Top Countries for Organic Food

According to the number of producers, India was the world’s top producer of organic foods in 2020. India had about 1.6 million organic food producers in that year, which was more than all organic food producers combined in the other nine major industrialized nations. Consumption of organic food Denmark and Switzerland are the two top-ranking nations in terms of per-capita consumption of organic foods; each year, they spend about 344 and 338 euros on these items, respectively. The first eight of the top ten nations with the highest per capita consumption of organic food are all in Europe. The United States and Canada were ranked ninth and tenth, respectively. Natural Agriculture Worldwide, there are over 75 million hectares of organic agricultural. Australia possessed the vast majority of organic agricultural acreage globally, despite India having the greatest number of organic food producers. Around half of the world’s organic cropland is located in Australia. To put this in perspective, China came in third with a share of 4.39 percent, followed by Argentina with a share of 5.08 percent.

Organic Agriculture Significantly Increased as of 2020

According to a recent research released by FiBL and IFOAM – Organics International, both organic agriculture and retail sales continued to exhibit significant growth on a global scale. By the end of 2020, around 75 million hectares were being farmed organically, an increase of 3.1% or 4.1% over the prior year. These are the most recent statistics from the 23rd edition of “The World of Organic Agriculture,” which were revealed on February 15 at the digital version of BIOFACH, the largest trade show for organic foods in the world. The report compiles information on 190 nations that engage in organic farming. With 35.7 million hectares, Australia boasts the largest organic farming area, although it’s thought that 97% of its agriculture is huge grazing land. There are 4.5 million hectares of organic agricultural land in Argentina, followed by 2.7 million hectares in Uruguay, 2.6 million hectares in India, and 4.5 million hectares in France (2.5 million hectares). Due to Australia’s extensive organic acreage, Oceania accounts for half of the world’s organic land (35.9 million hectares). The second-largest area was in Europe (17.1 million hectares), then came Latin America (9.9 million hectares).

About 1.6% of the world’s agricultural land is farmed organically

Only 1.6% of the world’s agricultural land is currently organically cultivated, while many nations have far higher percentages. In 18 nations, up from 16 in 2019, 10% or more of all agricultural land was managed organically in 2020. Sao Tome and Principe (20.7%), Estonia (22.4%), Liechtenstein (41.6%), Austria (26.5%), Sao Tome and Principe (20.7%), and Sweden (20.4%) made up the top five nations with the highest proportion of organic land. Less than 1% of the agricultural land in 54% of the nations for which data were made available was managed organically. The research estimates that there are 3.4 million organic farmers worldwide, an increase of 7.6% from the previous year. The authors do, however, note that it is challenging to calculate exact numbers in this situation because some nations only record the number of firms, projects, or growers groups, each of which may include many individual producers, so the total number may even be larger. Asia is home to 53.7% of all organic producers in the globe, followed by Africa with 24.7% and Europe with 12.4%. India has the most farmers in absolute terms, with 1.59 million, followed by Ethiopia (219,566) and Tanzania (148,607 farmers).

In 2020, the demand for organic goods among consumers around the world increased at its fastest rate ever.

2020 saw a cumulative gain of 14 billion euros over the previous year in the retail sales of organic food and beverage, which surpassed 120 billion euros globally. The COVID-19 epidemic increased demand for organic goods significantly in several countries, but there were also difficulties, according to the yearbook’s publishers: Retail sales figures demonstrate the pandemic’s consequences. Organic retail sales grew quickly as more people stayed at home, started cooking more frequently, and health, the environment, and climate change became major considerations. Helga Willer, who oversees the FiBL yearbook, notes that sales in the food service industry declined at the same period in numerous nations. The largest market in 2020 was the United States (49.5 billion euros), followed by Germany (15 billion euros), and France (12.7bn euros). Numerous markets displayed incredibly high growth rates. The market in Canada expanded by 26.1%, compared to markets in China and Germany that expanded by 23% and 22.3%, respectively. Looking at the market share of organic products relative to the overall market, Denmark leads with 13%, followed by Austria with 11.3% and Switzerland with 10.8%. Consumers in Switzerland spent the highest per capita on organic food at 418 euros, followed by those in Denmark (384 euros), Luxembourg (285 euros), and Austria (254 euros).

Unprecedented rise in the organic market worldwide in 2020

In addition to statistics and other factual information, the report provides an assessment of the UNFSS, which was held in the fall of 2021. Three authors from IFOAM International focused on the role that organic and agroecological farming played at the UNFSS, an event that received harsh criticism from a number of movements that questioned its inclusivity from the outset. IFOAM made the decision “to engage in the process with a critical eye, consistently promoting agroecology and organic farming in all the different elements of the process,” the authors write, in contrast to hundreds of other organizations that withdrew from the process as a result of the corporate capture of the summit. They come to the conclusion that the UNFSS process did not marginalize agroecology because “agroecology and organic agriculture were also named by numerous state representatives who expressed their commitment to agroecological transition” and “the agroecology narrative could clearly be captured in various papers” produced by the so-called action tracks. The establishment of a “Coalition for the Transformation of Food Systems Through Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture,” with a mandate to ensure that agroecology and organic agriculture are seen as progressive and pioneering within the UNFSS and in any subsequent process, was, however, “the most tangible result of the efforts to mainstream agroecology in the UNFSS.” In order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the upcoming years, the authors state that “there are growing opportunities for the organic movements worldwide to get engaged in transformational decision-making processes.”