Biofach 2025: Organic gains big attention and continues growth
- BiO ReporterIn
- Feb 18
- 4 min read
BioFach is more than a trade fair. It is a commitment: Yes, we do! From 11 and 14 February 2025, Biofach, World Leading Trade Fair for Organic Food, brought together more than 35,000 visitors from 140 countries. Every second participant came from abroad. They visited around 2,300 exhibitors from 94 countries to find out about the wide range of products on offer in the organic world. The global organic community spent four successful days in Nuremberg. Worldwide the organic movement is growing again in farmland, production and market size: The latest figures of FiBL statistics from in 2023 show a plus of 2.5 million hectares up to almost 99 million hectares and the sales of organic food reached nearly 136 billion euros. The German market for organic food reached a record with 17 billion euros in 2024.
Big news: India will be the Country of the Year at Biofach 2026. The agreement was signed by Victoria Vehse, Vice Director Nürnberg Messe.
Impressive figures around the globe
The 26th edition of the yearbook "The World of Organic Agriculture", jointly published by FiBL and IFOAM – Organics International, shows that the growth in area and number of farms in 2023 exceeded that of previous years, particularly due to increases in Latin America. Data were provided by 188 countries. In detail that means: The global organic farming area expanded by 2.6 percent in 2023, bringing the total to 98.9 million hectares, managed by 4.3 million organic producers. Retail sales of organic food also increased, exceeding 136 billion euros.
Some highlights:
Latin America experienced the largest increase, adding 1 million hectares (10.8 percent growth), while Africa recorded the highest relative growth, expanding by 24 percent to reach 3.4 million hectares.
Oceania remains the leading region for organic farming, with 53.2 million hectares, accounting for more than half of the global organic area. It is followed by Europe, which has 19.5 million hectares, and Latin America, with 10.3 million hectares.
By country, Australia leads with 53 million hectares, followed by India (4.5 million hectares) and Argentina (4 million hectares).
Globally, 2.1 percent of agricultural land was managed organically in 2023.
Liechtenstein led with 44.6 percent of its agricultural land under organic management, followed by Austria (27.3 percent ) and Uruguay (25.4 percent).
A total of 22 countries reported that 10 percent or more of their agricultural land was organic.
In 2023, there were 4.3 million organic producers worldwide.
India remains the country with the most organic producers (2.36 million).
Notable increases were observed in Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and Burkina Faso.
The developments in the global organic sector at a glance.
The annual survey on global organic agriculture is supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the Sustainability Fund of Coop Switzerland, and NürnbergMesse, the organiser of BIOFACH trade fair.
Europe: Almost 11 % organically farmed, almost 55 billion in sales
The European Union's organic area continued to grow steadily in 2023, reaching 17.7 million hectares, which accounts for 10.9 percent of the total farmland. Retail sales experienced a growth of 3.6 percent in the EU, this are the results of FibL statistics.
Highlights:
19.5 million hectares of farmland in Europe were organically farmed, including 17.7 million hectares within the European Union (EU).
Spain overtook France as the country with the largest area of organic farmland, reaching 3.0 million hectares. France followed with 2.8 million hectares, while Italy recorded 2.5 million hectares.
Organic farmland increased by 3.6 percent in the EU and by 4.1 percent in Europe. Compared to 2022, Spain and Ukraine reported the largest increases, with an additional 0.3 million hectares and 0.2 million hectares, respectively.
Almost 495,000 organic producers in Europe and nearly 435,000 in the EU in 2023, representing a one-year increase of 1.4 and 1.8 percent, respectively. Italy had the highest number with 84,191.
In Europe, there were 94,627 processors, while the EU had 89,379. Additionally, 7,955 importers were counted in Europe, with 6,727 in the European Union. Italy had the highest number of processors, nearly 25,000, while Germany led in the number of
importers with almost 2,000.
European consumers spent 66 euros per person on organic food in 2023
(104 euros in the EU). Consumer spending on organic food per capita doubled in the decade from 2014 to 2023. In 2023, Swiss and Danish consumers spent the most on organic food, with 437 and 362 euros per capita, respectively.
Retail sales valued at 54.7 billion euros in Europe
In 2023, retail sales of organic products in Europe reached a total of 54.7 billion euros, including 46.5 billion euros within the European Union. Germany remained the largest market, with sales totalling 16.1 billion euros. Globally, the EU was the second largest single market for organic products, after the United States, which reported sales of 59.0 billion euros.After a slight decline in 2022, the European market grew by 3.0 percent in 2023 (EU: 2.9 percent), equivalent to an increase of 1.6 billion euros (EU: 1.2 billion euros). While most countries reported single-digit growth, sales in Estonia and the Netherlands saw double-digit increases (+13.0 percent and +12.5 percent, respectively).
Biofach is more than a trade fair. It is a commitment: Yes, we do!
"Biofach is not just a trade fair for trading, but for taking action as well", emphasised Tina Andres, president of the German association of the organic industry, BÖLW. "The atmosphere in the new strctured halls was excellent! Dominik Dietz, Director BIOFACH commented and he is happy to see that almost 80% of the space has already been booked for 2026 (February 10 - 13). It was impressive to see how solution-oriented and innovative the community is in the face of multiple crises and to feel the strength of the organic sector,” Dietz continued.This was demonstrated by all participants over the last four days in the exhibition halls and at the congress.”
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