One out of Every Three Visitors Traveled Abroad
Some 26,000 trade visitors (2001: 24,912*) used BioFach 2002 in the Exhibition Centre Nuremberg from 1417 February for buying and information purposes. Almost every third visitor traveled extra from abroad. The increased number of visitors is therefore a worthy addition to this year's superlative results: 1,920* exhibitors (+ 11 %) presented the international range of organic food and natural products on a net space of almost 30,000 million? (+ 27 %!!).

It's Practically Mainstream Now
"Organic is now really getting started", promised Renate Kunast, Federal Minister for Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture, during the opening and forecast an organic boom. At least the subsequent trade fair completely lived up to this forcast. 99 % (!) of the visitors were satisfied with the number and variety of the products on display and praised their professional presentation. Around two thirds of the exhibitors came from abroad, with the largest international contingents traditionally provided by the gourmet countries Italy, Spain and France. Newcomers also reported their first exhibition successes, for example, Cuba with honey sales. In addition to organic food, the visitors interest was also focused on natural cosmetics, for which BioFach offers the world's biggest range. Organic farmers and potential organic farmers made intensive use of the extensive opportunities for information.

Interest in Organic Subject Matter Crosses Industry Lines
Whereas earlier it was mostly proprietors of organic food scores and health food stores that gathered information at the trade fair, more and more buyers from organic supermarkets, the conventional retail food trade and conventional food 35 producers now want to include organic food in their range.

The State of Organic Farming in Europe up 20% Overall
Germany with some 546,000 ha of organically farmed land - approx. 3.2% of the total area farmed - and around 12,730 organic farms occupies 2nd place for production throughout Europe after Italy, but before Greece, Spain and France. In the whole of Europe, 152,000 organic farms currently farm approx. 4,254,000 ha. Although on a European- and German-wide basis, the area farmed by organic farms increased by a good 20 % from 1999 to 2000, the organic market remains a real buyer market. This particularly applies to Germany, by far the largest sales market for organic food in Europe. Experts estimate that an average of some 30 % more organic products were sold over German shop counters for all forms of trading in 2001. Organic food has meanwhile captured a share of 3.7 % of the food market (138 billion), which corresponds to a good 5 billion.

After the four extremely successful days of the exhibition, Heike Slotta, BioFach Project Manager at NurnbergMesse is beaming: "I am delighted that we have again been able to offer the international organic market such a first-class forum here in Nurnberg. As there is always room for improvement, however, we have reserved another hall for BioFach 2003 (13-16 February) as a precaution..."

*The figures for exhibitors and visitors are checked and certified by the Society for Voluntary Control of Fair and Exhibition Statistics (FKM), Cologne.

Oko-Data Founded in Frankfurt
The Verein Oko-Data e.V. was founded in Frankfurt at the end of January. The purpose of the association is to standardize data flow in the organic food a and natural products industry. The first step involves the preparation of technical standards for data communication between producers and the organic food wholesale trade. Twenty one companies from the organic food, natural products and service sectors were invited to the founding meeting. The goal of the association is to standardize data exchange 35 from the producer to the retail trade within two years. BNN Herstellung and Handel was requested to become the patron. Information from Wolfgang Giesler, Okoinform, tel: + 49 89 89 1292 19, e-mail: info@oekoinform.de

Farm Report: Lower Income in Organic Farming
The Farm Report 2002 published recently by the German government shows a profit of 19,647 euros per worker for organic farms, whereas the figure for the conventional comparison group is 23,776 euros. The survey is based on the analysis of 229 organic farms, excluding horticulture, viticulture and fruit farming. According to the Farm Report, this database is still to be regarded as small and not representative. The number of organic farms increased by 22 % over 1999 to reach 12,740.

This was the biggest growth since 1993. The 546,023 have farmed according to the EU-wide rules of organic farming at the end of 2000 represented an increase of some 21 % over thc previous year (452,327 ha). The share of the total number farms in 2000 was approx. 3 % (previous year 2.2 %) and the share of the total area farmed was 3.2 % (previous year 2.6%). More information under Press at:
http://www.verbaucherministerium.de

Documentation of Agricultural Change
The "Frankfurter Rundschau" news program intends to get to the bottom of the so-called agricultural change in a multi lecture series. In the online edition, all the articles from the series associated texts will be collected and supplemented with organics, original documents and tips on links for more information. The earlier FR series on agricultural change from last year will also be made available together with all articles collected on the subject. http:/www.fr-aktuell.de/fr/spezial/agrarwende/index.htm

German Organic Label in Customer Guidance System
A number of trading companies are planning to use the organic label in so-called customer guidance systems that enable consumers to quickly find organic food in the stores. The label was to be found on more than 1500 products from all the product groups of 220 companies at the end of January. 14 companies are from abroad. The well-known television journalist Franz Alt is not very enthusiastic about the new organic label and has made his criticism clear in articles and talks.
http://www.sonnenseite.com/fp/archiv/AktNews/biosiegel.shtml

Newsticker
Deutscher Naturschutzring (DNR) calls for directives on organic fish breeding in EU Regulation. The SOL figures published in Item 7 of Newsletter dated 4th February are estimates Information about BioFach 2002, the World Organic Trade Fair, which took place in the Exhibition Centre Nuremberg from 14 - I7 February, is available at:
http://www.biofach.de

Information about the BioFach America pavilion, Austin/Texas, May 9-11 , 2002, is also available from Nürnberg Global Fairs at: http://www.nuernbergglobalfairs.de/va/BioFachAmericaO2/d/index.html