Ireland’s Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine anticipates that 1000 more farmers will join the ocuntry’s Organic Farming Scheme in 2024, adding to the 5,000 farms already participating. About 5% of Irelands land is being farmed organically.
Despite inflation and lower disposable income in 2022 and 2023, European Union organic sales were expected to grow slightly in 2023, reports the USDA’s Foreign Agriculture Service. They estimated that the 2022 EU organic market totaled $55.1 billion. Together, Germany and France represent about 60 percent of the EU organic market, followed by Italy, Sweden, Spain, Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands. Latvia Lithuania, Bulgaria and Poland had the highest growth rates fo organic sales in 2023.
From 2024-2034, IFOAM-Organics International will pursue the following objectives (https://www.ifoam.bio/sites/default/files/2024-02/20231114_StrategyOnePa...) to unite members and allies, build partnerships, set a global agenda and drive change:
1. Empower organic worldwide by equipping members and allies with competencies, tools and community.
2. Lead the organic movement globally by positioning organic farming and food systems as a solution to global crises.
3. Building a sustainable future for IFOAM-Organics International, including resturcturing membership and governance.
https://www.ifoam.bio/sites/default/files/2024-02/20231114_StrategyOnePa...
Concerns about “forever chemicals” such as Bisphenol A (BPA)and per-and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) substances pushed Indonesia’s Agency for Food and Drug Control to release draft regulations for food packaging. The regulatiosn would prohibit PFAS and their precursors from all types of food packaging, and set limits on BPA, especially in children’s products.
During an open comment period for proposed updates to the Soil Association’s standards for organic salmon farming, a group of over 30 organizations signed an open letter requesting that salmon and trout farms be removed from organic certification. Their main complaints were that breaches of standards were rarely enforced and that the standards, especially for mortality levels, allopathic treatments, sea lice treats to wild fish, use of wild cleaner fish and wild-caught fish as feed, do not meet consumer expectations. Wildfish, the lead signatory on the letter, focuses on threats to wild fish from open-net salmon farming, pollution and removing too much water from fish habitats (over-abstraction).
Ravi R. Prasad, who previously worked at Oxfam, the International Press Institute, UNICEF, ActionAid International, and Transparency International, is the new Executive Director of IFOAM—Organics International. He succeeds Marco Schlüter, who served as the Interim Executive Director on a part-time basis since August 2022.
The Organic Trade Association received $1.05 million from the USDA Market Access Program to promote US organic products around the world in 2024. USDA statistics show a nearly 20 percent increase in exports over the last five years. Canada and Mexico remain the primary export destinations for U.S. organic products by a wide margin, though Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates are also strong export markets. Within the last couple of years, China and Vietnam have also edged into the top 10 export destinations for the first time. OTA’s international promotion activities are open to members and non-members, and include trade shows, social media campaigns, retail promotions, consumer education, and more.