(Zürich / Frick, 24th June 2011) An increasing number of producers, food processing and retailing organizations as well as consumers are becoming aware of the benefits of organic farming and its resulting products. The worldwide market for organic products is growing which can be demonstrated by the following facts and figures. More than 37 million hectares of land is now being used for organic farming. The turnover of organic products worldwide has more than doubled due to increasing demand between 2003 and 2009, rising from 25 to 55 billion US dollars. After the USA Europe the second largest market for organic products in the world.
Facilitating market access
The Swiss Import Promotion Programme (SIPPO) – a programme which is carried out by Osec, the official Swiss foreign trade promotion agency – and the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) have jointly published the manual “The Organic Market in Europe” with the aim of providing information to and promoting the development of developing and transitional countries that want to export organic products to Europe. Across about 150 pages the handbook offers a wide range of information about the organic market in the EU and EFTA countries as well as a comparison of the EU Organic Standards and Bio-Suisse Regulations. In this way, the manual should help producers from developing and transitional countries to gain improved access to the organic market of the EU and EFTA countries.
Further information
Contact
For questions regarding the manual and FiBL:
Lukas Kilcher
Head of communication, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL)Ackerstr., 5070 Frick
Tel. +41 62 865 72 46
lukas.kilcher(at)fibl.org
www.fibl.org
For questions regarding SIPPO:
Patrick Djizmedjian
Press + Public Relations Manager / Media spokesperson
Osec I Stampfenbachstrasse 85, CH-8006 Zürich
Tel. direct +41 44 365 55 16, Mobile +41 79 642 88 60, Fax +41 44 365 52 21
pdjizmedjian(at)osec.ch
www.osec.ch, www.sippo.ch/
Order printed version and download
The manual is available to download and a printed version can be ordered free of charge from FiBL: shop.fibl.org
Download press release
Successfully importing organic products to Europe. Press release of SIPOO and FibL of June 24, 2011 (31.7 KB)
Successfully importing organic products to Europe. Press release of SIPOO and FibL of June 24, 2011
SIPPO
The Swiss Import Promotion Programme (SIPPO) has been promoting imports into Switzerland and the European Union from developing and transitional countries on behalf of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). The programme supports the import of products from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and helps them become integrated into the international trade system. Although SIPPO is mainly aimed at SMEs in developing and transitional countries, Swiss and European importers can also benefit from its services.
FiBL
is one of the world’s leading research institutes for organic agriculture and sustainability.It is located in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. FiBL’s strengths are interdisciplinary research, innovations in cooperation with the food industry and farmers, solution-oriented development projects and a rapid transfer of knowledge. With its research and consultancy activities, FiBL is promoting the organic agriculture worldwide.