Rising organic market worth €104m in 2008, says Sargent

SALES of organic produce in Ireland are on the increase, Horticulture Trevor Sargent declared when he gave the closing address at the Organics Producers Conference in Harper Adams College, Shropshire, England.

He said the Irish organic market was estimated to be worth €104 million in 2008 compared with €66m in 2006.

“The most recent information I have for 2009, which was up to the end of October, indicated that sales of organic food had already reached €124m,” he said.

Mr Sargent said the Government set down a target to increase by more than 500% the land area in Ireland to be farmed organically by 2012.

“In other words, we plan to go from 0.8% to at least 5% of our farm land certified as organic,” he said.

Mr Sargent said the 5% target is a challenging one because the organic sector in Ireland is still very small in relation to agriculture as a whole.

At present there are 1,532 organic operators in Ireland, with 48,911 hectares of land under organic production methods (1.2%)

“But those figures reflect a steady growth over the last few years, and in spite of the difficult economic situation there are signs that the market is holding up,” he said.

Mr Sargent said the profile of organic farming in Ireland replicates the profile of Irish agriculture as a whole – it is predominantly grassland based.

The market for organic beef and lamb in Ireland is fully supplied by home production, but up to 75% of organic produce in the areas of tillage and horticulture is imported.

“One angle on which we intend to put more focus is the possibility of partial conversion of farms to produce specific organic crops. We provide attractive support payments under the Organic Farming Scheme for this purpose. This is an option that has much to offer to conventional farmers in the Irish tillage and horticulture sectors,” he said.