“Austria: a fifth of the agricultural surface is now organic", by Giovanni Bertizzolo

<div style="text-align: justify;">Austrian organic farmers are not hit by the economic crises: following last official data, their income in 2010 has increased by more than 8%. Austria occupies the pole-position among the leading organic EU countries. And the market procedes accordingly: in the last three years, consumers have increased their organic purchases by 10%, and 9 out of 10 consumers eat organic products daily.<br>Organic surface in Austria has increased by 13.3 % in the last five years, from&nbsp; 479,817 ha in 2005 up to 543,605 ha in 2010. Organic farms have reached the number of 22,132 in 2010. These data mean that a fifth of the total Austrian agricultural surface is now organic, including also Alpine pasture land. In fact, the use of almost all Alpine pasture land is organic, but only one third of the 8,500 Alpine pastures is certified by a Control Body.<br></div><br><br>“BlogBiologico”, 5 Oct. 2011, www.blogbiologico.it<br><br><br&gt;