From 14 to 17 February, the world’s leading trade fair for organic products BIOFACH 2023 was held in Nuremberg (Germany), attracting 36,000 visitors from 135 countries and 2,765 exhibitors from 95 countries this year.

In 2023, Ukraine was presented at BIOFACH with the National Pavilion of Ukraine with the total area of 188 m2 (booths 4А-511 and 4А-405). For the first time in 10 years of Ukraine's participation in BIOFACH, the State Institution “Entrepreneurship and Export Promotion Office” (EEPO) and national project Diia.Business, as the main organisers of the National Pavilion, united all the Ukrainian organic stakeholders under one umbrella.

The official delegation of Ukraine consisted of First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Mr. Taras Vysotskyi, Director of the EEPO Mr. Andrii Remizov and his Deputy Mr. Andrii Lytvyn, who, in parallel with the work of the Pavilion, had a number of meetings with the partners and delivered speeches at several sessions in the frame of BIOFACH Congress which traditionally accompanies the fair and is the main policy platform to discuss and search for current development of the organic market and its tendencies.

For the catalogue of organic exporters follow the link.

The range of products presented by the companies included organic cereals, nuts, frozen and freeze-dried berries, concentrated fruit juices and purees, sunflower oil, pastilla, organic baby food, healthy snacks, breakfast cereals, and biological inputs.

According to the results of the four days of the National Pavilion of Ukraine, Ukrainian organic producers held more than 700 B2b meetings and received more than 40 agreed partnerships.

Ukrainian organic producers demonstrated by their example that organic agriculture is more sustainable in crisis situations than conventional production.

In spite of all the difficulties due to the full-scale invasion, Ukrainian organic operators were able to increase exports to the EU and Switzerland by 13% in 2022.

The latest data collected by the Ukrainian stakeholder platform “Organic Initiative” before BIOFACH 2023 show the Ukrainian organic operators’ determination to continue their activities, in particular:

• over 85% of organic operators continue working, some operators suspended their activities in the first months of war but then resumed their operation;
• over 95% of organic operators plan to continue their activities specifically in the organic sector.

Figures

Traditionally, on the first day of the fair the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) and IFOAM – Organics International presented the data on developments in global organic market in 2021.

In 2020 “COVID” year there was a significant increase in organic consumption, and a lot of experts were afraid that there would be a significant decrease in organic sales in 2021. We will remind that in 2021, a vaccine against COVID-19 was invented and countries gradually began to come out of quarantine restrictions. However, despite fears, consumption of organic products has increased, as has the number of organic producers, although growth has slowed somewhat.

The global consumption of organic products in 2021 reached EUR 124.8 billion (+EUR 4.2 billion compared to 2020). The USA remains the biggest market of organic products, although the organic sales slightly decreased here amounting to EUR 48.6 billion compared to EUR 49.5 billion in 2020. The second biggest market is Germany with EUR 15.9 billion in organic sales (+EUR 0.9 billion), and the third is France with EUR 12.7 billion (no changes).

The organic land area grew by 1.7% and amounts to 76.4 million ha with Australia taking the lead. The number of organic producers grew by 4.9% and amounts to over 3.7 million.

The biggest importers of organic products to the EU are Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, India, Peru, Ukraine, Turkey, the UK, China, Columbia, and Mexico. These 10 countries together supplied almost 63% of all organic products. The peculiarity of 2021 was that imports from the UK had been accounted for the first time.

As for the imports from Ukraine, it ranked 1st by organic import volumes of cereals (other than wheat and rice), and was among TOP 3 suppliers of oilcakes, oilseeds and soybeans. In addition, Ukraine moved up into the 2nd place by organic import volumes of fruits (fresh or dried fruit and berries, excluding citrus and tropical fruits).

Overall, Ukraine supplied the following products to the EU in 2021:

Data from TRACES

Trends

There is an ongoing global debate on food systems transformation. It started several years ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic and now takes into account the impact of the full-scale war in Ukraine. The world has recognized that the food industry is part of the problem of planetary overload.

Remaining the world’s leading trade fair for the organic sector, covering the entire supply chain from farm to fork, BIOFACH shows how sustainable organic farming and food production work. And it also demonstrates that the organic sector can be part of the solution.

New global trends were developed for BIOFACH 2023 which are in the context of the megatrend “planetary health lifestyle”: from “New Glocal” (ed. new global-local) to “New Sweeteners” (ed. new sugar substitutes).

Discussions during the four days of the exhibition continued at many venues.

Export potential and status-quo of the organic sector of Ukraine during the full-scale war

The organic export, especially to the EU, has improved during the full-scale war. In spite of the logistical problems in August 2022, the agreement on de-blockade of the Ukrainian sea ports came into force. In general, organic exports to Europe (EU, Norway, Switzerland) in 2022 exceeded exports in 2021 by 15.2%.

Despite the full-scale war, the Ukrainian organic producers presented new organic higher value-added products in 2022. These were fruit rolls, different kinds of instant porridges and soups, nectarine juice, and essential oils.

91% of organic operators continue organic production and processing fully or partially, or their production and processing was resumed or planned during a full-scale war. The majority of organic producers plan to continue organic production rather than switch to conventional production.

Organic production and export development is one of the priorities for Ukraine. In 2021 the Ukrainian government adopted the National Economic Strategy until 2030 which officially sets the goal to increase organic area up to 3% of total agricultural land in Ukraine (or about 1.3 million hectares) and to increase export of organic products up to USD1 billion by 2030. The Ukrainian government aims to increase processing facilities and develop the sectors with value-added by attracting foreign and local investments starting from today and not waiting for the war to end.

Ukrainian Pavilion is organised by the State Institution «Entrepreneurship and Export Promotion Office» (Ukraine), the state project Diia.Business in partnership with the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, Organic Ukraine NGO, Ukrainian Berries Association and Organic Initiative.