Photo: Fruits From Chile

While Chile's 2020 conventional apple production didn’t fare so well in 2020, its organic apples are providing cause for optimism. Chile’s 2020 apple campaign was hit by the 2019 drought and ended with just under 650,000 tons exported (a drop of 4% y-o-y, according to Ciren-Odepa fruit registry data. However, exported volumes of organic apples were up 6% y-o-y to 25,675 tons. The share of organic apples in overall apple exports is also up, climbing from 3.6% in 2019 to 3.9% in 2020.

© Réussir Fruits et Légumes

The consumption of organic food in Germany has seen remarkable growth in recent years, according to a survey by PwC. In 2016, only 16% of buyers preferred to consume organic food that was certified, a figure that has risen to 24% today. The results show that 55% of consumers trust the seals that certify organic products, 29% trust them less, and 6% don't trust them at all.

© Christine Matthews (licensed under Creative Commons), source: www.geograph.org.uk

© Media Mike Hazard

In presence of J. Tejedo, general director of Mercabarna, A. Colau, Mayor of Barcelona and A. Colom, President of Mercabarna © Mercabarna

Mercabarna’s Biomarket in Barcelona opened at the end of November, an exclusive wholesale market for organic products. The Fernández global fruit group has taken advantage of this new facility by setting up three new stalls to offer organic products and services to its customers and suppliers.

The future Biomarket © Mercabarna

The new Biomarket was opened last Monday at Mercabarna. This represents the first organic food wholesale market in Spain. The specialist wholesale market cost €5 million to build and plans to capture 20% (23,662 tons/year) of the total organic fruit and vegetables marketed in Catalonia once it is in full operations. Biomarket is expected to reach 50% (78,100 tons/year) of the market share in 10 years.

© Inter Bio Corse

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the EU’s future action plan for the development of EU organic production. The action plan will complement the new legal framework for Organic Agriculture (Regulation (EU) 2018/848) that will enter into force on January 1st, 2022.

© Syngenta

The Syngenta Group has purchased the Italian organics firm Valagro. According to a press release from the group, the deal “positions Syngenta Crop Protection as one of the main global companies prepared to consolidate the market for organic products, which is expected to double in the next five years. Valagro is the market leader in the production of innovative organic products, with a compound annual growth rate of around 10% between 2009 and 2019 and revenue of around US$175 million in 2019”.

BIOFRESHI (Netherlands) at Fruit Logistica 2020 © Eurofresh Distribution

Colombia’s organic fresh and dried tropical fruit exports to the EU climbed 31% in 2019, according to European Commission data. These figures mean that Colombia is now the eighth largest supplier of organic agri-food products to the EU, up from 13th place in 2018. Colombia’s total organic agri-food exports were up 38% last year, reaching 87,341 tons. Shipments of tropical fresh and dried fruits rose from 19,000 tons to 24,900 tons.