Tag Archives: organic food

Organic Farming

China topped list of organic exporters to the EU in 2019

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Natural Products Global - June 30, 2020 - Jim Manson

China was the biggest exporter of organic agri-food products to the EU during 2019, followed by Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Ukraine and Turkey, according to new analysis released by the European Commission.

Colombia and Kazakhstan entered the top ten suppliers for the first time.

The Netherlands was the single biggest importer of organic imports into the EU (32%). Other important importing EU Member States of organic products include Germany (13 %), the UK (12 %) and Belgium (11 %). Organic imports in Member States which joined the EU after 2004 remain minor at slightly above 3 %.

The ten most imported product categories represented 82 % of total organic import volumes in 2019. First came tropical fruit, nuts and spices with 27% (0.9 million tonnes), followed by oilcakes (mainly for animal feed) with 12 % (0.4 million t), followed by cereals other than wheat and rice and by beet and cane sugar (both 7 %, 0.2 million t).

Overall, organic import levels remained stable in 2019, amounting to 

3.24 million t of organic agri-food products. Commodities represented 54% of 2019 imports, a slight decrease compared to the previous year. The share of imports of other primary products increased to 38 %.

For some of the products categories surveyed, organic imports represent a significant share of total imports. Of olive oil imports in the EU, for example, almost 20 % are estimated to be organic. For the other product categories, organic imports represent up to a maximum of 10 % of total imports, and for the large majority less than 5 %. Overall, organic agri-food imports are estimated to represent about 2 % of total volume of agri-food imports.

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Organic Farming

DENMARK’S INCOMING SOCIAL DEMOCRAT GOVERNMENT HAS AGREED WITH ITS CENTRE-LEFT PARTNERS TO DOUBLE ORGANIC FOOD CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION IN THE COUNTRY BY 2030 👍

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Natural Products Global - Jun 27, 2019 - Jim Manson

As anticipated, climate change, ecology and the wider ‘green transition’ have been placed at the heart of new legislation and policy by the Social Democrats. 

Organic Denmark, called the development “a historic breakthrough for organic”, bringing with it benefits for nature, the environment and water quality in Denmark. 

The association also praises the agreement’s wider ambitions for climate change, and a new agricultural policy in the EU that focuses on public goods. 

“We are now looking forward to the coming collaboration on the development of a new Danish organic policy, which can realise the ambitious goals and maintain Denmark’s status a the world’s leading organic country,” says Paul Holmbeck, Organic Denmark’s political director of the Organic Land Association.

While giving the announcement a warm welcome, Holmbeck said that wider agricultural reforms were needed.

“ (the new direction) …requires new investments in innovation, market development and research. New knowledge, new markets and new innovative solutions must support the organic farmers, companies and food professionals in driving the climate change and creating new jobs in the food industry. Organic stands on three pillars: the market, innovation and and proactive organic policy.”

Per Kølster, chairman of the Organic Land Association, added: “It is crucial that the government addresses climate and biodiversity challenges in a major restructuring in agriculture. And in that work, organic must, to a much greater extent than today, be actively involved in both the forthcoming climate policy and agricultural reform, since organic simultaneously delivers a series of sustainability goals, such as nature and clean drinking water.

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Organic Farming

HOW TO BECOME THE LEADING ORGANIC NATION IN THE WORLD (BY THE COUNTRY THAT IS)

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Natural Products - Jun 14, 2019 - Jim Manson

Last year, thanks to a doubling of organic food sales in just four years, organic’s share of total food sales in Denmark reached a remarkable 13.3% – an achievement that Organic Denmark hailed as “an extraordinary tipping point”.

So how did Denmark become the leading organic nation in the world, and how can other countries learn from the Danish organic success story?

That was the question Organic Denmark’s international market director, Pernille Bungård, set herself for a special presentation at last week’s Organic Food Iberia event in Madrid.

Denmark, of course, has already travelled a long way on its organic journey – Danish consumers are culturally primed for organic. So, perhaps it shouldn’t  come as a surprise to hear that a healthy 11% of Danes can be classified as ‘super heavy users’ of organic. The fact that these consumers account for 44% of total organic sales shows how important a group they are.

Everyone buys organic
Organic Denmark breaks down organic consumers into five main subsets. ‘Functionalists’ who make 31% of organic consumers are looking for “quick and easy solutions”. ‘Idealists’ (20%) identify with “clean, sustainable and home-made”, while ‘Convenience seekers’ (19%) “have a low interest in food, and choose the cheapest products”. ‘Food lovers’ (17%) look for “taste, quality and country of origin, and ‘Traditionalists’ like things “simple, Danish and traditional”. The big take-home here, says Bungård, is that “consumers are different – but everyone buys organic”.

Danish consumers’ biggest motivation to buy organic is ‘fewer residues’, followed by ‘higher animal welfare’, ‘better environment/drinking water’, ‘health’, ‘quality’ and ‘fewer additives’. Bungård admits to being surprised that “quality is comparatively low” on the list.

An important part of Denmark’s success with organic has been down to the way key stakeholders work together. Winning over the country’s major retailers has been a major priority for Organic Denmark. The organisation has literally worked its way through all the major supermarkets, persuading them about the organic opportunity. The major supermarkets and grocers in Denmark account for the vast majority of organic food sales (the Coop chain commands a whopping 35% by itself). Organic Denmark has also been able to get the discounters successfully onside – Netto, for example, now accounts for 12.2% of all organics sales.

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Organic Farming

Organic food - hype or hope? (42 min)

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DW Documentary - May 30, 2018  (42 min)

There is growing demand in the western world for organic food. But do consumers always get what it says on the label? How can authenticity be verified?

Is organic food automatically healthier? Consumers are prepared to pay a significant premium for it. There are currently, however, no reliable tests for distinguishing organic from conventionally produced food. Farmers need to invest a great deal of time, energy and money to qualify as a producer of organic food. There is no proof, however, that organic food actually contains fewer contaminants than conventionally farmed products. There is no such thing as pollution-free food, and there are currently no tests available for reliably distinguishing between organic and non-organic food. That opens doors for lucrative labeling fraud, which in turn explains why there are far more organic eggs on the market at Easter than at any other time of the year. The statistics clearly suggest manipulation, but it is hard to obtain evidence due to the differences between the two production processes appearing to have little effect on the quality of the product. Irish dairy farmers, for instance, are not allowed to label their milk “organic” because the pasture land where their herds spend more than 300 days a year are treated with mineral fertilizers. Because cows are themselves bioreactors, however, the milk they yield contains no trace at all of fertilizer. On average, conventional Irish milk contains more omega 3 fatty acids and antioxidants than organic milk from Germany. The reason is the fodder; German organic farms may use only concentrates and silage as supplementary feed to increase milk output - which impacts negatively on the quality of the milk. This documentary looks at researchers who are studying potential ways of reliably distinguishing between organic and conventionally produced food. And that is no easy task. Nearly every foodstuff requires a specific test. But one thing is certain: organic farming makes a major contribution to human welfare - by helping to mitigate climate change, protect the groundwater, conserve nature and promote animal welfare.

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Five Pillars of Food Safety, Organic Farming

How Going Organic Benefits Your Body

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Health Ambition

The word organic is perhaps the word of the decade in regards to the evolving world of food. What does it mean? Why is it important? Why is it more expensive than non-organic food?

“Organic” is the word used to describe plants that have been grown free of pesticides, herbicides, chemicals and genetic manipulation. As big-box companies have been increasingly greedy, these practices has become less popular with mainstream brands and food corporations because they require more diligent care and money by farmers.

These large corporations and brands pay farmers to grow in soil that has been prepped with powerful weed killers, and plants that have been coated with insect/bug resistant toxic agents. All of these things are done in an effort to maximize the size of their harvest.

What they neglect to make a priority is what these practices mean for the health of those that consume them. These greed monsters have put health on the back burner and have focused their attention on profit margins. They spending as little as possible to grow and produce these fruits and vegetables and then charging the masses for their contaminated plants.

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