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European Organic Farming Statistics: Legal base

In the European Union all member state are providing their organic farming data to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. The data are provided by the inspection bodies to the national authorities in charge who then provide the data to Eurostat. The data are published at the Eurostat hompepage.

The following documents provide the framework for data collection in the European Union.

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European Action Plan for Organic Food and Farming, Brussels, 10.06.2004
Action 3, page 4
"Improve the collection of statistical data on both production and market of organic Products"

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European Action Plan for Organic Food and Farming Commission Staff Working Document, Bussels, 10.06.2004
Action 3, page 13
"Improve the collection of statistical data on both production and market of organic products. Within the framework of the Community Statistical Programme, the Statisticial Office of the European Communities (Eurostat), in cooperation with Member States, has already started improving the availability and quality of data on organic farming. Some statistics on "conventional" farming should be extended in order to compile the same type of information for organic products, i.e. statistical classifications and registers could be adapted to collect relevant statistics."

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Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 of 28 June 2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91

Preamble, paragraph (36), page 3, L 189/3
"Relevant statistical information should be collected in order to obtain reliable data needed for the implementation and follow-up of this Regulation and as a tool for producers, market operators and policy makers. The statistical information needed sh ould be defined within the context of the Community Statistical Programme."

Article 36 , page 21, L 189/21
"Statistical information Member States shall transmit to the Commission the statistical information necessary for the implementation and follow-up of this Regulation. This statistical information shall be defined within the context of the Community Statistical Programme."

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Commission Regulation (EC) No 889/2008 of 5 September 2008 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products with regard to organic production, labelling and control

Preamble (36), page 4, L 250/4
"Notifications of information by the Member States to the Commission must enable it to use the information sent directly and as effectively as possible for the management of statistical information and referential data. To achieve this objective, all information to be made available or to be communicated between the Member States and the Commission should be sent electronically or in digital form."

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Article 93, page 36 Statistical information, L 250/31

"1. Member States shall provide the Commission with the annual statistical information on organic production referred to in Article 36 of Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 by using the computer system enabling electronic exchanges of documents and information made available by the Commission (Eurostat) before 1 July each year.

2. The statistical information referred to in paragraph 1 shall comprise, in particular the following data:
(a) the number of organic producers, processors, importers and exporters;
(b) the organic crop production and crop area under conversion and under organic production;
(c) the organic livestock numbers and the organic animal products;
(d) the data on organic industrial production by type of activities.

3. For the transmission of the statistical information referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2, Member States shall use the Single Entry point provided by the Commission (Eurostat).

4. The provisions relating to the characteristics of statistical data and metadata shall be defined within the context of the Community Statistical Programme on the basis of models or questionnaires made available via the system referred to in paragraph 1."

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