Global sales of organic food reached $80 billion in 2014, with the U.S. the largest organic market, according to findings in The World of Organic Agriculture: Statistics & Emerging Trends 2016 unveiled during BioFach in February by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) and IFOAM—Organics International.

In 2014, U.S. organic food sales totaled $35.9 billion, an 11 percent increase from 2013. In addition, U.S. organic non-food sales—which are not included in the global total in this report—had jumped nearly 14 percent, to reach nearly $3.2 billion. Germany is the second largest market for organic food, followed by France and China. The highest per capita spending occurred in Switzerland (at 221 Euros) and Luxembourg (at 164 Euros)

The 2014 data included show there were more than 2.3 million organic producers from 172 countries, with the most producers in India, Uganda and Mexico. A total of 43.7 million hectares were organically managed, including area in transition, at the end of 2014, up almost 0.5 million hectares from 2013.

Australia had the largest organic agricultural area, at 17.2 million hectares, with 97% of that area used for grazing. Argentina was second, with 3.1 million hectares, followed by the United States, with 2.2 million hectares. Approximately 40 percent of global organic agricultural land is in Oceania, followed by Europe and Latin America.

The countries with the largest share of organic agricultural land of their total farmland are the Falkland Islands (36.3 percent), Liechtenstein (30.9 percent), and Austria (19.4 percent). In eleven countries, more than 10 percent of all agricultural land is managed organically.

The book reports that 87 countries in the world now have organic regulations. It is available from both FiBL and IFOAM—Organics International. //