The global market for organic food and drink was valued at USD 23 bil lion in 2002. Although production of or ganic crops is in creasing across the globe, sales are concentrated in the in dustrialised parts of the world. North America and Western Europe comprise the bulk of global revenues, however consumer in terest is growing in other re gions. Consumer demand is confined to the in dustrialised world largely be cause of the price premium of organic products. Many developing countries have large sec tions of their populations below the poverty line, and this makes it dif ficult for a mar ket for organic products to develop. On analysing consumer behav iour to wards or ganic prod ucts in international countries, a pic ture of a global organic consumer is emerging. A typical consumer of organic products has the following attributes:  Location lives in ur ban areas, usu ally in a big city > Buyer Be haviour discerning towards food and drink purchases, considering fac tors like quality, prov enance and production methods  Demographics typ ically well-educated and belongs to middle-high social classes . Purchasing Power in a medium to high-income house hold with rel atively high pur - chasing power The in dustrialised nations have a sizeable and well-educated middle-class, and this is the reason why most organic food and drink sales are concentrated in these countries. As more countries de velop eco nomically and as their popula tions become increasingly educated and more af fluent, demand for organic products is to rise. This is to cause sales of organic products to be come less concentrated in the world. Rapid economic growth in countries like China, Brazil, and South Africa is causing the upper social classes to expand, and this is creating a market for organic food and drink. In other regions, there is an in crease in organic farm land be cause of farm ers be ing at - tracted to the ex port ben efits of organic production. Although most production in Asian and African countries will be for export markets, it is also creating regional markets to develop in which organic farm ers mar ket their organic crops to consumers in their region. Sales of organic food and drink are slowing in certain countries, es pecially in Western Europe, however, the market is be coming in creasingly global. Consumer demand for organic products is expanding worldwide and as this continues, it will capture even larger in ternational attention. Valued at USD 23 billion in 2002 and healthy growth continuing, the global organic market can be considered anything but a niche. This sec tion gives market size estimates for the ma jor geographic regions. Market size and growth rates are based on research conducted by Organic Monitor as well as in - dustry es timates. Sales of organic food and drink re fer to certified organic products whilst products that are not certified are excluded. All revenues are in US dollars and fluctuations in exchange rate may distort market size data es pecially since the US dollar weakened considerably in the foreign exchange in 2003. Although or ganic farmland continues to rise across the globe, most sales of or ganic food and drink are restricted to the in dustrialised world. Fig ure 5 shows that the two regions of North America and Western Europe account for roughly 97 percent of global revenues. Other im portant mar kets are in Japan and Australia. Two factors are adjudged to be responsible for consumer demand to be concentrated in the most af fluent countries of the world. The price premium of organic products. Market restricts demand to countries where consumers have high purchasing power. This is a factor why most sales are in coun tries where there is a size able mid dle-class of the popula tion. The sec ond factor is ed ucation and more specifically awareness of or ganic products. As consumers be come more educated and in formed of food is sues, they are more in clined to buy organic products whether it be be cause of fac tors like food safety, concern for the environment, or health reasons. As production of or ganic crops in creases across the globe, regional mar kets are also expected to develop in which organic farm ers will produce organic products for consumers in their region. This is expected to stimulate sales of organic products in many developing countries, es pecially in countries like Brazil, China, India, and South Africa where economic development is in creasing at a rapid rate and a more educated and af - fluent mid dle-class of consumers is developing.Organic farming is practised in approximately 100 countries of the world and the area under organic management is continually growing. Also for some countries, where no statisti cal mate rial was available, it may be assumed that organic ag ri culture methods are practised. Ac cord ing to the SOEL-Sur vey (February 2004), more than 24 mil lion hect ares are managed organically world-wide. Currently, the major part of this area is located in Australia (about 10 million hect ares), Ar gentina (al most 3 mil lion hect ares) and It aly (almost 1.2 mil lion hect ares). The percentages of land un der organic management, however, are high est in Europe (see tables 1 and 2, fig ures 1 and 2). Probably less than half of the global organic land area is dedicated to arable land, since in Australia and Argentina most of the organic land area is extensive grazing land. In these countries with a rather dry cli mate, large ex tensive livestock sys tems are very suit able which are thus very common. The world's larg est certified or ganic property (994,000 ha) is located in Australia (FAO 2002). The in crease of the organic land area compared to the last edi tion of our sur vey does not only result from an in creasing in terest in organic farm ing but also from the fact that we get better access to data each time we up date this study. Nevertheless, it can be said that organic farming is developing all over the world. For the sixth edi tion we got fig ures for the area of certified wild harvested plants which is at least an additional 10.7 mil lion hect ares, according to various certification bodies. Australia/Oceania holds 42 percent of the world's or ganic land, fol lowed by Latin Amer ica2 (24.2 percent) and Europe (23 percent).

In Australia/Oceania more than 10 mil lion hect ares and 2,000 farms are un der organic management this is the largest area in the world. In Australia approximately 10 mil - lion hect ares are un der organic management. Most of this is dedicated to extensive beef en terprises. The region's growth in organic trade is heavily in fluenced by the in - creasing demand for organic food and fibre products in Europe, Asia (especially Japan) and Northern America. In many Latin American countries the area of organic land is now more than 100,000 hectares, and starting from a low level growth rates are ex traordinary. The total organically managed area is more than 5.8 million hect ares. The number of organic farms is al most 150,000. In Europe more than 5.5 million hect ares are un der organic management, which corresponds to al most 2 percent of the total agricultural land. In some countries percentages have reached double digit fig ures. More than 170,000 farms are run organically. The main driving fac tor for the development are a growing mar ket as well as policy support for organic farming. In North America almost 1.5 million hectares are managed or ganically, rep re senting approximately a 0.3 per cent share of the to tal agricultural area. Currently the num ber of farms is about 10,500. There are signs that with the U.S. na tional or ganic standards, which were fully im plemented at the end of 2002, progress has been made for the organic sector and for consumers. The total organic area in Asia is now about 880,000 hect ares, corresponding to 0.07 percent of the agricultural area. The number of organic farms is more than 61,000. Interest in organic ag riculture continues to grow even though un evenly throughout the region. There is a wide spec trum of sec tor development stages, from early pioneer status to highly developed markets (Japan). In Af rica with few exceptions (e. g. Egypt and South Africa) certified organic production is mostly geared to products destined for export be yond Africa's shores. The statis tics indicate that with few ex ceptions certi fied or ganic farming is relatively under developed, even in comparison with other low-income continents. More than 320,000 hectares and 71,000 farms are now man aged organically, representing about 0.04 percent of the agricultural land.


Challenges ahead This pub lication shows again how the organic sec tor continues to grow on the field and on the shelves. While the growth rate remains to be very im pressive in the United States, Eu rope experiences mo mentarily a kind of consol idation after the unnatural expansion wave following the BSE crisis. With the first mad cow detected in the USA it is likely that North America sees even a higher growth in the near future. With organic products en tering mainstream markets will come along that the further development be comes also more de pendent of the overall worldwide economic situation. It will not be a question whether the organic movement continues to grow, but the challenges will in crease to keep pace with this growth with out fun mentally challenging or threat ening the overall principles of or ganic agriculture. The debate within (and outside) IFOAM has started to look at the principles of organic agriculture as outlined in the IFOAM ba sic stan dards. They have served for a long time, but are not carved in stone. Rapid developments in the sec tor definitely have im pacts. It is up to the stake holders to en sure that the foun dation on which this movement rests has up to date principles, and at the same time that these principles are not sacrificed on the alter of mar ket expansion. Of in creasing im portance will also be the in crease of cooperation with other civil society movements and ini tiatives. First of all the fair trade sector, but also the environmen talist movements as rep re sented by theWorld Conservation Union (IUCN), Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Greenpeace. The cooperation be tween the or ganic agri culture movement and the food and dining move ment, particularly with SlowFood, is coming to full swing. The next year will see the fi nalization and approval of the European ac tion plan for organic ag riculture, which has definitely the potential to serve as a benchmark and challenge for governmental and international sup port throughout the world. A major challenge continues to be the continuous spread of GMOs. With the fall of the GMO mor atorium in the European Union ahead it will be more im portant than ever to defend the organic territory and in terests. The struggle for the pu rity of organic seeds has luckily seen some first success in Europe. GMOs remain to be not only a challenge and thread, but also an opportunity - especially to sensitize more and more consumers all over the world for food quality, which will lead many automat i cally to organic. Another challenge ahead is also to focus and in crease activities and support to countries like Russia or regions like the Arabian world, which have sleeping potential for organic growth.