“Still in countertrend”.

Despite the economic crisis the global market increased in the last five years by five percent reaching a total turnover of around 20.8 billion euros. In the last two years the growth is not so fast as before due to the setbacks in the U.S. and EU economy, that together account for 90% of the global organic sector. In the EU, Germany is still the biggest market, and sales were up 10% to 1.2 billion euros in the first two quarter of 2011. Considering production, Italy is the first European country with almost 50,000 organic agricultural business including farmers and processing and trade companies. As consumer country, Italy is in the top-three in Europe with Germany and France, while 45% of its crops is exported. According to Organic Monitor, the European and U.S. market are about the same size and both represent around 48% of the market. The four major trends of the industriy are: demand concentrated in affluent countries, growing demand in emerging economies, distribution expanding, and finally rise of private labels. According to Organic Monitor, the sector’s growth in 2011 should be around 4.2% globally.<br><br><br>Greenmed Journal, n. 1 – 2012, p. 47.<br><br><br>