Europe and the EU: IRS contribution for the 2003 Organic Food and Farming Report

Summary

Organic and in-conversion land area in the EU-15 has grown in 2002 to approximately 5.1m hectares and 3.6 per cent of utilisable agricultural area on 165,500 holdings. In this period land area grew by an estimated 10 per cent with increases in the number of farms at 6 per cent. The EU Commission has recognised the importance of organic farming in encouraging more environmentally farming methods has taken further steps to improve policy support. A consultation for the development of an EU Action Plan for organic farming took place during 2002 and the publication of further steps is expected at the end of 2003. These developments were in some way driven by a high profile policy conference organised by the Danish Government in May 2001. Other EU policy developments are likely to include the facilitation of sales, closer targeting of organic farming to Environmentally Sensitive Areas, measures to encourage the exchange of technical information and the traceability and authenticity of organic food. Some small changes have also come into force in the EU Regulation 2092/91: the Annex III on inspection regimes was updated in December 2001, and other Annexes were amended including some minor changes to the list of approved pesticides.