Globally organic farmed produce has been increasing for years. Switzerland is in the lead in the organic range. And in the category of highest sales per head for organic product, Switzerland is even number 1.
The Swiss spent 221 Euro per person on organic products. That is by far the highest number in the world, and 57 Euro more than Luxembourg who takes second place. These numbers can be found in this week’s publication “The World of Organic Agriculture 2016” by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (Fibl) and Ifoam.
It isn’t surprising that the first seven countries in the ranking are European since the share of organic products in supermarkets is the highest in Europe. Denmark is number 1 (7.6%) ahead of Switzerland (7.1%) and Austria (6.5%).
Australia has the largest acreage of organically farmed land
The organic trend is noticeable all over the world, except in South America where the acreage of organically farmed land didn’t increase. 43.7 million hectares was used for organic farming worldwide at the end of 2014.
40% of this acreage is situated in Oceania. With 17.2 million hectares Australia is number 1 in the ranking, followed by Argentina with 3.1 million hectares. That Switzerland doesn’t make it to the top is mostly due to size of the country.
However, if the total surface used for agriculture is taken into consideration the picture changes. Then Switzerland takes 7th place, between Samoa and São Tomé e Príncipe. The Falkland Islands and Liechtenstein top the list with a 30% share each, two countries with very little agricultural land available. They are followed by Austria where 20% of the agricultural land is used for organic farming.
USA leads the market
Not only in acreage but also in terms of revenue the organic trade is still on the rise. The global organic market was estimated around 60 billion Euro in 2014. That's an increase of 5 billion Euro compared to a year earlier. Clearly the largest market is in the USA, with a retail revenue of 27 billion Euro. Followed by Germany with 8 billion Euro and France 5 billion Euro. Switzerland takes the seventh place with 1.8 billion Euro.