These are the reasons!

933 farmers turned their backs on organic farming

Organic is the trend, but more and more organic farmers are giving up. The reasons are rising prices and the authorities setting a bad example.

Walking through Nuremberg, you might think that everything is rosy in the world of organic food. Thousands of farmers, representatives of processing companies and various businesses from all over the world crowd the stands at Biofach - the leading trade fair for organic food and production.

Customers are prepared to dig deeper into their pockets
There are also 90 stallholders from Austria - from teas and spices from Sonnentor to chocolates and creams from Styx and protein powders from Schalkmühle, the range is diverse. Organic is the trend. And customers are prepared to dig deeper into their pockets despite the crisis.

Graphic: This is how organic Austria eats

This is how organic Austria eats(Bild: Krone Kreativ/stock.adobe.com)

However, current figures from the AMA (see chart on the right) show that, despite optimism, there is a noticeable dent in the healthy organic world. More and more farmers are turning their backs on organic production. The number of farms across Austria fell from 25,081 (2022) to 24,148 last year. Barbara Riegler, Chairwoman of Bio-Austria, knows why 933 farms want to do without the quality label. The increase in prices is making itself felt on the farms in the form of higher costs.

Franz and Edeltraud Brandstätter also supply Sonnentor with their rare herbs.(Bild: Stefan Steinkogler)

The farmers are paid too little to be able to generate a sufficient income. Although this also means that the organically farmed area will be down by a whopping 10,000 hectares in 2023, this is hardly a cause for concern, at least for the stallholders present in Nuremberg.

The organic concept has reached the masses
Exactly 30 years after the AMA organic label first saw the light of day, organic has long since arrived in the collective shopping trolley. Austria is in second place worldwide with an 11.5 percent organic share of the total market - only beaten by the Danes (12 percent). Austrians spend 287 euros a year per capita on organic food. Although 2.8 percent less organic food was purchased overall than in 2022, sales rose by 5.3 percent (by more than 50 percent since 2019).

"You have to look for organic with a magnifying glass in public authorities"
According to Riegler, however, the political signal is missing to give organic a boost. According to the government's plan, 25% of all food in federal institutions must be organic from January 2023. The sober result of an inquiry: in the Ministry of Defense, the proportion is 1.5 percent. "You have to look for organic food with a magnifying glass at government agencies," criticizes Riegler and demands more, just like stallholders and customers at the trade fair. In terms of sales, most of them noticed a higher demand for organic in 2023. Vegan is also still on trend.