Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 22 ISSUE 3
Written by Elena BONCIU

Organic agriculture is a production system that supports the health of soil, ecosystems and consumers, combining tradition, scientific research and innovation, promoting fair relationships and a better quality of life, in a way that ensures equity at all levels and for all involved in the agri-food chain: farmers, processors, distributors, traders and consumers. Therefore, ecological agriculture means respect for people and for nature. In this context, the objective of this paper was to briefly evaluate the trends of organic agriculture sector at global level, in the context where the development of this system is motivated by the increasing demand of consumers for food quality and safety in consumption. Recent statistics published by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), show the upward trend of organic agriculture. Thus, at the level of 2020, organically cultivated surfaces were 74.9 million hectares (with an increase of over 4% compared to 2019) and over 3.4 million producers, their number increasing with 7.6% compared to 2019. The organic food market is also continuously growing, exceeding 120 billion euros. From this point of view, USA, Germany and France are the countries with the largest organic market. Europe is the second largest and most developed organic market (52 billion euros), after Northern America 53.7 billion euros). The current decade is an organic decade, in which more and more organic food products are winning over consumers. Taking into account the upward trend of global organic agriculture, taking into account the surfaces, the number of producers and processors but also the number of consumers, it can be concluded that organic agriculture is emerging as a viable alternative for the third millennium, because, eventually, the organic agriculture means respect for people and for nature.

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