Report on the evaluation of the pilot case studies (= Deliverable D4 of the Project European Information System for Organic Markets, QLK5-2002-02400), including Annex 1: National working papers on pilot applications (DCPS) in eight European countries and Annex 2 Guidelines on evaluating pilot applications (DCPS) in eight European Countries

Summary

The current situation of market information systems on organic farming in Europe shows a substantial lack of information. Although previous EU-research projects such as OFCAP (FAIR3-CT96-1794) and OMIaRD (QLK5-2000-01124) have shown that regional or national data gathering takes place in many countries, the availability of detailed and current data on various levels, such as production, consumption, prices as well as trade, on the national as well as at the European level, is not satisfactory.
The main problem areas identified in regard to market information systems for organic farming can be summarised as i) the lack of market information at the national level and ii) where data are available, the lack of data harmonisation at the European level.
Within the EU-funded concerted action EISfOM (European Information System for Organic Markets, QLK5-2002-02400), the aim is to build a framework for reporting valid and reliable production and market data for the European organic sector in order to meet the needs of policymakers, farmers, processors, wholesalers and other actors involved in organic markets. Based on the previous research done in Workpackages 2, 3 and 4, this report focuses on the evaluation of pilot case studies in eight European countries, showing proposals for new and/or enlarged data collection and processing systems for organic markets in Europe.
This report is based mainly on the pilot application studies conducted in WP5. Following the description of objectives and the general approach of WP5 in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 focuses on the national pilot case studies, including a description of the relevant institutions and DCPS as well as an assessment of data quality. Chapter 3 provides an analysis of the DCPS investigated with regard to the problems and barriers involved with their practical implementation. Chapter 4 then analyses the critical points identified with regard to potential solutions for harmonisation of various DCPS at the national and international level. Chapter 5 deals with the analysis of the recommendations made in WP4, while Chapter 6 summarizing and concluding the results. As well as the national working papers on the results of the pilot application studies, this deliverable is also strongly linked to previous project deliverables, namely D2 “WP2: Data collection and processing systems for conventional markets and WP3: Data collection and processing systems for organic markets” (Wolfert, S. et al., 2004), deliverable D3 “Report on proposals for the development, harmonisation and quality assurance of organic data collection and processing systems. systems (Recke, G. et al., 2004) and the proceedings of the first European Seminar “Development of a European Information System for organic markets – improving the scope and quality of statistical data” (Recke, G. et al., 2004).