1. 5. Areas under organic farming
Ana Martinez
Elisabeth Rohner-Thielen
Eurostat / Food safety statistics
11-12 June 2009
WG Agriculture and Environment - Luxembourg, June 2009

2. WG Agriculture and Environment - Luxembourg, 11-12 June 2009
Index
Introduction
Current situation
2008 and 2009 work programmes
Task Force “Organic farming statistics”
Next steps
11-12 June 2009
WG Agriculture and Environment - Luxembourg, June 2009

3. Introduction - Data collected till 2008
Council Regulation 2092/91, annual reports before 1rst July:
Compulsory: Detailed list of organic operators (form C)
Voluntary: “Statistical forms”
Number of registered organic producers, processors, importers (Form D)
Organic crop area (fully converted and under conversion) and production (Form E)
Organic livestock numbers and production of organic animal products (Form F)
Number of organic processors, by type of activity (Form G)
Sent to DG AGRI. Statistical forms forwarded from DG AGRI to Eurostat
11-12 June 2009
WG Agriculture and Environment - Luxembourg, June 2009

4. Introduction – Work carried on before 2008
Improvement of transmission delays over the years
Areas for improvement
Country coverage: limited number of variables in some cases
Breakdown of organic area: fully converted/under conversion
Breakdown of organic area by crop
Production of organic crops and products of animal origin: almost inexistent
Financial help provided by Eurostat:
Grants 2004, 2005 and 2006
TAPAS 2007
11-12 June 2009
WG Agriculture and Environment - Luxembourg, June 2009

5. Current situation – Organic crop area Data availability
Organic area BE BG CZ DK DE EE IE GR ES FR IT CY LV LT
Fully converted and under conversion
2007
2006
Fully converted
2005
Under conversion
Organic area LU MT HU NL AT PL PT RO SI SK FI SE UK NO
Fully converted and under conversion
2004
2006
2007
Fully converted
2005
Under conversion
11-12 June 2009
WG Agriculture and Environment - Luxembourg, June 2009

6. Current situation – Organic crop area
11-12 June 2009
WG Agriculture and Environment - Luxembourg, June 2009

7. Current situation - New legal basis
Since 1 January 2009:
Council Reg. 834/2007 on organic production and labelling (repealing Council Regulation 2092/91):
Article 36 statistical information  compulsory
Necessary for implementation and follow-up of this Regulation
Definition: Community Statistical Programme
Commission Reg. 889/2008 – Implementing rules
Article 93  variables to be collected (same as in previous ‘statistical forms’)
Transmission to ESTAT
via single entry point
before 1 July
To be defined:
Definitions
Level of detail
Quality requirements
11-12 June 2009
WG Agriculture and Environment - Luxembourg, June 2009

8. WG Agriculture and Environment - Luxembourg, 11-12 June 2009
Work carried on in 2008
Consolidate the annual data collected during previous years
Collection of 2007 data: Use the same questionnaires (previous ‘statistical forms’) but improved with definitions proposed by Eurostat
Preparatory work for future data collection: Revision of previous questionnaires
Consultation of DG AGRI and Eurostat Units E1 and E2  revised questionnaire (Questionnaire 2008)
Sent for comments to the members of the Working Group « Food safety statistics » and to the members of the SCOF (Standing Committee for Organic farming)
11-12 June 2009
WG Agriculture and Environment - Luxembourg, June 2009

9. WG Agriculture and Environment - Luxembourg, 11-12 June 2009
2009 Work Programme
Task Force « Organic farming statistics »: 4-5 May 2009
Revised questionnaire expected to be applied from reference year 2008 onwards (with a try-out in 2009)
Data transmission to Eurostat by eDamis (Single entry point)
Grants « Assistance to Member States for actions to set up data collection for organic crop production data »
Publication: SIF (Statistics in Focus) or DIF (Data in Focus) covering data 2005 to 2007
11-12 June 2009
WG Agriculture and Environment - Luxembourg, June 2009

10. 2009 - Task Force “Organic farming statistics”
Meeting held 4-5 May 2009
Mandate:
Discussion of the results of the 2007 TAPAS Actions
Focus on pilot actions for collecting organic crop production
Discussion of the revised questionnaire (Questionnaire 2008)
Proposal for any further actions to be taken in order to improve quality and comparability of organic farming statistics
Participants:
CZ, DK, DE, SI, LV, IT, HU, NL, NO, AT, PL, PT, RO, SK, FI
DG AGRI
11-12 June 2009
WG Agriculture and Environment - Luxembourg, June 2009

11. WG Agriculture and Environment - Luxembourg, 11-12 June 2009
Task Force “Organic farming statistics” Some conclusions of grants/TAPAS actions (I)
Differences between results obtained from Farm Structure Surveys and data obtained from administrative registers:
Classification schemes:
unutilised areas are included in organic area while in FSS they are excluded.
Definition of units:
two or more organic producers may operate in one agricultural holding
enterprises in organic register may be under the threshold of agricultural statistics
Reference time:
in June (FSS) the farms do not know yet if they will be certified. This is known at the end of certification period (November)
11-12 June 2009
WG Agriculture and Environment - Luxembourg, June 2009

12. WG Agriculture and Environment - Luxembourg, 11-12 June 2009
Task Force “Organic farming statistics” Some conclusions of grants/TAPAS actions (II)
Organic sector is small: using existing surveys is problematic because sample size is too small
Data should be better obtained by combining administrative sources and existing surveys: merging registers, pre-filled questionnaires
Need for integrating statistical classifications and definitions in the administrative sources.
Data reported on organic production overestimates the real situation. Collect harvested area and sold production.
When using existing surveys, need to adapt the existing questionnaires to the reality of organic farming in order to capture it.
11-12 June 2009
WG Agriculture and Environment - Luxembourg, June 2009

13. 2009 - Task Force “Organic farming statistics” Main conclusions
Crop production: focus on fully converted areas
Organic area: Which definition? Harvested area? Area under cultivation? UAA?
Use the appropriate definition for each crop, as in crop statistics regulation
Provide draft guidelines developed for crop statistics
Organic production rather than “sold production” or “production put in the market”
Livestock and animal products: questionnaire to be coherent with regulation on livestock and slaughtering
Manufacture of organic food products: no data collection in value
Further comments to revised questionnaire: end of June 2009
Gathering comments from other Member States: newsgroup created in CIRCA
11-12 June 2009
WG Agriculture and Environment - Luxembourg, June 2009

14. WG Agriculture and Environment - Luxembourg, 11-12 June 2009
Grants « Assistance to Member States for actions to set up data collection for organic crop production data »
Launched in April 2009
Open to all Member States, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, with an information notice to Switzerland
Expected results:
Provision of data from existing sources
Data collection to be based on the revised harmonised questionnaire, taking into account the results of the meeting of the Task Force on ‘Organic farming statistics’
Description of the method used to collect the data and, where needed, for the estimation of organic crop production data
Deadline for the transmission of applications: 29 May 2009
11-12 June 2009
WG Agriculture and Environment - Luxembourg, June 2009

15. WG Agriculture and Environment - Luxembourg, 11-12 June 2009
Next steps
1rst July 2009
Deadline for submission of 2008 data using harmonised Questionnaire 2008
30 June 2009
Deadline for comments to Questionnaire 2008
July-August 2009
Questionnaire 2009 (taking into consideration comments received)
1rst July 2010
Deadline for submission of 2009 data using harmonised Questionnaire 2009
2nd half 2010
Meeting of the Task Force to put in common results of 2009 grants + experiences of data collection Output: Questionnaire 2010
End of 2010
Working Group « Food safety statistics », CPSA: final approval of questionnaire
11-12 June 2009
WG Agriculture and Environment - Luxembourg, June 2009

16. Thank you for your attention
11-12 June 2009
WG Agriculture and Environment - Luxembourg, June 2009