Is it pushing things too fast for organic prices to move closer to conventional ones in order to expand the market?

Italy's organic production area grew 7.5% in 2015, with organic farmland and pasture reaching 1.5 million hectares, the number of workers rising 8.2%, and turnover climbing 15%. Four in ten households buy organic food at least once a week. Not only is the domestic market thriving, but organic food exports to the United States grew 10%, and three in ten Americans consider Italian organic to be a guarantee of quality.

A report jointly produced by the organic trade fair SANA in Bologna and the Italian Trade Agency (ICE) brings a string of good news: amid sluggish economic growth, organic is rising against the trend, and it is following the Organic 3.0 trend guided by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) - taking organic from a niche market and promoting it as a mainstream product.

Low-price supermarket promotions leave farmers with meager incomes

On September 10, the Mediterranean branch of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements held a seminar at the organic fair in Bologna titled "Mediterranean Organic 3.0: Cost Calculation and a Fair Price for Organic Agriculture," discussing the burgeoning organic wave across Europe, Asia and Africa around this sea, and the hidden challenges within it. Like Italy, the organic industries of Spain, Greece, Albania and Israel are all growing, while Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey have the potential to enter with low prices.

In response to the string of optimistic figures, organic farmer Maurizio Agostino from Calabria in southern Italy poured cold water. At the seminar, he showed a photo taken in a supermarket, on which a kilogram of organic carrots was priced at 2.5 euros. He pointed out: "Farmers sell at 0.35 euros per kilogram, and after washing and packaging the price rises to 0.6 or 0.65 euros."

The supermarket price of organic carrots is already twice that of conventional products of the same kind, but Agostino pointed out: "Everyone knows full well that the price supermarkets pay farmers is actually not enough to cover organic production, it is just that no one is willing to face this problem."