In future, better market data on organic agriculture

EISfOM to improve data availability in organic farming in Europe

The European market for products from organic farming continues to grow. It is estimated that currently accounts 4 percent of agricultural production in the EU organic farming, but are data on production, sales and marketing has not yet been comprehensively and systematically collected. The European Union therefore funded the new project EISfOM which is to develop 2005 proposals by the year, such as access to production and market data in organic farming in Europe can be improved.

EISfOM stands for "European Information System for Organic Markets". The CMA Central Marketing Organization of German Agricultural Industries support this European project, which is managed in Germany by the ZMP Central Market and Price Reporting Office GmbH. "We expect this network more transparency and information to coordinate our measures for the marketing of organic products on the German and European market even more effectively," explains Karsten Ziebell, who has been with the CMA is responsible for the "Marketing Organic Farming". "At the moment, each country collects the data differently and many important information is missing completely," says the European project leader Dr Nic Lampkin from the Institute for Rural Areas at the University of Wales. The project team with partners from Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland and Switzerland to bring a coordinated process of data collection and processing in transition. "The close collaboration with the regional, national and European authorities, who are responsible for data collection in this area is to bring us a good step forward," says Markus Rippin of ZMP.

The project team expressly welcomes the active participation of other interested parties such as institutions that determine or use data. You get access to unpublished data and current information. A broad sponsorship should guarantee a high level of success in implementing the project results. Further information on the project and the project partners is available on the website [www.eisform.org].

Source: Bonn [cma]