Notes and information on the data of the OrganicDataNetwork

Overall it should be noted that data from the different European countries are often not comparable. A PDF database excerpt with explanations by indicator, year, country and crop/product (486.1 KB) is available for download.

There are a number of reasons why data are often not comparable:

• There are still a number of data gaps for many countries.
• Existing data are sometimes not complete, and the level of completeness varies from country to country or even within one country over the years. This is due to different methodologies of data collection. Therefore a country-to-country comparison is not always possible; this applies particular to production data, retail sales, exports and imports.
• Special care should be taken when using retail sales data by commodity: for most countries not all products are covered, and often the numbers also for the covered products are not complete. 
• Data classifications and aggregations can differ from country to country, making comparisons difficult.
• Definitions can vary from country to country. (e.g., the indicator "animals [heads]" may refer to the animals slaughtered in a year or the number of places).
• For countries that do not use the Euro, values were converted in Euros. Due to fluctuating exchange rates, data are therefore not comparable over years for these countries.
• Please also note when using the data, when no new data were available, the data from the previous year were used (See details in separate file on data year).

In the OrganicDataNetwork project a secondary data collection of existing organic market data was carried out.

Data were collected from national sources, official and private, often with different data collection approaches and, hence, a country-to-country comparison is often not possible.

• For more information see specific explanations per indicator and PDF with detailed explanations by crop/product, country, indicator and year (486.1 KB).
• For details on data sources see passage below.

In order to collect the data, the OrganicDataNetwork questionnaire was used, covering indicators on area, livestock, production, operators, retail sales, exports and imports.

The data are stored in MS Access database run by the OrganicDataNetwork partners Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) and the Agricultural Market Information Company (AMI).

• Source for overall dataset: OrganicDataNetwork 2014
• For detailed sources see separate PDF with detailed data sources by country and indicator (272.6 KB).

Data were quality-checked using a couple of standard checks including:

• Comparison with the data from the previous year
• Comparison with the data of the overall total, if available
• Comparison with the data from the neighbouring countries

However, due to the fact that many data are not comparable due to: 

• incompleteness of data,
• the use of different methods, classifications, definitions, and  
• fluctuating exchange rates.

explanations were inserted in the MS Access database, and a PDF database excerpt with explanations by indicator, year, country and crop/product (486.1 KB) is available for download.

Area and production

For the area and production data the classification used by Eurostat for the organic data is used (see Eurostat Website: Organic farming: Reference Metadata in Euro SDMX Metadata Structure (ESMS).

Retail sales, exports, imports, processed products

For the retail sales and international trade data, Eurostat's Statistical Classification of Products by Activity in the European Economic Community, 2008 Version (CPA) is used.  

Animals

• Animals [heads]
  Number (heads of animals
• Beehives [no]   
  Number of beehives

Area

• Area [ha]   
  Area, both in conversion and fully converted by crop
• Area fully converted [ha]
  Area fully converted by crop
• Area under conversion [ha] by crop
  Area under conversion by crop
• Area, all [ha]   
  Total  organic agricultural area

Exports and imports

• Export [Mio €]   
  Export value by individual crops/products in euros
• Export [Mio €], share [%]   
  Share of organic export value by crop/product of total exports
• Export [t]   
  Export volume by commodity
• Export, all [Mio €]   
  All organic exports in million Euros, no breakdown by commodity 
• Import [Mio €]   
  Import value in euros by commodity 
• Import [Mio €], share [%]   
  Share of import value by crop/product of total imports
• Import [t]   
  Import volume in metric tons by crop/product
• Import [t], share [%]   
  Share of import volume by commodity  of total imports
• Import, all [Mio €]   
  All organic imports in million euros
• Import, all [t]   
  All organic imports in metric tons
• Import, all: Share [%]   
  Share of all organic imports of country's total imports

Operators

• Operators, exporters   
  The natural or legal person  who exports to a third country organic products with a view to the subsequent marketing (Eurostat definition)
• Operators, importers   
  The natural or legal person who presents a consignment for release for free circulation into the Community (Eurostat definition)
• Operators, processors   
  Operator who preserves and/or processes organic agricultural products (incl. Slaughtering and butchering) and aquaculture products; Packaging and labelling as organic is also considered as processing (Eurostat definition)
• Operators, producers   
  Production unit operated under a single management for the purpose of producing agricultural product (Eurostat definition)

Production

• Production [Mio €]   
  Production value by crop/product
• Production [t]   
  Production volume by crop/product
• Production [t]: Share [%]   
  Share of the production volume of the total production
• Production, all [Mio €]   
  All organic production (by country) in million Euros
• Production, all [t]   
  All organic production (by country) in metric tons

Retail sales

Total

• Retail sales, all [€/person]   
  Per capita consumption in Euros for all retail sales
• Retail sales, all [Mio €]   
  All organic domestic retail sales in million Euros
• Retail sales, all [t]   
  All organic domestic retail sales in metric  tons
• Retail sales, all, by channel  [Mio €]   
  All organic retail sales by sales channels; channels are general retailers, specialized retailers, direct marketing, other sales channels
• Retail sales, all: Catering [Mio €]   
  All organic catering sales in million Euros
• Retail sales, all: Growth value 1 year [%]   
  All organic domestic retail sales - Growth in value (euros) in 1 year
• Retail sales, all: Share value [%]   
  Organic share of total domestic market in value

Byproduct

• Retail sales [[Mio €]   
  Retail sales by product in million Euros
• Retail sales [Mio €]: Share [%]   
  Share of total retail sales value by product
• Sales [t]   
  Domestic retail sales volume in metric tons by product/crop
• Sales [t]: Share [%]   
  Share of organic domestic retail sales volume by crop/product in metric tons

• The indicators ("elements") "Area [%]" and "Production [%]" show the comparison with a country's overall total for a crop.
• Comparison data with the overall total (from FAOSTAT) may use different nomenclatures and definitions, and threfore, comparisons are not always possible.
• The total area/production were taken from FAOSTAT (see http://faostat.fao.org/site/567/default.aspx#ancor )
• "Area" refers to the fully converted and in-conversion organic area.

Specific notes on year-to-year comparison.

• Sometimes for crops/crop groups specified as "other", "no details", the allocation to a certain group by country or over the years may change, hence data are often not comparable.
• For permanent grassland/pasture and meadows and temporary grassland the allocation to one of these groups may vary from year to year between within one country; hence a direct year-to-year  comparison is often not possible.
• In some cases there may be negative values. This is used in order to account for areas with double cropping as otherwise the overall total would be incorrect.
• The level of detail by crop/crop group provided by the countries may vary from year to year; again this makes a direct year-to-year comparison often impossible.

• "Production volume" refers in most cases to the production from the fully converted land;  this has to be taken into account when comparing the organic area and production with the total area and production (shares for area might differ substantially for that of the production)
• "Production volume" may refer to the actual production volume or to the volume that was actually marketed; thus data are not always comparable. The indicators "Area [%]" and "Production [%]" show the comparison with a country's overall total for a crop.
• Comparison data with the overall total (from FAOSTAT) may use different nomenclatures/definition and comparisons are not always possible.
• The total area/production in order to calculate the organic shares were taken from FAOSTAT (see http://faostat.fao.org/site/567/default.aspx#ancor)

• Retail sales data are shown for the total organic market (Table Key Indicators), and in some cases product-related (Table Organic retail sales for selected products) data are available. 
• Not all countries provide data on all products or complete data by product (coverage gap), hence a country to country comparison is not possible. 
• Fluctuating exchange rates: Growth rates for one country (e.g., UK) and the comparison with others may be distorted.