: +49-5441 985 622E-mail: [email protected](Herbs; spices; herbal, fruit andblack tea; coffee)

Lehmann Natur GmbHAm Churkamp 20D-47059 DuisburgTel: +49-203 932 550Fax: +49-203 932 5599E-mail: [email protected](Wholesaler, importer and exporterof fruits and vegetables)

Mühldorfer NaturkornmühleGmbH (Prima Vera) GmbHMühlenstrasse 15D-8444 MühldorfTel: +49-8631 37730Fax: +49-8631 377349(Processor, trader and importer ofcereals and other foodstuffs)

MünsterländischeMargarine-Werke J. Lülf GmbHPostfach 1229D-48720 RosendahlTel: +49-254 7700Fax: +49-254 77030E-mail: [email protected](Producer and trader in margarine;importer of oils and fats)

Naturkost Schramm GmbHLudwig-Winter-Str. 6D-77767 Appenweier

Rapunzel Naturkost AGHaldergasse 9D-87764 LegauTel: +49-8330 910 124Fax: +49-8330 910 139E-mail: [email protected](One of Germany’s leadingimporters and traders in organicfood)

Rila Feinkost-Importe GmbH &CO KGHinterm Teich 5D-32351 Stemwede-LevernTel: +49-5745 9450Fax: +49-5745 945 139(Manages the Zonatura brand)

Übelhör KG Naturkost ImexFriesenhofen-Bahnhof 23-25D-88299 LeutkirchTel: +49-7567 820Fax: +49-7567 834E-mail: [email protected](Cereals, pulses, nuts, dried fruits,sweeteners)

MAJOR RETAILERS

Edeka Zentrale AGNew-York-Ring 6D-22297 HamburgTel: +49-40 63770Fax: +49-40 63772231(Supermarket chain with organicprogramme)

Globus Betriebs-GmbH & Co KGPostfach 1420D-66594 St. WendelTel: +49-6851 909 912Fax: +49-6851 909 610(Supermarket chain with organicprogramme)

Metro International GmbH & CoKGPostfach 230351D-40089 DüsseldorfTel: +49-211 96 250Fax: +49-211 962 5271(Germany’s overall largest retailer)

Rewe AGDomstr. 20D-50668 KölnTel: +49-221 1490Fax: +49-221 149 9000(Dominant supermarket chain)

Tegut ZentraleGerloserweg 72D-36039 FuldaTel: +49-661 104 843Fax: +49-661 104 496(Supermarket chain distributingorganics)

TengelmannHandelswarengesellschaft Postfach 1020 D-45466 Mülheim a/R Tel: +49-208 5806 Fax: +49-208 6763(Supermarket chain distributingorganics)

GOVERNMENT OFFICES AND OTHER ORGANIZATIONS

AGÖL eV Brandschneise 1 D-64295 Darmstadt Tel: +49-6155 2081 Fax: +49-6155 2083 E-mail: [email protected](Umbrella organization of theGerman Organic FarmersAssociation)

ALOG eVTel: +49-6322 8666

Fax: +49-6322 8794http://www.infogen.org(Data bank on GMO-freeproduction)

Arbeitsgemeinschaft derKontrollbehörden ÖkologischerLandbauTannenstr. 24 bD-40476 DüsseldorfTel: +49-211 456 6456Fax: +49-211 456 6452(State working group of controlauthorities)

BCS ÖkoGarantie GmbH Cimbernstr.21 D-90402 Nürnberg Tel: +49-911 491 73Fax: +49-911 492 239 E-mail: [email protected](Worldwide control and certification)

Bioland BundesverbandKaiserstr. 18D-55116 MainzTel: +49-6131 239 790Fax: +49-6131 238 7927E-mail: [email protected](Umbrella group of Bioland farmers’associations)

Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und ErnährungAdickesallee 40D-60322 Frankfurt/MainTel: +49-69 156 4480Fax: +49-69 156 4444(Issues list of allowed non-organicingredients)

Bundesverband NaturkostNaturwaren (BNN)Robert-Bosch-Str. 6D-50354 HürthTel: +49-2233 963 3811Fax: +49-2233 963 3810E-mail: [email protected](Association of natural food retailersand wholesalers)

Bundesverband der ProduzentenÖkologischer ProdukteRobert-Bosch-Str. 6D-50354 HürthTel: +49-2233 9633833Fax: +49-2233 9633830(Association of natural foodmanufacturers)

Demeter Bund e.V.Brandschneise 2D-64295 DarmstadtTel: +49-6155 84690Fax: +49-6155 846911E-mail: [email protected](Biodynamic association)


Ecocontrol Ecocert GmbHSulte 20aD-37520 OsterodeTel: +49-5522 951 161Fax: +49-5522 951 164E-mail: [email protected](Inspection and certification)

Fair Trade eV Bruch 4 D-42279 Wuppertal Tel: +49-202 648 9221 Fax: +49-202 648 9235 E-mail: [email protected] (Assistance in fair trade)

GfR Gesellschaft furRessourcenschutzPrinzenstr.4D-37073 GoffingenTel: +49-551 586 57Fax: +49-551 587 74E-mail: [email protected]://www.gfrs.de(Group of certifying bodies)

Green Trade NetTel: +49-69 811 228Fax: +49-69 824 684E-mail: oekologiemarketing @compuserve.comhttp://www.green-tradenet.de(Protrade/GTZ’s internationaldatabase on organic production and trade)

IFOAMÖkozentrum ImsbachD-66636 Tholey-TheleyTel: +49-6853 5190Fax: +49-6853 30110E-mail: [email protected]://www.ecoweb.dk/ifoam(Head office, InternationalFederation of Organic AgriculturalMovements)

INACRudolf-Herzog-Weg 32

D-37213 WitzenhausenTel: +49-5542 911 400Fax: +49-5542 911 401E-mail: [email protected]

Labor Dr Wiertz Stenzelring 14bD-21107 HamburgTel: +49-40 752 7090Fax: +49-40 752 70935(Analytical laboratory for organicgoods)

Lacon GmbHHanns-M.-Schleyer-Str. 10D-77656 OffenburgTel: +49-781 55802Fax: +49-781 55812E-mail: [email protected]://www.lacon-institut.com

Naturland - Verband fürnaturgemässen Landbau e.V.Kleinhaderner Weg 1D-82166 GräfelfingTel: +49-89 854 5071Fax: +49-89 855 974E-mail: [email protected]://www.naturland.de(Certification and control)

Ökoprüfzeichen (ÖPZ) GmbHRochusstrasse 2D-53123 BonnTel: +49-228 9777700Fax: +49-228 9777799(Company licensing the use of thenational organic logo)

ÖkoWelt Veranstaltungs GmbHIndustriestrasse 12D-91186 BüchenbachTel: +49-09171 - 9610-0Tax: +49-09171 - 4016E-mail: [email protected]://www.biofach.de(The world’s largest organic foodfair; has many exhibitors fromdeveloping countries)

Protrade/GTZDag- Hammarskjöldweg 1 -5 DD-65760 Esch born Tel: +49-6196 793 155 Fax: +49-6196 797 414 http://protrade.gtz.de/protrade(Assis ts in the devel op ment ofpro duc tion and trade in organicprod ucts)

Stiftung Ökologie und Landbau(SÖL)Weinstr. Süd 51D-67098 Bad DürkheimTel: +49-6322 8666Fax: +49-6322 8794E-mail: [email protected](Publisher on organic agriculture)

TransFair Germany Remigiusstr. 21 D-50937 Köln Tel: +49-221 942 0400 Fax: +49-221 942 04040 E-mail: [email protected]

Verlag Gesund Essen GmbHAm Eichwald 24D-64860 SchaafheimTel: +49-6073 748 251Fax: +49-6073 748 299E-mail: [email protected]://www.naturkost.de(Publisher on natural food)

ZMP - Zentrale Markt- undPreisberichtstelle GmbHRochusstrasse 2D-53123 BonnTel: +49-228 977 7173Fax: +49-228 977 7179E-mail: [email protected]://www.zmp.de(Central Price Information Office forAgriculture, Forestry and the FoodIndustry)


Annex II

List of approved ingredients of non-organic origin(31 July 1998)

Rum 750 l

Apricot powder 875 kg

Blackcurrant powder 875 kg

Apple powder 875 kg

Pineapple powder 875 kg

Hibiscus extract 440 kg

Fennel extract 420 kg

Herb extract 350 kg

Egg protein (dried) 1400 kg

Lemon powder (spray-dried) 70 kg

Strawberry pieces (freeze-dried) 255 kg

Blackcurrants (freeze-dried) 77 kg

Cherries (freeze-dried) 40 kg

Pepper, white 70 kg

Pepper, green 24 kg

Pepper, green, pickled 24 kg

Nutmeg, milled 24 kg

Mace, milled 24 kg

Horseradish powder 47 kg

Coriander smoke spice 24 kg

Paprika extract 12 kg

Paprika, hot 3 kg

Ready-made spice mix 300 kg

Corned flavouring broth (vegetarian) 1 312 kg

Freeze-dried cheese 100 kg

Soya croquant 400 kg

Lemon juice powder (freeze-dried) 40 kg

Pineapple pieces (freeze-dried) 30 kg

Apricot pieces (freeze-dried) 30 kg

Kiwi pieces (freeze-dried) 50 kg

Redcurrant (freeze-dried) 30 kg

Glass noodles 200 kg

Bamboo sprouts 1 200 kg

Curry, hot 704 kg

Curry, mild 107 kg

Crystal protein 30 kg

Protein meringue 30 kg

Ginger 252 kg

White pepper 96 kg

Curcuma 405 kg

Safflower blossom 30 kg

Cats-foot blossom 27 kg

Strawberries (freeze-dried) 375 kg

Paprika pieces (red, dried) 9 x 9 mm 150 kg

Source: Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Kontrollbehörden.

Chapter 9

THE NETHERLANDS

Although its domestic market is small and has beendevel oping slowly until recently, the Neth er lands is amajor pro ducer, importer and re- exporter of freshorganic fruits and vege ta bles to the fast growingnorthern Euro pean mar kets. It is a sig nifi cant sup plier to many EU mar kets of bulk organic food stuffsimported from out side the region. SKAL, thecoun try’s only des ig nated organic inspec tionauthority, has offices in seven inter na tional loca tions

and cur rently oper ates cer ti fi ca tion serv ices in over30 coun tries.

This chapter focuses on product sec tors in whichNeth er lands importers play an impor tant Euro peantrading role (high lighting key com pa nies) as well ason the state of devel op ment of the domestic organicmarket.

Supply and demand

Domestic production

The Neth er lands is a major agri cul tural pro ducer andtrader and plays a leading role in the import andre- export of a wide range of con ven tional pro duce forthe Euro pean market. Local pro duc tion methods areextremely inten sive and the emphasis is onhor ti cul ture (espe cially pota toes, vege ta bles, flowersand bulbs), and animal hus bandry (par ticu larly for thepro duc tion of dairy prod ucts, beef and pork). The scale of organic pro duc tion is small, accounting for justunder 1% of agri cul tural land usage in 1997. Until very recently its rate of devel op ment lagged behind that ofmost other Euro pean coun tries, despite a strongaware ness of the envi ron ment which has made thecountry highly inno va tive and suc cessful incon ven tional food pro duc tion. Until the mid 1990s thepro spec tive com mer cial returns from the slowgrowing domestic demand for organic foods and thelack of sub stan tial finan cial sup port deterred manypro ducers from con sid ering organic con ver sion.

Since 1995 the rate of con ver sion to organicpro duc tion has accel er ated. The number of farmsincreased by under 10% in 1995, by 17% in 1996 andby 20% in 1997. At the end of 1997 790 organic farms

with approxi mately 21,000 hec tares were reg is teredwith SKAL, the offi cial organic inspec tion authority.About 10% of this area was under going con ver sion.The fig ures for 1998 are given below. There were 587 proc es sors in the same year. In the spring of 1999 the1000th farmer was reg is tered.

Neth er lands: cer ti fied organic agri cul ture, 1986-1998

Number of farms Utilized area(hectares)

1986 278 2 7241991 439 9 2271995 561 12 7891996 656 14 3341997 790 21 0001998 956 20 270

Sources: SKAL and the Central Statistics Bureau (CBS).

A number of key fac tors are stimu lating a more rapidrate of con ver sion to organic pro duc tion:

q Government policy. At the end of 1996 theMinistry of Agriculture launched a concertedinitiative to stimulate organic agribusiness (the Planvan Aanpak Biologische Landbouw). About f. 60million were allocated for a four-year period to

provide increased subsidies and fiscal benefits forconversion, to support marketing and qualityimprovement schemes and to educate and inform thepublic about organic foods by means of nationalpublicity campaigns on television and radio. In 1999,an additional f. 9 million were allocated to supportorganic farming.

q Growth in domestic consumption. Demandthrough the main retail channel (specialist organicshops) rose by 10% - 15% in 1997, and most of themajor supermarket chains, whose sales were limitedmainly to potatoes, carrots and onions until 1995, areincreasing their involvement in organic food sales,especially vegetables and dairy products;

q Rising demand for exports. The Netherlands isthe largest exporter of organic vegetables in northernEurope.

In 1996 the value of the country’s organic agricultural output at producer prices was over f. 112 million.Livestock-based production is the most significantsegment and accounted for about 40% of the totaloutput in that year. In 1998, about 28% of the organicacreage was for fruit and vegetable production, 24%was for arable crops, 39% for livestock productionand 9% for mixed production.

Of the livestock farming output, the most importantproduct groups are dairy produce (50% of the total),beef (30%), eggs (11%), lamb and poultry meat. Inthe vegetable farming sector, which covers 827hectares, the products include carrots, cabbage ofdifferent types, chicory, leeks, beetroot, celery andmany other items.

The national agricultural statistics categorizepotatoes and some other products like onions as‘crops’. In this category therefore potatoes for humanconsumption account for over 33% of the output,wheat 26%, seed onions 18%. The remainderconsists largely of seed potatoes, maize, lucerne,onions, sugar beet and marrowfat peas. There were5,114 hectares under crops in 1996.

Over 90% of the country’s output of fruits is made upof apples; pears are the only other fruit of anysignificance. About 209 hectares are planted to fruittrees.

The dominant producer of organic grain andvegetables is Coop Nautilus, a cooperative of about75 member farmers working a total organic area of

5,000 hectares. Natuurweide, a dairy cooperative,covers about 70% of all organic dairy farmers anddistributes products on their behalf to the majorprocessors.

The entrance of the Greenery into the organic sectorin early 1999 is changing the organic landscape. Abig player in the conventional sector, the Greeneryruns nine auctions and groups 7,500 conventionalvegetable producers.

In the livestock sector, conventional pork productionis undergoing structural changes in the face ofoverproduction, a sharp drop in prices, and heavyenvironmental problems. One of the largest porkproducers, Sturko Meat Group BV, has began toestablish an organic programme. The country’sbiggest dairy company, Campina-Melkunie, hasacquired the two main organic dairies, Zuiver Zuiveland De Zwaluw; the former concentrates on milk,yoghurt, butter and fresh cheese, the latter on hardcheese. The second largest dairy company,Friesland-Coberco (brand name: Natuur Best),opened a fully organic plant in Drachten.

Finally the country produces organic seed, which isof great importance to the organic sector.

Imports

The Netherlands does not collect official statistics onthe production, import and export of organic foods.The trade in certain product groups is substantial incomparison to that of other EU markets, but makesup only a tiny percentage of the volumes traded of the corresponding conventional foodstuffs. TheNetherlands is a sizeable importer of organic freshfruits and vegetables, grains, cereals, dried fruits, nuts and seeds, coffee, tea, spices and herbs.

All types of fresh fruits and a wide range ofoff-season vegetables are imported. The mainsuppliers are producers in other EU, Mediterraneanand eastern European countries because of theirphysical proximity and ease of access to the market.The main imports from other sources are off-seasonand exotic products, for which demand is increasingrapidly.

Southern European countries, especially France,Italy, Spain and Greece, are significant suppliers ofcereals, nuts, dried fruit and herbs. Outside the EU,Turkey is the major source, providing raisins,currants, figs, apricots, plums, almonds, hazelnuts,

200 CHAPTER 9 – THE NETHERLANDS

walnuts, seeds, lentils, chickpeas, bay leaves, etc.Among the other important supplying countriesaround the Mediterranean are Israel, Egypt, Moroccoand Tunisia. North America is also a well-developedsource, especially for cereals, seeds, pulses, raisinsand nuts.

Imports from central and eastern Europe have grownsubstantially in the last five years. Important products include buckwheat, millet, wheat, other grains andcereals, berries, fruits and vegetables, herbs, applejuice concentrate, dried fruit, nuts, honey, oil-seeds,wine, coffee substitutes etc. Significant suppliersinclude Hungary, Poland, the Russian Federation,Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Romania.

Supplies of organic produce from many developingcountries, especially in Asia and Latin America, arealso making an increasing impact. Most imports aredelivered in bulk for packing and/or processing in theNetherlands before distribution to Netherlands andEuropean organic trade buyers. The list to the rightgives an overview of key sources mentioned byNetherlands importers. It does not aim to be complete (the number of suppliers and certified organicproducts is increasing all the time) and there is noofficial statistical information available.

Exports

Organic traders in the Netherlands are significantexporters of the following products:

q Vegetables. Three quarters of exports aredomestically produced, especially potatoes, carrots,onions, other root and leafy vegetables. Theremainder consists of re-exports of importedoff-season vegetables.

q Fruits. About 80% of exports are re-exports offruit imported from sources all over the world. (In1996, the Netherlands exported a total of 1.4 milliontons of conventional fruit.)

q Dairy products (mainly cheese). About onequarter of domestic production is exported.

q Grains and cereals. Although the domesticoutput is small, there is a significant re-export trade in grains from southern and eastern Europe, LatinAmerica, and Asia (rice).

q Spices and herbs. A major company based in the Netherlands is one of the most important specialized

traders in organic spices and herbs in northernEurope.

q Processed organic foods. About half of theconsumer-packed products manufactured in theNetherlands is exported.

Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden,Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Japan and theUnited States are the most important export markets.

Retail sales

Organic foods account for a very small share of totalgrocery expenditure in the Netherlands. No officialcalculations are made, but it is estimated that the

CHAPTER 9 – THE NETHERLANDS 201

Imports Key supplying developingcountries/areas

Cashew nuts Brazil, El Salvador, India, Mozambique,Turkey

Cocoa Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Dominican Republic

Coconut Dominican Republic, Sri Lanka

Coffee El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua

Dried fruits Burkina Faso, Guinea, Morocco, Sri Lanka,Togo, Tunisia, Turkey

Fruit, processed Israel, Latin America, Sri Lanka

Fruits, fresh Algeria, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,Costa Rica (bananas), Dominican Republic,Egypt, Guatemala, Honduras (pineapple),Israel, Madagascar (lychees), Morocco,Puerto Rico (banana puree), South Africa,Tunisia, Turkey, Zimbabwe

Grains, cereals Egypt, India, Turkey, Latin America

Ground-nuts Argentina, China, Mexico, South Africa

Hazelnuts andwalnuts

Turkey

Honey France, Hungary, Mexico, New Zealand,United Republic of Tanzania

Palm oil Benin

Pine nuts Pakistan

Pistachio nuts Islamic Republic of Iran

Raisins Turkey

Rice India, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka,Thailand

Sesame seed Central and South America, Mexico, ElSalvador, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Paraguay,China, Malawi, Sri Lanka

Soya beans Argentina, Brazil, China, Paraguay,

Spices and herbs Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, China, DominicanRepublic, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malawi, United Republic ofTanzania, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Comoros,Sri Lanka, Uganda, Zimbabwe

Sunflower seed Argentina, China, Egypt, Paraguay

Tea China (green tea), India, Sri Lanka, UnitedRepublic of Tanzania, Viet Nam

Vegetables, fresh Egypt, Ethiopia, Israel, Kenya, Morocco,Tunisia, Senegal

sector was worth f. 700 million-f. 800 million at retail prices in 1997, which is equivalent to about 1% of the total grocery market.

The organic move ment and gen eral demand forhealthier foods grew steadily in the 1980s, andNeth er lands traders began to play an active role insourcing organic foods world wide for sale in theNeth er lands and other Euro pean coun tries. Between1990 and 1996, while retail trade in neigh bouringmar kets such as Aus tria, Den mark, Ger many,Swit zer land and the United Kingdom expandedrap idly, retail sales in the Neth er lands grew at anesti mated rate of only 2%-3% per year. This wasdespite the increasing pro fes sion ali za tion of the sectorand the major con tri bu tion by the coun try’s organicfarmers and import- export traders to sup plies for otherEuro pean mar kets. The major fac tors that have lim itedgrowth are discussed below.

q High prices. Netherlands consumers spend asmaller percentage of their disposable income onfood than their EU neighbours and price is a keyinfluence on expenditure on groceries. The pricepremiums for most organic foods were extremelyhigh, owing to the dominance of the retail trade byspecialist shops and the fragmented and costlydistribution required to service them.

q The marginal involvement of the mainstreamgrocery trade, including the dominant supermarketchain Albert Heijn. Most supermarkets carried a verysmall range of organic vegetable products: potatoes,carrots, onions and sauerkraut. For organic foods toattract the man in the street as a regular customer acomprehensive product range in the supermarkets isessential. Specialist organic stores attracted mainlyconvinced customers. Their prices were perceived asbeing too high and their product assortment was toolimited to be convenient to the many people whowanted to do one-stop shopping. It should be noted,however, that Albert Heijn launched an organicassortment under its own brand in 1998 and is rapidly building up a full range of products.

q Consumer attitudes. Despite the appearance ofthe official EKO label on all certified organicproduce in the Netherlands since 1993 andconsiderable promotional efforts by the Biologicafoundation and the trade, consumers were stillconfused by the wide variety of food products whichwere supposedly more environmentally friendly andhealthier than their conventional alternatives. Whileon a public level the Netherlands was investing

heavily in environmental protection, individualconsumers were slow to support cleaner foodproduction by paying the premium prices required for organic foods.

The year 1996 marked a turning point in the country’s organic trade: retail sales increased by 3%-5% in thatyear and most estimates agree that the rate of increase accelerated to between 10% and 15% in 1997 and1998. The key changes that are stimulating organicsales are described below.

q The expansion of supply and more efficientdistribution of dairy and vegetable produce. This isdirectly linked to increased promotion throughsupermarkets and through the subscription system for vegetables (called the groentenabonnement inDutch). In 1998 Odin, the most important supplier,sold approximately 27,000 vegetable and fruit boxesa week under a subscription scheme; by early 1999weekly sales had risen to 30,000 boxes. Odin plans toinclude meat in its subscription scheme. The keyfactors stimulating consumers to buy organic qualityare taste, freshness and a reasonable price premium(today a 20% - 30% premium over the conventionalalternative is considered the maximum acceptable). It is estimated that over two thirds of all purchases oforganic foods are of fresh produce, i.e dairy products,fruit, vegetables and meat.

q Increased penetration into supermarkets. At least three-quarters of the country’s supermarkets nowstock some organic vegetables and they are slowlyexpanding the range carried. Sales of dairy products,particularly from Zuiver Zuivel and De Zwaluw (bothof which have been acquired by the main Netherlandsdairy group Campina-Melkunie), are developingsuccessfully in a growing number of stores. AlbertHeijn now sells organic potatoes in all its 630supermarkets, accounting for about 5% of all potatoessold; organic milk, yoghurt, butter, cheese and a widerange of dried goods are available in 650 branches.Other supermarket groups that are actively introducing organic products are Konmar, Dekamarkt, Vomar andDe Nieuwe Wemeand C1000.

q Uptake of new product groups by supermarkets.While the introduction of new product ranges hasheretofore been limited, there are signs of change. InFebruary 1998 Albert Heijn announced theintroduction of fresh wholemeal bread, eggs, orangeand apple juice. Later in the year wine, coffee, tea,vinegar, jam, biscuits and chicken were added.Konmar already sells a similar range of foods.


q More efficient distribution to specialist organicshops. Rationalization is gradually taking place bothin the wholesale and in the retail trade (see section ondistribution). Bigger stores, some of which are nowsupermarkets in size and layout, and the growingrange of products stocked are helping shops to attractmore casual consumers – the number of personsbuying at health food shops in 1997 rose by 8%.

q Intensified government initiative to stimulateorganic production and consumption through thePlan van Aanpak (see above). According to a recentsurvey by CBL, the central organization for thegrocery trade, the number of consumers aware oforganic foods and familiar with the EKO symbol rose

from only 55% in 1993 to 95% in late 1997.

Despite these very positive trends, the domesticmarket for organic produce, and especially forimported foods, remains small. Its development willdepend strongly on the rate of expansion bysupermarkets into a fuller range of products and theability of suppliers to offer organic produce toconsumers at price premiums they are prepared topay. Although supermarkets are introducing moreorganic products, the stores do not generally have amarketing concept specific to organic foods, and their primary motivation is profitability per square metre,service to customers and preserving a publiclycorrect image.


Consumer behaviour

One major difference between the Netherlands andmost other EU markets where organic spending hasincreased at a much faster rate has been the failure ofselective and occasional purchasers to increase theirexpenditure across a wider range of organic foodproducts. Despite fast growing awareness andknowledge of the environment and a conspicuouspublic policy, the average consumer does not relatefood purchases to any principles on productionmethods. In general, the more time, money andchanges in habit are required of customers, the lessenvironment friendly their behaviour is likely to be.This is because product availability, ease of access,product prices and habitual preferences in regard toquality, appearance and taste remain critical factors.

The Netherlands food market can be divided roughlyinto five consumer segments:

Consumer group % of all consumersHeavy users of organic food 1Selective purchasers of organic food 4Occasional purchasers of organic food 34Non-purchasers aware of organic quality (as represented by the EKO label)

55

Non-purchasers unaware of organic quality(as represented by the EKO label)

5

Sources: Landbouw-Economisch Instituut (LEI); tradeestimates.

‘Heavy users’ are con sumers who, as far as pos sible,buy only cer ti fied organic quality at health food stores

and organic farm ers’ mar kets. ‘Sele ctive pur chas ers’buy some organic prod ucts regu larly and a high pro -por tion of con ven tional foods at super mar kets. Priceand the price/quality ratio are sig nifi cant ele ments intheir pur chasing deci sions; incon ven ience, lack ofavail ability or unac ceptably high prices are fac torswhich can make them revert to main stream prod ucts.‘Occ asional pur chas ers’ are quite well informedabout organic quality but tend to do one- stop shop -ping at large super mar kets and only occa sion ally pur -chase organic prod ucts on impulse. They expectorganic pro duce, first, to meet exactly the samerequire ments as con ven tional foods in terms ofappear ance, taste, quality and fresh ness and, second,to be avail able at their one- stop outlet. Moreover, theprice pre mium they have to pay must be per ceived asreflecting real extra value in terms of quality.

The major factors which influence consumer demand for organic foods are briefly analysed below.

Value for money. It is said that the Neth er landscon sum ers’ first loy alty is to their purse: the highpre mium prices of many organic foods have been amajor obstacle to the growth of sales. ‘Heavy users’place top pri ority on the growing method and originof their food. How ever, most other con sumerscon sid ering shifting from con ven tional to organicquality need to be con vinced that the pre mium theypay will guar antee them supe rior taste and fresh nessas well as envi ron men tally friendly pro duce. They do not expect to give up any of the quality fea tures theyare used to in con ven tional prod ucts, such as


uni formity of shape, colour, unblem ishedappear ance, clean li ness and avail ability of dif ferentvarie ties of the same product. The cur rent newaccel era tion in the Neth er lands market is taking place in those product sec tors where these needs are beingmet, espe cially dairy prod ucts and fresh vege ta bles.Pota toes are the most suc cessful organic product soldand have an esti mated market share of 5%. Freshvege ta bles are proving instru mental in attracting neworganic con sumers – 60% of sub scribers to thevege table abon ne ment system are people who do notvisit organic food shops regu larly.

Interest in health matters. The traditional diet is afairly healthy one, including a high proportion offresh fruits, potatoes, vegetables, dairy products,meat, fish, wholemeal breads, etc. As in most western countries consciousness about the positivecontribution that a balanced diet can make to goodhealth, longevity, physical fitness and the preventionof sickness and disease has been an importantstimulus to growing purchases of health foods.Consumers are overwhelmed by the different terms(eco-, bio-, green, natural, functional, light, low-fat,low-salt, gluten-free, etc.), symbols and brands used,all implying healthier, more naturally producedfoodstuffs. On an individual basis they do attachimportance to the natural preservation of foodstuffs,limited processing and the absence of artificialadditives, flavours and colours for their own personalhealth, but the majority do not consider the purchaseof certified organic foods the only way of meetingthis need. The astounding success of the Montignacrange of health food products (by the end of 1997their weekly retail turnover was averaging f. 200,000and the Montignac diet book was the best sellingnon-fiction book title of the year with sales of370,000 copies) and the rapidly increasing sales offood supplements in the Netherlands illustrate thisview. The promotion of the single EKO label forcertified organic products has increased consumerunderstanding and confidence in the origin, qualityand composition of organic foods. Moreover, thepublicity and discussion of various foodcontroversies in the last few years (BSE, pig disease,use of growth hormones, genetic manipulation ofsoya beans, etc.) have contributed to rising distrust ofsome conventionally produced food and encouragedconsumers to purchase guaranteed organic quality.

Atti tude to pro tec tion of the envi ron ment. Theenvi ron mental aspects of prod ucts are a major issue inall Euro pean coun tries and, in addi tion to price andquality, are a key deter mi nant of the legal accept ability

of all food stuffs for sale. The Neth er lands is one of theleading EU coun tries in terms of imple mentingleg is la tion and regu la tory meas ures to pro tect theenvi ron ment. Con sumer aware ness is high and isreflected clearly in areas like car pur chasing, rub bishcol lec tion and energy saving. The link indi vidualcon sumers make between food pro duc tion and itseffect on the envi ron ment is less clear – pri ori ties suchas price, taste, appear ance and con ven ience oftenweigh more heavily than envi ron mental argu ments.Con sumers are con fused by the dif ferent schemes andsym bols used for envi ron men tally friendly foods anddo not sup port the need to take the ‘costly’ step ofpur chasing cer ti fied organic pro duce. Severalexamples of these schemes are briefly describedbelow.

q Since 1995 the Neth er lands Ministry of Envi -ron ment has awarded a mark, the Milieu keurmerk,for food stuffs that are envi ron men tally the leastpolluting prod ucts of their kind.

q Many individual supermarket groups haveintroduced ‘clean’ logos and terms to indicateminimum usage of fertilizers and pesticides, e.g.Aarde en Waarde (Albert Heijn), Groene Kikker(Aldi) and milieubewuste teelt, which means‘environmentally conscious cultivation’.

q Fair trade prod ucts, launched in the Neth er landsin 1988 (the Max Havelaar label) and subsequentlymarketed on a large scale in many other Euro peancoun tries, are widely recog nized. Several fair tradeproduct groups like coffee, cocoa and bananas havean impor tant niche market. Sustain able agri cul ture isa primary aim of the fair trade move ment but cannotneces sarily be directly iden ti fied with (certi fied)organic produc tion, which is its ideal form.Never the less fair trade and organic issues do tend toconverge, and a growing number of prod ucts, likecoffee and bananas, carry both EKO (organic) andMax Havelaar (fair trade) certi fi ca tion.

Demographic and socio-economic factors. Typicalpurchasers of organic foods are persons between 25and 50 years old, who have higher than averageincome and education levels. They tend either to liveon their own or to come from households where bothparents earn an income and want the best andhealthiest food that money can buy for their children.This target group in the Netherlands comprises some1.3 million persons. The reasons that have been given for the failure of this group to buy more organicproduce are:


q They lack real knowledge of organic productsand the presentation in shops does not make organicfoods easy to recognize;

q They can buy only a limited range of organicfoods at supermarkets;

q They do not visit specialist health food shops,which are perceived as meeting mainly the needs ofheavy users and people with special dietaryrequire ments.

Over the last two years this situa tion has changedcon sid erably, as the government- backed pro mo tionalefforts of Bio logica and the trade have increasedcon sumer aware ness and the more wide spreadavail ability of dairy and vege table pro duce has startedto obtain results. Also, the growing product assort ment avail able in organic food shops makes them attrac tiveto more con sumers. The eco nomic boom and the highlevel of economic con fi dence have stimu lated anoverall increase in con sumer spending.

Avail ability and convenience. Like most northernEuro pean con sumers, Neth er lands con sumers areused to buying their gro ceries at large modernsuper mar kets, which offer the con ven ience ofone- stop shop ping, a huge variety of prod ucts,com peti tive prices and year- round avail ability. Mostcon sumers of organic prod ucts with someunder standing of the prin ci ples of cul ti va tion andpro duc tion will accept some incon ven ience in termsof a smaller choice and (non- seasonal) lack of supply. How ever, par ticu larly in the case of casualcon sumers who tend to com pare organic productsmore directly (at face value) with the alter na tivecon ven tional foods, con ven ience and avail ability arehighly impor tant. Many natural food shops arecur rently too small to offer the wide assort mentrequired. The entry of main stream super mar kets andthe larger spe cial ized self- service organic food shopsinto the cost-effective and bigger-scale dis tri bu tion of organic foods is essen tial to attract more cus tomers.

Pro mo tion. Impor tant ini tia tives, backed by gov ern -ment policy and funding (f. 60 mil lion until the year2000), are now in place to stimu late the devel op mentof organic cul ti va tion, proc essing, dis tri bu tion andcon sump tion. Among these ini tia tives are:

q Higher subsidies are available for the conversion of agricultural land to organic production.

q National publicity campaigns on television and

radio are informing the public about organic foodsand the EKO symbol as a guarantee of organicquality.

q The umbrella organization Biologica is workinghard to motivate supermarket organizations to increase their uptake of organic products and to stimulateconsumer interest through many types of publicity.

q A broad coalition of public organizations,including CBL (the central organization for thegrocery trade) and the Consumentenbond(consumers’ association) are supporting individualand collective organic promotional campaigns.

q More and more provinces are stimulatingorganic production and distribution on a project byproject basis. For example, the North Hollandprovince is subsidizing the distribution of vegetablesby subscription.

q So-called green financing schemes make itpossible for individuals to earn tax-free dividends oninvestments in approved environmentally friendlyprojects and for organic farmers to borrow capital atlower interests.

Market segments and end-users

While this study concerns a small niche of the overallgrocery trade, it encompasses the whole range offood products. Only general comments on marketsegments can therefore be made.

The retail trade is ultimately the main outlet forimported organic foods, although much produceimported into the Netherlands in bulk undergoesprimary processing and packaging before sale to theconsumer. The proportion of produce used for further manufacturing depends on the product group, as isindicated below:

q Fresh fruits and vegetables: primarily for directconsumer consumption, but also for processing.

q Processed fruits and vegetables: juices,conserves, pulp, purée, soups, pizzas, baby food, fruit yoghurts or desserts.

q Dried fruit: about three quarters of the totalvolume goes to the bakery trade; the remainder is usedfor the production of muesli and consumer snacks.

q Edible nuts: mainly for the industrial production


of peanut butter, other nut pastes, sauces, bakeryproducts and snacks.

q Grains and cereals: used by the bakery trade(mainly for baking bread, utilization in biscuit- andcake-making is not substantial); by consumer packers for retail sale; and for the production of animal feed.

q Pulses: mainly for consumer packing and theretail trade.

q Coffee, tea: mainly for retail. Catering andinstitutional use is small but growing.

q Herbs and spices: usage is about 60% for retailand consumer consumption, and 40% for industrialpurposes (for the production of soups, ready meals,etc.). The industrial segment is growing.

q Oil-seeds: mainly for the industrial productionof margarine, cooking oil and bread. Oil-seeds havesome use as consumer snack foods.

q Honey: mainly for consumer retail.

Although domestic demand is fairly small, theNetherlands is a significant primary processor oforganic agricultural produce, because of the active role played by a number of large international traders. They import raw produce, which is processed (inspected,cleaned, graded, sorted, blended, roasted, packed, etc.)into a form suitable for direct sale to consumers, forfood manufacturing or for re-export to other Europeanmarkets. It is estimated that over 80% of importedorganic products is re-exported. The Netherlands isthus a major trader in grains, cereals, pulses, nuts,herbs and spices, oil-seeds, coffee and tea.

At the end of 1997 there were 480 certified organictraders, packers and food processors in theNetherlands, 17% more than in 1996. A wide range of food products is manufactured for the local marketand for export. Important categories include dairyproducts (milk, yoghurt, butter, cheese), vegetableproducts (conserves, juices, concentrates), nut pastes, bakery products, cereals and baby food. Theimportance of the food industry as an end-user oforganic foods is growing in relation to the two othersectors, because consumers, both local and in exportmarkets, are looking for an assortment of processedfoods similar to that available from conventionalproduction. A key development in the last two yearshas been the rising involvement of the mainstreamgrocery trade in the sector and the growing number of mainstream processors adding organic productionlines to their factory operations. Many of the newregistrations are for the organic departments ofconventional food companies, rather than forspecialist organic businesses.

The catering and insti tu tional sector for organic foods is tiny but growing. Organic coffee and tea areregu larly avail able to employees in a number ofgov ern ment depart ments, banks, pro vin cial officesand town halls, and catering com pa nies have startedto offer organic menus as a service in com panyres tau rants and can teens. About 600,000 indi vidualseat their midday meal on com pany prem ises. Theasso cia tion for cooks using organic ingre di ents nowhas 70 mem bers, of which half are top- levelres tau rants and the other half are insti tu tions(health- care insti tu tions, homes for the aged, etc.) and can teens. One major catering com pany, Marfo,sup plies ‘nat ural gour met’ organic meals to the Swissnational air line, Swis sair.

Market requirements

This section describes the main product groupsimported into the Netherlands and lists the mostimportant items within each group. The major focusis on products which are not available to importersfrom European sources and which can be supplied bydeveloping countries.


The Netherlands, as producer, importer and

re-exporter, plays a major role in the conventionalEuropean fresh fruit and vegetable trade. Its tradersare also significant importers of organic fruits andvegetables for distribution not only to the localmarket but also for re-export to many Europeancountries. Consumers are used to the availability of awide range of produce in all seasons, and there isgrowing demand for off-season fruits and vegetablesand exotic fruits. National consumer sales of organicfruits and vegetables grew by over 30% in 1997, and


the rate of increase is expected to be sustained, owingto the rising uptake by supermarkets and the successof the subscription system.

Fruit. The average consumer ate 75 kg of fresh fruits(conventional) in 1996. The most popular fruits areapples and oranges, which together account for abouthalf of consumption, followed by bananas andmandarins. Only about 3 kg of exotic fruit arepurchased; kiwi fruit, pineapple and mango are themost important, but there is increasing interest in moreexotic items like lychees and passion fruit. Only apples and, to a lesser extent, pears, prunes, cherries, melonsand various berries are produced domestically, so alltypes are imported and over half of imports arere-exported. The main import requirements fromnon-EU sources are:

q Off-season fruit: citrus fruit (oranges,mandarins, grapefruit, lemons), apples, pears, kiwifruit, avocado, grapes, melons;

q Tropical fruit: bananas, mangoes (the redvarieties are more popular than the green),pineapples, papayas.

q Vegetables. The average inhabitant consumednearly 60 kg of fresh vegetables (excluding potatoes)in 1996. Consumption is dominated by domesticallygrown products like cauliflower, carrots, tomatoes,cucumbers and leafy vegetables. A large share ofimports originate in other EU countries. The mainproducts which could be of interest to exporters fromdeveloping countries are: peas and beans, capsicum,courgettes, eggplants and artichokes.

It is essen tial that poten tial sup pliers of organic fruitand vege ta bles realize that organic cer ti fi ca tion is onlyone con di tion that fresh pro duce must meet in order tobe accept able for sale in Euro pean mar kets. Importerswill specify pre cisely the product pro file, qualitystan dards and pack aging/label ling require mentsagainst which each delivery will be inspected. Anunblem ished external appear ance is essen tial. One ofthe main obsta cles to sup plying Neth er lands importerslies in the trans port and storage of fruits and vege ta bles which must be in keeping with organic regu la tions and which must ensure that the prod ucts reach the finalcon sumer in a top-quality con di tion.

Processed fruit and vegetables

Demand for imports of proc essed goods is cur rentlymuch smaller than demand for fresh pro duce.

How ever, as demand grows for an increasing varietyof proc essed organic foods, larger sup plies ofvege table and fruit ingre di ents will be required. Thefood industry is the main end- user. The mostimpor tant items which can be sourced in devel opingcoun tries are fruit pulp, purée and juice con cen tratefor reproc essing into juice and fruit ingre di ents forproc essed foods (e.g. baby foods, fla voured yoghurts, des serts and ice- cream). Single- strength juices areusu ally less inter esting because, in the final analysis,they cost more to trans por t than con cen tratedprod ucts. Fruit con cen trates are also impor tantsweet ening agents in organic food proc essing and indomestic cooking.

Tradin, a major organic trader, imports from devel -oping coun tries the fol lowing frozen and/or con cen -trated items: acar illo purée, agave con cen trate, applecon cen trate, apricot purée, banana purée, bananaslices, frozen bananas, guava purée, mango pulp,orange juice, orange con cen trate, papaya purée, pas -sion fruit juice, pear juice, pine apple juice, tomatocon cen trate, and soft fruit purées and con cen trates. (A more com plete list of prod ucts traded by this com -pany is given in Annex IV.)

Dried fruits and edible nuts

Dried fruits. Imports total about 1,000 tons yearlyand are intended mainly for the domestic market. Key items are raisins (about two-thirds of the total),currants, prunes, apricots, dates, apples and figs.Demand for tropical items is small but growing, andis mainly for pineapple chips, banana chips, papaya,mango and guava. The bakery trade is the mainend-user and demand has recently been stimulated by one major organic bakery commencing production of vacuum-packed raisin and nut breads for export.Other end-uses are consumer retail packs, breakfastcereals and muesli and snacks.

Edible nuts. Imports are for the local market and forre-export. The Netherlands has the highest per capitaconsumption of nuts in the European Union. Themajor import product is shelled ground-nuts (whichmake up an estimated three quarters of the total),which are used in the production of peanut butter,snacks, sauces and meals sold both domestically andin export markets. Indonesian and Chinese cuisinehave a strong place in the population’s eating habitsowing to the country’s historic links with the Far East. Coconut, in flaked and desiccated form, shelledsweet almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts are the nextmost important items, primarily for the bakery trade


but also for the production of muesli and otherprocessed foods. Demand for other nuts, especiallycashew nuts, pistachios, Brazil nuts, pecan nuts andpine nuts is growing.

One major importer of organic dried fruits and nuts,Horizon Natuurvoeding, dominates the Netherlands(and the Belgian) market. Horizon is one of the keypartners in the Good Food Foundation, a cooperativeventure established by European organic companies tostimulate, establish, subsidize, develop and run organiccultivation projects for dried fruits, nuts, seeds and other products, primarily in Turkey but also in Benin, ElSalvador, Mozambique, Sri Lanka and Uganda.

The Foundation’s licensee importers in other majorEU markets have a controlling share of the market for dried fruits and nuts in France, Germany, the UnitedKingdom and Scandinavia. It has been estimated thatGood Food together with the two major Germanorganic traders (Rapunzel and Morgenland), controlabout 80% of the EU trade in organic dried fruits andnuts. Horizon produces pastas under three brandnames (Horizon, Monki and Jori) and suppliesorganic bakeries and consumer-packed products towholesalers.

Grains, cereals, pulses and seeds

Netherlands plays a significant role in the trade in this product group, importing from sources worldwide.Over 80% of its imports are re-exported to Belgium,Denmark, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdomand other European markets. Imports are mainly ofbulk raw products – cleaning, sorting, quality control, milling and (bulk) packing are carried out accordingto the customer’s requirements before re-export.

Grains. The most important are wheat, oats, barleyand rye, for which southern and eastern Europe arethe main sources. Other items are amaranth,buckwheat, maize, millet, quinoa, which aregenerally imported from the Americas, and durumwheat, which originates mainly in Italy (Sicily). Flour millers and bakers are the major customers for grain.Because of the entry of mainstream bakers andsupermarkets into the supply of organic bread andfactory expansions planned by existing bakers,demand in the Netherlands is expected to increaseconsiderably in the near future. Manufacturers ofcereal-based foods and packers of grains and mueslifor the retail trade are also important users. Typicalbasic ingredients for muesli are oat flakes, barleyflakes, wheat flakes, raisins, hazelnuts, rye flakes,

sunflower seeds, walnuts, almonds, dried apple andcurrants. There is rising demand for many otheradditional ingredients for their distinctive flavoursand colours, e.g. roasted buckwheat, cashew nuts,sesame seeds, banana chips, dried pineapple andpapaya, coconut, dried apricots, and unrefined sugar.

Rice. The inhabi tants of the Neth er lands aretra di tion ally potato- eaters, and house holds spendabout five times more on pota toes than on rice everyyear. How ever, changing eating habits and theincreasing popu larity of all types of inter na tionalcui sine are stimu lating rising demand for rice andpasta. Over 80% of the rice con sumed is long grain,of which more than half is white. There isfast- growing demand for bas mati and Thai rice. Themajor end use is in retail packs for sale to con sumers,but use in ready meals and baby food is expanding.Imports are mainly of husked rice for proc essing inthe Neth er lands. Re- exports are size able and asub stan tial part of the re- exported rice is readymilled. Organic rice cakes are also a popular product,manu fac tured in the Neth er lands for domesticcon sump tion and for export, par ticu larly to Ger many.

Pulses. The main pulses con sumed are locally grownlen tils, split peas, and white and brown beans.Impor tant import items for the home and re- exportmar kets are aduki beans, black beans, chickpeas,flag eo lets, kidney beans, lentils, mung beans, soyabeans and yellow peas. Soya beans are the mostimpor tant product. Demand for organic soya beans isgrowing rap idly, and has been boosted espe cially byrecent scares arising from the non- differentiationbetween tra di tion ally grown and geneti callymanipu lated soya beans. IFOAM basic stan dards donot permit the use geneti cally modi fied organ isms.Moreover, under EU food laws, the pres ence ofgeneti cally modi fied ingre di ents in food stuffs mustbe clearly indi cated on the product label ling. TheNeth er lands is a major importer of soya beans forproc essing into oil (for use in may on naise, saladdress ings, mar ga rine, coffee whit eners, etc.), pro teinfor human con sump tion (meat sub sti tutes, sauces,imi ta tion dairy prod ucts, des serts, sweets, etc.),animal feeds and for crushing/semi- processingbefore re- export.

Oil- seeds, edible oils and fats. Apart from soya,men tioned above, the main seeds required aresun flower seed, sesame seed and, in smallerquan ti ties, pumpkin seed, saf flower seed and poppyseed. Imports of sun flower seeds are sig nifi cantbecause of its use in poly un satu rated oils and


mar ga rine, which are widely used for com mer cialand domestic cooking; supply is domi nated byEuro pean sources. Sesame seeds are importedpri marily for use by bakers in or on bread, and inlim ited quan ti ties for pro ducing cooking oil.Pumpkin seeds are required as a snack product.

Import demand for edible oils is small except forolive oil (mainly from Spain and Italy), and palm oil.Because of the high risk of rancidity and loss ofquality, most seeds are imported for crushing andfurther processing in the Netherlands.

Coffee. The Neth er lands is a nation of coffee drinkersand per capita con sump tion is over 8 kg of coffeebeans (about 175 litres) per year. The main demand(about three- fourths of the total) is for ara bica coffeeand nearly all imports are of green coffee, becausecoffee blenders need con stantly to supply theircus tomers with the same fla vour, aroma and qualityunder a named brand. The various coffee typesblended together may come from a number ofdif ferent sources, according to avail ability, quality,har vest levels, etc. A con sid er able pro por tion of thebulk organic coffee imported into the Neth er lands isre- exported fol lowing cleaning, blending, roasting(the taste require ments of individual EU mar ketsvary), grinding and pack aging in branded or pri vatelabel con sumer retail packs. Demand for organiccoffee, now increasing at about 10% per year, isexpected to con tinue growing at a healthy rate,stimu lated by increasing use in insti tu tional catering,by the suc cessful pro mo tion of Max Have laar fairtrade coffee (although it is not all cer ti fied organic,Max Have laar coffee now accounts for over 3% of all coffee con sumed in the Neth er lands) and by theintro duc tion of organic coffee on to super marketshelves.

Tea. Netherlands consumers drink an annualaverage of 83 litres of tea per person, which makesthem the third largest consumers of tea in Europeafter the Irish and the British. Black tea dominatesand four types of tea account for 75% of organicdemand: Earl Grey, India (Ceylon tea), low-tannintea and Darjeeling. As in the mainstream trade,demand for single-origin teas and for flavoured teas(e.g. cinnamon, forest fruit, lemon, tropical fruit,lavender, lemon grass, aniseed, etc.) is growing. Ahigh proportion of tea is purchased as tea bags(packed in boxes containing 10 or 20 tea bags of1.75 grams). Loose tea is packed in 100 gram bags.Tea is mainly imported loose in chests, but there issome growth in imports in consumer packing (from

India and Sri Lanka).

The efficiency and output of existing suppliers oforganic tea and coffee are improving rapidly,according to Netherlands trade sources. Thesesources say that the best opportunities for first-timesuppliers are likely to be in new and unusualvarieties.

Herbs and spices. Usage of spices and herbs isheavier in organic food prepa ra tion than incon ven tional food prepa ra tion and proc essing owingto the many alter na tive (arti fi cial) fla vour ings andaddi tives also used in the latter sector. House holdusage cur rently accounts for about 60% ofrequire ments, but demand is growing faster in thefood proc essing and catering seg ment. The entry intoforce on 1 January 1998 of a stricter EU regu la tion on the per mitted usage of non- organic ingre di ents incer ti fied organic prod ucts has stimu lated an increasein require ments. According to EU Regu la tion2092/91, cer ti fied organic foods may con tain amaximum of 5% of approved non- organicagri cul tural ingre di ents, including spices and herbs;the organic foods with such con tent are referred to as95% prod ucts.

The major European importer and developer oforganic herb and spice projects in source countriesworldwide is located in the Netherlands. EuroherbBio BV, established in 1989, is a joint venturebetween Piramide, the Netherlands market leaderwith an estimated 90% of total sales, andLebensbaum Krauter, the most important distributor of organic herbs and spices in Germany. Thecompany cooperates with producers of organicherbs, spices, tea, coffee, sugar and cocoa productsin many developing countries, providingconsultation on growing, processing andcertification, as well as contracting to import theresulting organic produce.

Euroherb imports about 200 base products andexpects demand to increase by 10% - 15% annuallyover the next few years. Pepper is the mostsignificant spice import; the other important itemsare paprika, coriander, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg,mace, caraway seed, cloves, cumin seed andturmeric. The key dried herbs are parsley, marjoram, thyme, bay leaf, oregano, sage, rosemary, basil,mint, tarragon and dill. Because of the climaticconditions required for production, a highproportion of spice imports is sourced in developing countries. The main suppliers of dried herbs are


southern and eastern Europe, Egypt, Turkey,Morocco and Latin America.

Honey and other sweeteners. Organic honey is traded widely, not only as a spread but as a natural sweetener in domestic cooking and in food manufacturing.Because it is a natural food, Netherlands consumers,even people whose grocery purchases are mainlycertified organic foods, have not to date placed greatimportance on approved organic quality for honey.The main requirement is for polyflora honey, whichaccounts for three-quarters of sales; clover, acaciaand sunflower honeys are also popular. Organic foodconsumers buy a far wider variety of types of honeythan mainstream consumers, including such flavoursas buckwheat, rapeseed, heather, lavender, thyme,rosemary and eucalyptus. Supermarket honey is soldmainly in 450- and 500-gram jars but organic foodcustomers tend to favour bigger containers of 900 -1,000 grams. For re-export to Germany, 2.5-kilogram jars are also popular.

According to two spe cialist organic importers, DeTraay and De Rit, demand for organic honey isrising, par ticu larly from German and Scan di na viancus tomers. De Rit was plan ning to launch a newrange of five types of cer ti fied organic honey fromNew Zea land in 1998. Within its stan dards for thecer ti fi ca tion of animal- based prod ucts, SKAL haslaid down con di tions for cer ti fi ca tion of honeypro ducers and honey, but there are as yet nohar mo nized EU regu la tions.

Demand for certified organic honey from foodmanufacturers has been increasing since EU imposed the compulsory use of certified organic ingredients inJanuary 1998. It is important for exporters to takeaccount of the fact that the price-quality ratio must beattractive as processors would otherwise replacehoney with alternative sweetening products, such ascane sugar and molasses.

Other products. Other product sectors, althoughperhaps significant in demand terms, are less relevant as sectors for export development by producers in

developing countries.

q Demand for dairy products is among the fastestgrowing. They are supplied primarily by domesticproducers; some supplies are obtained fromneighbouring EU countries.

q There is a small but increasing demand for meat,stimulated by consumer worries about BSE, pigdisease, salmonella and growth hormones. Suppliesare provided by domestic producers.

q Agro Eco, a leading Netherlands organicconsultancy agency, is working on several organicfish and seafood projects, both in the Netherlands and abroad.

q Imports of manufactured food products for theretail trade are sourced mainly in other Europeancountries, the United States and Japan.

q The expanding live stock sector has a growingdemand for organic animal feeds. These are pro duced in the Neth er lands using both local and importedgrains, cereals, soya beans, etc. How ever, organicfeeds are also imported (and re- exported) byNeth er lands traders; exam ples of importrequire ments are saf flower cakes and pel lets, sesamecakes, and sun flower cakes and pel lets.

q Interest in organic cut flowers and pot plants issmall; an initiative by the Netherlands flowerauctions to promote organic products was abandoned in 1997 because sales failed to grow towards thetarget 3% share of the mainstream market. However,the project is likely to be revived. There is also agrowing interest in certified wood and woodproducts.

q The production of organic seeds and plants ispromoted by several seed companies. Koppert BV isone of Europe’s most important suppliers of biological traps for biological pest management, bumblebees forpollination and other important aids to organicproduction, generically called biological systems.

Importers’ requirements

Organic certification according to CouncilRegulation (EEC) 2092/91 is only one of the manyrequirements for attaining import acceptability in the

Netherlands and other European countries. Demandfor organic produce is expanding fast among newconsumers, who are used to buying a huge variety of


high-quality foods. Their readiness to pay premiumprices is influenced not only by the guarantee ofcertified organic quality but also by the availability of foods which at least match the conventionalalternatives in appearance (which should beunblemished), size, variety, taste, uniformity, colour,absence of extraneous matter, etc.

high-quality foods. Their readiness to pay premiumprices is influenced not only by the guarantee ofcertified organic quality but also by the availability of foods which at least match the conventionalalternatives in appearance (which should beunblemished), size, variety, taste, uniformity, colour,absence of extraneous matter, etc.

Against the background of the food safety and quality standards strictly regulated by the European Unionand the individual re-export markets, Netherlandsimporters clearly specify the quality standardsrequired per product, according to the specificationsof their client retailers and food processors.Relationships with new suppliers in developingcountries almost always commence on the basis ofimports of bulk agricultural produce which hasundergone very little processing. As the relationshipand trade develops it is quite usual for the exporter tostart carrying out more value-adding processes priorto exporting the merchandise to Europe. It was in thisway that Turkish organic producers developed intosuppliers of consumer-packed dried fruits and nuts,India and Sri Lanka into sources of tea, and Egyptinto a source of ready-packed herbs.

Many European food manufacturers prefer to obtainsupplies from well-known Netherlands, German andother European importers according to theirindividual specifications rather than to import directfrom developing countries. Some Netherlands traders play a crucial role in certain product sectors byimporting raw materials, carrying out basicprocessing and delivering to food producers organic

food ingredients meeting strict quality specifications.

Besides being able to pro duce the item required, apro spec tive sup plier in a devel oping country must becapable of deliv ering that product in the con di tionspeci fied in the con tract or agreed on the basis ofsam ples. Neth er lands trade sources have indi catedthat logis tics (appro priate pack aging, qualitypres er va tion during transit, storage, trans por ta tion)fre quently pres ent the major obstacle to a suc cessfulexport trade in organic foods. Many of theinstru ments avail able to main stream food exportersfor quality pres er va tion cannot be used by organicsup pliers because they are dis al lowed byenvi ron mental pro tec tion and cer ti fi ca tionregu la tions. One example of a logis tics problem cited during the research for this study was that of anexcel lent organic honey suit able for cer ti fi ca tionpro duced by a coop era tive in Africa, which theimporter could not buy because of the absence offood- quality metal drums for storing and trans porting the honey from the coop era tive to the port ofship ment.

A number of Netherlands organic traders are activenot only in the import/export trade but also inworking directly with new conversion projects indeveloping countries. They provide consultancy andadvice on the requirements of specific Europeanmarket sectors and on obtaining certification, whichis based on their first-hand experience with othersimilar projects. Most importantly, they contract tobuy and distribute the produce as soon as suitableorganically certifiable supplies are available.

Competition and prices

Competition and prices are discussed mainly in PartTwo of this survey. Owing to the huge diversity ofproducts covered, it is not possible to give anyspecific information on prices and margins. Themark-ups at each level are strongly influenced bysuch factors as the type of product, the processingactivities undertaken, the volumes involved,available supply, competitive products, packaging,and promotional activities carried out. Both pricesand margins are considerably higher for organicfoods than for the conventional articles and this hasproved to be one of the major obstacles to growth inconsumer sales in the Netherlands. Increasedvolumes of output by producers and more efficient

distribution, as in the case of organic potatoes,vegetables and dairy products, which are nowdistributed through supermarkets, make economiesof scale possible and so reduce the premium chargedto consumers.

As prices and margins vary considerably for differentproducts and can fluctuate strongly, it is essential tohave continuous access to up-to-date priceinformation. An important source of information forexporters is their importer or business partner in theNetherlands. The major wholesalers of organic foodspublish detailed price lists which give recommendedretail prices and trade discounts.



In the Neth er lands, EU Regu la tion 2092/91 is imple -mented through national leg is la tion enti tled Decreeon the Agri cul tural Quality of Organic Pro duc tionMethods, and con comi tant regu la tions (Land -bouwkwal iteits bes luit and the Land bouwkwal iteits re -geling biolo gische produk tie metho den). Thisleg is la tion des ig nates the organi za tion SKAL as thesole offi cial inspec tion body for organic farming inthe Neth er lands. SKAL’s cer ti fi ca tion mark, EKO,indi cates that the product car rying it origi nates fromorganic cul ti va tion and has been proc essed withorganic methods. Prod ucts bearing the symbol havesat is fied both EU Regu la tion 2092/91 and SKALstan dards. Where EU har mo nized regu la tions do notyet exist, as in the case of tex tiles and for estry prod -ucts, cer ti fi ca tion and inspec tion and the granting ofthe EKO symbol are moni tored according to SKALstan dards, which are based on IFOAM stan dards.When har mo nized EU stan dards come into force,these SKAL stan dards will no longer apply. Importlicences for organic prod ucts from out side EU areissued by the Min istry of Agri cul ture, Nature Man -age ment and Fish eries.

SKAL is one of the main organizations in theEuropean Union offering inspection and certification

services to organic producers worldwide. Outside theNetherlands it has its own offices in Germany,Turkey, Hungary, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Peru andIndia, and currently operates in over 30 countries (see list in Annex II). SKAL inspects and certifies not only to EU Regulation 2092/91 but also to the oftenstricter standards of major trade groups in Europe.Among these groups is the German organic tradeassociation BNN, which represents organic retailersand wholesalers in Germany and lays down its ownstandards for admitting food products into itsapproved list; it commands great respect in the trade.Since 1996 SKAL has been accredited by the DutchCouncil for Accreditation which means that it meetsthe requirements for certification institutions set outin EU norm EN 45011.

All foodstuffs offered for sale in the Netherlandsmust comply with the Food and Drug Act(Warenwet). This is a general law and largely reflectsEU legislation. Specific decrees and regulationsprovide norms for some individual product groups.Exporters are strongly advised to obtain accurate andup-to-date information from Netherlands importers,who are ultimately responsible for ensuring thecompliance of their produce with national legislation.


Most usually, imported organic foods pass from aspecialized importer to a processor/packer, then to awholesaler and thence to a retail outlet, whichmakes the final sale to the consumer. Foodmanufacturers receive their imported supplies either direct from importers or through specializedprocessors.

Despite the small size of the domestic organicmarket, a number of specialized Netherlands tradershave become major importers and suppliers oforganic produce to northern European markets,especially Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium,Denmark and Sweden. This reflects the pivotal rolewhich the Netherlands plays as one of the majortraders in agricultural produce in the world and as agateway to Europe. The port of Rotterdam, with itsconcentration of trading companies and distributionservices and its excellent trade infrastructure, renders

distribution throughout Europe fast and efficient.

The functional distinctions between different types of distribution channel are often not clear because manycompanies undertake different levels of intermediateprocessing, according to the type of product and theend use.

Traders, importers, packers, processors

In each of the major product groups a few specializedorganic traders tend to dominate imports and thesecompanies are the key (potential) customers forforeign exporters. They import on their own accountand sell to packers, processors and foodmanufacturers. Importers often also perform otherfunctions, such as that of:

q Packer: packs goods in standard bulk packs;


q Refiner: subjects goods to further processes (e.g. sorting, cleaning, grading, recon di tioning,micro bio logical inspec tion, quality control);

q Wholesaler: supplies bulk-packaged goods tothe catering and retail trade;

q Processor: prepares products as ingredients forthe food industry according to specification;

q Re-exporter: engages in re-exporting, a majoractivity, mainly to other European markets;

q Developer: cooperates with growers orproducers in origin countries in the process ofseeking entry into the European market; activitiescover certification requirements, quality standards,market information, etc.

In organic terminology the word ‘processor’ isfrequently used as a generic word for packers,primary processors and food manufacturers alike.

Among the leading Netherlands organic traders arethe following:

q Tradin Organic Agri cul ture BV. A major traderspecial izing in organic imports (all certi fiedaccording to EC Regu la tion 2092/91), primarilygrains, rice, seeds, nuts, dried fruit, oil- seeds, animalfeeds, oils, beans, coffee, cocoa, sweet eners, bakeryfat, dairy prod ucts, fresh bananas (imported by itssister company Traba nana BV), and frozen fruit andconcen trate. It had a turn over of about f. 28 million in1997. Its largest suppliers are Latin America, NorthAmerica, Eastern Europe and China. It has offices inBulgaria and Honduras. It exports to Europe and tothe rest of the world.

q DO-IT BV. This is a special ized distributor of awide range of proc essed organic food stuffsthroughout Europe. Its products include pasta, tomato products, nuts and Mexican goods. Green foodInter na tional BV is a trading company special izing in the import and export of organic cereals and, to alesser extent, seeds, nuts, pulses and dried fruit. Bothcompanies are subsidi aries of Mulder Natuur vo eding BV.

q Euroherb Bio BV. (See the description of thiscompany on page 209, subsection on herbs andspices.)

q Horizon Natuurvoeding BV. This is a large

importer of organic dried fruits, edible nuts and seedsand a manufacturer of nut spreads, pastes and organic syrups. (See page 208, dried fruits and edible nuts.)

q Eosta Int. BV. This is a major importer oforganic fresh fruit and vege ta bles from sourcesworld wide, espe cially South Africa, Egypt, Argen -tina and many other coun tries in North Africa(Morocco, Tunisia), East Africa (Kenya, Mada -gascar) and South America. About 70% of its imports are re-exported to other Euro pean coun tries; theremainder is distrib uted to super mar kets and whole -salers in the Neth er lands.

q Simon Levelt BV. This is a specialist coffee andtea trading company with its own roasting, blendingand packing facilities. It helped initiate theestablishment of Max Havelaar and the fair trademark, and is the largest Netherlands importer oforganic coffee and tea. In 1997, it traded about 200tons of organic coffee and about 50 tons of organic tea. It supplies 95% of the requirements of the Netherlandsretail trade and has significant exports ofconsumer-packed coffee and tea to distributors andsupermarket chains in a number of European markets.

The other important traders and packers include:Ariza BV (processed fruits and vegetables); De Traay (honey), De Rit (honey), Doens Food Ingredients BV (grain, pulses, oil-seeds, spices, horticultural seeds,animal feed), Green, Fresh & Anywhere (fresh fruitsand vegetables), Koffiebranderij G. Peeze BV (coffee and tea), Neuteboom BV (coffee and tea), ODINHolland CV (fresh fruits and vegetables) and TrouwBV (buckwheat).

Relevant addresses are given in Annex I.

Imported organic produce may be processed and(re)packed by the importers themselves or sold tospecialist companies for further processing. Themixing and blending of products like muesli, driedfruits, nuts and coffee, and their packaging inconsumer packs for the retail trade are importantactivities. The packaged range of goods may carrythe packaging company’s own brand or the privatelabel for organic products of a major wholesaler,chain of shops or supermarkets.

Wholesalers

Because sales of organic foods to Netherlandsconsumers take place primarily through smallspecialist shops, the wholesale trade is an important


distribution link between the large number of smallproducers and suppliers on the one hand and the retail trade on the other.

Wholesale distribution of fresh produce, especiallyfruits, vegetables, dairy products and bread, is carried out by a few major companies. For imported fruitsand vegetables the most significant are Odin, BICK,van der Steen and Kroon. Udea BV is the principalwholesaler for dairy products, frozen food and freshvegetarian products.

The distribution of dry organic foods in theNetherlands is dominated by one major wholesaler,Natudis, which has a turnover of f. 120 million andhas 130 employees. The company controls anestimated 80% of the dry goods market in theNetherlands and is also the second most importantwholesaler in the Belgian market afterReformwaren/Nonkels. Natudis is the exclusivedistributor of numerous imported products carryingforeign brands; it also sells a full range ofprivate-label products through its subsidiaryNatuproducts. The raw materials for the latterproducts are bought in bulk and packed in-house orare processed and packed under contract by a thirdparty. Among the important private labels areEkoland, Akwarius (EKO and Demeter), Fertilia andMolenaartje.

The other main national wholesalers supplying drygroceries are De Nieuwe Band, De Rit and Terrasana. Faan Zuidhorn supplies cheese.

Retail outlets

Organic and health food shops are the mostimportant consumer outlets for organic foods in theNetherlands. They are losing some market share tosupermarkets, especially in basic vegetables anddairy products, but retain control of an estimated 65% - 70% at the market. Over half of their sales are freshproduce, and they dominate the retail distribution ofall dry groceries. The cooperative NWO, establishedby the specialist retail and the wholesale trade in1997, aims to expand sales by improving efficiencyin the sector and reducing the price differencebetween organic and conventional foods. Aboutone-third of its stores, mainly former members of theDe Natuurwinkel, Gimsel and De Groene Winkelgroups, were initially holders of NWO franchises. Indue course, they and other NWO franchisees will alltrade under the name ‘De Natuurwinkel’ and willadopt a common product style and assortment and

carry out common promotional activities. Centralbuying of the common product assortment andprivate label foods will be carried out by anindependent division, Natural Trade Services.

De Natuurwinkel and the other two groupsmentioned above are the leading franchise andbuying groups for organic shops in the Netherlands.Natuurwinkel currently has about 40 shops in thecountry and is associated with a cooperative of 30other organic outlets in Belgium. Gimsel has over 30stores in the Netherlands and Belgium, including itnew flagship supermarket in De Groene Passage inRotterdam. The supermarket has 2,000 square metres of selling space; other shops in the location include an organic butcher, a ‘natural’ interiors store, a fair tradeshop and an organic café. De Groene Winkel hasabout 10 outlets.

Super mar kets used to be com para tively unim por tantin the dis tri bu tion of organic foods, but their involve -ment in the organic trade has expanded con sid erablyin recent years and they now have an esti mated 25%of the market. Organic pota toes and other basic vege -ta bles (onions, car rots, cab bage) are avail able inmany super mar kets, and sales of dairy prod ucts, par -ticu larly the brand De Groene Koe of Zuiver Zuivel,are growing the fastest. Taste, fresh ness, an accept -able price pre mium and con ti nuity of supply havebeen sig nifi cant fac tors in growing con sumer sales.Sev eral super market groups (Konmar, Vomar, Deka -markt and De Nieuwe Weme) have expanded theirorganic ranges to include eggs, bread, fruit juices,apple purée, con served vege ta bles, tea, coffee andother dry gro ceries. In Feb ruary 1998, the domi nantsuper market chain Albert Heijn, which has 650stores, launched a wide range of organic prod ucts.

Despite these positive trends some majorsupermarket chains are not yet involved in thestrategic marketing of organic foods, and decisions to include organic versions of conventional foodproducts are made largely on purely commercialgrounds, i.e. their profitability per square metre ofshelf space. The barriers to developing profitablesales (consumer resistance to high prices, lack ofcontinuity of supply and the need for guarantees ofexcellent quality) continue to be obstacles to theincreased participation of these supermarket chains in the organic trade.

Farmers’ organic markets are held weekly in 15cities, and their umbrella organization expects thisnumber to rise to between 40 and 50 cities by the year


2005. About three quarters of the produce sold isfresh and the markets perform an important functionin promoting the image of organic foods and offeringa range of produce at considerably lower prices thanthe specialist shops.

Subscription schemes (the groentenabonnement)have become important retail sales outlets forseasonal fresh fruits and vegetables. The bags ofproduce are distributed weekly to a growing numberof consumers through about 250 points of sale.Subscribers currently number between 35,000 and40,000. The main operators are Odin (the largestsupplier), BICK, Konmar and a number of individualorganic farmers.

Other outlets for limited ranges of organic foodsinclude specialist organic butchers, reform and health food shops (which sell mainly dry foods and foodsupplements), conventional street markets, directfarm sales and fair trade shops (wereldwinkels).

Food manufacturers

Organic food manufacturers in the Netherlands tendto obtain their supplies of ingredients from domesticand other European sources, including producers,importers and processors, who can providerequirements according to specifications and ensurecontinuity of supply. They rarely import directly,

although trade contacts have indicated that there is agrowing trend towards importing certain produce.This trend is likely to become more pronounced asmainstream manufacturers become more involved inthe organic sector.

Among the leading specialist organic foodmanufacturers or processors are the following:

Bakery products Verbeek, van der Westen, KeuneChocolate BonvitaConserves Balthussen, Bio-coreDairy products Zuiver Zuivel, De Zwaluw, De

Dageraad, FEZ Honey products De Rit, De TraayMuesli De Halm, Natuproducts (Natudis),

Mulder, BD GraanNut pastes HorizonProcessed foods De Vuurdoop, Joannusmolen

Important mainstream processors now involved inorganic processing include: Koninklijke Numico NV(Nutricia) (baby foods), Remia (oils and fats),Marvelo (coffee and tea) and Renco BV (sugar andsweeteners). Several major dairy companies andbakers are expected to introduce organic productionlines in the near future. The Cosun group ofcompanies, including Suiker Unie (National SugarCompany), are encouraging producers to convert toorganic methods. The renowned fruits and vegetablepreserve company, HAK, has started an organic trialprogramme.

Prospects

The Netherlands must be seen as a significantgateway for prospective exporters of organic foodsinterested in approaching the growing major marketsof northern Europe. The domestic market is small and consumes only a small proportion of total imports. Its development will depend strongly on the rate ofexpansion in supermarkets and the ability ofsuppliers to offer organic produce to consumers atprice premiums they are prepared to pay. Althoughsupermarkets are introducing more organic productsthe stores do not generally have a specific marketingconcept for organic foods, and their primarymotivation is profitability per square metre, service to customers and preserving a publicly correct image.Fresh produce has the best near-term prospects in thedomestic market.

As indicated earlier in this chapter, Netherlandstraders are significant importers and re-exporters ofbulk organic produce, especially non-seasonal freshfruits and vegetables, tropical fresh fruit, preservedfruit (concentrates, purées, etc.), grains, cereals, nuts,seeds, spices and herbs. These traders are highlyexperienced and are used to working with producersfrom the initial stages of conversion and certificationthrough to the final supply of food products. Theseproducts meet the strict standards required both byEuropean food safety legislation and by Netherlandsand other European consumers. Prospectiveexporters are strongly advised to investigate themarkets for specific products in close cooperationwith an established importer.


Annex I

Netherlands: selected addresses*

TRADERS/IMPORTERS/PACKERS/PROCESSORS

Ariza BVOverhorst 95707 PP HelmondTel: +31-492 528 364Fax: +31-492 545 151

De TraayPlatinastraat 508211 AR LelystadTel: +31-320 282 928Fax: +31-320 282-028

Doens Food Ingredients BVOranjestraat 40APostbus 104515 ZG IJzendijkeTel: +31-117 302 020Fax: +31-117 301 811E-mail: [email protected]

Do-It BVPrins Hendrikweg 193771 AK BarneveldTel: +31-342 422 829Fax: +31-342 422 192E-mail: [email protected]

Eosta BVPostbus 1323980 CC BunnikTel: +31-30 656 6000Fax: +31-30 656 6040E-mail: [email protected]

Euroherb BV Dynamostraat 123903 LK VeenendaalTel: +31-318 543 288Fax: +31-318 542 458

Good Food FoundationAlike LastPostbus 219NL-3850 AE ErmeloTel: +31-341 560 210Fax: +31-341 562 913E-mail: [email protected]

Green, Fresh & Anywhere BVPostbus 3272990 AH BarendrechtTel: +31-186 668 585Fax: +31-186 668 588

Greenfood International BVBellstraat 73861 NP NijkerkTel: +31-33 247 1030Fax: +31-33 247 1035

Horizon Natuurvoeding BVPostbus 773400 AB IJsselsteinTel: +31-30 688 7730Fax: +31-30 688 7142

Koffiebranderij G. Peeze BVRingoven 366826 TR ArnhemTel: +31-26 362 2422Fax: +31-26 361 3380

MarfoPostbus 1378200 AC LelystadTel: +31-320 293 894Fax: +31-320 232 096E-mail: [email protected]

Neuteboom BVAadijk 417602 PP AlmeloTel: +31-546 864 062Fax: +31-546 864 062

Odin International BVPostbus 2254190 CE GeldermalsenTel: +31-345 577 133Fax: +31-345 576 848

Renco BVPostbox 466600 AA WijchenTel: +31-24 641 5304Fax: +31-24 641 5314E-mail: [email protected]

Rhumveld Winter & Konijn BVPostbus 292163001 GE RotterdamTel: +31-10 233 0900Fax: +31-10 233 0574

Rijk Zwaan Nederland BVPostbus 402678 ZG De LierTel: +31-174 532 300Fax: +31-174 515 334E-mail: [email protected](Organic seeds)

Simon Levelt BVA. Hofmanweg 32031 BH HaarlemTel: +31-23 512 2522Fax: +31-23 512 2525

Tradin Organic Agriculture BVLatexweg 121047 BJ AmsterdamTel: +31-20 407 4499Fax: +31-20 497 2100E-mail: [email protected] page: http://www.tradinorganic.com

Trouw BVPiekstraat 63-653071 EL RotterdamTel: +31-10 486 6332Fax: +31-10 4886 0928

WHOLESALERS

De Nieuwe BandNoorderringweg 129363 TC MarumTel: +31-594 644 3355Fax: +31-594 643 385E-mail: [email protected]

De Rit Natuurprodukten BVRetsezijstraat 44011 JP ZoelenTel: +31-344 681 653Fax: +31-344 681 404


Natudis BV (Natuproducts)Postbus 376 3840 AJ HarderwijkTel: +31-341 464 211Fax: +31-341 425 704

TerraSana NL BVPostbus 702450 AB LeimuidenTel: +31-172 503 338Fax: +31-172 503 355

Udea BVPostbus 4785400 AL UdenE-mail: [email protected]://www.ekoland.com

RETAILERS

Albert HeijnProject Organic ProductsProviancialeweg 11Postbus 30001500 HA ZaandamTel: +31-75 659 2218Fax: +31-75 659 8644E-mail: [email protected]

De Nieuwe Weme BVPostbus 908440 AB HeerenveenTel: +31-513 630 333Fax: +31-513 650 170

DekaMarkt BVPostbus 861940 AB BeverwijkTel: +31-251 276 600Fax: +31-251 276 680

Konmar BVDe Werf 132544 EH Den HaagTel: +31-70 321 5121Fax: +31-70 329 1174

NWO (De Natuurwinkel/Gimsel/De Groene Winkel)Postbus 1933840 AD HarderwijkTel: +31-341 464 211Fax: +31-341 464 204E-mail: [email protected]

Vomar Voordeelmarkt BVPostbus 2171970 AE IJmuidenTel: +31-255 563 700Fax: +31-255 521 649

GOVERNMENT OFFICES AND OTHER ORGANIZATIONS

B-D Association(Vereniging voorBiologisch-Dynamische Landbouw)Postbus 173970 AA DriebergenTel: +31-34 353 1740Fax: +31-34 351 6943E-mail: [email protected]://www.ecomarkt.nl/bdvereniging

CBI - Centre for the Promotion ofImports from developing countriesWTC Beursbuilding, 5th floorPostbus 300093001 DA RotterdamTel: +31-10 201 3434Fax: +31-10 411 4081E-mail: [email protected]

Dutch Food Inspection ServiceMinistry of Welfare, Health andCultural AffairsPostbus 58402280 HV RijswijkTel: +31-70 340 5060Fax: +31-70 340 5435

Fair Trade AssociationBeesdseweg 5Postbus 1154100 AC CulemborgTel: +31-345 545 151Fax: +31-345 521 423

Good Food FoundationPO Box 2193850 AE ErmeloTel: +31-341 560 210Fax: +31-341 562 913E-mail: [email protected](Agricultural production, consulting,training/education)

Ministry of AgriculturePO Box 9656040 AZ RoermondTel: +31-475 355 555Fax: +31-475 318 939(Import licences for organic foods)

SKALPostbus 3848000 AJ ZwolleTel: +31-38 426 8181Fax: +31-38 421 3063E-mail: [email protected]://www.skal.com

Stichting Biologica - PlatformBiologicaPostbus 120483501 AA UtrechtTel: +31-30 230 0713Fax: +31-30 230 4423E-mail: [email protected]://www.platformbiologica.nl(Umbrella association for organicfarmers, traders, retailers)

Stichting Max HavelaarLucasbolwerk 73512 EG UtrechtTel: +31-30 233 4602Fax: +31-30 233 2992E-mail: [email protected]:www.maxhavelaar.nl

ORGANICPROJECTS/CONSULTANCY

AgriterraWillemsplein 446811 KD ArnhemTel: +31-26 445 5445(Consultancy/development oforganic projects)

Agro Eco ConsultancyPostbus 1763970 AD DriebergenTel: +31-343 536 137Fax: +31-343 531 700E-mail: [email protected]://www.agroeco.nl/agroeco/(Organic agriculture consultants)

Koppert BVVeilingweg 172651 BE Berkel-En-RoderijsTel: +31-10 514 0444Fax: +31-10 514 5203E-mail: [email protected](Supplier of biological systems)

LEI-DLOAgricultural Economics ResearchInstitutePostbus 297032502 LS The HagueTel: +31-70 330 8341Fax: +31-70 361 5624E-mail: [email protected]


Annex II

Countries in which SKAL carries out organicinspection services

Belgium

Bulgaria

Costa Rica

Cyprus

Denmark

Ethiopia

France

Germany

Greece

Hungary

India

Indonesia

Italy

Netherlands

Pakistan

Paraguay

Peru

Poland

Slovakia

Sri Lanka

Switzerland

The former Yugoslav Republic ofMacedonia

Turkey

Uganda

Ukraine

United States

United Kingdom

Viet Nam

Yugoslavia

Annex III

Specifications of Euroherb Bio BV

Product designation PEPPERCORNS BLACK/ZWARTE PEPER KORREL

Article code 180231

Certification EKO (SKAL)

Trade name Piperis nigri fructus

Botanical name Piper nigrum L.

Product description Dried, spherical fruits, with a diameter of 2-3 mm.

The fruits are harvested before they have fully ripened. They are spherical and wrinkled, blackor brown, and 2-3 mm in diameter.

Smell and taste are typically aromatic and pure.

Purity The product has to meet EC regulation 2092/91 concerning organic agricultural production inevery respect. The product has not been given any radiation nor has it been grown fromDNA-manipulated seed.

The product is unrestricted marketable according to European Food Law. This excludes thepresence of visible and invisible contaminations.

To be qualified for the ‘Deutsche Arzneibuch’-quality, the monography of DAB 1996, DAC orthe Standard requirements should be met or surpassed in all aspects.

Microbiology and aflatoxin: according to requirements by law (see supplements). If themaximum values are exceeded, the product will lose its marketability.

Pesticides The product must be free of pesticide residues. Exceptions are regulated in the supplements.

Heavy metals Lead, cadmium and mercury: according to requirements by law (see supplements). If themaximum values are exceeded the product is no longer marketable.

Additives None

Aromatics None

Detergent None

Moisture content Maximum 10%

Total ashes/AIA Maximum 7% (ISO,WW)/maximum 2% (WW)

Essential oil Minimum 2% (ESA)

Stems None

Other (parts of) plants Maximum 1% (ESA)

SUPPLEMENT: LIMITING VALUES FOR HERBS AND SPICES

Microbiology

Bundesgesundheitsblatt Nr. 3 Guide value (CFU/g) Maximum value (CFU/g)Aerobic plate count 1.0 x 106 1.0 x 107

Anaerobic plate count – –Escherichia coli 1.0 x 104 –Staphylococcus aureus 1.0 x 102 1.0 x 103

Bacillus cereus 1.0 x 104 1.0 x 105

Clostridium 1.0 x 104 1.0 x 105

Yeasts and fungi 1.0 x 105 1.0 x 106

Salmonella/25g negative negative

Aflatoxin

‘Aflat. Verordn. (Anlage zu ϑϑ1en 2) Stand 06-11-90’ (German)

Detection limit(µg/kg)

Maximum value(µg/kg)

B1 0.1 2.0B2 0.1G1 0.15G2 0.1

Σ B1, B2 , G1, G2 4.0

Heavy metals

‘BGVV; Richtwerte für Schadstoffein Lebensmitteln, BGB 5-96’

(German)

* Maximum value(mg/kg)

Cd 0.10Pb 2.00Hg 0.05

* Maximum values in mg/kg based on the fresh weight or in the offered form; in dried products based on the rehydrated product.


Annex IV

Tradin: certified organic products traded

GRAINSAmaranthBarleyBuckwheatBuckwheat cracksBuckwheat flourBuckwheat hulledBuckwheat wholeCornMilletOatsOats hulledPopcornQuinoaRyeWheatWheat, durum

RICEBasmati brownBasmati whiteExtra longLong-grainPre-cookedRedRoundSweetWhiteWild

FLOUR/STARCHBarley flakesCarob powderCheese powder full fatCheese powder low fatCorn flakesCorn semolinaCorn starchDemineralized whey powderMilk powderOat flakesPotato starchRice flakesRye flakesSoy flour enzymaticSoy flour toastedSoya granulateWheat flakesWheat flour 100%Wheat flour 70%Whey powder

SEEDSAlfalfa

Brown flaxCressFenugreekMustardMustard, orientalMustard, yellowPoppyPumpkinSafflowerSesameSesame, hulledSunflower, hulledYellow flax

NUTSAlmondsAlmonds flakedCashew nutsCoconut gratedHazelnutsPeanutsWalnuts

DRIED FRUITSApricotsApricots tinnedBananaCurrantsDates choppedFigsFigs choppedFigs pasteMangoPapayaPineappleRaisinsRaisins (Blue Thompson)Sultanas

OIL-SEEDSRapeSafflowerSesameSoya beansSunflower

ANIMAL FEED OILCAKESSafflower cakes/pelletsSesame cakesSoya flourSunflower cakes/pellets

OILSCoconut

OlivePalmSafflower Sesame Sunflower Sunflower, deodorized

BEANSAduki beansBlack beansBrown beansChickpeasFlageoletsGreen lentilsGreen peasKidney beansLentils, DupuisMung beansRed lentilsSoybeansSplit beansWhite beansYellow peas

COFFEE/COCOACarob powderChocolate chunks, darkChocolate drops, darkChocolate powder, darkChocolate powder, milkCocoa beansCocoa butterCocoa liquorCocoa powdersDark couvertureHazelnut pasteMilk couvertureRaw coffee

SEASONINGSAlcohol vinegar 10ºCheese powderCider vinegarSea salt coarseSea salt fineShoyuTamariVanilla powder

SWEETENERSAgave syrupBeet syrup

Cane sugar rawGlucose syrupMaple syrup

BAKERY FATCream fatPastry fatPastry margarine

DAIRY PRODUCTSMilk powderWhey powderDemineralized

FRESH FRUITBaby bananasBananasGrapefruitPineappleRed bananas

FROZEN FRUIT ANDCONCENTRATEAcarillo puréeApple concentrateApplesApricot puréeApricotsBanana puréeBanana slicesBilberriesBlackcurrantsBlackberriesElderberriesFrozen bananasMango puréeOrange concentrateOrange juicePapaya puréePassionfruit juicePeachesPearsPineapplePineapple juicePlumsRaspberriesRaspberry puréeRedcurrantsRose-hipsSour cherriesStrawberries Strawberry puréeTomato concentrate

Chapter 10

SWEDEN

Introduction

Sweden has an area of 450,000 square kilo me tres.Half of the land is cov ered with forest, and less than10% is farm land.

The country has a popu la tion of 8.9 mil lion, withabout 85% living in the south. The three largest cities– Stock holm, Göte borg and Malmö – account forapproxi mately 30% of the total popu la tion. Since1990, the popu la tion has grown by 280,000 (+3.3%),including a sub stan tial number of immi grants.

Since 1995, Sweden has been a full member of theEuro pean Union. Its share in the EU’s popu la tion is2.3%, which means that it is one of the Union’ssmaller national mar kets. How ever, the Nordiccoun tries – Den mark, Norway, Fin land, Ice land aswell as Sweden – are increas ingly regarded as a home market for com pa nies in the Swedish food trade andindustry. These coun tries have a total of 23.5 mil lioninhabi tants.

Supply and demand

The lack of offi cial data makes it dif fi cult to giveexact fig ures on the market for organic prod ucts.Nev er the less, an attempt has been made in thischapter to pro vide an esti mate of market size, mainlybased on infor ma tion from trade sources. Theseesti mates, which cover direct con sump tion in boththe retail and res tau rant sec tors, are given intable 10.1.

As shown, con sump tion of organic foods amountedin 1997 to roughly 50,000 tons in volume and SKr1,000 mil lion in value ($130 mil lion). Con sump tionis at pres ent domi nated by dairy prod ucts and freshpro duce, which together account for about 70% of the volume and 65% of the value of the market.

The market share of organic prod ucts has not yetreached 1% of total food sales. In 1997, the esti matedshares were 0.6% by value and 0.7% by volume. Itshould be noted that these fig ures cover allcon sump tion of food and bev erage in both the retailand res tau rant sec tors, including con sump tion of

product groups in which no organic items arecur rently avail able.

In the market for organic prod ucts, the largest shareswere taken by dairy prod ucts and fats (more than 2%by value), fresh pro duce (1%) and coffee, tea andcacao (1.1%).

The bulk of the organic prod ucts mar keted in Swedenis cer ti fied by KRAV, the Swedish Organic Agri cul ture Asso cia tion. At pres ent about 2,200 food prod uctscarry the KRAV cer ti fi ca tion symbol; of theseprod ucts, around 10% are imported. In 1997, 200 newKRAV prod ucts were intro duced into the market.

Domestic production

Sweden has a com para tively large area of organicfarm lands. In 1997, about 205,000 hec tares offarm land received envi ron mental sup port from EUand national authori ties; this area is equiva lent to7.3% of the coun try’s total farm land. A gov ern ment

goal is that by the year 2000, 10% of the farm landsshould be using organic methods.

According to Swedish regu la tions, the output of these farm lands may be mar keted or sold as ‘organic’ onlyif pro duc tion has been cer ti fied by either one of thetwo offi cial national organi za tions con trol lingorganic farming: KRAV and the Swedish DemeterAsso cia tion. KRAV is the domi nant con trolorgani za tion.

The area under KRAV- controlled organic farmingamounted to 118,000 hec tares in 1997, cor re sponding to 3.4% of the total farm land. Most of this land wasused for growing animal feed. The areas undervarious other organic crops, total ling 33,000 hec tares, were dis trib uted as fol lows: cereals 30,000 hec tares;vege ta bles and fruits 2,000 hec tares; and oil plants1,000 hec tares.

In total, KRAV had 3,000 affili ated farms. Of these,there were 2,746 plant cul ti va tors; 1,126 live stockfarmers; 350 milk pro ducers; 67 egg pro ducers; 70bee- keepers; 30 mush room growers; and 162green house pro ducers.

Dairy products

The dairy industry is by far the most impor tantdomestic pro ducer of organic foods. Since 1990, theoutput of organic dairy prod ucts has risen by around30% yearly. Cur rent pro duc tion mainly focuses on

fluid milk, which amounted to 23,000tons in 1997, or 3% - 4% of the totalfluid milk output. In addi tion, smallquan ti ties of organic yoghurt, cream,butter, hard cheese and dried milk arepro duced.

The dairies are sup plied by about 350KRAV- certified dairy farms. In 1997,these farms deliv ered approxi mately62,000 tons of organic milk to thedairies, which make up 2.4% of all milk deliv eries. The aim is to raise this shareto 5% by the year 2000. The Swedishdairy industry is domi nated by fivefarmer- owned coop era tives. Of theseArla is the largest, with about 60% ofboth dairy pro duc tion and the market.The dairy coop era tives are also theleading pro ducers of juices and nec tars.

Meat

Domestic pro duc tion of organic meat and curedmeats is not well devel oped. Pro duc tion in 1997 canbe esti mated at about 1,500 tons, which means thatjust about 0.2% of all cattle, pig and lambslaugh tering is organic. The market demand is farbigger: it is thought that pro duc tion of organic cattleand lamb needs to double and that of organic pigsshould rise at least ten fold.

The main sup plier of organic beef, pork and lamb meat is Swedish Meats, a newly formed meat- processingcom pany owned by the coun try’s large slaugh teringcoop era tives. Swedish Meats and its mar ketingsub sidiary, Scan Foods, con trol about 80% of theSwedish market for beef, pork and lamb. Organic meat prod ucts are also sup plied by Ekokött (EcoMeat).

The cur rently small share of organic meat is mainlydue to its low avail ability and high price dif fer en tial.The leading coop era tives within Swedish Meats report that the goal for the near future is to increase pro duc -tion of cattle from 5,000 to 7,500 head, pigs from5,000 to 20,000 head, and lamb from 5,000-6,000 to10,000 head. As a con se quence, the share of organicmeat will undoubt edly rise within the next few years.

Domestic pro duc tion of poultry prod ucts isdomi nated by Scan di na vian Poultry, which hasproc essing activi ties in both Sweden and Den mark.Organic chicken was intro duced into the Swedishmarket in 1997, but sales remain insig nifi cant.

CHAPTER 10 – SWEDEN 223

Table 10.1 Sweden: consumption of organic foods, by volume and by value, 1997

Product groupVolume (tons) Value (SKr million)

Total % share Total % share

Totalof which:

50 000 100 1 000 100

Dairy products and fats a/ 29 000 58 500 50

Fresh fruits and vegetables 11 000 22 150 15

Processed fruits and vegetables 2 000 4 50 5

Cereal and bread products b/ 4 000 8 70 7

Meat and cured meats 1 500 3 100 10Fish and crustaceans - 0 - 0

Coffee, tea and cacao 800 2 70 7

Other food products c/ 1 500 3 50 5

Beverages d/ 200 0 10 1

Source: Fox Research, based on trade sources.

a/ Including eggs. b/ Including rice and pasta. c/ Ice-cream, chocolate, confectionery, sauces, sugar, spices, salt and honey.d/ Mineral water, soft drinks, beer, wine and spirits.

Eggs

Of Swe den’s 5.7 mil lion laying hens, about 2.5% or140,000 are organic. The market requires at leasttwice that number. There is also con sid er ablecon sumer interest in eggs from farms usingalter na tive pro duc tion methods. The so- called‘scratch eggs’ (pro duced by laying hens that canscratch freely indoors or out doors) have alreadygained over 20% of the total egg market.

Cereals

Pro duc tion of organic cereals amounted to about20,000 tons in 1997, of which 40% was exported. Ofthe pro duc tion, about half con sisted of wheat and theother half of barley, oats, rye and yellow split peas. The main domestic users are flour mills and animal feedmanu fac turers. A small pro por tion of the peas is alsodis trib uted to food packers and food manu fac turers.

Mills and animalfeed manu fac turers import cer tainquali ties of cereals, mainly those not pro duced in thecountry.

The output of organic flour was esti mated at 7,000 -8,000 tons in 1997, equiva lent to a market share ofabout 1%. How ever, this share has cer tainly risensince: for 1998, Juvel, the main pro ducer of organicflour, had fore cast a dou bling of its own output from5,000 to 10,000 tons.

Organic flour is pro duced for both con sumers andmanu fac turers of organic break fast cereals, bread,pasta, baby food, gruel, etc. With increasedavail ability of organic flour, the output of these fooditems should be sub stan tially higher in the future.

Vegetables, fruits and berries

About 1,700 hec tares were planted to organicvege ta bles in 1997, of which two- thirds were devoted to pota toes and car rots. Other impor tant prod ucts arebeet root, onions and cab bage. Owing to cli maticcon di tions, prod ucts such as toma toes and cucumberare dif fi cult to grow organi cally in Sweden.

Organic fruits and ber ries were pro duced on about200 hec tares. Half were planted to straw ber ries.

Organic green house pro duc tion cov ered 56,000square metres in 1997, of which 90% was devoted totoma toes and cucumber. The other green house

prod ucts are green pep pers, let tuce, and herbs andspices. It is esti mated that organic toma toes accountfor 5% of all toma toes pro duced in Sweden.

Other products

The other domestic organic prod ucts con sist mainlyof sugar and, to a lesser extent, oil- seeds. Thecul ti va tion of organic sugar beets is car ried out bysome 100 farmers. In 1998, they should havepro duced about 2,000 tons of sugar, equiva lent to0.6% of the coun try’s total sugar pro duc tion.

Processed foods

Sweden is a fairly large manu fac turer of proc essedorganic prod ucts. These include canned fruits andvege ta bles; juices; fruit pre serves (jams, mar ma lade,fruit syrups); dried vege ta bles (peas and beans);frozen prod ucts (vege ta bles, fruits, ber ries, ready- to-eat meals, ice- cream, etc.); baby food; break fastcereals, gruel and por ridge; plain bread, bis cuits,crackers, crisp bread; herbs and spices; potato snacks; tomato ketchup and other sauces; roasted coffee; andbeer. The list is expanding fast and will undoubt edlycover many more food product groups in the nearfuture.

Exports

Organic foods account for only a frac tion ofSwe den’s food exports. The main organic exportprod ucts are cereals such as oats and malt forpro ducing beer. The other impor tant export items arejams and frozen ber ries. Organic beef is a new exportproduct. Pro duc tion of organic pork for export toother EU coun tries has started.

Imports

Sweden is more or less self- sufficient in basic foodslike dairy prod ucts, meat, bread, cereals and sugar. Its pri mary imports in the food sector con sist of goodsthat are not pro duced domes ti cally (such as citrus and tropical fruits, nuts, green coffee, spices and wine)and those that are pro duced only part of the year (e.g.vege ta bles, deciduous fruits and ber ries). Imports ofthese items depend on how much local pro duce isavail able or when importing is more favour able.Sweden has a sig nifi cant import trade in pack agedprod ucts, i.e. canned, dried and frozen foods. All inall, imports account for an esti mated 20% of theoverall Swedish food market.

224 CHAPTER 10 – SWEDEN

Market requirements by major product group

Since organic foods are not recorded separately in the trade statistics, it is impossible to give accuratefigures on imports. However, it is estimated thatabout 200 different organic food products wereimported into Sweden in 1997, mainly within thefollowing product groups:

q Fresh fruits and vegetables;

q Dried fruits and vegetables;

q Packaged foods;

q Raw materials and ingredients for the foodindustry (mainly green coffee, herbs and spices,cereals, and vegetable oils and fats).

Fresh produce and green coffee account for thelargest share in imports, both by volume and byvalue.


The total Swedish market for organic fresh fruits andvegetables amounted to about 11,000 tons or SKr 150 million in 1997 ($20 million). This means thatorganic fresh produce had a market share of 0.8% byvolume and 1.0% by value.

Consumption of organic fruits amounted to around2,000 tons in 1997, equivalent to a market share of0.4%. Consumption by value amounted to about SKr50 million ($6.5 million), or 0.6% of the market.

The Swedish market for organic fresh fruits is fairlynew, which also explains why the market share isstill below 1%. However, fruit importers say that ifmore supplies were available, this share would risesubstantially. In order to expand the market fororganic fruit, more suppliers are needed, especiallythose that can offer products during more than oneseason.

Most of the fruits consumed are imported. The largest import of organic fruits consists of bananas from theDominican Republic. Among the other import itemsare oranges, grapefruit and lemons (from Israel),apples (from France, Italy, Argentina, Chile), peaches (from France), avocado (from Israel, South Africa),kiwi fruit (from New Zealand, Italy), mango (from

Mali), pineapple (from Brazil) and strawberries (e.g.from Israel). Newly introduced products includeplums, nectarines, peaches, melons, grapes andpapaya as well as several species of berries.

Organic bananas were introduced into the market in1994. In 1997, imports increased 400% to 900 tons; arise to 1,500 tons was expected in 1998,which wouldhave been equal to about 1% of the overall market forbananas. As supplies increase and prices go down,this share could reach at least the 5% mark in the nearfuture.

Owing to inadequate supplies, imports of organiccitrus fruits remain insignificant, well below 1% ofthe total volume. The current product range consistsof oranges, grapefruit and lemons. There is a demandfor other citrus fruits, especially clementines andsatsumas. Since citrus fruits have a big market inSweden, fruit importers generally regard organiccitrus fruit as having a large potential.

Interest in tropical fruit is growing. Consumers arecurious about new and exotic products, especially ifthey are sold at moderate prices so that they can besampled at not too high a cost. Trade sources aretherefore certain that there is a market potential fororganic tropical fruits in Sweden.

Another product in demand is avocado. The marketshare of organic avocado has already reached 20% inone of the leading supermarkets in centralStockholm. This figure would have been higher hadthere been more supplies.

Consumption of organic vegetables amounted to anestimated 9,000 tons in 1997, equivalent to 1% of allvegetables consumed. In terms of value, the marketwas worth SKr 100 million ($13 million) or 1.3% ofthe total.

Potatoes had about half of the market for organicvegetables in 1997, i.e. 4,500 tons. This means thatorganic potatoes have obtained 3% - 4% of theoverall market for fresh potatoes. Organic carrots arealso important, and they are thought to have attaineda share of 10% of the entire market for carrots. Boththese items are mainly supplied by domestic growers. The only real potential for suppliers outside Swedenprobably arises during April and June, just before thedomestic harvest begins.


Among the other important organic vegetables andherbs are tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, onion,cabbage, mushrooms, paprika and fresh herbs. Thereare no official figures available, but trade sourcesestimate current imports of these products at 1,000 -1,500 tons per year.

The domestic growing season for vegetablesgenerally starts in June and ends in August orSeptember. During this period it is normally difficultfor foreign suppliers to compete with domesticgrowers. This is especially true for items such aslettuce, cucumber, cabbage and onions.

Owing to climatic conditions, organic tomatoes aredifficult to grow economically in Sweden. This itemis therefore imported the year round. By contrast,problems of shelf-life make organic products likelettuce, cabbage, celery, asparagus and eggplant(aubergines) difficult to import into Sweden.

The best market potential is for vegetables and herbsthat are not produced in the country, such as paprikaand artichokes, and for products that are not yetimported.

There is growing demand for fresh organic herbs (i.e.basil, thyme, tar ragon, cori ander, savory, mar joram,oregano and rose mary), as well as consumer- packedmixed and sliced let tuce. The market for alter na tivesto pota toes, such as sweet pota toes and cas sava, hasexpanded in recent years, which means that thereshould also be a market for the organic forms of theseitems.


The market for processed organic fruit and vegetableproducts is in general little developed. According to

trade estimates, consumption amounted to just 2,000tons or SKr 50 million in 1997.

The Swedish market for dried organic fruits andvege ta bles is cur rently modest. Of the market,(esti mated at around 100 tons in 1997), householdcon sump tion accounts for 70% and indus trial use for30%. Importers pre dict that as sup plies increase, themarket for dried organic fruit and vege table prod uctswill grow sub stan tially.

All dried fruits consumed in Sweden are imported. Of these, the most important are raisins, dates, figs,plums, apricots, apple flakes and mixtures of driedfruits. There is a demand for other dried organicproducts such as citrus fruits, bananas, papaya,mango and other tropical fruit, either for use in cerealmixtures, diary products or to be sold as sweets. Arange of imported organic nuts is also consumed,including almonds, cashews, hazel-nuts, walnutkernels and macadamia nuts.

The present range of organic dried vegetables mainlyconsists of domestically grown yellow split peas andbrown beans. There are also imports of chickpeas;dried kidney, mung, aduki and other beans; lentils;onion and garlic products; desiccated coconut; andsoy products (including roasted soy beans).

The market for other canned and preserved fruits andvegetable products amounted to about 700 tons(SKr 20 million or $2.6 million) in 1997.

Organic canned fruits are rare and are much soughtafter. The most popular conventional items arepineapples, peaches, pears and mixed fruits, whichmeans there should also be a market for their organicversions. Since all canned fruits consumed areimported, there is an obvious potential here.


Table 10.2 Sweden: market for processed fruits and vegetables, by quantity and by value, 1997

QUANTITY (tons) VALUE (SKr million)

Product group Totalof which: Organic

Valueof which: Organic

Quantity % share Value % share

Totalof which:

515 100 2 000 0.4 11 150 50 0.5

Dried fruits and vegetables 13 700 100 0.7 320 5 0.6 Canned fruits and vegetables a/ 231 300 700 0.3 5 680 20 0.4 Juice and fruit beverages 178 200 500 0.3 2 220 10 0.5 Frozen fruits and vegetables 76 700 400 0.5 1 700 10 0.6 Potato flour, chips, etc. b/ 20 600 100 0.5 1 230 5 0.4

Source: Fox Research, information from trade sources.

a/ Including jams, marmalades, vegetable soups, instant soups and bouillons.b/ Including instant mashed potatoes and turnips, and potato starch.

The main organic fruit preserves are jams,marmalades and apple sauce. Jam, an importantingredient in many Swedish dishes, is made mostlyfrom domestically grown berries, such as cowberries, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackcurrantsand cherries. The share of imports of marmalades isfar larger, since they are mostly based on fruits notgrown in Sweden.

Canned vegetables are mostly imported. The mainimport items are tomato products, mushrooms, peas,beans, yellow corn, asparagus, olives and capsicum.However, preserved vegetables, such as cucumberand beetroot, are mainly supplied by domesticmanufacturers.

The market for organic juice and other beveragesmade from fruits and vegetables amounted to anestimated 500 tons (SKr 10 million) in 1997. Thesecorrespond to market shares of 0.3% by volume and0.5% by value.

The organic juices found in Sweden today are mostlymade from carrots, beetroot, mixed vegetables andcereals. This means that there should be a largedemand for other – and more common – types ofjuices, such as orange, grapefruit, apple, lemon,apricot, grape and mixed juices (like apple andmango, apple and carrot). Almost all fruit juices andnectars are imported in bulk and are repacked for theconsumer market by domestic manufacturers.

Fruit syrup (which is diluted by the consumer withtap water) is one of the most popular Swedishbeverages. The import share is rather low, since alarge part of the supply is based on domestic apples or berries. However, fruit squash produced fromimported citrus fruits is also consumed.

The market for frozen organic vegetables amountedto about 400 tons in 1997. The range includes potatoproducts, spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, peas, haricot beans, yellow corn, carrots, leeks and certainvegetable mixtures. Very few products (cauliflower,mixed vegetables) are at present imported, and thisonly from Denmark.

The range of organic frozen fruit on the market is sofar not extensive and consists of just a few products,mainly domestically grown berries. However,organic frozen fruits and berries are used by the foodindustry for making jams and fruit drinks.

Organic potato snacks and similar products have been

on the market since 1995. Potato-based products are ingeneral marketed by domestic manufacturers, whichmeans that it is a difficult product area for exporters toenter. However, snacks based on other raw materials(such as apple, corn, plantain and cassava) should have a much bigger potential.

Cereal and bakery products

Cereal products, such as flour, breakfast cereals, rice,pasta and bread, have a large share of the Swedishdiet. However, even though there is an abundance oforganic cereal products, their combined market shareis still rather low (about 0.5%), partly because of their high prices.

Wheat, rye, oats and barley are the main cereals usedby domestic flour mills and animal feedmanufacturers. Most supplies are of domestic origin,even though imports have increased in recent years.The main import suppliers are Canada, the UnitedStates and Hungary. Manufacturers of breakfastcereals also use other processed grains. There is agrowing consumer interest in the various varieties offlour and grains, such as quinoa, polenta (maizesemolina), couscous, spelt, bulgur and amaranth.

Most of the trade is carried out by a specializedcompany, Eco Trade, which in 1997 handled about20,000 tons of organic cereals. The company foresees continued demand for basic organic cereals and forother grains, especially if they can claim a highnutritional value.

The market for organic bread has grown substantially in recent years; today more than 50 different types ofbread are sold in Sweden. The current product rangemainly consists of Swedish types of soft and crispbread. There is also a demand for biscuits (includingdigestive biscuits) and cookies. Examples ofimported bread products are rice cakes and frozenplain bread (baguettes and other products).

Rice and pasta prod ucts have a rap idly expandingmarket. Organic rice is imported both pack aged andin bulk from sev eral coun tries, including Italy, Thai -land and the United States. The most com monly usedtypes are: long- grain white pol ished rice for boiling,and round- grain white pol ished rice for gruel and des -serts. Other types are also becoming popular, such asaviori rice (Italian), jas mine rice and bas mati rice, aswell as pre- dried, fast- cooking rice. Brown rice isalso sold. Roasted, round- grain hulled rice is apopular ingre dient in break fast cereals.


There are several types of organic pasta on themarket, such as spaghetti, lasagne and noodles.About 60% of the supplies are normally imported.

Coffee and tea

Sweden has one of the highest per capitaconsumption rates for coffee in the world. Thecountry’s roasters use only the highest qualities ofarabica coffee. Practically all of them offer organiccoffee, some under fair trade labels.

Sales of organic coffee have followed a highlypositive trend since 1992, when it was firstintroduced. Sales in 1997 are estimated to havereached about 900 tons (equivalent to 1.2% -1.3% ofthe overall coffee market), valued at between SKr 80million and SKr 90 million. Inadequate supplies oforganic coffee of high quality are a big obstacle to thefuture growth of the organic coffee market.

Roasted coffee is mainly supplied by domesticroasters, but some quantities are obtained fromroasters in Denmark and the Netherlands. Thedomestic roasters import green coffee from manycountries, of which the most important are Mexico,Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica,Colombia, Peru, Brazil and the Dominican Republic.

Total imports of conventional tea have in recent years amounted to around 3,000 tons per year. Even though organic tea from Sri Lanka and India has been on themarket for a few years, the market share remainssmall, under 1%. Flavoured and herbal varieties oforganic tea have recently been introduced.

Vegetable oils, vinegar, and condiments, spices and herbs

The current range of organic vegetable oils and fatsincludes olive oil and sunflower oil, as well asmargarine and palm fat for baking. Several types ofoil-seeds are imported, especially linseed. Newproducts are constantly added. One example is a newseries of sunflower oils flavoured with herbs (basil,thyme, tarragon and garlic).

There is a demand for organic oils (mostly soy oil,sunflower oil and rapeseed oil) for the domestic oilsand fats industry, which is dominated by KarlshamnsAB. Organic oil-seeds (e.g. rapeseed), copra and shea are also imported.

Vinegar is another product group which has seen

increased sales in recent years. White, red, andbalsam vinegar are imported.

Other organic condiments such as salt, mustard,dressings, and ketchup and other sauces, are much indemand. Among recent organic introductions aresesame salt, chilli sauce, pesto and rucola sauces, soysauce, sesame paste (tahini) and tofu products.

The Swedes are among the three highest per capitaconsumers of herbs and spices within the EuropeanUnion. Two domestic manufacturers – Nordfalks(Santa Maria brand) and Kraft (Kockens brand) – have 80% to 85% of the market. Both companieshave recently introduced organic varieties of some ofthe more popular articles. Additionally, the domesticfood industry consumes an increasing amount ofherbs and spices. Of special interest aremanufacturers of ethnic foods (e.g. Nordfalks, one ofEurope’s largest exporters of Mexican specialities),which require items such as coriander, ginger,cinnamon, cloves and pepper. Sweden is an obviouspotential market for exporters of organic herbs andspices.

Sugar and syrup

Organic sugar, obtained from sugar beets grown inSweden, has been on the market for only a shortperiod. So far, the market response has been highlypositive, partly because the difference between theprices of organic and conventional sugar is small.

Some quantities of non-refined organic cane sugarare obtained from Paraguay and Madagascar; rawsyrup is also imported. However, import volumes arestill rather low.

Beverages

Organic products have not penetrated the beveragemarket (for mineral water, soft drinks, beer, wine andspirits) to any significant extent. Even where organicproducts exist, the quantities sold are almostnegligible.

Nevertheless, the trade believes that if the tastes areup to standard and the price differential is kept to aminimum (i.e. 10% - 15%), it should be possible tomarket organic beverages on a much larger scale,especially beer and wine.

A domestic brewery has entered into a joint venturewith a retailer to market organic beer in


supermarkets. Organic beer is brewed from organicmalt; conventional hops are used as organic hops arenot readily available. Sweden currently imports onlyone type of organic beer, and this from Germany.

Five organic varieties of wine (three reds and twowhites) are marketed in Sweden. Four are of Frenchorigin and one is German. The first organic liquor onthe market was introduced at the end of 1998: this is aSwedish type of flavoured vodka made fromorganically grown domestic wheat. It is interesting tonote that this product is marketed mainly as a‘Chateau Aquavit’ of the highest quality, and notprimarily as an organic product.

Among the other organic bev erage prod ucts in themarket – of which many are imported – are fruit- based still drinks and sev eral alter na tive prod ucts,such as soy- and oat- based bev er ages.

Other product groups

The other organic product groups marketed inSweden primarily comprise dairy, meat and animalfeed products, as well as honey, baby food, andcacao-based products and confectionery.

With the exception of cheese and of yoghurt to someextent, the dairy market is entirely supplied bydomestic dairies. Since about 15% of the cheesemarketed in Sweden consists of imports, there is anobvious potential here for exporters of organiccheeses. It should be noted that, while the Swedeshave a preference for mild hard cheeses, soft,moulded and fermented cheeses have in recent yearsalso become popular.

Foreign meat products are difficult to market inSweden, and items of organic origin are no exception. Nevertheless, since domestic production is still rather undeveloped, there should be a market potential forcertain imported specialities, such as salami, spicy orflavoured sausages, sliced delicatessen products, andFrench pâtés.

Organic dog and cat food have been on the market for a very short time, but sales are highly promising.However, all organic products are so far supplied bydomestic manufacturers. Furthermore, dry dog food,the largest organic category, is mostly based ondomestic cereals and imported proteins. Foreignsuppliers of organic cat and dog food should

therefore concentrate on complementary products,such as biscuits and meat snacks, which are normallyimported.

The domestic animal feed industry imports largeamounts of protein feed (mainly soy-meal andfish-meal) as well as molasses feed. Some cereals arealso imported. Owing to the planned expansion ofdomestic production of organic dairy and meatproducts, there is an apparent need for increasedimports of organic raw materials for the domesticmanufacture of organic animal feeds.

Organic honey is today mostly of Swedish origin, butsince domestic supplies are not sufficient to meet thegrowing demand, imports have become rathersignificant. There is also an expanding market forhoney flavours not produced within the country, suchas orange honey.

Cacao-based products have a comparatively largemarket in Sweden and the country is also aconsiderable exporter of chocolate bars and othercacao-based products. However, owing to inadequate supplies of organic cacao, only a few importedorganic chocolate and cacao-powder products aresold locally. The food industry imports smallquantities of organic cocoa powder and butter. Adirect import trade in organic cacao with theDominican Republic has recently begun.

There is no current market for organic confectionery.But since some products within this category – such aschewing gum and cough drops – can be associatedwith improved health, interest may grow in the future.

Organic baby food products have attained a largemarket share, as high as 10% for certain products.Nonetheless, since baby food products are almostentirely supplied by domestic manufacturers, this is avery difficult product area for foreign suppliers toenter.

There are currently no certified organic fish productsin the Swedish market. However, KRAV has startedto implement rules for the certification of farmed andwild fish and crustaceans. Since fish and crustaceanshave a fairly large share in Swedish foodconsumption, their organic forms should gain asubstantial part of this market in the near future.



Market segments

There are three market segments for imported foodproducts in Sweden: the retail sector, the cateringsector, and the domestic food manufacturing industry.

The retail sector accounts for 80% of direct foodconsumption. Two subsectors can be identified:general grocery stores and specialized food stores(including health food stores and ethnic stores).

A market characteristic is that organic foods are soldpredominantly through supermarkets and othergeneral grocery stores. Most of the larger grocerystores therefore have a wide range of organic foods intheir selections.

The retail market is dominated by three integratedretail and wholesale groups – ICA, KF and D&D.These have 70% of the food retail sector. All threegroups promote organic and other environmentallyoriented products.

The health food sector comprises 800 stores. Even ifthe specialized health food stores do sell organicfoods, they increasingly concentrate on nutritionalproducts, supplements and vitamins. Furthermore, as a rule, health food stores do not sell fresh produce and dairy or meat products, a fact that also explains theirsmall share in organic food sales.

There are four national chains within the health foodsector, Life (which holds about 30% of the market),Naturapoteket, Hälsokraft and Hälsokost för Alla.

The catering sector accounts for 20% of direct foodconsumption in Sweden. However, organic foodproducts remain uncommon on menus. In the largercities, a few restaurants specialize in organic andhealth food. Some municipal and regional institutions (such as school canteens and day-care centres) havealso started to provide organic menus.

The domestic food manufacturers produce about80% of the foods consumed in Sweden and aretherefore an important target for foreign suppliers oforganic foods. These manufacturers have been quickto adapt to new consumer trends, and offer bothethnic and organic food items.

Market trends

According to several market studies, two out of threeSwedes say they often purchase environmentallyfriendly products, including foodstuff. About 40% buy organic foods from time to time, while 15% do it on amore regular basis. Surveys have also shown thatorganic foods are especially preferred by young people (aged 15-30 years) and families with young children.

Another characteristic is that buyers of organic foodsare mainly found in the large metropolitan areas andin university towns. In the Greater Stockholm area,with about 1.5 million inhabitants, the largest fruitdistributor reports that sales of organic fruits andvegetables now account for 5% of its total sales.

A general problem with organic foods is the pricedifferential with the corresponding conventionalfoods; this is especially true of newly introducedorganic food items. Even though a few organic foodsare priced only slightly more than the conventionalvarieties, the price difference is generally between20% to 40% and often higher. To enlarge the marketfor organic foods, the price difference should notexceed 10%, according to trade analysts.

Here are some examples of the price differential forvarious products: beef 20% - 25%, milk 15% - 20%,wheat flour 70%, fresh potatoes 15% -50%, muesli(breakfast cereals) 15% - 25%, and coffee 0% - 20%.

It is generally believed that environmental awarenessamong consumers will continue to be high. Withincreased availability of organic foods, which willlead to lower unit prices, the market for organic foods should grow substantially. It should also be noted that three of Sweden’s largest supermarket chains – ICA, Gröna Konsum (KF) and Hemköp (D&D) – have allset sales targets for organic foods, which ifimplemented, will expand the market four to fivetimes. This means that within the near future, organic foods could account for 4% - 5% of total foodconsumption in Sweden.

Sales promotion and marketing

Even though food manufacturers and retail chainsadvertise their awareness of environmental issues and


their commitment to developing the market fororganic foods, individual organic food items are ingeneral not actively promoted. One of the mainreasons is the scarcity and irregular availability ofcertified organic products. Sales promotion andmarketing activities include campaigns offeringgoods at reduced retail prices, which usually raisessales of the promoted products four- to fivefold. It isalso a fact that when specific organic products arepromoted, sales rise even higher. This means that

active marketing efforts for a particular organicproduct should be undertaken only when the partiesinvolved can be absolutely sure that problems ofavailability and reliability of deliveries have beendealt with.

It is clear that when active marketing of specificorganic food items becomes more common, it willsubstantially enlarge the market for organic foodproducts as a whole.

Market access

Food laws

EU regu la tions on food label ling, nutri tional infor -ma tion, addi tives and food con trol are appli cable inSweden, which is an EU member. How ever, during atran si tional period, some Swedish regu la tions maystill be appli cable. Addi tional infor ma tion can beobtained from the National Food Admin istra tion(whose address is given in the annex to this chapter).

In order to be imported as organic products intoSweden or to be traded as such, these products have tobe certified by a control organization. KRAV, which isowned by parties involved in the production anddistribution of organic products – i.e. growers, foodmanufacturers, importers, wholesalers and retailers –issues the only organic label recognized by theSwedish retail trade. If other labels are used, they mustbe accepted by KRAV or comply with EU regulations.

However, a few import ers also sell products that arecerti fied by other control organi za tions. Theseinclude SKAL, FVO, Ovana, Ecocert andEKO-BCS.

Swedish control organizations

In line with EU regulations, the Swedish Parliamenthas designated two organic organizations, KRAV (the Swedish Organic Agriculture Association) and theSwedish Demeter Association, as official inspectionbodies.

KRAV, the domi nant con trol organi za tion. KRAV is a coop era tive society con sisting of 22 memberorgani za tions. Any com pany or organi za tion withnation wide cov erage and with an interest in obtaining KRAV cer ti fi ca tion may become a member. Its

cur rent mem bers are drawn from the farming, trade,proc essing, animal pro tec tion, envi ron mental andcon sumer sec tors.

The objectives of KRAV are: to formulate standardsfor organic production; stimulate the development ofmethods of organic farming; inspect and certifyorganic production; disseminate information onorganic production; and promote organic production.

All pro ducers that are mem bers of, and inspected by,KRAV are author ized to mark their organic prod uctswith the KRAV symbol. KRAV has the right to inspectthe han dling of these prod ucts at all stages, fromcul ti va tion to the retail trade. The KRAV logoindi cates, for instance, that vege table prod ucts havebeen grown without any chemical pes ti cides orfer til izers, that animal prod ucts come from ani malsthat are well taken care of and have free out dooraccess, and that pro duc tion does not involve the use ofgeneti cally modi fied organ isms. To guar antee these,KRAV inspec tors regu larly inspect farms, shops,proc essing facili ties, res tau rants, etc. KRAV is anactive member of IFOAM.

In addition to crop production and animal husbandry,KRAV certifies the following: processing, distributionand handling, apiculture, cultivation of wild berriesand mushrooms, import operations, shops, restaurants, textiles, and the use of production inputs.

Only KRAV-accepted import products can be sold asKRAV certified. KRAV works closely with theIFOAM accreditation system in this respect. Theseproducts should have labels which clearly state thecountry of origin. Products that are sold unpackedshould have the following information on thecovering invoices and delivery notes: country of


origin, name of the control body, and indication ofapproval by KRAV.

Import prod ucts may con tain addi tives made fromKRAV- certified raw mate rials and using KRAV- certified processes. Food addi tives such as sweet -eners, col ouring, pre serva tives, anti oxi dants, emul si -fiers, thick ening agents and sta bi lizers must beapproved by both the National Food Admin istra tionand by KRAV. A list of approved addi tives is pub -lished annu ally. Wrap ping and pack aging mate rials

may not con tain pre serva tives, fun gi cides or otherchemical agents. All wrap ping and pack aging mate -rials should be envi ron mentally friendly.

KRAV also inspects and cer ti fies for eign com pa nieswhich pro duce or package according to its stan dardsor those of IFOAM. In addi tion, it may enter intocol labo ra tion agree ments with for eign inspec tionbodies; the latter are evalu ated by KRAV, IFOAM orother third par ties. These agree ments are reviewedevery other year.


The Swedish distribution system for organic foodsconsists of three different channels: integrated retailand wholesale groups; importers, agents andwholesalers; and food and beverage manufacturers.

Integrated retail and wholesale groups

As mentioned earlier, the Swedish food trade ischaracterized by a relatively high degree of verticalintegration between the wholesale and retail trade.No less than 70% of both the retail and wholesalemarket is dominated by three trade groups, all ofwhich also import and distribute organic foods: ICA,KF and D&D.

ICA Group

The ICA Group is the largest retailer and wholesaleron the Swedish market for foods and other dailyconsumer items and holds about 35% of the market.In Sweden it has 2,100 independent retailers and isjoint owner of ICA Handlarnas AB, which handlesthe Group’s purchasing, distribution, marketing,retail development and financing operations. In early1999, the Group merged with the Norwegiancompany Hakon. The new ICA Group has more than4,000 food stores in Sweden, Norway and Denmarkand is thus the largest retailing group in Scandinavia.

Of the 2,100 Swedish stores, about 500 have beengranted special ICA environmental status; they carrya wide assortment of environmental products. Theobjective is to increase the number to 750 by the year2000. ICA also has about 100 stores that have beencertified as ‘ICA Environmental Stores’.

ICA has launched some 200 organic food products, of which 70 are marketed under the SUNDA brand,

ICA’s own label for organic products. The ICAorganic product range now includes fresh fruits andvegetables, fresh meat and cured meat products,deep-frozen products and packaged food products,such as flour and grains, yellow peas and crisp bread.

About 50 new organic products were introduced in1997. Even though many product groups reportedlarge sales increases during the year (sales of organicfruits doubled and those of vegetables went up by15%), the market share for organic products remainsinsignificant. The exceptions are carrots (which havea 10% market share) and baby food (7%). However,an important decision was taken in 1997 to raise to10% by the year 2000 the proportion of ICA sales oforganic products in the product areas where theseproducts are available.

KF Group

The KF Group, which consists of KF (the SwedishCooperative Union) and 80 local retail cooperatives,holds about 20% of total sales in the food retail trade.KF started to market organic food products in 1990.Sales have increased rapidly since and are expectedto reach SKr 400 million in 1998. This means that KF holds between 35% and 40% of the Swedish marketfor organic food products.

The organic product range con sists of 350 prod ucts,of which 200 prod ucts are mar keted under KF’s ownbrand for envi ron mental friendly prod ucts, Ängla -mark. In 1997, sales of Ängla mark goods reachedSKr 250 mil lion ($52.5 mil lion), cor re sponding to1% of all food sales.

During the two years to 1998, sales of Ängla markprod ucts have risen by approxi mately 50% per year.


Most of these prod ucts are sold with the KRAV logo,with the excep tion of prod ucts not cov ered by organic regu la tions. Even though Ängla mark prod ucts arenot priced higher than the equiva lent con ven tionalprod ucts, com pany policy dic tates that prod uctscar rying the brand have to be as prof it able as otherbrands. In 1998, organic prod ucts accounted for 1%of total sales by value, but KF expects this figure torise to around 5% within the next few years. In orderto reach this target, the Ängla mark selec tion has toexpand strongly.

The KF Group has 1,100 food stores in three retailfor mats: Gröna Konsum super mar kets, Prix dis countstores, and Obs, B&W and Robin Hood hyper mar kets.

Gröna Konsum runs 450 stores, of which 200 areKRAV- certified to carry non- packaged freshorganic pro duce. Gröna Konsum, Swe den’s largestsuper market chain, holds 6% of the overall foodretail market. Its share in the national organic market is far bigger at around 20%. In terms of value, itssales of organic foods reached SKr 200 mil lion in arecent year, equiva lent to 2.5% of its total foodsales; the goal is to raise this per centage to 10% bythe end of 1999.

Each retail chain within KF decides whichassort ment to carry. To benefit from econo mies ofscale, all deci sions con cerning the Ängla mark brands– pur chasing con trol, selec tion coor di na tion,logis tics, mar keting and quality con trol – are madecoop era tively.

It should be noted that KF imports only ready- packaged goods. All fresh pro duce is imported bySaba Frukt & Grönt, which KF partly owns.

D&D Group

The D&D Group is a newly formed joint venturebetween the wholesaling and retailing group AxelJohnson and independent retailers. The Group, which started operations in early1999, now comprises boththe wholesaling company and the retail group, whichconsists of 1,000 supermarkets and conveniencestores. It has about 18% of the overall market.

Dagab is the principal wholesaler for several retailchains within the D-Group (Vivo, Spar, etc.), theHemköp chain, and convenience stores. However,fresh fruits and vegetables are mainly supplied bySaba Frukt & Grönt. Dagab started to marketorganic and environmental products in 1995 under

the Fauna brand. The brand is now used on around20 products, including pasta, muesli, cornflakes,grains, rice, crisp bread, jam and preservedvegetable products. Importing of both organic andconventional products is carried out by D&D Unil,which coordinates its purchasing activities withUnited Nordic, a company co-owned by Dagrofa(Denmark), Unil (Norway) and Tuko Spar(Finland).

The D&D chain with the largest assortment oforganic products is Hemköp, owned by AxelJohnson. The chain has some 100 large supermarketsall over Sweden. Hemköp reports that in 1997 about2.5% of its total food sales were organic. Its aim is toraise that figure to 10% by the year 2000.

Importers, agents and wholesalers

The two largest importers and wholesalers of freshproduce import organic products. Both companies aredirectly connected with the dominant retail groups.

The importer and whole saler Saba Frukt & Gröntholds about 50% of the Swedish market for freshfruits, vege ta bles and flowers. About 60% of thecom pany is owned by the American fruit and vege -ta bles group Dole Food Com pany; the other ownersare the D&D Group (25%) and KF (15%). Thecatering sector is one of its impor tant cus tomers.

Saba imports bananas through two subsidiaries,Banan-Kompaniet (Chiquita) and SkandinaviskaBananimporten (Dole, Fyffes, etc.). Another Sabasubsidiary is FTK in the Netherlands, one of Europe’s leading importers of tropical fruits.

ICA Frukt & Grönt is part of the ICA Group and is the second largest importer and wholesaler of fresh fruitsand vegetables in Sweden, of which it has a marketshare of about 30%. Its main customers are foodstores within the ICA Group. It carries a largeassortment of organic fresh produce.

Biodynamiska Produkter (BP), another importantcompany, is a specialist importer of organic products,both fresh and packaged. BP imports fresh producefrom other EU countries and from other countries inEurope, Asia, Africa and Latin America. Besidessupplying other wholesalers (including Saba andICA), BP sells direct to supermarket chains andhealth food stores, as well as to the catering sectorand the food manufacturing sector.

BP has a large range of packaged products of which asubstantial part is imported. The total range consistsof more than 1,000 different organic products.

Other companies importing fresh organic produce are Direkt Frukt & Grönt, Alt-Grönt and Samodlarna.Samodlarna is mainly a buying and marketingorganization for domestic farmers and gardens but italso imports some products.

In addition, the following companies trade in organicberries and mushrooms:

q Norrfrys: wild berries;

q Olle Svensson: wild berries;

q BjörnMat: wild berries and wild mushrooms;

q Samodlarna: cultivated berries.

There are several specialized importers of packagedorganic foods, of which the largest are BiodynamiskaProdukter and Kung Markatta. Organic products arealso imported by a large number of companiesspecializing in certain product groups. Somecompanies are described below.

q Kung Markatta is a medium- sized whole salerand importer. The company sells 800 cate go ries ofprod ucts (some of which are marketed under its ownlabel) and has the largest assort ment of KRAV- labeled prod ucts. It also markets produce carrying the fair trade label. About 60% of its sales are to thehealth food sector and 25% to super mar kets. Its salesto super mar kets consist mainly of pasta, dried fruit,rice, seeds, oils, soy prod ucts, herbs and spices, andcoffee (which is also fair trade labelled). Its othercustomers are restau rants and food manu fac turers.

q Torfolk Gård produces and imports fruitpreserves, chilli, pesto and other sauces, tomatoproducts, vinegar and wine, among other products.

q Sackeus is an importer of organic foods andgoods carrying the fair trade label, including coffee(Café Organico), cacao, tea, peanut butter, honey andspices.

q Garbo Food imports and markets severalorganic products such as olive oil, vinegar, mustardand pasta.

q Biofood imports several products, includingvegetable oils, syrup, sugar, dried fruits, raisins,seeds, pasta, and milk powder.

q Dagsmeja is a small specialized producer andimporter of organic cereal and other products.

q Ekokött (EcoMeat) is owned by the cooperativeScan Group; it distributes and markets domesticorganic meat products.

In addi tion to the above, various agents are active inthe market. Some of them are also importers, and deal mainly with either raw mate rials for the food industry or branded prod ucts, espe cially health foods andbev er ages.

It should be noted that in addition to domesticallybased companies, a number of foreign groups operate in Sweden, mostly from Denmark and theNetherlands.

The catering sector

Distribution to the catering sector is dominated by afew large and specialized catering wholesalers, whichengage to varying degrees in the import of organicfoods. The most important of these groups are:

q Servera (D&D Group);

q Meny (ICA Group);

q Martin Olsson;

q Service Grossisterna.

Food and beverage manufacturers

There are about 300 KRAV- certified domesticmanu fac turers pro ducing organic food prod ucts.They include farm ers’ coop era tives, largemul ti na tionals and family- owned com pa nies, ofwhich sev eral are small or medium- sized. A selectedlist of KRAV- certified manu fac turers of organicfoods and bev er ages is given below.

Products Companies

Baby food Semper, Nestlé

Cereal and bread products Cerealia (flour, cereals, plainbread), Juvel (flour, rice andplain bread), Wasabröd (crispbread), Göteborgs Kex (biscuits, cookies), Saltå Kvarn (flour,grains, bread), SLR (feed)

Dairy products and juices Dairy cooperatives: Arla,Skånemejerier, Milko, NP,Norrmejerier

Canned food, fro zen food,pre pared fruits and vege ta bles,po tato prod ucts, ready- to- eatdishes

Procordia Foods (Orkla), Nestlé, Nutana, Scan Foods (SwedishMeats)


Products Companies

Herbs and spices Nordfalks, Kraft Freia Marabou(part of Kraft Foods)

Coffee Kraft Foods (Gevalia/Maxwell/Blå Mocca), Arvid Nordquist(Classic), Löfbergs Lila, Zoéga(Nestlé), Kaffebönan(Neuteboom), Karlbergs(Aroma)

Ice-cream Hemglass, Carlshamn Mejeri,SIA Glass

Meat and cured meat products Scan Foods (Swedish Meats),Samfood

Oils and fats Karlshamns (oils and fats, feed), Carlshamn Mejeri (margarine,ice-cream)

Potato snacks Estrella, Chips OLW, DalslandsChips

Water, soft drinks, beer Åbro

The food manufacturers using organic products as

raw materials or ingredients import all or part of theirrequirements either direct or through importers. Thefollowing wholesaling companies are listed asKRAV-certified importers of organic raw materialsand ingredients:

q Abr Lundberg

q Contifood Smith & Co.

q Appelkvist Fryseri (berries)

q Eco Trade (cereals)

q Verner Frang (cacao)

For logistic, food safety and environmental reasons,Swedish manufacturers generally prefer to buy theirraw materials either from domestic growers andprocessors or from suppliers in nearby countries.

Market prospects

As shown, Sweden is a relatively large consumer oforganic foods, in particular of dairy products andfresh vegetables, but also of many other foodproducts. Furthermore, demand for organic productshas increased significantly in recent years andmeeting that demand is a problem. That being said,the market share of organic products has not yetexceeded the 1% mark.

Since organic foods are sold predominantly throughsupermarkets, it is of interest to prospective suppliersto note that the leading supermarket chains have allset high targets for their sales of organic foods. Ifreached, these would raise the current market sharefour or five times. Additionally, the catering sectorhas just recently started to show interest in offeringtheir customers organic menus. This indicates thatwithin a few years organic foods could account for4% - 5% of total Swedish food consumption.

The planned expansion of the organic food marketalso implies that new suppliers are needed, includingsuppliers abroad. This is especially true of products

that are not produced in Sweden, such as citrus andtropical fruits, rice, green coffee, tea, cacao, andspices. Other product groups of interest arevegetables, deciduous fruits and berries, since thedomestic output is insufficient to meet demand.There should be market opportunities for exporters of processed food items, such as juices, canned fruits,biscuits, pastas, snacks, oils, vinegar, condiments,honey and confectionery. Another product groupwith good prospects is organic fish and crustaceans,farmed as well as wild.

Though most industry people seem to agree thatimports of organic food products will risesubstantially in the next few years, the comparativelyhigh consumer prices may impede marketdevelopment. According to trade analysts, in order tocapture a significant market share, the pricedifferential should not exceed 10%. However, itshould be possible to market organic products pricedat higher levels, but only if value added is associatedwith the product, such as quality, taste orconvenience.


Annex

Sweden: selected addresses*

RETAIL GROUPS

D&D Unil AB Anderstorpsvägen 22171 78 SolnaTel: +46 8 734 4416 Fax: +46 8 7357756 E-mail: [email protected]://www.dod-dagligvaror.se

ICA Handlarnas AB171 93 SolnaTel: +46 8 585 500 00Fax: +46 8 585 500 09E-mail: [email protected]://www.ica.se

KF PO Box 15200, 104 65 StockholmTel: +46 8 7431423 Fax: +46 8 7431575 E-mail: [email protected]://www.kf.se

IMPORTERS

Animal feed

Foderringen HB, Fori PO Box 814721 22 VästeråsTel: +46 21 108100 Fax: +46 21 187291

Vänfor HBPO Box 2093531 02 LidköpingTel: +46 510 88757 Fax: +46 510 21944

Coffee

Arvid Nordquist H.A.B. PO Box 1285171 25 SolnaTel: +46 8 7991800 Fax: +46 8 294162 (Coffee roaster; also importsbranded packaged foods)

Biodynamiska Produkter PO Box 42153 21 JärnaTel: +46 8 55170830Fax: +46 8 55171337(Green coffee; also imports freshproduce and packaged foods)

Kaffebönans Rosteri AB Kvarngatan 13784 63 BorlängeTel: +46 243 23 95 60Fax: +46 243 23 31 89(Coffee roaster; also importsroasted coffee)

Kraft Freia Marabou AB PO Box 615801 26 Gävle Tel: +46 26 656230 Fax: +46 26 106369 (Coffee roaster; also imports herbsand spices)

Kung Markatta AB Hjälmarsberg705 90 ÖrebroTel: +46 19 307300 Fax: +46 19 320201 (Roasted coffee, packaged foods)

Löfbergs Lila AB PO Box 1501651 21 KARLSTADTel: +46 54 140100 Fax: +46 54 140135 (Coffee roaster)

Merrild Coffee Systems AB PO Box 50594202 15 MalmöTel: +46 40 936010 Fax: +46 40 187869 (Roasted coffee)

Sackéus AB Veterinärgränd 6121 63 JohanneshovTel: +46 8 915020 Fax: +46 8 912838

(Roasted and instant coffee,packaged foods)

Zoégas Kaffe AB PO Box 7073250 07 HelsingborgTel: +46 421 93300 Fax: +46 421 47680 (Coffee roaster)

Fresh fruits & vegetables

AltGrönt AB Vargmötesvägen 14186 30 VallentunaTel: +46 8 511 700 60Fax: +46 8 511 763 64(Fruits and vegetables)

BananKompaniet AB PO Box 27294102 53 StockholmTel: +46 8 6679160 Fax: +46 8 6613607 (Bananas)

Biodynamiska Produkter PO Box 42153 21 JärnaTel: +46 8 55170830Fax: +46 8 55171337(Fresh produce and packagedfoods)

Direkt Frukt och Grönt AB Flintrännegatan 21 211 24 MalmöTel: +46 40 180900 Fax: +46 40 180901 (Fruits and vegetables)

Frukt & Grönsaksspecialisten 256 69 HelsingborgKnut Påls Väg 8Tel: +46 42 201160Fax: +46 42 153727(Fruits and vegetables)

ICA Frukt & GröntPO Box 713251 07 HelsingborgTel: +46 42 189000


Fax: +46 42 189288 (Fruits and vegetables)

Marianne’s Farm AB Dalsgård 2393262 92 ÄngelholmTel: +46 422 07133 Fax: +46 422 07049 (Vegetables)

Saba Frukt & Grönt ABPO Box 9065120 05 ÅrstaTel: +46 8 6026000 Fax: +46 8 6026038 (Fruits and vegetables)

Samodlarna Svea Fabriksgatan 3684 00 MunkforsTel: +46 563 52530 Fax: +46 563 52191 (Fresh produce, dried vegetables,cereals, packaged foods)

Samodlarna Sverige PO Box 16 263103 24 StockholmTel: +46 8 14 19 01 Fax: +46 8 14 50 06 (Fresh produce, dried vegetables,cereals, packaged foods)

Other foods

Arvid Nordquist H.A.B. PO Box 1285171 25 SolnaTel: +46 8 7991800 Fax: +46 8 294162 (Imports branded packaged foods;coffee roaster)

Biofood AB Verkstadsvägen 14137 37 VästerhaningeTel: +46 8 50020000Fax: +46 8 50024215(Vegetable oils, sugar, syrup, driedfruits, raisins, seeds, pastaproducts, milk powder)

Björnekulla Fruktindustri AB Tvärgatan 1265 31 ÅstorpTel: +46 42 56400 Fax: +46 42 50525 (Fruit preserves, juices, cannedvegetables)

Carlshamn Mejeri AB 374 82 KarlshamnTel: +46 454 82500

Fax: +46 454 31375 (Margarine, vegetable oils,ice-cream)

CHE-BE Trading AB PO Box 247151 23 SödertäljeTel: +46 8 55032890Fax: +46 8 55030277(Soy products, canned vegetables,jasmine rice, etc.)

Dagsmeja Ren Mat HB Verkstadsvägen 24245 34 StaffanstorpTel: +46 46 253600 Fax: +46 46 252111 (Cereal and other products)

Di Luca Branded Food AB Bondegatan 296 TR, 116 33 StockholmTel: +46 8 6419569 Fax: +46 8 6404079(Pasta products, vegetable oils)

EnarSahn AB Stenslingan 4182 34 DanderydTel: +46 8 7550706 Fax: +46 8 7550706 (Fruit and vegetable juices, cannedvegetables, fruit purées)

Falcon Bryggeri ABPO Box 164311 22 FalkenbergTel: +46 346 57105 Fax: +46 346 17155 (Brewery owned by Carlsberg,Denmark)

Föreningen Mana EkoSol c/o Groth, Erikshällsg 40151 46 SödertäljeTel: +46 8 55086508Fax: +46 8 55031967(Herbs and spices)

Formidabel AB Kvarnbyvägen 13212 36 MalmöTel: +46 40 497470 Fax: +46 40 497420 (Herbs and spices)

Frebaco Kvarn AB PO Box 878531 18 LidköpingTel: +46 510 86000 Fax: +46 510 86019 (Cereal products)

Garbo Food AB Hälleflundragatan 12426 58 Västra Frölunda

Tel: +46 31 293650 Fax: +46 31 292943 (Packaged foods)

Gösta Appelkvist Fryseri ABSkansen272 36 SimrishamnTel: +46 414 12280 Fax: +46 414 14112 (Frozen foods)

Helhetshälsa AB 59293 BorghamnTel: +46 143 20200 Fax: +46 143 20208 (Vegetable oils)

Hilda & Hulda AB Folkungavägen 1B611 34 NyköpingTel: +46 155 286400Fax: +46 155 286444(Roasted soy products)

HNC Agenturer PO Box 154147 23 TumbaTel: +46 8 53030987Fax: +46 8 53035425(Bread products)

Håkansson Tony Slättåkra Gård230 42 TygelsjöTel: +46 40 466300 Fax: +46 40 469666 (Fresh produce)

JO-Bolaget Fruktprodukter HB Torsgatan 14105 46 StockholmTel: +46 8 7895271 Fax: +46 8 7895480 (Juice and nectars)

Karlshamns AB Västra kajen374 82 KarlshamnTel:+46 454 82424 Fax: +46 454 82820 (Oils and fats)

Kraft Freia Marabou AB 172 85 SundbybergTel: +46 8 627 10 00Fax: +46 8 98 61 00(Chocolate products)

PO Box 615801 26 GävleTel: +46 26 65 62 30 Fax: +46 26 10 63 69 (Coffee roaster; also importsherbs and spices)

PO Box 156751 04 UppsalaTel: +46 18 65 56 00


Fax: +46 18 69 27 20 (Sauces and dressings, otherpackaged foods)

Kung Markatta AB Hjälmarsberg705 90 ÖrebroTel: +46 19 307300 Fax: +46 19 320201 (Packaged foods)

Kvarn AB Juvel PO Box 8878402 72 GöteborgTel: +46 31 7791600Fax: +46 31 220579 (Cereal products, rice)

Natura AB Almarkaröd242 92 HörbyTel: +46 415 62107 Fax: +46 415 62035 (Fresh produce)

Nordfalks AB PO Box 63431 21 MölndalTel: +46 31 674200 Fax: +46 31 875045 (Herbs and spices, tea, Mexicanfoods)

Ölands Frö AB PO Box 58380 62 MörbylångaTel: +46 485 40660 Fax: +46 485 40329(Dried vegetables)

Raggårdens Produkter AB Arentorp534 94 VARATel: +46 512 13490 Fax: +46 512 13077 (Fresh produce, preservedvegetables)

Risenta AB PO Box 7411103 91 StockholmTel: +46 8 6797680 Fax: +46 8 6115366 (Health foods, dried vegetables,seeds, etc.)

Råby Biogrönt AB Råby 4, PL 250242 92 HörbyTel: +46 415 311156Fax: +46 415 311156(Fresh produce)

Sackéus AB Veterinärgränd 6121 63 JohanneshovTel: +46 8 915020

Fax: +46 8 912838 (Fair trade labelled and organicpackaged foods, coffee)

Samodlarna Svea Fabriksgatan 3684 00 MunkforsTel: +46 563 52530 Fax: +46 563 52191 (Fresh produce, dried vegetables,cereals, packaged foods)

Saltå Kvarn AB Saltå153 91 JärnaTel: +46 8 55150280Fax: +46 8 55150240(Bread, flour and other cerealproducts)

Seege AB PO Box 123311 22 FalkenbergTel: +46 346 55900 Fax: +46 346 80525 (Flour, grains and breakfast cereals)

Semper Foods AB 105 46 StockholmTel: +46 8 6773271 Fax: +46 8 6773101 (Baby foods, health foods, herbalsalt, raw materials and ingredients)

Svenska Nestlé 267 81 BjuvTel: +46 42 86000 Fax: +46 42 78300 (Packaged foods, raw materials formanufacture)

Svenska Nutana AB Ekebyholm762 91 RimboTel: +46 175 70905 Fax: +46 175 70190 (Canned and frozen foods, cerealsand grains)

Torfolk Gård AB Ö Skymnäs684 95 HöjeTel: +46 563 72368 Fax: +46 563 72066 (Fruit preserves; chilli, pesto andother sauces; tomato products;vinegar; wine)

Vinägron AB Skogsvägen 1417 29 GöteborgTel: +46 31 228860 Fax: +46 31 518351 (Vinegar)

Vårgårda Kvarn PO Box 136447 24 VårgårdaTel: +46 322 23085 Fax: +46 322 24273 (Cereal products)

Wasabröd AB 682 82 FilipstadTel: +46 590 18100 Fax: +46 590 18500 (Crisp bread, rice crackers)

Raw materials and ingredients for food manufacturers andpackers

B. Engelhardt & Co AB PO Box 49421 21 Västra FrölundaTel: +46 31 490290 Fax: +46 31 455782

Contifood Smith & Son PO Box 104201 21 MalmöTel: +46 40 71545 Fax: +46 40 236071

Eco Trade AB PO Box 905601 19 NorrköpingTel: +46 11 218000 Fax: +46 11 126670 (Cereal products, dried vegetables)

R. Lundberg AB PO Box 104201 21 MalmöTel: +46 40 71545 Fax: +46 40 236071

Verner Frang AB Box 313503 11 BoråsTel: +46 33 12 78 00Fax: +46 33 10 64 99(Cacao)

Seeds and planting materials

Frökompaniet Landskrona Bromsgatan 5261 35 LandskronaTel: +46 418 16860 Fax: +46 418 28510 (Onion sets, seeds)

Lindbloms Frö PO Box 86277 21 KivikTel: +46 414 70880 Fax: +46 414 70009 (Onion sets, seeds)


Olssons Frö AB Mogatan 2254 64 HelsingborgTel: +46 42 155540 Fax: +46 42 156390 (Onion sets, seeds)

Svalöf Weibull Trädgård AB 276 50 HammenhögTel: +46 414 443800Fax: +46 414 43990(Onion sets, seeds)

Törnvik Gård AB Törnvik179 65 StenhamraTel: +46 8 56024161Fax: +46 8 56024459(Onion sets)

OTHER USEFULADDRESSES

Association of SwedishChambers of Commerce and IndustryPO Box 16050103 21 StockholmTel: +46 8 555 100 37Fax: +46 8 566 316 37E-mail:[email protected]://www.cci.se

Federation of Commercial AgentsPO Box 1137111 81 StockholmTel: +46 8 411 00 22Fax: +46 8 411 00 23E-mail:[email protected]://www.agenturforetagen.se

Föreningen för Rättvisemärkt (Member of Fair Trade LabellingOrganization International (FLO)Drakenbergsgatan 11117 41 StockholmTel: +46 8 668 03 50Fax: +46 8 668 03 14E-mail: [email protected]://www.raettvist.se

GroLink ABTorfolk684 95 HöjeTel: +46 56372345Fax: +46 56372066http://www.grolink.se(Consultancy)

KRAV (Swedish Organic AgricultureAssociation)PO Box 1940751 49 UppsalaTel: +46 18 100290Fax: +46 18 100366E-mail: [email protected]://www.krav.se

National Food Administration PO Box 622751 26 UppsalaTel: +46 18 175500Fax: +46 18 105848E-mail:[email protected]://www.slv.se

Svenska DemeterförbundetSkillebyholm15391 JärnaTel: +46 55157988Fax: +46 55157976

Swedish Board of Agriculture 551 82 JönköpingTel: +46 36 155000Fax: +46 36 190546E-mail:[email protected]://www.sjv.se

Swedish Federation of Trade andService 103 23 StockholmTel: +46 8 7627700Fax: +46 8 7627777E-mail: [email protected]://www.svenskhandel.se


Chapter 11

SWITZERLAND

Swit zer land is a small country with an area of justover 41,000 sq km and a popu la tion of about 7mil lion, of which close to 20% are for eigners. Thecountry has three prin cipal lin guistic areas, andapproxi mately 73% of its popu la tion speak German,21% French and 4% Italian. All three lan guages areoffi cial lan guages. Of the seven mar kets cov ered indetail by this study, Swit zer land is the only one that isnot part of the Euro pean Union. How ever, it is amember of the Euro pean Free Trade Agree ment(EFTA).

Swit zer land is one of the pio neers of organic

agri cul ture, having ini ti ated biodynamic farming aswell as organic (natural) gar dening in the 1930s. TheResearch Insti tute of Organic Agri cul ture (FiBL) was set up in 1974; it organ ized the first Sci en tificCon fer ence of IFOAM in Sis sach (near Basel) in1977. Though organic prod ucts have long been soldthrough farmgate sales and other direct sales andlater on through Bioläden (organic shops), the market started to grow seri ously only after 1993 when the big super market chain Coop began to market organicfood, fol lowed by another big super market chain,Migros, in 1996 (see sec tion on dis tri bu tion chan nels, pages 246 ff.).

Supply and demand

Production

The area under organic agri cul ture is expandingrap idly in Swit zer land and reached over 70,000 ha, or about 7% of the total cul ti vated land, in 1997. In1998, organic agri cul ture accounted for an esti mated8% of the total agri cul tural land, which is very highcom pared with proportions in most coun tries. TheEuro pean (EU+EFTA) average is 1.45%.

Since 1991 the number of organic farms has risensteadily from just below 1,000 to about 5,000 in1998, cor re sponding to an average increase of 28%annu ally. The highest growth rate occurred in1995-1996; the figure for 1998 was just 8%. By theend of 1999 the number of farms is expected to reach5,600, and fur ther expan sion is antici pated.

The main crops are cereals for human con sump tion,cereals for animal fodder, vege ta bles, maize (Indiancorn) and pota toes.

The country’s output of animal prod ucts includesmilk and other dairy prod ucts, meat and meatprod ucts, and eggs. Organic dairy prod ucts are animpor tant product group. The big gest dairy com panyis Swiss Dairy Food Ltd, which resulted from amerger between the Toni Group (a com pany inOster mun digen) and Säntis Milchver band (Gossau).The next largest is the Emmi Group (Lucerne). Thereare sev eral smaller com pa nies like Baer Küsnacht.

Organic farmers belong to more than 30 organi za -tions. The main umbrella organi za tion is BioSuisse – the Vere inigung schweiz eri scher biolo -gischer Landbau- Organisationen (VSBLO), Basel.

Market size

Since offi cial pro duc tion and for eign trade sta tis ticson organic food and bev er ages are either incom pleteor non- existent, it is dif fi cult to give an exact pic tureof the Swiss market.

How ever, on the basis of data pro vided by FiBL andBio Suisse, the retail market for cer ti fied organic food can be esti mated at Sw F 500 mil lion - Sw F 520mil lion in 1997 (roughly 2% of the total foodmarket), and between Sw F 560 mil lion and Sw F 580 mil lion in 1998. About two thirds of organic salescon sist of items pro duced domes ti cally; the rest areprod ucts not grown in Swit zer land. They include

coffee, tea, cocoa, durum wheat, rice, millet, spices,sub tropical and tropical fruit, nuts and some driedfruit. The import rate is gen er ally fairly low as market access is dif fi cult, mainly because of the pri vatelycon trolled labels on organic food and strictrequire ments.

Import and market requirements by major product group

General

Though demand for organic food in Swit zer landcannot be cov ered by local pro duc tion, with someexcep tions the range of imported prod ucts is fairlylim ited. The main rea sons include the fol lowing:

q The private farmers’ umbrella organization BioSuisse controls most of the market (75% today, ashare that was presumably even higher up to theperiod ending 1997 when official legislation onorganic products was introduced).

q Logistical difficulties with imports (smallquantities, insufficient distribution network, etc.).

q The concept of organic food implies for manyconsumers that the product has to be fresh and shouldbe transported to the market by the shortest possibleway, preferably from a neighbouring or nearbyregional producer.

q Processed food, which is easier to handle fromthe logistical point of view, was generally notregarded as fully organic or completely natural bymany consumers.

Nev er the less, imports of organic food and bev er agesare on the increase, mainly items not pro duced inSwit zer land but also items similar to domes ti callypro duced goods that are in short supply. Some of themain imports by product group and some sup plyingcoun tries/areas are listed below.


Most fresh fruits and vege ta bles are locally sup plied.Imports include:

q Lemons, oranges and other citrus fruit (mainlyfrom Italy and Spain);

q Hazelnuts, figs, almonds, dried apricots andraisins (Turkey, California);

q Bananas, though consumers do not usuallymake a distinction between organic and fair trade(e.g. Max Havelaar) bananas;

q Pineapples (from Ghana);

q Mangoes (from Ghana);

q Various berries, especially for the food industryfor the production of fruit preparations for dairyproducts, bakery products, etc. (from Hungary);

q Vegetables (for example, beans from Egypt).

The fact that these items are imported and in somecases trans ported by air leads to regular dis cus sionson whether they are fully ‘organic’ or ‘ec olog ical’.Bio Suisse does not permit prod ucts imported by airto carry its logo.

Dried fruits and nuts

This is the classic range of imported organics.How ever, the overall Swiss market for dried fruitsand nuts is small. An esti mated 40% of sales mayalready be cov ered by organi cally or othersus tainably grown pro duce. In addi tion to organicpro duce, con sumers look for con ven tional prod uctsnot treated with SO2 (sulfur dioxide). Imports include dried bananas, apri cots, pine ap ples (small market),man goes (very small market), and various nuts.


The market for deep- frozen organic food andready- to- serve mixes for catering is expanding.Sup plies are mainly obtained locally. Schmutz

CHAPTER 11 – SWITZERLAND 241

Gemüse AG processes 8,500 tons of prod ucts in thiscate gory.

There is a market for other forms of proc essed fruitsand vege ta bles, such as fruit juices, jams andmar ma lades. Domestic proc es sors include Hero inLenzburg and Biotta in Täger wilen. Some rawmate rials (e.g. tropical fruit juices, con cen trates orpulp/purée, and frozen fruit) are imported. Importsare small and are nor mally sourced throughmid dlemen in the Euro pean Union, notably inGer many and the Neth er lands.

Cereals, flour and bakery products

Swit zer land has many varie ties of bread. Dark breadand bread made from mixed flours are popular.Pieces of cereals, dried fruits and nuts are often added to bread. The other major end- uses for organics arebreak fast cereals (e.g. muesli), con fec tionery, snacksand por ridge. Though Swit zer land has a size abledomestic pro duc tion, imports of organic cerealscover about one third of demand, and this despite thefact that these imports are often sub ject to high import duties and spe cial levies.

Coffee, tea and cocoa

In this sector, organic prod ucts have an estab lishedthough small market share. Herbal teas have thelargest share in the market, fol lowed by choco late and coffee. There is also a growing market for organictea from fair trade pro grammes (such as MaxHave laar).

Herbs and spices

Herbs enjoy a growing and prof it able market. Theyare used for sea soning as well as for fur therproc essing in the food industry into teas, herbalcan dies, fla vours and aro matic extracts. Thoughsome Swiss farmers in the moun tain areas spe cialize in this product group, importing also takes place.

Sales of organic spices and spice prod ucts are risingfast, and require ments need to be imported. Oneretail organi za tion is in the process of con vertingfrom con ven tional to organic prod ucts to the fullestextent pos sible.

Sugar and sweeteners

The organic market for this product group is small butgrowing. It is cur rently esti mated at 100 - 200 tons oforganic sugar and about 30 tons of organic glu cosesyrups. In gen eral, prices are very high, often two tothree times the price of con ven tional prod ucts. There is also a market for organic honey, which is usu allycon sid ered a health product in any case. Thecer ti fi ca tion of organic honey is not yet fully regu lated.

Oil products

This is a highly pro tected market with spe cial levieson imports of, for example, vege table oils, which areregarded as com peti tors to butter. There is almost noimport market for organic prod ucts, with theexcep tion of olive and sun flower oils for which themarket is growing.

Dairy products

This is tra di tion ally the most impor tant organicproduct group in Swit zer land and the largest dairycoop era tive, the Toni Group, actively pro motes salesof organic prod ucts. In 1997 the Group proc essed1,000 tons of organic milk. It has a range of more than 20 prod ucts of which the most impor tant arepas teur ized whole milk, yoghurt with and withoutfruits, butter, cream and cheese.

Other food products

The fol lowing prod ucts of impor tance should also bemen tioned: baby food, meat and sau sages, fresh eggs, yeast for making bread at home, and wine. Most ofthese prod ucts offer few oppor tu ni ties for devel opingcoun tries, if any.


Consumer habits

Swiss con sumers buy organic food and bev er ages fora variety of rea sons. According to a survey pub lished

by FiBL in 1998, the main rea sons are envi ron mentaland health con cerns, fol lowed by taste and otherfac tors. Usu ally, a price pre mium of 10% - 20% isaccepted, though this may be higher for some

242 CHAPTER 11 – SWITZERLAND

prod ucts, say up to 40%. According to anothersurvey, 40% of Swiss con sumers buy organic food atleast once a week.

Promotion and advertising

As com pe ti tion between the two largestsuper market chains (Migros and Coop) is becomingincreas ingly keen, sales pro mo tion and adver tisinghave become impor tant instru ments in the battle formarket share. This applies not only to food stuffs ingen eral but also to organic food and bev er ages.Typical mar keting and pro mo tional tech niquesinclude the fol lowing:

q Heavy adver tising through national and regional news pa pers, flyers, the groups’ own weeklypromo tional leaf lets and news pa pers, radio,

tele vi sion, the Internet, etc.

q The supermarket chains are increasingly askingsuppliers to pay ‘listing fees’ when new products areaccepted for sale on their shelves.

q Suppliers are asked to give special rebates ordiscounts and to participate in promotional activitiesby offering special packaging.

In addi tion, sup pliers are being asked to pro videlogis tical extras in the form of spe cial pal lets, spe cialpack aging, price stickers on retail packs, place ment ofEAN codes, taking prod ucts off the shelves when notsold, etc. This fairly aggres sive devel op ment, whichalso takes place in other mar kets, makes it more andmore dif fi cult for for eign and even the smaller Swisspro ducers to enter the retail market direct.

Market access

Customs duties and restrictions

The Swiss cus toms tariff fol lows the Har mo nizedSystem. Swiss cus toms duties are spe cific, that is,they are levied on the weight of the product importedand not on its value. Tar iffs are quoted in Swiss francs per 100 kg gross weight. There are no spe cial tar iffson organic prod ucts which carry the same duties asthe equiva lent con ven tional goods.

There are high duties and/or spe cial levies on a rangeof agri cul tural prod ucts such as sugar, cereals,vege table oils and dairy prod ucts. In addi tion, for some of these prod ucts spe cial import licences are nec es sary, which nor mally can be obtained only by a Swissimporter. For imports of meat and fishery prod ucts,sani tary cer tifi cates and the like are also needed.

Exports of some prod ucts from devel oping coun triesmay be sub ject to pref er en tial rates of duty under theGen er al ized System of Pref er ences (GSP).

A value- added tax, which is cur rently 7.5%, has to bepaid by the first importer into Swit zer land. The VATrate is the same for imported and for domes ti callypro duced goods.


Organic food and bev er ages, whether imported or not,

have to meet the gen eral require ments of the Swisslaws and regu la tions appli cable to all food stuffs(organic and con ven tional), including the fol lowing:

q Food law and regulations;

q Hygiene law and regulations;

q Regulation on weight and declaration whichstipulates that the declaration has to be made in atleast one of three official languages (German, Frenchor Italian);

q Regulations on pesticides, herbicides and heavymetals.

Although the above regu la tions largely con cerncon sumer packs and do not directly affect importedbulk prod ucts, exporters should take them intocon sid era tion as the end- products proc essed fromimported raw mate rials must con form to them.

Since 1 January 1998, the pro duc tion, proc essing andmar keting of organic prod ucts have been regu latedby the Swiss Regu la tion on Organic Farming(Schweizer Bio- Verordnung), which is mod elled onEU regu la tions. The Swiss regu la tion is stricter thanEU law on some points and less so on others.

In order to be mar keted as organic, a product must be


cer ti fied by a cer ti fi ca tion body con forming toEuro pean stan dard EN 45011 (see chapter 2).Swit zer land has the fol lowing cer ti fi ca tion bodies:

q bio.inspecta: jointly founded by FiBL, BioSuisse and Demeter; located in Frick.

q Institut für Marktökologie (IMO), based inSulgen.

q Schweizerische Vereinigung für Qualitäts- undManagement Systeme (SQS), based in Zollikofen.

Another body, ABCert, is expected to be accred itedin the near future. The Swiss Accredi ta tion Service(SAS) and the Fed eral Office of Agri cul ture carry out super vi sory activi ties in rela tion to cer ti fi ca tion. Until the new law on organic food entered into force in1998, the pri vate stan dards of the Swiss organicfarm ers’ organi za tion, Vere inigung Schweizer Bio- Landbau- Organisationen (Bio Suisse) were com -monly applied to organic pro duc tion and trade. Those stan dards were and remain stricter than those of thelaw. Pro ducers and traders who operate according tothese stan dards, and who are cer ti fied against them,

can label their prod ucts with the pri vate Knospe label. This label is the most com monly used in Swit zer land.

The Knospe label con sists of a graphic depicting abud and the let ters “BIO”. Only farmers, proc es sorsand importers of Swiss origin can obtain per mis sionto use this logo. The word “Suisse” may be added tothe logo, indi cating that a minimum of 90% of theproduct is of Swiss origin. Addi tion ally, the word“Umstel lung” must be added to the logo if theproduct is from farms under con ver sion.

There are other labels of lesser but growingimpor tance, such as the MIGROS BIO Productionlabel of Migros, the largest retail organi za tion inSwit zer land. For Swiss prod ucts, Migros applies thesame stan dards as BIO SUISSE, but its require mentsfor imports are less demanding.

In total, about 5,000 Swiss farmers and 600com pa nies are reg is tered as organic units; somecom pa nies are reg is tered more than once. Bio Suissehas around 520 reg is tered com pa nies, MIGROS BIOProduction about 60, Demeter about 30, others about75.


Importers and agents

As the Swiss market is com para tively small andhighly seg mented (with numerous small andmedium- sized com pa nies), it is usu ally better toexport organic prod ucts through an importer ratherthan to sell direct to the food industry or the retailtrade. Importers can pro vide the exporter withnec es sary infor ma tion on market require ments,quality stan dards, market access and importfor mali ties; they can also offer the logis tical serv ices required by the final cus tomer. Many indus trialbuyers are not used to car rying out nego tia tions indif ferent lan guages. They insist on DDP (deliv eredduty paid) terms in Swiss francs. They are less ready to take risks on quality, so they usu ally prefer to buythrough inter me di aries they know.

Sev eral importers and agents spe cialize in or havesec tions dealing with organic food. They includeKündig & Cie. AG (based in Zürich), Tra wosa AG(Ror schach) and Var istor AG (Lengnau). The namesand addresses of these and other enti ties are given in

the annex to this chapter.

Food industry

Though Switzerland is the home country of Nestlé,the world’s biggest food company, and several othermajor food manufacturers, organic food processing is carried out mainly by small and middle-sized units.These units focus on the domestic market, thoughseveral also target export markets, largely in theEuropean Union. Among the companies withwell-known products are Bio-Familia AG (breakfastcereals), E. Zwicky AG (cereal and muesli mixes)and Bioatta AG (juices).

Retail trade

The Swiss food retail market is dominated by twosupermarket chains, Migros and Coop Schweiz,which together control an estimated 70% of thecountry’s food sales. They are also pre-eminent in the organic food business.


Coop Schweiz

Coop Schweiz sells the most organic food andbeverages and accounts for more than 30% of allorganic food sales in Switzerland. It is, however,second to Migros in terms of overall sales. Itsturnover of food and non-food items amounted toabout Sw F 11 billion in 1997. Its sales of organicfood and beverages climbed from Sw F 116 millionin 1996 to Sw F 168 million in 1997 and Sw F 200million in 1998. It expects to attain sales of aboutSw F 500 million in the year 2000. Like FDB inDenmark, for example, Coop has clearly stated salestargets (given in terms of percentage of overall sales)for specific organic food items. It also has a policy ofminimizing price premiums in relation toconventional food products.

Coop owns a number of food processing plants,including Arni AG (confectionery), Panofina AG(bakery products), Pasta Gala AG (pasta) andStadtmühle CMZ. Some plants produce organicproducts.

Since the mid 1990s Coop has strongly pushedorganic food products, which are sold under its ownNaturaplan label and with the Bio Suisse (Knospe)logo. Certification is carried out by Bio Suisse. Therange currently consists of more than 200 differentitems (see list below) and is constantly beingexpanded.

Coop also promotes textiles made from organiccotton under the label Naturline and other non-food

items (produced, for instance, out of 100% recycledmaterial) under the label Oecoplan.

Migros

With total sales of food and non-food itemsamounting to Sw F 13 billion in 1997, Migros is thelargest retail group in Switzerland. However, its share of the market for organic food and beverages isestimated at only 15% (valued at about Sw F 85million in 1997), roughly half of Coop’s share.Migros currently offers about 150 organic food items, and is trying hard to expand sales. All organic foodproducts are certified and sold under the Migros Biologo, usually certified by FiBL or IMO.

Migros owns about 10 food processing plants,including Jowa AG (bakery products, pastas), FreyAG (chocolate and confectionery), Estavayer SA(dairy products, drinks, sauces, etc.), Bischofzell AG(canned and frozen food, jams, etc.) and Midor (icecream, desserts, cookies), several of which producesome organic food products.

In a constant fight for market share, Migros has been promoting strongly for over 20 years its range ofM-Sano products – mainly fruits and vegetables,and meat and meat products. The focus is on themass market for healthy and environmentallyfriendly products with value added. The concept isprobably based on the assumption that many, if notmost, consumers will not pay much more fororganic products than for conventional ones. Thereasonably priced M-Sano product line has been analternative to organic products in the minds of many

consumers. The turnover in M-Sano productsamounted to about Sw F 650 million in 1997.Despite the success of this programme, Migros is considering developing the Sano conceptinto another form, inter alia, in order to avoidconfusion with its Bio label.

Others

USEGO-Trimerco Holding is a large retailbuying group and wholesaler. It supplies about5,000 retail outlets, including some 285 Primosupermarkets, about 1,200 Vis-à-Vis stores, anda large number of independent retailers, most ofwhich carry organic products (including goodscarrying the Bio Domaine and Knospe labels).USEGO is also a majority owner of the fooddiscount chain Pick Pay AG, which has about100 outlets.


Product group Number of items Product typesDairy 30 Milk, cream, butter, yoghurt,

cheeseEggs 2Pasta and rice 8 Fresh and dryMeat 30 Fresh meat, ham and sausages,

poultryFrozen products 4 Vegetables, potatoes,

hamburgersFruits and vegetables 35 Mainly of Swiss originBread and other bakedgoods

20

Flour 3Cereals 26 Muesli mixes and single cerealsWine 10Fruit juices 3 All of Swiss originBaby food 25 Juices and ready-to-use puréeOils 4Spices and herbs 7 All of European originTea 5 Herbal teas of Swiss origin

A number of other supermarket chains also carryorganic food items (including Bio Domaine andKnospe products). Among these chains are Volg AG(based in Winterthur), Manor (based in Basel), andSpar (in St Gallen).

Until the early 1990s, Bioläden (organic shops) werethe main sales outlets for organic food together withfarm-gate or direct sales. Reformhäuser (health foodshops), though of lesser importance, were alsoamongst the first outlets for organic foods. Since thensales of organic food in these types of shop havestagnated or even declined while supermarket saleshave soared.

Retail sales by sales outlet and certificationlogo

According to FiBL (based in Frick), the total retailmarket for organic food and beverages (an estimatedSw F 500 million - Sw F 520 million in 1997) can bedivided by sales outlet and certification logo asfollows:

Outlet Value of sales(Sw F ‘000 000)

Sales with the Bio Suisse (Knospe) logo

Coop 170

Health food shops 150

Farm-gate and direct sales 30-50

Spar, USEGO, etc. 15

Sales with other logos

Migros Bio 84

Others, including imported organics inretail packs

50-70

Catering

Apparently the catering and institutional market fororganic food and beverages is not yet welldeveloped, though sales are growing. One company, Delinat AG (of Heiden) is the exclusive supplier oforganic wines (of Swiss and other European origins) to restaurants.

Bio Suisse started a project in 1998 in cooperationwith the company SV-Service in Zürich to deliverorganic food products to university canteens and toCoop restaurants.

Special mention should be made of Swissair, the firstairline to use naturally grown products. It has utilizedthese products since 1997, when it first applied theconcept naturalgourmet™ to all Swissair flightsfrom Switzerland. According to the plan, 90% of theproducts needed to prepare meals should be naturallygrown by the year 2000 and, to the extent possible,only organically grown products will be purchased.Passengers will have a choice between organic andconventional wines and beers. This importantinitiative has the additional benefit of makingSwissair passengers more aware of health andenvironmental issues.

Market prospects

Overall, the market for organic food products may beexpected to grow at a rate of 20% - 40% a year over the next three to five years, the principal reasons being:

q The consumers’ positive attitude to health food,and naturally and ethically produced food.

q Growing price pressure in the market forconventional agricultural products will persuademore and more farmers to go into organic farming,which will raise domestic supplies.

q Organic farming is promoted and subsidized bythe Government. In 1997, support amounted toSw F 47.5 million.

q To gain an edge over the competition, retailersare offering customers ‘ethical’ products, includingorganics.

However, the Swiss market is likely to remain adifficult one for exporters for a number of reasons,including the following:

q The protective character of Bio Suisse, the mostimportant certification body with its very highstandards (on some points, these standards are stricter than EU regulations).

q High quality standards in general and fororganic products in particular.


q For most products with import potential, onlyrelatively small quantities are needed.

q Growing competition and price pressure. Theassumption is that eventually organic products willenjoy a premium of no more than 10% overconventional food as consumers and even retailersthink that all food has to be as natural as possibleanyway, and producers of foodstuffs, whether fullyorganic or not, will move in that direction.

Nevertheless, Switzerland is an important market that

should not be ignored by exporters in developingcountries. The products with the best opportunitiesare those that cannot be grown in Switzerland,including coffee, tea and cocoa, citrus and tropicalfruits, rice, durum wheat and various spices. Otherproducts, such as off-season fruits and vegetables and products in short supply, may also find openings inthe market. It should be noted that SIPPO, the SwissImport Programme (see the annex for the address),provides assistance to exporters in developingcountries.


Annex

Switzerland: selected addresses*

IMPORTERS OF ORGANICFOOD FOR RETAIL ANDRAW MATERIALS FOR THEFOOD INDUSTRY

Biofarm-Genossenschaftbeim Bahnhof4936 KleindietwilTel: +41 62 957 80 50Fax: +41 62 957 80 59(Cooperative/wholesaler handling alarge range of products, mainlycereals)

Claro AGSchweizer Organisation für FairenHandelByfangstr. 192552 OrpundTel: +41 32 356 0700Fax: +41 32 356 0701(Handles fair trade products; imports for organic shops andReformhäuser)

Giovanelli Fruchtimport AGSchaffhauserstrasse 2008500 FrauenfeldTel: +41 52 728 0909Fax: +41 52 728 0900(Specialist importer of fresh fruits)

Granosa AGSt. Gallerstrasse 1179403 GoldachTel: +41 71 841 6423Fax: +41 71 841 7726(Importer of cereals and food rawmaterials)

Hans Buob AGGrenzstrasse 269430 St. MargrethenTel: +41 71 747 43 33Fax: +41 71 747 43 34(Specialist importer of dried fruitsand nuts)

Hans Kennel AGLättichstrasse 46342 Baar

Tel: +41 41 761 2727Fax: +41 41 761 2840(Specializes in herbs and tea)

Heider TeeimportTrockenloosstrasse 458105 RegensdorfTel: +41 1 840 1600Fax: +41 1 840 1646(Specializes in tea)

Hima la VieAvenue C.-F. Ramuz 1011009 PullyTel: +41 21 729 6566Fax: +41 21 729 6166

Kündig & Cie. AGStampfenbachstrasse 388023 ZurichTel: +41 1 368 25 71/368 2525Fax: +41 1 362 8414E-mail: [email protected]://www.kuendig.com(Handles a wide range of organicraw materials and food products forretail and industry)

Steiner Mühle AG3436 ZollbrückTel: +41 34 496 8781(Processor of cereals, especially for Demeter)

Stutzer AGSeminarstrasse 288057 ZürichTel: +41 1 360 3636Fax: +41 1 360 3600

Suntra AGIm Brühl 14123 Allschwill/BaselTel: +41 61 487 9100Fax: +41 61 487 9105(Trader in dried fruits and nuts,processed fruits and vegetables)

Trawosa AGEisenbahnstrasse 419400 RorschachTel: +41 71 844 98 40

Fax: +41 71 844 98 49E-Mail: [email protected](Handles raw materials for the foodindustry, particularly driedvegetables)

Vanadis AGFischingerstrasse 668370 SirnachTel: +41 71 966 37 77Fax: +41 71 966 37 91(Medium-sized company, often buys via German organizations likeRapunzel)

Varistor AGWestrasse 55426 Lengnau AGTel: +41 56 266 50 60Fax: +41 56 266 50 70E-mail: [email protected]://www.hitlne.ch/vari-food(Agent/importer; deals with organicfood products, especially rawmaterials for the food industry)

Via Verde AGBrunnmatt6264 PfaffnauTel: +41 62 747 07 47Fax: +41 62 747 07 37(Specializes in distributing freshfruits and vegetables to smallerretailers of organic food)

WHOLESALERS

Biogemüse GalmizZährli 93285 GalmizTel: +41 26 670 4242(Fresh fruits and vegetables)

Somona GmbHBodenackerstrasse 514657 DüllikenTel: +41 62 354 646Fax: +41 62 353 259(Retail packs; handles supplies forReformhäuser, for example)


FOOD PROCESSORS/MANUFACTURERS OFORGANIC PRODUCTS

Bio-Familia AGBrünigstrasse 1416072 SachselnTel: +41 41 666 2555Fax: +41 41 666 2550E-mail:[email protected]://www.bio-familia.com(Cereal products, including muesli)

Bioforce AGGrünauerstrasse9325 RoggwilTel: +41 71 454 6161Fax: +41 71 454 6162(Vegetable salt and fresh plantextracts)

Biotta AGPflanzbergstrasse 88274 TägerwilenTel: +41 71 666 8080Fax: +41 71 666 8081(Fruit juices)

Haco AGWorbstrasse 2623073 GümligenTel: +41 31 950 1111Fax: +41 31 950 1515(Cereal products and snacks)

Hauser + Cie AGNeumühle TössNeumühlestrasse 408406 WinterthurTel: +41 52 202 6431Fax: +41 52 203 7441(Raw materials for the bakeryindustry)

Hero5600 LenzburgTel: +41 62 885 5111Fax: +41 62 891 5103E-mail:[email protected](Processed fruits and vegetables)

Hügli Nährmittel AGBleichestrasse9323 SteinachTel: +41 71 446 9292Fax: +41 71 446 2089(Bouillons, soups, sauces, yeast)

Kentaur AGGässli 93432 LützeflühTel: +41 34 460 6111Fax: +41 34 460 6166(Cereals, baking mixtures)

Narimpex AGSchwanengasse 47

2501 Biel/BienneTel: +41 32 365 0111Fax: +41 32 365 6226(Packer of dried fruits and nuts,honey)

Neumühle TössNeumühlestrasse 408406 WinterthurTel: +41 52 202 64 31Fax: +41 52 203 74 41(Specializes in cereals and flours)

Pronatec AGFröschenweidstrasse 108404 WinterthurTel: +41 52 235 0909Fax: +41 52 235 0919E-mail: [email protected](Sugar, syrups, chocolate, cocoa,vanilla, nuts)

Schmutz Gemüse AGDorfstrasse 253216 Ried bei KerzersTel: +41 31 755 5621(Processed fruits and vegetables)

Schweiz. Schälmühle E. ZwickyAG8554 Mühlheim-WigoltingenTel: +41 52 763 17 44Fax: +41 52 763 32 14(Specializes in cereals and mueslimixes, organic pet food)

Stadtmühle CMZ ZürichSihlquai 3068031 ZürichTel: +41 1 447 2525Fax: +41 1 447 2588

Swiss Alpine HerbsGassenmatte3763 DärstettenTel: +41 33 783 2000Fax: +41 33 783 2083(Herbs and spices, fruits andvegetables)


Coop SchweizThiersteinerallée 124002 BaselTel: +41 61 336 6666Fax: +41 61 336 7491http://www.coop.ch

Manor AGReggasse 344058 BaselTel: +41 61 686 1111Fax: +41 61 681 1192

Migros Genossenschafts-BundLimmatstrasse 1528005 ZürichTel: +41 1 277 2111Fax: +41 1 277 2333/

277 2525http://www.migros.ch

Migros-Genossenschafts-BundService Agro-écologique2, Rue de la Gare1030 Bussigny

USEGO AGIndustriestrasse 258604 VolketswilTel: +41 1 947 1414Fax: +41 1 947 1535(Bio Domaine)

CATERING

Delinat AGHaus zur Glocke9410 HeidenTel: +41 71 898 8070Fax: +41 71 898 8077http://www.delinat.ch(Supplier of organic wines)

Gate Gourmet Zürich AGThe Quality Caterer8058 Zürich-FlughafenTel: +41 1 812 1212Fax: +41 1 812 9192http://www.swissair.com/ourservices/air/gourmet.htm(Swissair)

CERTIFICATION BODIES,AUTHORITIESAND OTHER USEFULADDRESSES

Bio Suisse/VSBLOMissionsstrasse 60 4055 BaselTel: +41 61 385 9610Fax: +41 61 385 9611E-mail:[email protected]: [email protected]

bio.inspectaAckerstrasse5070 FrickTel: +41 62 865 6300E-mail: [email protected]://www.bio-inspecta.ch

Demeter-VerbandGrabenackerstrasse 154142 MünchensteinTel: +41 61 416 0643Fax: +41 61 416 0644


FiBL - Research Institute ofOrganic AgricultureDepartment of Economy andStandardsAckerstrasse5070 FrickTel: +41 62 865 7253/865 7272Fax: +41 62 865 7273E-mail:[email protected]://www.fibl.ch

Institut für Marktökologie(IMO)(Institute for Market Ecology)Poststrasse 88583 SulgenTel: +41 71 644 9880

Fax: +41 71 644 9883E-mail:[email protected]://www.imo.ch

Schweiz. Vereinigung fürQualitäts- und Management-Systeme (SQS)(Swiss Association for Quality andManagement Systems)Industriestrasse 1Postfach 6863052 ZollikofenTel: +41 31 910 35 35Fax: +41 31 910 35 45E-mail: [email protected]

Schweizerische Gesellschaft fürbiologischen Landbau(Bioterra)Dubstrasse 338003 ZürichTel: +41 1 463 5514Fax: +41 1 463 4849(Small-scale gardening)

SIPPO - Swiss ImportPromotion Programme OSECSwiss Office for Trade Promotion(OSEC)Stampfenbachstrasse 85PO BOX 4928023 ZürichTel: +41 1 365 5151Fax: +41 1 365 5221E-mail: [email protected]://www.osec.ch


Chapter 12

UNITED KINGDOM

Introduction

The dedi ca tion of some of the United King dom’sagri cul tur ists and natu ral ists in the first half of thiscen tury led to devel op ments which con trib utedsig nifi cantly to the foun da tions of the organicmove ment. It was as a con se quence of this work thatThe Soil Asso cia tion (SA), which is still the leadingorgani za tion in the coun try’s organic move ment, wasformed in 1946 and adopted as one of its aims thefol lowing: “to bring together all those working for afuller under standing of the vital rela tion ships betweenplant, animal and man”.

Some years later and at a time when the Gov ern mentand global agro- chemical com pa nies were directingBritish agri cul ture towards chemi cally enhancedfarming, a small group of mem bers of The SoilAsso cia tion estab lished the United King dom’s firstOrganic food shop in London (in 1960). This shopwas, in effect, the retail outlet for the organic pro ducegrown by The Soil Asso cia tion’s mem bers but, beingthe only one of its kind at the time, did not pro vide alarge enough outlet for such pro duce. As acon se quence organic farmers still had to sell most oftheir pro duce through normal com mer cial chan nels ifthey were to make ends meet. The spe cificiden ti fi ca tion of organic prod ucts came gradually withincreasing con scious ness of green issues and theemer gence of health food out lets, fol lowed by farm

shops and, even tu ally, dedi cated organic shops.Pro ducing spe cifi cally for the organic market thusbegan to approach eco nomic viability only over anextended period of time and the per centage ofpro duce bearing the organic label increased veryslowly.

The growth that could there fore have been expectedof the British market did not mate ri alize and, by theend of the 1960s, mar kets in the United States and inother Euro pean coun tries were more diver si fied andwide spread. In spite of this, how ever, the UnitedKingdom was once again involved in securing thelong- term authen ticity of the sector.

With the fast growth that was taking place else whereand the price pre miums that were becomingavail able, a number of oppor tunist growers andtraders who were not exactly in tune with organicprin ci ples began to appear in the market. It was thusnec es sary to define the term ‘organ ically grown’ toguar antee the purity of the product and pro tect itduring the entire pro duc tion, dis tri bu tion andmar keting process. In response, The Soil Asso cia tionestab lished a set of organic stan dards in 1974;together with the offi cial French stan dards andIFOAM’s Basic Stan dards, these became thefoun da tion of EC Regu la tion 2092/91.

Supply and demand

Retail sales

At the end of 1997, the British retail market fororganic foods was valued at $450 mil lion, havingprac ti cally dou bled in size in the two years since1995. Pre limi nary fig ures for 1998 indi cate sales of

up to $650 mil lion. This trend is set to con tinue at anincreasing rate with trade esti mates put ting the retailvalue of the market at about $10 bil lion within 10years, raising the market share of organics from thecur rent 0.4% to 10% - 15%. This appears some whatopti mistic and will be fea sible only if there is good

supply avail ability, a sup por tive and more activegov ern ment policy and the gradual ero sion of pricedif fer en tials (prices still appear to be up to 50%higher on average than those of con ven tional foods in many cases).

In terms of domestic con sump tion, a recent survey(by AC Nielsen, Homescan UK, Sep tember 1997)of 105,000 house holds found that, although 25% of the con sumers sur veyed bought organic food, these purchases were ham pered by the lack of supply.Fur ther more consumers continued to find organicfood too expen sive in spite of retailer price cuts.This means in effect that 75% of Britishhouse holds do not buy organics despite the largegrowth in recent years. There is thus poten tial formarket expan sion. At the same time, there areobsta cles that have to be removed before suchpoten tial can be fully exploited: 55% of thehouse holds inter viewed cited “high price”, and25% referred to the “lim ited range of prod ucts” astheir rea sons for not buying.

The major organic product categories sold are fruitsand vegetables, cereals, and meat and dairy productsalthough there are significant markets for productssuch as processed foods, raw ingredients, beveragesand baby foods. Although there has been steadygrowth in the largest product category (fruits andvegetables), this has been slower than the extremelyrapid expansion in products such as organic meat,dairy produce and baby food. These products havebenefited from consumers switching away fromintensively farmed products in response to recentfood scares. The baby food market in particular hasseen a rise of almost 50% a year (compared to 30%for all organics) and is now worth almost 6% of theoverall baby food market which was valued at morethan £145 million in 1997.

Trade estimates indicate that fruits and vegetables(including dried and processed goods) account for45% of the market. The rest of the market isdistributed as follows: cereals and pulses 14%; meat12%; dairy products 8%; processed organic foods6.5%; baby foods 4%; tea and coffee 3%; wine andother alcoholic beverages 3%; eggs 1.5%; herbs1.3%; confectionery 1%; and juices 0.7%.

The problem of availability has led to a highdependence on imports. Of total organic food sales,an average of 60% - 70% is imported, withpercentages varying significantly according toproduct sector.

Imports

Roughly half of the imports of organic foods comesfrom other EU countries. The major non-EUsuppliers are currently the United States, Egypt,Israel, Argentina and, increasingly, South Africa andCentral America. Apart from these main suppliers,trade research reveals a wide and fast expandingrange of suppliers of individual products (see annex II for an example of this). Of the total imports of foodand drinks, one third is estimated as coming fromdeveloping countries.

On average, some 80% of organic fruits andvegetables are imported; the estimate for fruits is ashigh as 85%. Of the rest, 100% of tea and coffee, 90% of wine and alcohol, and 50% of juices and cerealsare imported. Most meat products, eggs and dairyproducts are domestically supplied. Furtherinformation on imports by product groups is givenfurther below (market characteristics).

Domestic production

The high percentage of sales attributable to imports is mainly explained by the fact that organic productionin the United Kingdom is still comparatively small.According to The Soil Association, there were anestimated 1,200 organic farms out of a total of100,000 farms of all types in the country in 1997.These 1,200 farms were using 75,000 hectares, anarea equivalent to only 0.4% of the total farmed land.This compares with 900 farms in 1996 producing on50,000 hectares (0.3% of the overall farmed area). Inspite of the growth, the total is still less than half theEU average, a little less than in France andconsiderably less than in Denmark and Germany.

Domestic organic production (in terms of total retailsales of £81 million in 1997) is divided into 20%arable crops, 35% livestock products and 45%horticultural produce. Again according to The SoilAssociation, the highest growth rates between1995/96 and 1996/97 in terms of specific productswere registered by triticale 208% (a growth from avery low base); protected crops 196%; brassicas111%; barley 95%; rye 76%; dairy production 74%;beef cattle 45%; and pigs 33%. No figures wereavailable for peas, beans or poultry. In 1997, thelargest areas (in hectares) were allocated to theproduction of organic potatoes (836), followed bycabbage (544), swede (275) and cauliflower (189).Most other organic products had a total landassignment of less than 100 hectares each.

252 CHAPTER 12 – UNITED KINGDOM

The Ministry of Agriculture introduced an OrganicAid Scheme in 1994; the Scheme is part of an overallinitiative taken by the European Union (EURegulation 2078/92). It is an area-based paymentsscheme open to any farmer who registers for organicconversion and complies with an inspection systemgoverned by the United Kingdom Register of OrganicFood Standards (UKROFS). Any agricultural land notalready in organic production is eligible to enter thescheme with a minimum size of one hectare and nomaximum except a limit of 300 hectares for which aidwill be granted. The Scheme gives payments toalleviate both the costs of conversion and some of thelosses in income incurred.

In 1996 the Gov ern ment also intro duced an OrganicCon ver sion Infor ma tion Service, a free advi soryservice to farmers and growers inter ested in con -verting to organic pro duc tion. It includes a tele phonehelp line, an infor ma tion pack and a pos sible on- farmcon sul tancy for up to one- and- a- half days. The use ofthe scheme has increased sig nifi cantly since it wasintro duced.

Although these terms were improved in newproposals in April 1998 (with payments increasingfrom £250 to £450 per hectare for land eligible for the Arable Areas Payments Scheme, £350 per hectare for other eligible grassland and £50 for ineligiblegrassland), the simple flat rate was continued as wasthe 300-hectare limit for any one organic unit. Therealso appears to be no realistic allowance for settingland aside, which is an essential part of the organicprocess.

The trade view is that the Government is not trulycommitted to organic production and takes a more‘free market’ interpretation of the Organic AidScheme than elsewhere in the European Union. In the United Kingdom, farmers are paid £70 per hectare for the first five years to convert to organic, less than halfthe average disbursement from the Scheme by otherEuropean countries. The Government on the otherhand argues that it does not want to encourage asubsidy-reliant mentality among new organic farmers and that the sector needs to be put on a commerciallyviable footing as soon as possible.

Market characteristics and requirements


The structure of the retail market has also reduced theopportunity for extensive exposure of organic foodsto the British consumer. The market for foodstuffs isdominated by a few multiple chain stores (seebelow). Their policy towards food retailing has beenone of vertical control where possible of most stagesof the distribution chain. In essence they haveimposed an industrial regime on food production,insisting on strict specifications and time deadlines.This is the antithesis of organic production anddistribution, and therefore organic products have notfeatured significantly (until recently) within theirdevelopment plans for food retailing. This in turn hasmeant that the majority of British consumers (over70% of food retailing is controlled by these chains)have not had ready and regular access to organicproducts. Furthermore, in those chain stores in whichorganic products have had a presence, the pricedifferential has been so high as to restrict demand.

Thus, nei ther the demand (though growing strongly)for, nor the supply of, local organic prod ucts is as

large as might be expected from the rela tive afflu ence of the United Kingdom and its early start in thedevel op ment of an organic sector. Even today (July1998) the market is far less devel oped than might beexpected, given its impor tance in inter na tionalcer ti fi ca tion and the fact that the people andorgani za tions involved in the organic move ment inthe country are very active, quite popular with themedia and strongly com mitted.

One other pos sible reason for the com para tively smalldemand lies in the cul tural traits of the Britishcon sumer. The British seem less prone toenvi ron mental alarmism than the citi zens of othercoun tries. Many of them dis like the politi cally cor rect,are scep tical of scare sto ries and are not as respon siveto the so- called ‘whol esome and natu ral’ trends ascon sumers in other Euro pean coun tries. Only aminority of con sumers within cer tain social and agebrackets buy organics regu larly or respond to scaresand media con cerns by increasing pur chases of theirorganics; they number far less than their coun ter partsin some northern Euro pean coun tries. The cross over of organics to main line con sump tion in major food

CHAPTER 12 – UNITED KINGDOM 253

out lets is still in the process of occur ring, although itis now increasing its pace with the greaterinvolve ment and com mit ment of the mul ti ples.

The United Kingdom has also been experiencing arapid increase in the number of vegetarians in recentyears. Although organic foods are not exclusivelyvegetarian, consumers now opting to stop eatingmeat for ethical reasons will be more likely to have an interest in organic foods. A recent survey indicatesthat the number of vegetarians in the countrycontinues to grow at the rate of around 5,000 perweek: there were an estimated 3.1 million in 1997 (a100% increase on the total for 1990).

Fruits and vegetables

It is estimated that fruits and vegetables (mainlyfresh, but including dried and processed produce)make up about 45% of all organic food sold in theUnited Kingdom. Growth in this product sector hasbeen steady but in recent years less spectacular thanthat of other products. The reasons are the lack ofacceptable supplies and the switching of consumerinterest from mainstream products to other organicproducts as a result of food scares.

Vegetables have the largest demand, which is almosttwice the size of the demand for fruit. Although thishas been assisted by the emergence of vegetable boxschemes, it is the recent upsurge in the participationof the supermarkets that is likely to cause growth inthe vegetable sector to pick up speed in the nearfuture.

The most popular vegetables are the all-year-rounddomestic products such as potatoes, onions, carrotsand other root crops. These often also have a lowerprice differential than imported and seasonalproducts.

Although only a limited range of organic fruit isgrown in the United Kingdom, fresh fruit still ranksin second place in sales by product category (with ashare of around 15% in 1997). Apples, pears andbananas are the most popular of the fruits soldalthough most outlets do have a small range of exoticfruit.

As stated above, the United Kingdom imports around 80% of its organic fruits and vegetables. These comefrom other European countries or from a group ofestablished third-country suppliers, of which the

main ones are Israel, Egypt, the United States,Argentina, northern African countries and SouthAfrica.

The vegetable and fruit trade stresses that Britishconsumers buy produce with their eyes. This applies to all fresh produce. It may always have been the case,but it is probably all the more so nowadays when somuch consumer shopping is done in supermarketswhere the customer cannot ask questions of staff, andwhere touching and smelling produce is somehowinhibited. Only in recent years has there been muchscepticism among the British that the food offered tothem was other than fresh and wholesome, especiallyif it looked as though it was both.

As regards distribution, the fruit and vegetable tradediffers from that of some countries in Europe because its major outlets are supermarkets and box schemesrather than health food stores.

In terms of actual exposure to customers, the situation varies between type of retail outlet and indeedbetween parts of the country. First-hand observationin one of the large multiples in the North of Englandrevealed a separate, relatively small, organic freshfruit and vegetables section with about seven or eightdifferent items, including bananas and avocados, anddisplaying a notice announcing that organic producewas now priced the same as their conventionalequivalent. As seems to be a common occurrencewith organic fresh produce generally, however, theboxes for one or two of the products were empty.

In some stores visited, each organic item wasdisplayed alongside its conventional alternative,rather than in a separate organics section, and was not easy to find. On the other hand observation in one ofthe more organically committed multiples in Londonrevealed a wide range of very fresh and abundantfruits and vegetables with premiums averagingaround 30% for domestic produce and up to 100% for imported fruit and exotics. A whole section wasdevoted to them and they were marked with adistinctive organic logo.

There is no hard and fast rule as regards pricing, andthe practice varies not only between chains but alsobetween stores in different parts of the country.First-hand observation identified price premiums inone store ranging from 50% on organic vegetables(carrots, mushrooms, new potatoes and whitecabbage from Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy andthe Netherlands respectively) to at least 100% on


organic fruits (apples, pears, grapes, oranges from the United States, Argentina, Chile and Italy). In anotherstore the premiums on a similar range of productsfrom more or less the same countries varied from10% - 20% to over 100%.


A wide range of processed organic foodsincorporating organic fruit and vegetable ingredientsis available from some of the wholesalers, in variousforms – dried, canned, chilled and frozen.

The chilled range is reported to be growing quickly.One wholesaler has found that its sales of organicchilled foods (fruit juices, yoghurt, margarine, andcheese) are now growing faster than those of dried,ambient or frozen products. Another wholesaleridentified chilled organic fruit juices as one of hissignificant growth areas. However, observation inone supermarket store revealed a price premium ofup to 200% on organic Israeli orange juice, thoughpremiums of up to 50% are more normal.

Organic soups are said to be increasing in range andpopularity in all their various forms (chilled, fresh,and canned). One of the smaller chains hasintroduced a limited range of frozen organicvegetables, which are displayed alongside thestandard version but with a high price premium.

Demand for fruits and vegetables for ready meals and baby foods is growing rapidly and significant marketopportunities exist for suppliers of appropriateproducts.

Supplying the processed foods sector requires along-term commitment to individual processors orintermediate suppliers. It also calls for growingproduce to slightly different specifications than thefresh market – a possible disincentive to growers.Producing for both markets together should,however, provide some balance in revenue and givemore return for products not reaching top grade. Thisin turn could lead to more competitive pricing.Overall, however, the prospects appear very good forprocessed organic food products.

Meat and dairy products

Although this is a comparatively important segment of the British organic market, most supplies of meat andmeat products come from domestic production. In

terms of a potential market for third-country suppliers outside EU, this sector thus provides little potential.

Having said that, growth prospects are expected to bevery good (the market is expected to triple in the nextfive years). This is particularly so for meat, since theUnited Kingdom has one of the lowest European percapita consumption levels for organic meat. The BSE scare has already catalysed growth in organic meatconsumption and concern over animal welfare hasfurther increased consciousness of animal husbandrypractices.

Premiums for organic meat and other animal produce can be very high, but consumers seem likely todemand and then to accept the consequences of thedevelopment of production systems with a higherthan normal welfare component. The variations inpremiums reflect production conditions for differenttypes of meat, with organic pork and poultry havingthe highest premiums because of the low costs of theintensive mass production methods used.

Cereals and pulses

Roughly half of the organic cereal supplies toindustry in the United Kingdom are from domesticgrowers, and most of the rest comes from theEuropean Union and the United States. The mainimports are hard wheat, durum wheat, maize andrice.

Most cereals are milled (sometimes by stone) by some20 companies in the country. The two largest, DovesFarm and Shipton Mill, produce flour and bakeryproducts. Cereal products include flours, breads,biscuits, breakfast cereals, porridge and cakes.

A major grain merchant that has traded in organiccereals for over 12 years said that organic grains, afifth of which it imports through brokers, currentlyrepresents just 1% of its total sales. Wheat and barleyare its two biggest purchases and it also deals in oatsand oil-seed rape. Its organic imports come mainlyfrom Europe, North America and Australia and nonefrom developing countries.

A significant part of the British output of organiccereals is used as feed for organically farmed animalsfrom which meat, eggs and dairy items are obtained.The grain is sold either direct to farmers who mill and mix it themselves, or to compounders who then selltheir mixes to farmers for different end-uses.


The biggest growth area recently has been in organicwheat and soya for use as chicken feed by organicfree-range egg producers. There has also beengrowing interest on the part of the supermarket chains in organic poultry (and thus, poultry feed). Demandhas grown somewhat for malting barley for use in theproduction of organic beer, which sells overseas(particularly in Japan) as well as in the UnitedKingdom.

As grains used for animal feeds undergo littleprocessing and packaging, the cost of raw materialsconstitutes a high proportion of the price charged bythe grain merchant. Because of lower yields, the price premium on the organic variety is high, generally inthe region of 80% - 100%. Currently, however, thepremium is more likely to be 150% because thegrowing popularity of organic free-range eggs hasproduced an excess demand situation.

Cereals for bakery products tend to be bought directby the millers rather than through grain merchants. Abakery (The Village Bakery) whose products arealmost entirely organic buys its organic flour from adomestic mill although about half of the rawmaterials for this originates in Europe and NorthAmerica. Organic flour is the bakery’s mostimportant ingredient. The bakery supplies some ofthe multiples, independent retailers, caterers andwholesalers with bakery products.

A number of importers/wholesalers (Hider FoodImports, Harley Foods and Juniper Fine and OrganicFoods) buy and sell organic grains. One buys organicrice from Italy and North America in bulk fromCommunity Foods (see below) and then sells in bulkor in smaller packs to retailers. Another importsorganic rice direct from Italy and North America,packed at source with the wholesaler’s label, and then sells it to other wholesalers which supply it to healthfood shops. The same importer/wholesaler suppliesorganic grains to a muesli manufacturer which sellsto the multiples. Another stocks a range of organicpastas.

It seems clear that the cereals market is estab lishedand buoyant. Product inno va tion and an ever- increasing range of uses give it good poten tial for further growth.

Dried fruits and nuts

For dried fruit and nut products, supply systems arecomplex with much intertrading between suppliers.

For example, organic nuts (peanuts) and dried fruit(raisins and sultanas from Turkey) are bought in large sacks by one wholesaler who then supplies them to amanufacturer of fruit and nut bars. These bars arethen bought back by the wholesaler for resale to theretail trade.

One of the key British importers of organic driedfruits and nuts (and other organic ingredients for food products) is Community Foods. In fact, it offers sucha wide range of organic products that many of theother major organic food suppliers, packers andprocessors use it almost as a one-stop shop. The bulkof its organic sales is, however, made up of organicdried fruit, nuts and sunflower seeds, and this despitethe fact that the large quantities of nuts and fruit that it prepares and packs for some multiples andindependent department stores are not organicbecause of the large price premium. Indeed, althoughthis wholesaler supplies a wide range of organicproducts in addition to dried fruit and nuts (olive oil,coffee, rice, etc.), and is regarded as a major Britishsupplier, its organic sales make up only 1% of itsbusiness.

Some of the dried fruits (mango, pineapple andbanana) which a bakery uses in producingnon-organic cakes and other products to order for atrade customer are in fact organic at source. They arenot however certified as such because they are grownand dried by many small producers in Uganda andKenya. In this particular case, the baker’s customer isnot convinced that demand for products containingdried exotics and carrying the organic label issufficient to justify the costs of having the growersand the rest of the supply chain certified.

Dealers in dried fruits and nuts offer a wide range ofserv ices. One importer and whole saler imports largequan ti ties of organic rai sins from Argen tina incon tainers and sells them in bulk quan ti ties to bakersand other food manu fac turers and in retail packs tohealth food shops, at a pre mium of 25% over thenon- organic variety. It also imports organic driedapri cots, pine apple and dates. Organic prod ucts make up 50% of its overall turn over. Another whole saler,whose turn over is 30% organic, buys organic rai sinsfrom another whole saler and then sells them to health food shops, deli ca tes sens, smaller gro cery chains,etc.

A bakery has identified important gaps in the supplyof organic nuts. This bakery is almost 100% organic,is certified by The Soil Association and supplies


organic bread and other bakery products (cakes,flapjacks, etc.) to supermarkets, independent retailers and wholesalers. It buys its dried fruit and nuts inbulk, mainly from Community Foods. It reportedthat, whereas non-organic nuts can be bought bybakers and other food manufacturers in the numerous forms required for their different products (e.g.ground, blanched, ribbed almonds) the organic rangewas more limited (organic almonds, for instance, aresupplied only shelled or blanched).

Coffee and tea

Most of the major coffee and tea companies in theUnited Kingdom do not produce organic blendseither for themselves or for the supermarket chains’own labels.

It appears that the volume of supply is not the limiting factor to market expansion but rather the entireeconomics of organic certification and the awarenessof consumers. Non-certified organic teas and coffeesare already used but within traditional non-organicproducts, e.g. coffee from Cuba, Ethiopia, Kenya,Yemen and the Galapagos Islands, and tea fromKenya.

Several wholesalers in the United Kingdom supplyorganic tea and coffee. One of the country’s biggestimporters of organic coffee (Hider Food Imports) isthe exclusive importer of organic coffee from theNetherlands roasting house Simon Levelt. Thecoffee, a South American-Asian blend with the fairtrade mark, is bought in retail packs and sold on toother wholesalers, health food shops, delicatessensand department stores. Another wholesaler buysorganic tea and coffee from Community Foods.

Traid craft plc, one of sev eral fair- tradingorgani za tions in the United Kingdom, sells tea(Dar jee ling) and coffee (Peru vian, sourced throughthe Neth er lands) which are cer ti fied organic at source but which it cur rently does not label organic becausethe rest of the supply chain has not been cer ti fied.Only about 2% of Traid craft’s turn over is cur rentlyderived from organic foods. Oxfam, too, sells teawith the fair trade mark but without an organic label,though the tea estates it buys from are con verting to100% organic gar dening under IFOAM guide lines.Café Direct, which car ries the fair trade mark, hasachieved the highest market pene tra tion; it hadaround 4% of the ground coffee market in 1996.Clipper Fair trade Tea has also had a degree of marketsuc cess since its launch in 1994.

Another fair trade organization, Equal Exchange,supplies wholesalers with retail packs of various teas(from India and the United Republic of Tanzania) and coffees with the dual fair trade/organic tag. Percolcoffee, produced by the Food Brands Group fromsources in South America, is also available.

Although the scene appears somewhat disjointed,there are some encouraging signs in the market. Oneof the major British packers of tea and coffee hasdecided that for products that are certified as organicat source, it will “go through the hoops” to have therest of the supply chain certified so that it can put anorganic label on them. This, the company hopes, willenable the product to be sold at a higher price torecoup the higher prices that it has to pay to suppliersof organic produce.

Coffee was identified by a number of respondentsduring the fieldwork for this study as havingrelatively promising prospects for developingcountries wanting to exploit the growing market fororganic foods. This is because almost all of theproduct is grown in tropical conditions. Furthermore,the price premium required for organic coffee torecoup its higher production costs is comparativelylow as the cost of the basic product constitutes a small proportion of the total cost of the final product on theretailer’s shelf. Price need therefore not be asignificant limiting factor.

The important question that remains, however, iswhether or not the overall market for all types ofcoffee and tea is growing or whether growth in salesof the organic variety would be at the expense of thenon-organic, thus resulting in little overall impact onthe income of producers in developing countries.

As with organic foods generally, a key influence willbe the degree of involvement of the multiples.First-hand observation reveals some presence, withmost chains stocking the labels mentioned above. Atleast one, however, now provides own-label organicteas. The scene is set for an expansion generally inthis sector especially if the costs of organiccertification can be justified by bulk trading andretailing through major retail outlets.

Fish and fishery products

Organic fish (wild and farmed) is also now availablein some outlets (e.g. Planet Organic). Such fish arecaught by sustainable and environmentally friendly


fishing methods in unpolluted waters. Although it isdifficult to establish a chain of custody,9 somesuppliers have been certified. For instance, The SoilAssociation has registered suppliers from SaintHelena (a British dependent territory in the SouthAtlantic Ocean) for tuna smoked by a Britishcompany – it won an Organic Food Award in the fishcategory in 1997.

Other products

The other products of potential importance todeveloping countries and which have prospects in the United Kingdom are sweeteners, pulses, oil-seeds,edible oils and fats, wines, and herbs.


As mentioned earlier, the United Kingdom was amajor contributor to the formulation of the EU-widestandards and systems, which now regulate theorganic market and ensure the integrity of the organic chain from farm to table.

As a basis for cer ti fi ca tion, EU Regu la tion 2092/91estab lishes the rules for pro duc tion, proc essing andimporting, including inspec tion, record keeping,label ling and mar keting. Each country in theEuro pean Union is respon si ble for setting up aninspection system. Each inspection body has a degree of flexi bility in inter pre ting and enforcing theRegu la tion because the latter pro vides only theminimum require ments for cer ti fi ca tion.

The United Kingdom Gov ern ment des ig natedUKROFS (United Kingdom Reg istry of OrganicFood Stan dards) as a con trol body in 1987. It haspro duced a set of national stan dards and estab lishedan inde pendent cer ti fi ca tion and inspec tion schemefor organic pro ducers. It has an inde pendent boardwith exper tise from the pro duc tion, retail, con sumerand trade stan dards sec tors. It has a sec re tariat withinthe Min istry of Agri cul ture, Fish eries and Food.UKROFS can operate as a cer ti fying body, butpre fers to monitor and safe guard the activi ties ofother cer ti fying bodies rather than under take thatwork itself. There are a number of approvedcer ti fi ca tion bodies in the country (see Annex I).They include The Bio- dynamic Agri cul tural

Asso cia tion, Organic Farmers and Growers Ltd,Organic Food Fed era tion, Scot tish OrganicPro ducers Asso cia tion and The Soil Asso cia tion.Arguably, The Soil Asso cia tion is pre emi nent.

Surveys have demonstrated the importance of a logoin that 85% of the seasoned purchasers of organicproduce look for a symbol. Until recently the symbolof The Soil Association was the best known, but thismay well change. In the new wave of supermarketactivity in the market it has been observed that theyare using a range of approved certifiers. Indeed one of the major chains has developed its own logo (a bluecircle) for its organic range. British supermarkets arevery jealous of their own reputations and branding,and are widely trusted by their customers, so it isquite likely that their customers will accept anyUKROFS-registered certifier which the supermarketof their choice cooperates with. However, theimportance of a generic logo, e.g. that of The SoilAssociation, should not be underestimated.

As regards imports into the United Kingdom,UKROFS enforces one of the basic tenets of EURegulation 2092/91 in the country, viz. that “...organic food imported from outside the EC is grownand certified to equivalent standard (to that within the EC) and that the exporting country’s standards andinspection systems must be notified to and assessedby the EC.” The Regulation is discussed in somedetail in chapter 2.


9 An expression used in quality control circles to identify the series of links from farming to final product which ensure that products can beidentified and segregated from non-certified products at each stage of the processing and distribution chain.


Importers, traders and wholesalers

To date the major suppliers of organic foods to theBritish retail trade have been specialists in variousproduct ranges. Many supermarkets and other outletsdeal with a handful of well-established wholesalerswhich operate with overseas as well as domesticsuppliers of fresh organic produce. Some wholesalers also sell on to other wholesalers with whom smallerretailers deal.

In the fresh fruits and vegetable sector, the largest and best known is Organic Farm Foods of Wales (nowwith branches throughout the United Kingdom). This company supplies supermarkets, box schemes, health food shops, specialist organic supermarkets,processors and even customers in other Europeancountries. It has branches and pack houses in theUnited Kingdom, France and the United States, andagreements with companies in other Europeancountries. It meets its customers’ requirementsthrough its wide network of suppliers in the UnitedKingdom, in Europe and in countries in most otherregions of the world – over 60 suppliers in all. Thisnetwork was established and is maintained throughan active policy of nurturing its suppliers andassisting them with agronomic practices, financing,certification and export servicing.

The Organic Marketing Company, also a specialistsupplier, is a large organic vegetable production firmin Herefordshire and is cooperatively owned by itsmembers, mostly growers. It now concentrates onsupplying box schemes. It is not, however, animporter. Another important company in the fruit and vegetable trade is Congelow Produce Ltd (located inKent).

Wholesalers may deal in pre-packed produce, oroperate as a pack house. Perhaps the largest in boththese groups (with a turnover of about £30 million) isCommunity Foods, a leading importer, wholesalerand distributor of ‘natural foods’ which have gonethrough a degree of processing. At about 10% of itsturnover, organics are a growing part of the business,but in big product lines such as apricots, peanuts andalmonds, organics remain a small line. A range oforganic produce – especially oils and dried orotherwise preserved goods, and including teas – iswholesaled under its own or other labels, often afterpacking in its own warehouse.

Although other suppliers proliferate in the UnitedKingdom, they are either mainly small productspecialists or suppliers of conventional produceincreasing their participation in organics in responseto supermarket demand.

Some supermarkets are seeking imported organicsupplies from their traditional suppliers on thegrounds that such suppliers are familiar with thenature of the supermarket business and have therequisite standards of efficiency. Thus traditionalsuppliers to supermarkets, such as Sapphir, MackMultiples and Wealmoor, are attempting to increasetheir involvement in the organic business. Thisrequires reconciling the rigorous logistics of normalsupermarket supply with the more ‘natural’characteristics of organic supply operations – not asimple conversion.

There are a large number of specialist suppliers.Information on some of these companies (e.g.importers of cereals, dried fruits and nuts, coffee andtea) is given in the earlier section on marketcharacteristics (pp. 255 ff.).

The retail sector

The shares of the various types of outlets in themarket for organic foods in 1997 are estimated at60% - 65% for supermarkets, 18% for farm gate andbox schemes, 14% for independents, 3% for healthfood shops and the rest for market stalls. Althoughthe share of box schemes has grown the most inrecent years, supermarkets are now likely to gainshare faster in the near future.

It is clear that any significant future expansion of theorganic market in the United Kingdom and acrossover into mainline consumption rests with thesupermarkets. This is already happening and growthexpectations are high.

All in all it can be concluded that the majordeterminants of development in the organic retailsector are the supermarkets’ perceptions of whatconsumers want, the availability of quality supply, arelationship with suppliers who understand thestandards of the retailer and can confirm a chain ofcustody, and a reduction in the price premium fororganic foods.


Developments in various types of retail outlets arediscussed below.

Multiples

It is estimated that the top five supermarket chainscontrol over 70% of the food market in the UnitedKingdom. They have evolved into extremelypowerful forces, controlling the range and quality ofsupply and the level of availability of products toBritish consumers. Over the last 20 years they haveextended their influence all the way through to theoriginal producer, regardless of where it is located,and today not only dictate product specifications andquality but also planting, harvesting, packaging,transportation and delivery. The high degree ofcompetition between them has resulted in increasingstringency and rigour in their expectations of theproducts they handle and their purchasing power hasenabled them to direct their suppliers towardsincreasingly mechanistic and almost industrialmethods of producing food.

The United Kingdom is one of the leading countriesin terms of the volume of organic products soldthrough supermarket outlets. However, thesupermarkets, because of the very nature of theirbusiness and their insistence on control, regularity inspecifications and timing of supply, have, until justrecently, reduced the consistency and pace of theirinvolvement in the trade. Their requirements do notfit in with organic products which of essence are notuniform in shape, size or colour, are not blemish freeand are not produced to a strict timetable. Thus inspite of its strong position, the involvement of thesupermarket sector in the organic trade has beencharacterized by periods of enthusiastic developmentfollowed by complete withdrawals from handlingorganic produce.

In the late 1980s, there was considerable mediaattention on green issues and, anxious to appear green and to command the loyalty of high-spending greenconsumers, supermarkets began increasingly todevote a good deal of time and space to organicproduce. They also identified a gap in the market fororganic produce that was not being met because ofthe incapacity of the health food sector to handle such merchandise. As a consequence, sales increasedfivefold between 1988 and 1993 (from a base of£20 million).

This period of rapid growth did not continuehowever. Although the trend was never quite

reversed, some of the large chains started to havedoubts about the willingness of large numbers ofshoppers to pay price premiums for produce whichoften looked unattractive and were not regularlyavailable.

During the last decade or so this has resulted insome thing of a pat tern among the mul ti ples ofven turing into, testing, drop ping out of and, after anumber of years, re- entering the market for organicfresh pro duce. Most of them clearly see this as apoten tial growth area but one with a number ofcom pli ca tions to over come. These are relatedpar ticularly to reli ability and con ti nuity of supply,quality require ments and pricing.

The approaches taken to tackling these supply andpricing issues have varied.

During the field investigations for this survey,Sainsbury’s, one of the most active players in theorganic sector, stated that it sold twice as many linesof organic produce as its nearest rival. It hascommitted itself to expanding its range so thatwherever possible an organic product is on offeralongside every conventional product. It is pledged to increasing the percentage of organics from 1% to 5%of its total food sales. It is also actively involved in the wider organic movement in the United Kingdom byfostering domestic production and sponsoringconferences, workshops and the like. In associatingwith the organic supplier group SOURCE, itsobjective is to raise the quality and increase thequantity of organic supplies and promote R & D.

Waitrose, another of the major multiple chains, hasgone into organic sales in a big way. One of its storesin London, visited during the field research for thisstudy, had a wide range of clearly presented organicproducts. There was for example about 6 - 8 metres of individual shelf space given over to organicvegetables and fruit. There were clear “Organic”signs and the products were all labelled with a largeblue “O”. The average price premium for organicswas about 30%; many items were priced 10% - 15%higher than their mainstream counterpart products.

Tesco, one of the largest supermarket chains, hascreated a specialized staff post solely devoted to thedevelopment of organic sales from its outlets. Itbegan heavily promoting organics in October 1996,and did so on the basis of near-parity of pricesbetween organic and conventional produce, decidingas a matter of strategy to pass on profits from the


sector to the consumer in the form of discounts. Itsays that it has seen a fivefold increase in sales oforganic produce in the period and hopes to raise theshare of organics from the present 1% of the firm’s£1.6 billion fruit and vegetable sector to perhaps 5%in three to four years, quadrupling the number ofstores stocking organic produce.

Safeway, a pioneer in the organics market 10 or 15years ago, has in recent years concentrated itsattention in the area of organics on the young familymarket. This was particularly motivated by theanxiety of mothers concerning food safety.

For one of the major chains (Asda) the experience has not been that encouraging. In 1998 it tested themarket for the second time in five years, with thetesting restricted to its larger stores. Thoughsignificant customer interest was generated, thecompany temporarily withdrew from the marketbecause its supplier had been unable to meet itsquality specification. This supermarket chain is of the opinion that its customers want organic produce tohave the same quality and appearance as theconventional variety. In a deliberate effort to securecustomer interest, the company earlier this yearstarted to offer its organic fresh produce at pricelevels similar to its traditional lines, in the belief thatcustomers are resistant to significant price premiumson organic produce.

Health and organic stores

Unlike in some other countries where health foodshops have been important, the British health foodtrade has never tried to compete with the supremacyof the supermarket as a supplier of fresh organicproduce and groceries. In some European countries(as in the United States), health food stores havecarried organic produce, especially fresh foods,which has made possible the development of anetwork of local growers and suppliers. In the UnitedKingdom, by contrast, organic farmers and growershave had to sell direct to the public (in farm shops), or have developed links with a small number ofwholesalers and the small number of supermarketchains in which most people do most shopping.Health food shops have not had the physical capacityto handle fresh produce, although this is nowchanging.

Several other organic retail outlets are moreimportant than health food stores. They includebutchers, farm shops, greengrocers, independent

retailers and dedicated organic shops. An organicsupermarket, Planet Organic in London, specificallyaims to provide space and facilities for an organicalternative to most products, fresh and processed, and thus offers a full range of organic food and beverages. It is now experiencing good growth after a difficultfirst year and is planning to set up similar stores incities in the South.

Most British cities have health food stores (chainssuch as Holland and Barrett) on their high streetswhich carry an increasing range of organic foods,notably processed foods such as grains, raisins, pastaand pulses. It is unlikely however that they willbecome significantly involved in the furtherdevelopment of the organic food market.

Box schemes

Box schemes are another sig nifi cant market outletand one in which there has also been a dra matic risein sales in recent years. Mem bers of such schemespay a fixed price for a box of in- season organic fruitsand vege ta bles, accepting the mixed range, qualityand quan ti ties that are pro vided. It is an attempt tostrengthen ties between pro ducers and con sumersand pro moting accep tance of the less uni form natureof organic pro duce. Such boxes can be bought at theshop/farm or at a cen tral delivery point; they can bedeliv ered to the home or by mail order. Althoughaccu rate fig ures are dif fi cult to get, The SoilAsso cia tion has esti mated that there were 130 suchschemes in opera tion in 1997, catering to some40,000 fami lies and involving 30% of growers in theUnited Kingdom.

Although there was good growth in this marketsegment between 1994 and 1996, it appears that there is now some evidence of a degree of disenchantmentwith the schemes. Consumers are starting tocomplain, and journalists are starting to write aboutthe wastage of unwanted produce, the lack ofidentification of some of the produce and itsunattractive appearance. All this is seen as increasingthe real price differential.

Other outlets for organic produce are farm shops,mainly for fruits, vegetables, meat and dairyproducts. These arose at a time when health foodshops could not handle fresh produce andsupermarkets were either reluctant to stock the rangeor were demanding specifications which wereimpossible to meet.


Processors and food manufacturers

True conversion of organic produce into a processedproduct is in its infancy in the United Kingdom. Thenumber of companies that can be called trueprocessors is small. The Soil Association does have alarge register of processors but most of those listedare packers and re-distributors or family-type kitchenoperations. Few large food manufacturers haveconsidered broadening their range of products toinclude organics.

Grain milling is the primary activity of the organicprocessing sector and Doves Farm Foods, Jordans,Shipton Mill and Morning Foods are the majorsuppliers of organic flours and cereals. Some largedairies have also gone into processing with, forexample, Yeo Valley producing organic yoghurtfrom milk supplied by the Organic Milk SuppliersCo-op.

The significant recent growth in organic baby foods(approximately 50% yearly) as a result of food scareshas supported the development of a processingcompany in the United Kingdom – Baby Organix.

This company produces a range of baby meals,cereals, pasta shapes and drinks which are free fromadditives, added sugar, processing aids and fillers.They source their ingredients from local organicfarms. The company, which is still the market leader,faces strong competition from Hipp UK, whichclaims to have increased market share by 140% over12 months.

Whole Earth Foods, a London-based company whichwas involved in the genesis of organized organicretailing in the country, has pioneered the manufactureof foods from imported organic produce over manyyears. Its processed products began to appear in thelate 1970s with avowedly ‘healthy’ and ‘natural’ foods, sold to a generation of consumers interested inalternatives. Among their products were low-sugar,low-salt versions of traditional foods such as bakedbeans, jams, peanut butter, chocolate and ketchup.

In essence, although British organic retail shelves arestocked with wide ranges of dried, canned, bottled,ready meals, oils, beers and other processed products, most of these are either imported or produced on asmall scale by local organic producers.

Market prospects

The United Kingdom is clearly one of the primemarkets to be targeted by prospective suppliers oforganic foodstuffs. As already mentioned thereappears to be enormous prospects for growth in themarket for organic foodstuffs. Informed trade sources at all levels anticipate organics taking 10% - 15% ofthe food market within 10 years compared with 0.4%at present.

Steady growth is forecast for fruits and vegetables.The anticipated growth rates of the markets for meat,wine and beer and all processed foodstuffs are among the highest in Europe as a result of the relativelyundeveloped state of these markets in the UnitedKingdom. The current average growth rate for allorganics in the country is estimated at around 30%per year by The Soil Association. The trade expectsfuture growth rates for specific produce to be evenhigher.

Achieving this, how ever, will require a sig nifi cantincrease in supply avail ability. In terms of domesticpro duc tion there will need to be effec tive pro ac tive

gov ern ment sup port for domestic organic farmingbecause, even if the number of domestic organicfarmers were to double, the resul tant increase insupply would not meet existing demand. At pres entthe United Kingdom has to import close to 70% of itstotal organic require ments and this situa tion is likelyto con tinue.

As explained above, there are various rea sons for thelow level of involve ment of British farms in organicpro duc tion. First, the com para tively large size ofthese farms makes con ver sion more dif fi cult. Second, gov ern ment policy has not been viewed as being asprac ti cally encour aging as in many other Euro peancoun tries. Finally, the market struc ture requiresspeci fi ca tions which are not easily met by organicpro duc tion.

Although it is reported that the volume of domesticorganic supply is increasing steadily and that thenumber of farmers switching to organic systems isgrowing, there is still considerable doubt about thecommitment of the Government to the process.


Whatever the interpretation, the fact remains thatdomestic supplies of organic produce are unlikely toincrease at a level that will keep pace with the overallgrowth of the market. This means that even if growthin overall organic sales were to slow down there willstill be an incremental growth in the market forimported organics. This will be reinforced throughthe increased participation of the supermarkets in thesector and their search for new sources of regular andreliable supply.

There are, of course, threats from alternative supplysources. Integrated crop management systems havebeen actively supported by some supermarkets: thesecombine the efficiency of intensive systems withorganic practices. To tackle the growing publicunease with high levels of usage of chemicalpesticides, etc., health scares and the increasingconcern with related environmental issues, all themultiples have come together to develop cropprotocols with which all their United Kingdomgrowers of fresh fruits and vegetables and now theiroverseas suppliers must comply and be inspectedagainst. These Integrated Crop Management (ICM)protocols impose lower levels of usage of chemicalpesticides and fertilizers, and the use of natural pestcontrol techniques, e.g. the introduction andencouragement of natural predators.

One of the top three multiples started a programme toencourage ICM among its suppliers as early 1991. By the end of 1996, over 80% of its domestic fruits andvegetables and 45% of its overseas produce werebeing grown to ICM protocols and it had plans forfurther increases in these percentages. At the sametime it is involved in assisting the development of theorganic sector.

Some specialists anticipate that before long this ICMproduce could become the standard against whichorganics will have to compete and that there will bean ever-increasing availability of ‘halfway house’producers supplying products with no obvious pricepremium attached and which are marketed as havingfeatures which take account of the growing interest in the environmental, health and social aspects of foodproduction. Indeed, the question has been raisedwhether the multiples would prefer to see organic

produce remain a niche market because its promotion may be taken to imply that there is something wrongwith the standard product.

Thus a major issue for organic producers must bewhether promotion by the multiples of their ICMproduce as a more affordable alternative with morecontrol over supply will limit the growth in demandfrom consumers for organic produce, or perhaps thecompetition will force the organics price premiumdown to a level which consumers will tolerate. Theimplications of this trend are as applicable toprocessed products (dried, chilled, frozen, etc) as they are to fresh produce.

The other potential threat is from geneticallymodified foods, which have developed very quicklyin the United States and have started to make inroadsinto the United Kingdom. There is a considerablelobby against them, however, and resistance is strong. Such foodstuffs do have an impressive list ofqualities, however, and are available at competitiveprices. The attitudes of the major supermarkets willonce again be crucial in the forthcoming contest forshares of the changing United Kingdom market forfoodstuffs. A four-part market may thus emerge in the short to medium term, divided amongst intensivelyfarmed products, pure organics, ICM protocolproducts and genetically modified produce.

In spite of this struggle for the food market, there is still likely to be a sub stan tial vacuum for sup pliers abroadof organic pro duce. For pro spec tive devel opingcountry sup pliers seeking to make an effec tive andsus tain able entry into the United Kingdom, theoppor tu nity does exist and is poten tially sig nifi cant aslong as they realize that this is not a trade to enterlightly and that a proper under standing of what‘organic’ truly means is essen tial.

With pressing competition from alternative systems,it will become increasingly crucial therefore that thedevelopment of an organic supply base anddistribution system is done properly by developingcountry suppliers through appropriate national orinternational certification, state-of-the-art agronomicsupport and a strong relationship with an establisheddistributor.


Annex I

United Kingdom: selected addresses*

IMPORTERS/PROCESSORS/DISTRIBUTORS

Anglia Oils Lim itedKing George DockKingston-upon-Hull East Yorkshire HU9 5PXTel: +44-1482-701271Fax: +44-1482-709447Email: [email protected](Importer of raw materials;processor of oils)

Baby OrganixOrganix Brands plcNo. 4 Fair fields Close, Christ churchDorset BH23 1QZTel: +44-1202 479701Fax: +44-1202 479712(Proc essor/importer/dis tributor ofbaby foods)

Clearspring LtdUnit 19, A. Acton Park EstateLondon W3 7QETel: +44 181 7491781Fax: +44-181 81118893(Importer and wholesaler mainly ofexotic food products)

Com mu nity FoodsBrent Ter raceLondon NW2 1LTTel: +44-181 450 9411Fax: +44-181 208 1551(Leading importer, packer and dis -tributor of organic prod ucts including dried foods, pulses, cereals)

Congelow Products LtdDen Farm Lane, Collier StreetTonbridge, Kent TN12 9PXTel: +44-1892 730447Fax: +44-1892 730566(Importer and wholesaler of organicfruits and vegetables)

Doves Farm FoodsSalisbury Road, HungerfordBerkshire RG17 0RFTel: +44-1488 684880

Fax: +44-1488 685235(Importer, distributor, miller, processor of cereals and flour)

English Village SaladsCamblesforth GrangeBrigg Lane, SelbyYorkshire YO8 8NDTel: +44-1757 617161Fax: +44-1757 614109(Importer of fresh salad productsand supplier to major multiples –part of Geest plc)

Gleadell Banks LtdLindsay House, Gainsborough Lincolnshire DN21 5THTel: +44-1427 421225Fax: +44-1427 421230(Large grain merchant – cerealsand pulses)

Harley FoodsBlindcrake Hall, BlindcrakeCockermouth GA13 0QPFax: +44-1900 828276(Importer, wholesaler – dried fruit,pulses, grains, herbs, rice)

Hider Food ImportsWiltshire RoadKingston upon Hull HU4 6PATel: +44-1482 561137Fax: +44-1482 565668(Importer, wholesaler, processor,packer – nuts, dried fruits, beans,coffee, pulses, herbs, spices)

Hipp Nutrition UK169 Greenham Park, NewburyBerkshire RG15 8JHTel: +44-1635 528250Fax: +44-1635 528271(Baby food manufacturer/importer)

Infinity Foods67 Norway Street, PortsladeEast SussexTel: +44-1273 424060Fax: +44-1273 417739(Importer and wholesaler of a widerange of organic produce)

Juniper Fine FoodsUnit 2, Downs Way Industrial EstateTinwalds Downs Road, HeathallDumfries DG1 3RSTel: +44-1387 249333Fax: +44-1387 249900(Wholesaler of fresh, ambient,chilled and frozen foods andbeverages)

Just WholefoodsUnit 2, Cirencester Business EstateLong LaneCirencester GL7 1YGTel: +44-1258 651910Fax: +44-1258 651910(Food manufacturer of organicinstant soup mixes, etc.)

Oasis Food & DrinkSunset HouseEnnis Close, WythenshaweManchester M23 9LETel: +44-161 283 8888Fax: +44-161 283 8899(Wholesale distributor of chilled,frozen and ambient health foodproducts)

Organic Farm FoodsLlambed Estate, LampeterCarmarthenshire SA48 8LTTel: +44-1570 423099Fax: +44-1570 423280E-mail: [email protected](Major importer and wholesaler ofall types of organic produce)

Organic Marketing CompanyUnit 1, Leighton CourtLower Eggleton, LedburyHerefordshire HR8 2UNTel: +44-1531 640819Fax: +44-1531 640818(Packing and pre-packing importerof fruits and vegetables)

Suma WholefoodsDean CloughHalifax HX3 5ANTel: +44-1422 345513Fax: +44-1422 349429


(Wholesaler and manufacturer oforganic vegetarian and veganproducts)

(Wholesaler and manufacturer oforganic vegetarian and veganproducts)

Taylors of HarrogatePagoda House, Prospect RoadHarrogate HG2 7NXTel: +44-1423 889822Fax: +44-1423 881083(Tea blender and coffee roaster)

The Food Resource BaseFife Food Centre, Faraday RoadSouthfield Industrial EstateGlenrothes KY6 2RUTel: +44-1592 775884Fax: +44-1592 775955(Manufacturer of fresh organic soupsand sauces)

The Quiet RevolutionThe Coach House, 6 Duncan StreetLondon N1 8BWTel: +44-171 278 2121Fax: +44-171 278 1958(Processor of fresh organic soups)

The Village BakeryMelmerby, PenrithCumbria CA10 1METel: +44-1768 881515Fax: +44-1768 881848(Wholly organic bakery, importer andcaterer, supplier to major multiples)

Traidcraft plcKingsway North, GatesheadTyne & Wear NE11 0NETel: +44-1914 910591Fax: +44-1914 822690(Fair trade food organization)

Vintage RootsSheeplands Farm, Wargrave RoadBerkshire RG10 8DTTel: +44-118 940 1222Fax: +44-118 940 4814(Importer and wholesaler of organicwines, beers, ciders, spirits, juicesand oils)

Whole Earth Foods292 Portobello RoadLondon W11 1LRTel: +44-171 229 7545Fax: +44-171 221 6416E-mail:[email protected]://www.earthfoods.co.uk(Retailer, producer and wholesaler oforganic foods throughout Europeunder its own labels)

Windmill Organic Foods66 Meadow CloseLondon SW20 9JD

Tel: +44-181 395 9749Fax: +44-181 395 95749(Importer of bulk ingredients foron-sale to food manufacturers)


ASDAAsda House, Great Wilson StreetLeeds LS11 5ADTel: +44-1132 435435Fax: +44-1132 418304(Major multiple chain store increasingits involvement in organic products)

Cooperative Wholesale SocietyHanover Building, Hanover StreetManchester M60 4WSTel: +44-161 827 5592Fax: +44-161 827 5495(Major cooperative with increasinginvolvement in organic retailing)

Planet Organic42 Westbourne GroveLondon W2 5SHTel: +44-171 221 7171Fax: +44-171 221 1923(Organic supermarket in London withplans to establish regional outlets inmajor cities in the United Kingdom)

SafewayArgyll HouseMillington Road, HayesMiddlesex UB3 4AYTel: +44-171 695 6000Fax: +44-171 695 7610(Major multiple retailer involved withorganic products)

Sainsbury’s LtdStamford HouseLondon SE1 9LLTel: +44-171 695 0024Fax: +44-171 695 7507E-mail: [email protected](Major multiple with long involvementin retailing organic products)

TescoTesco HouseDelamare Road, CheshuntHertfordshire EN8 9SLTel: +44-1992 632222Fax: +44-1992 644747(Major multiple chain store withincreasing involvement in retailingorganic products)

WaitroseDoncastle RoadSouthern Industrial Area, BracknellBerkshire RT12 4YATel: +44-1344 424680

Fax: +44-1344 825072(Major multiple chain store retailingorganic products; see also annex III)

CERTIFICATION BODIES

Bio-Dynamic AgriculturalAssociation (Demeter)Woodman LaneClent, StourbridgeWest Midlands DY9 9PXTel: +44-1562 884933

Organic Farmers and Growers50 High Street, Soham, ElyCambridgeshire CB7 5HFTel: +44-1353 720250

Organic Food FederationThe Tithe House, Peaseland GreenElsing, East DerehamNorfolk NR20 3DYTel: +44-1362 637314Fax: +44-1362 637398

Scottish Organic ProducersAssociationMilton of Cambus Farm, DounePerthshire FK16 6HGTel: +44-1786 841657Fax: +44-1786 841657

The Soil Association40-56 Victoria StreetBristol BS1 6BYTel: +44-117 914 2400Fax: +44-117 925 2504E-mail: [email protected]

GOVERNMENT OFFICES

Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheriesand FoodNobel House, 17 Smith SquareLondon SW1P 3JRTel: +44-171 238 5803Fax: +44-171 238 6148

United Kingdom Register ofOrganic Food Standards (UKROFS)Nobel House, 17 Smith SquareLondon SW1P 3JRTel: +44-171 238 6004Fax: +44-171 238 6533

OTHERS

Mintel Market Intelligence18-19 Long LaneLondon EC1A 9HETel: +44-171 606 4533Fax: +44-171 606 5932


Annex II

Source countries of a sample of organic products seen at onesupermarket outlet in London, March 1998

Apples: Italy, Argentina, AustriaArtichoke: Italy (Sicily)Asparagus: SpainAubergines: Italy (Sicily)Avocados: Spain, especiallyAndaluciaBeans (aduki, haricot, mung, pinto,red kidney, soya): United States Beetroot: SpainCashews: Sri LankaCelery: Italy (Sicily)Cherries: Italy (Sicily)Chickpeas: TurkeyChopped tomatoes: ItalyCocoa: West Africa, BelizeCoconut chips: Sri Lanka (via GoodFood Foundation)Cotton: Egypt, India, Turkey and PeruDates: TunisiaDried papaya: Sri Lanka (probably organic, but not certified)Dried apple, apricots: Turkey

Fennel: Italy (Sicily)Ginger: UgandaGrapefruit: CorsicaGrapes: ChileHazelnuts: CorsicaLentils: Turkey, United States Lettuces, various: ItalyMango: CameroonMedlar: Italy (Sicily)Melon: Italy (Sicily)Onions, white: ArgentinaOranges: Spain, MoroccoPears: ArgentinaPeppers (green): Italy (Sicily),MoroccoPotatoes: Italy (Sicily)Prunes: France Raisins: TurkeyRaspberries: Italy (Sicily)Sesame: EthiopiaShelled Bolivian amazon nuts (probably organic but not certified): Bolivia

Silk: ChinaSultanas: TurkeySunflower oil: FranceTeas: India (Assam) and Sri Lanka Tomatoes: Morocco

Organic produce sourcedfrom Israel’s Agrexco CarmelOrganic Department

AvocadosCapsicums, red and yellowCarrotsCeleryChinese leafGrapefruit, white and redLemonsOrangesSweet potatoesTomatoes, cherry

Annex III

List of organic products sold byone supermarket (Waitrose), March 1998

Baby foods.

Beers, wines, ciders, cordials: ales, ciders, lager, redwines, white wines

Breads and cakes: loaves – white, stone-ground,wholemeal; rolls – white, stone-ground, wholemeal;patisserie – cakes, pastries and flapjacks.

Chilled products: cooked meats, fresh pastas, freshsalads, fresh juices, soups.

Dairy products: cheeses, butters, fresh milks, freshyoghurt and crème fraiche, eggs.

Fresh meat: beef, lamb, chicken.

Frozen foods: burgers, ice creams; peas; yoghurt

Grocery items: baked beans, biscuits, brown sugar,canned tomatoes, chocolate, cocoa powder, coffee,cornflakes, crisps/chips, flours, fruit and vegetable juices,honey, hot chocolate, jams and marmalades, milks,muesli, oatcakes and rice cakes, olive oil, pasta, porridgeoats, rice, soya beverages, tea bags, vegetable oils.

Seasonal fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs.

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Annuaire Vert. Paris: OCEP, annual. Edition OCEP, 11rue Saint Ambroise, 75011 Paris, France. Tel:+33-1-47004646, Fax: +33-1-47002491.

Annual directory, listing producers, suppliers,distributors, wholesalers, retailers, exporters andimporters of organic products in France, entriescover full address information, products handledand type of activity.

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Catalogue of the annual organic trade fair, held inGermany, usually in February of each year; listsexhibitors in alphabetical order, as well as underproduct groups, with contact details and productshandled.

* Annotations have been provided when possible.

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Manual covering the EU and United Statesmarkets, outlines legal framework for trade andgives hints on marketing organic products.

Health Foods: A Survey of the Netherlands and OtherMajor Markets in the European Union. Rotterdam:CBI, 1997, 128 p. CBI, P.O. Box 30009, 3001 DARotterdam, Netherlands.

Gives overview on EU market for organic foods,and gives practical advice on how to access it - also covers packaging, labelling and other trade-relatedenvironmental measures, tariffs and relevant tradepractices.

International Trade Centre (ITC) and CommonwealthSecretariat. Business Guide to the Uruguay Round.Geneva: ITC/CS, 1995, 392 p.

Guide explaining rules of the Uruguay Roundtrade agreements and their implementation.

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Periodicals

Consumer Goods Europe (formerly: Marketing inEurope). London: Corporate Intelligence on Retailing.Corporate Intelligence on Retailing, 48 Bradford Square,London WC18 3DP, United Kingdom. Tel:+44-171-6969006, Fax: +44-171-6969004.

Monthly featuring short market studies on variousconsumer goods in Western European countries;occasionally also contains sector reviews onorganic foods.

Food Institute Report. American Institute of FoodDistribution, Inc. P.O. Box 972, 28-12 Broadway, FairLawn, NJ 07410-0972. Tel: +1-201-791-5570, Fax:+1-201–791-5222.

Weekly giving selected news. Comments and dataon food products in the United States; occasionallyfeatures market information on organic products.

FoodNews. Foodnews Company Ltd. 80 Claverley Road,Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 2UN, United Kingdom. Tel:+44-1892-533813, Fax: +44-1892-511803.

Weekly providing market information on foodproducts, dried and processed fruit and vegetables,worldwide; occasionally covers information onorganic products.

Fresh News. Fresh and Healthy Foods, 125 West SeventhStreet, Wind Gap, PA 18091, United States of America.Tel: +1-610-8636700, Fax: +1-610-8634622.

Quarterly newsletter, introduces latest organicproducts in the United States market.

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Weekly occa sion ally providing market infor ma tionon organic fresh fruit.

Fruitrop. Cirand-Flhor, 12 Square Pétrarque, 75016 Paris,France. Tel: +33-1-53702165, Fax: +33-1-53702170.

Publishes 11 times per year, in English and French; occasionally includes market information onorganic tropical fruit.

Frozen and Chilled Foods. DMG Business Media,Queensway House, 2 Queensway, Redhill, Surrey RH11QS, United Kingdom. Tel: +44-1737-768611, Fax:+44-1737-855470.

Monthly featuring news on the United Kingdomfrozen and chilled food industry and market;occasionally covers information on organic foodproducts in the sector.

Health Food Business. Bestway Designs Ltd, ClaremontHouse, 12-18 Claremont Road, West Byfleet, SurreyKT14 6DY, United Kingdom. Tel: +44-1932-336325,Fax: +44-1932-533670.

Monthly highlighting new products, legislationand news on small business; occasionally featuresnews on organic products.

Organic and Natural News. Virgo Publishing Inc. 3300N. Central Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85012, United States. Tel:+1-602-990-1101, Fax: +1-602-990-0819.

Monthly covering news and analysis related to theorganic and natural products market in the UnitedStates. January issue includes an annual “Buyer’sGuide”.

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Veille Internationale: Fruits et Légumes Frais. Paris:CFCE. Librarie du Commerce International, B.P. 428-16,75769 Paris Cedex 16, France. Tel: +33-1-40733460, Fax: +33-1-40733146.

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Veille Internationale: Fruits et Légumes Transformés.Paris: CFCE. Librarie du Commerce International, B.P.428-16, 75769 Paris Cedex 16, France. Tel:+33-1-40733460, Fax: +33-1-40733146.

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