Since 2021, consumption has dropped significantly, not least because inflation is causing food prices to rise generally. Organic products are still more expensive than conventional ones, with a price premium of 15 to 35 percent, reports Euractiv.
The French retail sector also feels the impact of the decline: between 2020 and 2023, sales of organic products in France decreased by 12 percent, according to a study published on April 11 by the Fondation Nature et Homme (FNH).
Although specialized organic stores have slightly recovered, the foundation mainly attributes the stagnation to the large retail chains, which account for about half of the organic turnover. At the same time, more and more farmers are turning away from organic farming. According to Agence Bio, the number of reconversions rose by 42 percent in 2022.
A survey of the eight largest French supermarket chains, which together hold about 60 percent of the market, shows that the availability of organic products decreased by 7 to 25 percent between 2022 and 2023.
The decline in the organic sector in France is also reflected in the agricultural budget. Recently, Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard revealed that so far only a fraction of the €340 million reserved for converting farmland to organic agriculture has been used. This would result in a surplus of €257 million in the European agricultural budget for 2023-2024.
The Occitanie region, France’s main organic farming region, is trying to counter this development. However, the regional agriculture chief Vincent Labarthe warned of a possible nationwide termination of the program. Where funding had already expired, there was a ‘significant increase in reconversions after only three or four years.’
"We invested a lot of money in organic farming, but it was not enough to build a crisis-proof supply chain," says Labarthe. He was also skeptical about Genevard’s announcement that she would specifically use the excess EU agricultural funds in the future to strengthen the organic sector: "She says that, but she doesn’t do it." According to him, the ministry will only transfer a small portion of the available resources to organic farming.