Italian News at Sana

This development continued in the first quarter of 2008. The highest increase was found in sales of baby food -  + 36 %, compared with the previous year. Some items like dietary products experienced a decrease. (see Table below)
 
According to Ismea, organic consumption mainly takes place in Northern Italy with 70 % of the domestic sales. Data for the first quarter of 2008 confirmed the trend with a growth of 6 % (compared with the same period of 2007).
 

According to the figures of SINAB (National Information System on Organic Agriculture), 50,276 organic operators were active in Italy in 2007. Most of them – 43,159 – were producers in that year. Compared with the data of 2006, this means a decrease of 1.55 %. Sicily and Calabria were the regions with most operators. The area in conversion or fully converted to organic agriculture was at 1 150 253 hectares, a growth rate of 0.18 % compared with the past year. The organic area was mainly dedicated to forest, meadows and pastures, and cereals, which represented 70 % of the organic area altogether, followed by olives. Sicily was the region with the highest figure (175,295 hectares), followed by Basilicata with 115,144 hectares and Emilia Romagna with 103,784 hectares. The number of cattle in the country increased in 2007. 62,057 controls took place in the sector, and 5 442 samples were examined.
 
The double-digit growth in direct sales in Italy has continued. This indicates that consumers do not want to do without organics, even in a period of tightening their belts. According to data revealed by Bio Bank, organic companies and agriturisms were direct sales companies with high growth rate - with 17 % in 2008 and with 90 % between 2003 and 2008. There were only a few more than 1,000 operators with direct sales in 2003, and in 2008, there are more than 1,900. And while in 2003 the space was dedicated to agrituristical activity, with about 63 % of the total, in 2008 the quote decreased to 53 %, creating an almost equal situation between the two types of direct sales. 
 

In Italy, there are many school cafeterias that are partially or completely serving organic products, public schools as well as private schools. In 2008 in Milan, for example, four school cafeterias were detected: one of the Commune, which delivers 85,000 daily meals to nurseries, kindergartens, elementary schools and medium schools, two private schools which prepare 400 and 250 meals respectively, and a Waldorf school which serves 140 meals a day. The number of school cafeterias offering organic food has grown by 16 % in 2008, and by 41 % between 2003 and 2008. The number of meals served has also grown significantly by 6 % in 2008 and by 25 % in the past five years.
 

Table: Organic school cafeterias in Italy, 2003 – 2008 (figures from Bio Bank)
 

Table: Development of domestic consumption produced in Italy in 2007
 

        
The development according to distribution channels was also considered for 2007 and it was found that most channels increased their sales. Only discounters experienced a decrease.
 

Table: Development of sales through distribution channels
 

  
(Provisional data for 2008)