Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
and certification, and secondly, to promote certified organic products and to support
development of organic farming. Standards were than prepared by an NGO Institute for
Sustainable Development and were published also by the Slovenian Ministry of Agriculture
Forestry and Food. The standards were accordant to the IFOAM Basic Standards and some
other national standards (e.g. Austrian Ernte and German Bioland). As early as in 1999, a
total of 300 farms applied for certification (Slabe, 2002). Since then controlled farming
systems such as integrated and organic farming are on the increase. During the period prior
the Slovenian accession to the European Union national regulations have been accepted
regarding to organic farming and integrated agricultural production system. After the
accession Slovenia adopts entire EU system of food quality identification including organic
farming (e.g. EEC. 2092/91). In the year 2005 “Action Plan for Development of Organic
Farming in Slovenia until 2015” was adopted by the government (MAFF, 2005). In spite of
the lack of market-related data at that time, one of its goals was “By 2015 a 10% share of
organic foodstuffs of Slovenian origin on the national market is to be achieved.” However,
at that time, the lack of data on organic food market and especially on its share of the total
food market was a general feature even in the EU member states with more developed
organic sectors (Padel S. et al., 2008). Today a significant part of fruit production (especially
apples and pears) is produced following the integrated standards and marketed under the
national label and two private collective marks, one for fruit and the other for vegetable.
In 2010 around 58 thousand hectares of farmland was cultivated under the integrated
farming system which represents more than one fourth of total arable land and permanent
plantations in Slovenia (MAFF, 2011). In total 5.576 farms acquired an integrated farming
certificate for the same year. More than two thirds of the area is arable land; mainly maize
and feed grain and therefore the crop enter food chain as animal feed. The rest of the area is
under permanent plantations including vineyards and particularly the produced fruit and
vegetable is differentiated on the market.
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
Area in organic control
(ha)
5.446 10.828 13.828 20.018 23.019 23.169 26.831 29.322 29.836 29.388 30.735
Share of organic land in
total UAA
1,1%
2,1%
2,7%
3,9%
4,7%
4,6%
5,5%
5,9%
6,1% 6,3% 6,4%
No. of holdings in
organic control
600
1.000
1.160
1.415
1.582
1718
1.876
2.000
2.067 2.096 2.218
No. of certified
holdings
115
322
412
632
910
1.220
1.393
1.610
1.789 1.853 1.897
Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food 2011; SORS, 2010.
Table 1. Area of agricultural land in organic control and its share in UAA, No. of holdings in
organic control and no. of certified holdings in Slovenia, 2000 - 2010;
On the other hand organic production is still rather sporadic and the market presence is
rather low. In 2010 the area under organic farming was almost 31 thousand hectares, but
almost ninety percent of the land is grassland and pastures. Only minor part of that area is
intended for differentiated market production, since organic animal products (e.g. meat or
dairy) are extremely rare. Rather, the produce is entering conventional supply chains, and
the prevalent motivation of the farmers to enter the organic control is to be eligible for
additional budgetary support. This means that the development of organic farming was not
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