Organic Agriculture in Asia 2009 (data 2007)
For updated version go 
»here
Organic agriculture in the countries of Asia 2007. Source: FiBL 2009. graph: FiBL
The total organic area in Asia was nearly 2.9 million hectares in 2007. This constitutes nine percent of the world’s organic agricultural land. 230’000 producers were reported.
The leading countries are China (1.6 million hectares) and India (1 million hectares). It should be noted that in addition to China's organic agricultural land there a further 0.4 million hectares are certified aquaculture areas.
The highest shares of organic land of all agricultural land are in Timor Leste (seven percent).
Organic wild collection areas play a major role in India and China. Production of final processed products is growing, although a majority of production is still fresh produce and field crops with low value-added processing, such as dry or processed raw ingredients.
Aquaculture (shrimp and fish) on the other hand, is emerging in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Myanmar.
Textiles is another important trend.
Standards and legislation
Nine organic regulations are in place. In seven countries work on national standards and regulations is in progress.
Market
Sector growth is now also driven by imports, and local markets have taken off in many of the big cities in the South and Eastern part of region besides Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore.
Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Bangkok, Beijing, Shanghai, Jakarta, Delhi, Bangalore and other cities are increasing internal consumption of organic products.
More information
Fore more information see the 2009 edition of The World of Organic Agriculture.
The World of Organic Agriculture 2009
- FiBL and IFOAM (2009) The World of Organic Agriculture. Statistics and Emerging Trends 2009. Bonn, Frick, Geneva
More about The World of Organic Agriculture 2009
