The Agence bio have just released their French Organic Market 2019 report.

Top line figures in the French Organic Market 2019 report.

Total organic market size 11.9 billion euros, up 1.4 billion euros from 2018.

6.1% of all food bought in France is now organic.

The supermarkets dominate the organic distribution side selling 55% of the total organic sales, organic/health food shops are on 28%, direct sales by producers 11% and small shop and artisans 6%.

The organic sector now employs 178,500 people; up 15% year on year. Just over 10% of all agricultural jobs in France are now in the organic sector. Less than 4% of farmers have quit the organic certification, half of them to return to industrial production, the other half have quit the agricultural sector all together.

There are now 70,322 organically certified businesses in France, 47,196

producers, up 13%, 19, 311 transformers, up 16%, and 8,813 distributers, up 24%.

The percentage of the total agricultural land in France dedicated to organic agriculture has now risen to 8.2%, a doubling since 2014 from 1.1 million hectares in 2014 to 2.3 million hectares in 2019.

On average each person in France now spends 178 euros a year on organic produce.

The fastest growing organic category was frozen produce, up 31%, particularly ice cream and sorbets, pizza and frozen vegetables. Closely followed by eggs and milk produce.

When I have time I will go through the figures with a little more detail to see where the growth is actually happening, and what are the main factors.

But just a quick note on my region, Occitanie.

10 663 organic farms	1st in France
503 026 ha either organic or in conversion to organic	1st in France
16% pf total agricultural land now organic	2nd in France
2 811 transformers and distributors	3rd in France

For the Full Report See the Agence Bio press briefing (Pdf)