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Extract of the cover of the brochure “Organic Farming – Looking Forwards” Strategy
Extract of the cover of “Organic Farming – Looking Forwards” Strategy©
The “Strategy for the Future of Organic Farming” is aimed at boosting the growth of the organic farming and food sector. It contains five lines of action and 24 action strategies.

The demand for organic products in Germany is increasing. In 2020, the organic market in Germany grew by 22 percent to EUR 14.99 billion. German organic producers cannot fully meet this demand. In 2019/2020, an estimated 15 percent of organic grain, 28 percent of organic milk and 27 percent of organic pork was imported from abroad. There is market potential here, especially for small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises in Germany.

“The Strategy for the Future of Organic Farming defines the political framework for this is. It opens up options for domestic agriculture, enabling this sector to considerably improve its participation in the growth potential of the organic market, in Germany, Europe and worldwide,” said Federal Minister of Agriculture Julia Klöckner

The 18-month participatory process
What can policy makers can do at national level to achieve the target of 20 % organically farmed land in Germany? This was the topic of the 18-month participatory process that involved about 200 representatives of the organic sector, the Federal Laender and the academic community.

Focal points of the Strategy
The Strategy contains five action areas. They are the national core areas for stronger growth in the organic sector. At the same time, they address important challenges that organic farming faces:

Designing a viable and coherent legislative framework;
Facilitating access to organic farming;
Fully utilising the demand potential and expanding it further;
Improving the productivity of organic agri-systems; and providing adequate remuneration for ecological contributions.
The 24 specific action strategies provide the organic sector with additional growth impetus along the entire value adding chain including:

Developing EU legislation on organic farming;
intensive professional counselling and support for agricultural enterprises that decide to convert to organic farming;
supporting canteens in offering guests more organic products in the future;
legal and financial support instruments, research support, technology and knowledge transfer, and conceptual responsibilities of the federal government.
Implementation and funding
The Federal Scheme for Organic Farming and Other Forms of Sustainable Agriculture (BÖLN) and the Protein Crop Strategy (EPS) are core financial instruments for the implementation of the Strategy for the Future of Organic Farming.

The roadmap to the Strategy for the Future of Organic Farming describes time frames and responsibility for its implementation. Some measures are already under way. Others are currently being prepared by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture and its subordinate agencies and institutions.