12 – Organic Agriculture

In this week’s weblog we look into organic agriculture in Spain.  

Organic Agriculture in Spain

The amount of hectares that was dedicated to organic farming was 1,845,039 hectares (in 2011), making Spain the number one European member state that grows organic crops on such a large scale. Within this huge size, cereals is cultivated on 178,061 hectares. Next to this, the number of organic farmers increased to 32,837, an increase of 18.23% (Weiss, N.D.). From the total production, an estimated 80% of it is destined for export, mainly intended for other European countries (89.2%) such as Germany, France and the UK.

Figure 1: Development of organic land and farms in Spain 1991-2008 (Organic-Europe, 2008)

The pioneers of organic farming were strongly motivated to produce organic products for the internal and local consumption because of this they were organized in cooperatives, where one national support organization for organic farming helped conventional farmers when converting to organic (Organic-Europe, 2008). Moreover, the “movement” already began at the end of 1970s by small farms and it was mainly promoted by young people that came from the cities. In figure 1, one can see the development of organic agriculture, whereby one can see the growth of 780% in the amount of hectares from 1997 to 2008. Additionally, the number in the producers also increased, however, between 2003 and 2005 the amount decreased. The growth from 1996 to 2003 is due to the the agri-environmental support scheme for organic farming resulting in an increase in the regions of Castilla-León, Extremadura and Andalucía. 

Figure 2: Regional Distribution of Organic Farms (Organic-Europe, 2008)

At the start of the organic farming, in the 1990s, the region of Catalonia was the first that devoted to organic farming, and since 1993 the region of Andalucía has taken the lead (Organic-Europe, 2008). Figure 2, shows the hectares of organic farms in each regions. The following crop types are grown organically: olive trees, cereals and legumes, vineyards and citrus. 

 

Figure 3: Spanish Organic Logo (Organic-Europe, N.D.) (Organic-Europe, 2008)

Figure 4: The European Organic Logo (European Commission, N.D.)

Figure 5: The CAAE Logo (Bellière, 2010)

Organic Certification

Organic farming was officially regulated by the National Regulation of Generic Denomination ‘Organic Agriculture’ in 1989 in Spain, until the EU Regulation 2092/91 came into force (Organic-Europe, 2008). Even though the European legislation of organic farming is applied, in regions such as Aragon, Andalucia and Castilla-La Mancha private control bodies are authorized to control organic producers and processors (IFOAM, N.D.). Servicio de certification CAAE, is the authority in both the certification process as well as in the  inspection, and operates on a national level (Bellière, 2010) (CAAE, N.D.), figure 5 – CAAE logo. The CAAE has already certified more than 1,000,000 hectares in the EU, and because of this the organisation if the leader in the organic sector (CAAE, N.D.).

References

Bellière, S. R. (2010, June 09). Control body, Servicio de certificaciòn CAAE, Spain, 2009. Retrieved December 19, 2017, from Organic Rules and Certification: http://organicrules.org/1791/

CAAE. (N.D.). About us. Retrieved December 19, 2017, from CAAE: http://www.caae.es/index.php/caae/quienes-somos

CAAE. (N.D.). Services. Retrieved December 19, 2017, from CAAE: http://www.caae.es/index.php#services

European Commission. (N.D.). Logo. Retrieved December 19, 2017, from European Commission: https://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/organic/sites/orgfarming/files/img/body/organic_farming_logo.jpg

IFOAM. (N.D.). Spain. Retrieved December 19, 2017, from IFOAM: http://www.ifoam-eu.org/en/spain

Organic-Europe. (2008). Country report Spain 2008. Retrieved December 19, 2017, from Organic-Europe: http://www.organic-europe.net/country-info/country-info-spain/country-report/2008.html

Organic-Europe. (N.D.). Country Report Spain. Retrieved December 19, 2017, from Organic-Europe: http://www.organic-europe.net/fileadmin/_migrated/pics/logo-spain.gif

Weiss, B. (N.D.). ORGANIC FARMING AND AGRICULTURAL MOVEMENTS IN SPAIN. Retrieved December 19, 2017, from Green European journal: https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/organic-farming-and-agricultural-movements-in-spain/