Data analysis

When The Organic Certification Directory collect information all certifiers around the world, it generates a lot of useful information. You see below the collected data in report format.

733,172 organic farms were reported in India!

There has been modest growth in the number of certification bodies. One new country, Ukraine, has a domestic certification body. The total is 488, up from 481 in 2008. Most certification bodies are in the European Union, the United States, Japan, South Korea, China, Canada, and Brazil. There have been very small changes in the number of certification bodies in those countries.

Seventy-nine countries have a domestic certification body, but this doesn’t mean that producers in the other countries are without the service of certification. Many of the listed certification organisations also operate outside their home country. Most of them are based in a developed country and offer their certification services in developing countries. Very few operate in several developed countries (e.g., there is not a single EU-based certification body offering its services in the United States, even when they have the required NOP accreditation). A handful work on several or all the continents. There appears to be certified operators in almost all countries in the world.

Most of Africa and large parts of Asia still lack local service providers. There are only 10 certification bodies in Africa (in South Africa, Senegal, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Egypt). Asia has 164 certification bodies, most of them based in South Korea, China, India, and Japan. The Caribbean and the Pacific have very few certification bodies.

Since 2003 the number of certification bodies has risen sharply in Asia, increased in Europe and Latin America and been relatively stable in Africa and Oceania. The introduction of the NOP in the US caused a fairly drastic reduction in the number of certification bodies the first years, after which the situation stabilised. In some countries, notably China, Japan and South Korea, introduction of a regulation has led to a growth in the number of certification bodies. However, after some years
the numbers dropped in Japan.

Certification bodies were asked for information about the number of operators they certify. Two hundred and twenty-nine responded, giving a total of 192,000 operators. One hundred and ninety-seven certification bodies gave an answer regarding the number of farmers. They certified in total 1,187,000 farms, with BCS claiming to certify 342,000 farms. IMO’s head office alone reports more than 120,000 and its office in Latin America 36,000. Naturland reports 50,000 farms, and Certimex 29,600 farms. India clearly has the highest number of organic farms in the world. Less than half of the certification bodies in India reported the number of certified operators and still the figure is 315,000 farmers. OneCert India and Apof Organic Certification Agency certify 100,000 farms each, USOCA 51,000 and the Natural Organic Certification Association 27,000. According to the competent authority APEDA the number of organic farms in India are 733,172, almost all of them organised in groups, only 545 are certified as individual farms. This places India clearly in the top of the league re organic farms. It should be noted that the same farm can be certified twice (e.g. many Naturland-certified farmers are also IMO-certified; the two organisations cooperate closely). Nevertheless, the number of certified farms is likely to be in the range of two million or possibly more, as data are lacking from many important countries and certification bodies (half of them).

Most organisations are still not transparent about their turnover. Only 78 organisations responded. Many report figures in the range of 100,000 to 500,000. Ecocert France reports a turnover of 8 million Euro, without competition the highest figure. Other organisations reporting a turnover of 2 million or more are bio.inspecta, ICEA, CCPB, Soulo e Salute, Ecocert International, Qualité France, DIO, Biohellas, Skal, Washington State and Debio. The global turnover in organic certification
is clearly above 200 million Euro, perhaps the double or more (400 million would represent some one percent of the estimated market value, or stated otherwise less than 300 Euros per farmer).

Of the 328 that responded to the question concerning the starting date of their operation, only 13 started before 1985; more than half of them started in the period 1985-1994.

There has been little movement in the approval status of organisations since last year. Biggest increase is for ISO 65 accreditation, up from 157 to 166, still less than a third has ISO 65 accreditation. The number of organisations approved in Japan increased a lot. The European Union has 182 approved bodies, with 32 non-EU-based bodies recognised within its system. The majority of imports into the European Union come through certification granted under article 11.6 (i.e., the importer’s derogation). Under that system, import authorisations were granted from 108 countries in 2005. The system will be changed the coming years. The U.S. system has 125 approved bodies, of which 71 are outside the United States. the same as last two years. Only eight organisations, four Italian and two each from Argentina, Australia and New Zealand, reported all five approvals.