New Law in Andalusia to Promote Organic Food Production

In Spain, Andalusian local author­i­ties have allowed the pre­lim­i­nary draft­ing of a new law designed to boost organic food con­sump­tion. The new law is her­alded as a sig­nif­i­cant push to expand regional organic pro­duc­tion.

Local author­i­ties explained that the new law would address the low lev­els of organic food con­sump­tion in Andalusia. Only 2.3 per­cent of all local food comes from organic prod­ucts.

Once approved, the new mea­sure will include a series of pro­mo­tional cam­paigns involv­ing dif­fer­ent media, includ­ing insti­tu­tional com­mu­ni­ca­tion cam­paigns.

According to its pro­mot­ers, the law will pro­vide updated infor­ma­tion sys­tems, allow­ing improved access to the sector’s sta­tis­tics. The new infor­ma­tion sys­tems should ease the exchange of com­mu­ni­ca­tion and ideas among par­tic­i­pat­ing enti­ties and advi­sors.

Support for organic pro­duc­tion research will also be included in the new mea­sure. One of the country’s most rel­e­vant farm­ing research insti­tu­tions, the Agricultural and Fisheries Research and Training Institute (IFAPA), is already deeply involved in deter­min­ing the sci­en­tific basis for devel­op­ing organic agri­cul­ture in Andalusia.

The new law should absorb at least 15 per­cent of the bud­get of the Rural Development Plan. Other funds will come directly from the regional gov­ern­ment bud­get.

As reported by Asaja Jaén, the sec­re­tary to Agriculture in the Andalusian gov­ern­ment, Carmen Crespo, noted that the com­mu­nity has already turned 29.7 per­cent of its pro­duc­tion to organic, nearly five points above the 25 per­cent goal that the European Union set by 2030.

Crespo under­lined how 1.3 mil­lion hectares of Andalusian ter­ri­tory are now involved in organic pro­duc­tion, with more than 3,000 com­pa­nies and almost 5,500 live­stock farms oper­at­ing in the sec­tor.

The largest por­tion of organic farm­land is pas­tures, mead­ows and fod­der (875,000 hectares). Organic olive groves make up 117.380 hectares, much more than the area occu­pied by organic nuts, cere­als, legumes and other crops.

According to the lat­est data from the Andalusian gov­ern­ment, the organic farm­ing sec­tor in the region is expand­ing sig­nif­i­cantly.

From 2020 to 2021, the num­ber of local organic pro­duc­ers, food pro­cess­ing com­pa­nies and related import and mar­ket­ing firms went from approx­i­mately 21,500 to almost 30,000. 493 organic olive oil millers, bot­tlers, and pack­ers are cur­rently active.

Crespo fur­ther acknowl­edged the inter­est of Andalusian farm­ers and entre­pre­neurs in the project.

• Asaja Jaén
• AgroDiarioHuelva