As of June 30, 2020, the Valencian Community has 149,384 hectares dedicated to organic production, reaching 18.2% of its total Useful Agricultural Area (UAA) dedicated to obtaining quality products that respect the environment. .
In the last six months the SAU of our territory (farmland, meadows and grasslands) has increased by 2.6% and, according to the growth that is being obtained in recent years, the Valencian Community is walking at a steady pace towards one of the objectives set by the European Commission with the “farm-to-table” Strategy, which aims to promote the development of organic farming in the European Union so that, by 2030, 25% of all agricultural land is dedicated to organic farming.
The province of Valencia leads the growth of the surface
The certified area in organic farming has already grown more in the first half of 2020 than in all of 2019. The Community closed 2019 with 127,909 certified hectares (12% more than in 2018) and, from January to June 2020, already It has 149,384 certified hectares (16.7% more than in 2019).
By provinces, València has 77,403 certified hectares, Alicante 36,810 and Castelló 35,171. The increase experienced in the province of Valencia stands out, going from 59,067 hectares at the end of 2019, to 77,403 registered at June 30, 2020.
The primary sector is the one that grows the most
Regarding the number of certified operators, the increase in this first half has been 8.2%, going from 3,265 at the end of 2019, to 3,535 in the first half of this year. Between 2018 and 2019, the total growth was 12.4%.
In this section, regarding the number of operators (producers, companies and importers), the greatest growth has been registered in producers, with an increase of 9.5%, followed by the number of certified companies dedicated to the organic sector (4 , 4%), and importers, which have risen by 3.5%.
By provinces, Alicante leads the growth in the number of operators, with 5.4%, followed by València (4.5%) and Castelló (2.6%).
The COVID-19 pandemic cannot cope with the Valencian ecological sector
For the president of the Ecological Agriculture Committee of the Valencian Community, José Antonio Rico, “these data show that, despite the health and economic crisis we have been going through since last March, the ecological sector of the Valencian Community it is consolidated and stronger than ever ”.
For Rico, “the exceptional situation has reinforced us and the vast majority of our operators have worked normally, while consumers have understood that our way of producing food, in addition to doing it with natural and environmentally friendly processes, have other very important aspects at the moment like proximity sales and health ”.
