Italy is experiencing a boom in its organic agriculture sector, with a 20% increase in cultivation last year, reports Ansa.
According to Sistema d’Informazione Nazionale sull’Agricoltura Biologica, Italy's organisation for organic agriculture information, the number of farms cultivated through organic methods in Italy reached 1.79 million in 2016, compared to 1.5 million in 2015.
Last year, more than 300,000 hectares of land were converted to organic farming, while the number of operators rose to 72,154 (+20.3%).
Italy’s agriculture minister, Maurizio Martina, said that the Italian agricultural model is “one of the most sustainable in Europe".
Growth Trends
Among the crops registering the highest level of growth in the organic sector are vegetables (+48.9%), cereals (+32.6%), grapes (+23.8%) and olives (+23.7%).
In terms of regional distribution, Sicily comes out on top with 363,639 hectares of land for organic farming, followed by Puglia with 255,831 hectares, and Calabria with 204,428 hectares.
The president of FederBio, the Italian federation of organic and biodynamic agriculture, Paolo Carnemolla, said that, based on preliminary data, there is a significant growth trend in 2017, both in the number of operators and farms converting to organic agriculture.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
