Italy: Bio Bank Report 2015 reveals growth

The Bio Bank Report 2015 has been published online in Italy by Bio Bank and edited by Achille Mingozzi and Rosa Maria Bertino. Rich in graphics, it reveals important data on the organic sector in Italy in 2014, the changes from 2010 to 2014, characteristic information of eight types of organic activity, novelties, as well as further information. The report is based on direct censuses of thousands of organic operators. A special, separate section is dedicated to cosmetics and detergents, given the importance of this emerging sector.

From 2010 to 2014, almost all types of organic activities that were monitored showed an increase, excluded only one. The highest increase (65%) was achieved by the category restaurants, bars, ice cream parlors, gastronomy, cafeterias, pizzerias and bistros. The number of those rose from 246 in 2010 to 406 in 2014. It is followed by web shops for organic food that grew by 58% from 152 in 2010 to 241 in 2014. On the third place regarding growth were school cafeterias that increased by 43% - from 872 to 1,249. Buying groups grew by 20%, from 742 to 891. Direct sales grew by 20% as well from 2,421 to 2,903, and the number of agritourism (farm holidays) grew from 1,302 to 1,553. The number of organic shops increased from 1,163 in 2010 to 1,348 in 2014. The only category that did not grow was farmers’ markets, the number of which was at 221 in 2014.

Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy and Tuscany confirmed their leadership regarding absolute numbers of organic activities. Emilia-Romagna was the most important region for web shops, restaurants, direct sales and farmers’ markets. Lombardy was leading regarding school cafeterias, buying groups and shops. Tuscany is the undisputed leader of agritourism.  More information (in Italian) is available here. The full report (in Italian) is available for free and downloadable here.