Italy: More and more families buy organics

18,4 million Italian families are buying organic products now: 3.2 million families (a plus of 14.8% on the previous year) are regular buyers of organics, 3.2 million families (+8.4%) buy at least one organic product once a month and 12 million families buy organics at least every three months. The most active consumers are women between 25 and 44 years and between 55 und 64 years. This was revealed by the Nielsen research “Food and organics in Italy”, commissioned by AssoBio that has recently been presented at the Biodiversity Park at Expo Milano 2015.

The organic sector is worth 2.5 billion euros and grew by 16% in the first four months of 2015 and by 12% in 2014. Eggs, jams and spreads based on fruit, crispy bread, rice, almond drinks, rice, whole wheat pasta as well as pasta made from spell / emmer are the top categories that are responsible for the organic turnover and responsible for a growth of 30% in the south of the country, as well as for 16% in Central Italy, 15% in the North East and 14% in the North West.

To underline the importance of eating organic today, AssoBio presents the bilingual book “Biologico, la parola alla scienza / What science says about organics”, edited by Roberto Pinton, at the Biodiversity Park. The book contains a selection of over 70 studies on nutritional aspects, the impact of pesticides on health, mycotoxins and contamination and on biodiversity and the environment that are published in thirty of the most prestigious international scientific journals like the British Medical Journal and Environmental Health Perspectives. With this book it is aimed to show that organics are a real good answer to the Expo theme “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”. The full article (in Italian) is available here.