In the case of organic vegetables, direct marketing is often successful using vegetable crates.
Photo: imago images/Westend61
Consumers in Germany bought more organic food once more in 2021. According to the Federal Organic Food Industry (BÖLW), organic food achieved sales of almost 16 billion euros, which is an increase of almost six percent compared to the record year 2020 caused by corona. About one to two percent of the sales increases were due to price increases, four up to five percent on volume increases, said industry expert Diana Schaak from the Agrarmarkt-Informations-Gesellschaft (AMI) on Tuesday when the industry figures were presented. In the boom year 2020, the organic industry benefited from the fact that more people cooked at home because of the corona pandemic – restaurants and canteens had a rather small proportion of organic products on the menu.
According to BÖLW information, organic now has a share of almost seven percent in the German food market. In the past year, meat substitute products in particular increased (+ 26.6 percent), but this was even more true in the conventional food trade. Plant drinks – especially oat milk – are also a hit, with growth figures of 62.4 percent. Eggs (+16.4 percent) and vegetables (+34 percent) are also more popular.
On the producer side, the trend is also upwards. According to BÖLW, 320 farms switched to organic farming in 2021, and the area increased by around five percent to 1.78 million hectares – almost eleven percent of German agricultural land. This means that 13.2 percent of the farms work according to ecological criteria. 64 percent of all organic areas are farmed according to stricter organic association rules. The new government made up of SPD, Greens and FDP agreed in the coalition agreement that organic farming in Germany should increase to 30 percent by 2030 instead of the previously targeted 20 percent of agricultural land.
Overall, however, the wave of conversion has flattened out, according to Schaak. In 2016, a particularly large number of farms opted for organic farming. After years of mainly grassland areas being converted, arable farming is now following suit. Oats and spelt, in particular, were increasingly grown in response to the growing demand, but at the same time there was a shortage of rye and wheat – prices have risen sharply here. In Germany, this is particularly true for cultivated feed – the prices for feed wheat and barley rose by around 400 percent. Energy and transport costs have also increased.
“Unfortunately, the current increased producer prices are almost swallowed up once more,” says Schaak. Therefore, consumers would probably have to adjust to higher prices. “So far we’ve only had to deal with slight price increases in stores,” said Schaak. That is likely to change this year, however. Incidentally, people shop more often in supermarkets, and the share of classic organic shops in the growth continues to decline.
With the new federal government, the development towards more organic food might also be given more political support. “Organic has long been more than just a trend,” said Federal Food Minister Cem Özdemir of the German Press Agency. At the same time, regionality is playing an increasingly important role. The Greens politician sees greater growth potential in gastronomy and generally in out-of-home catering.
Nevertheless, the organic sector remains a niche. Producers and manufacturers are calling for concrete measures to be implemented more quickly: “So far, development has been progressing far too slowly,” emphasizes Jan Plagge from the Bioland Association. The figures for the changeover did not meet expectations, “although interest in the changeover to organic is generally increasing”. This is not least due to the uncertain framework conditions in EU agricultural policy. Tina Andres, BÖLW CEO, calls for “not only to proclaim eco as a model, but to set all the necessary groundwork for the restructuring of the agricultural and food system”.