Improving organic market data collection by using the supply balance sheet approach

Summary

Analyses of national markets for organic agricultural products are constrained by the lack of official statistics on production, consumption or international trade in any European country. As a result there are several, often very contradictory and inconsistent estimations on the amount of the organic production or consumption in the EU or even in individual EU countries. The main sources for market data estima-tions are surveys with market actors and sometimes extrapolations of household or retailer panel studies. One possibility to reduce the problem of inconsistent market data for a geographical region is to use the method of supply balance sheets (SBS). By using SBS which compare the resources and uses of a product, it is easier to detect inconsistencies between produc-tion, consumption or foreign trade data. Additional quality checks can support the identification of inconsistencies between organic and conventional market data.