Denmark was the country with the highest percentage of organic food consumption last year. At the same time, the Danes rank second when it comes to how much money is spent on organic food. In Germany, the turnover of organic food has increased to more than 16 billion.
This is evident from a new report from the FiBL research center and from new German figures, presented at the opening of the Biofach trade fair in Nuremberg.
The Research Institute for Organic Agriculture FiBL is one of the world’s leading institutes in the field of organic agriculture, with branches in Switzerland (founded in 1973), Germany (2000), Austria (2004), France (2017) and a representative office in Brussels .
With a market share of 12 percent, Denmark still leads the way when it comes to organic food consumption. This has created a strong innovation power among Danish organic companies, 27 of which are exhibiting at Europe’s largest organic trade fair, Biofach.
Following the trade fair, the research center’s report ‘The World of Organic Agriculture’ was published. It collects knowledge and statistics from all over the world – and once again declares Denmark the World Ecology Champion based on 2022 sales figures.
The report also shows that sales of organic food in Europe will have fallen by two percent in 2022. The main causes were inflation, the energy crisis, the war in Ukraine and the fact that supply chains are under pressure. On the other hand, the organic market in the United States has made progress.
According to FiBL’s report, the US, Germany and China are the leading organic markets in the world and therefore also interesting for Danish food companies. The report ‘The World of Organic Agriculture’ shows that ecology is growing worldwide. The organic agricultural area has also been increased in 2022, so that it now amounts to two percent of the total agricultural area in the world.
In Germany, sales on the organic food market increased last year to approximately 16.1 billion euros. This is evident from new figures that the Federation of Organic Food Industry (BÖLW) also announced at the opening of Biofach in Nuremberg.
According to the umbrella organization, sales of organic food in food retail, including drugstores, increased by 7.2 percent to 10.8 billion euros, giving it a market share of 67 percent. According to BÖLW, 40 percent of this went to discounters. The organic specialty stores were only able to increase turnover by 0.2 percent to around 3.2 billion euros.
The organic cultivation area in German agriculture grew by more than 4 percent. A total of 11.8 percent of all agricultural land was recently farmed organically. The biological area was 1.940 million hectares.
According to BÖLW, about two-thirds of them met the stricter standards of the organic associations. One in seven agricultural companies in Germany operated organically in 2023, corresponding to a total of 36,535 organic farms.
Source: IEDE News