Global Organic Cotton Production
Grows 20 Percent in 2009
Organic cotton weathered the global economic storm during the 2008/09
farming season, albeit with challenges, according to the Organic Exchange Farm
and Fiber Report 2009 by Organic Exchange (OE), documenting growth and
challenges in the global organic fiber sector. Production grew an impressive 20
percent over 2007/08 to 175,113 metric tons (802,599 bales) grown on 625,000
acres (253,000
hectares). Organic
cotton now represents 0.76 percent of
global cotton production.
The report states
that organic cotton
was grown in 22 coun-
tries worldwide with
the top ten producer
countries being led by
India, and including (in order of rank) Turkey, Syria, Tanzania, China, United
States, Uganda, Peru, Egypt and Burkina Faso. Approximately 220,000 farmers
grew the fiber.
Not all is rosy, however. Despite major market players sticking to their commitments to use organic cotton in their apparel and home textile products, there
simply wasn’t the market for products (organic or conventional) in general, given
the global economic downturn. In addition, a number of farmers had planted vast
acreage of organic cotton on speculation and in response to what had appeared
to be a healthy, burgeoning marketplace. As a result, unsold stocks which represent between 17 and 22 percent of production (some 30,000 to 35,000 tons
(137,789 to 160,754 bales) of organic cotton has yet to find buyers.
LaRhea Pepper, OE senior director, agrees. “While the 2008-09 season was
very challenging for organic cotton farmers, the marketplace is recovering and
there are indications that some of the surplus organic cotton is being utilized,”
she said. “It has been reaffirming to see that leading brands and retailers have
retained their commitments to use to organic and sustainable fibers so as to
bring about changes in agriculture. In many cases, they are actually steppingup
their commitment to organic cotton in order to utilize the stocks and keep organic land in production.”
New EU Organic Logo
A new EU-wide “Euro-leaf” logo will be
required from July 1, 2010 for all prepackaged organic food produced in any
of the 27 EU member states. The green
logo, featuring the 12 EU stars in the
shape of a leaf, will be optional for imported produce. Existing national logos for organic food will be allowed to appear next to the new EU logo. A German student won a
competition to design the new symbol. Some 130,000 people voted
online to choose the symbol. The competition was organized by the
European Commission.
Organic Bird Friendly Coffee
Sales Taking Off
Sales of organic, shade-grown coffee grown
to the Bird Friendly standards of the National
Zoo’s Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center
(SMBC) rose to nearly $3.5 million in 2008, according to a report by Dr. Robert Rice, a geographer at the SMBC. According to the report,
The Global Market for Bird Friendly Coffee: 2008,
the majority (61 percent) of all Bird Friendly
coffee roasted was consumed in the United
States, followed by
Japan ( 36 percent)
and Canada ( 3 percent).
Bird Friendly is
certified organic
coffee produced on
farms with a shade
cover that provides
a substantial and
vital habitat for migratory and resident
birds in tropical landscapes, which are increasingly threatened by deforestation globally at an
unprecedented rate. The Bird Friendly criteria
are the world’s most stringent standards for
shade-grown coffee production. Migratory
birds, including the popular Baltimore Oriole,
are not only beautiful with vibrant songs, but
are integral to tropical and temperate ecosystems alike, providing flower pollination and
seed dispersal, among other roles.
According to the report, more than 95 percent of Bird Friendly coffee comes from coffee
farms in Central and South America with the
rest coming from Africa. Some 1,400 producers
manage more than 12,000 acres of Bird
Friendly area and coffee farms, and they produced more than 6 million pounds of Bird
Friendly coffee in the 2007–2008 harvest year.
The volume of Bird Friendly coffee sold in the
United States between 2000 and 2008 increased
more than a hundredfold (averaging a 145 percent annual increase), from fewer than 2,000
pounds to 200,400 pounds.
Correction: In the Jan-Feb issue of OP, on page 22
of the Processing column, we accidentally listed
the wrong website for Ecolean. The correct
web address for the eco-packaging company is
www.ecolean.com.
