In a concept of circularity of food resources, the poultry sector is constantly reducing its food and water requirements (link to sk1) in order to supply with increasing safety and quality the proteins from the farms that provide meat and eggs to the whole world, participating in food security as a constant and widespread accessibility to safe, healthy and affordable food.
More About Chicken finds it useful to disseminate a report prepared by the FAS analyst group that we list below along with the link to the report.
The FAS (Foreign Agricultural Service) leads the efforts of the USDA (U.S. Department of agriculture) to help developing countries improve their agricultural systems and build their trade capacity.
FAS also runs food assistance programmes that not only help meet the nutritional needs of beneficiaries around the world, but also support agricultural development and education to ensure long-term food security.
Although not directly addressing the poultry sector, the analysis nevertheless covers the topic of food needs and the effects of research and demand for ‘organic’.
Consumers of organic products in Europe can be divided into two groups:
- The so-called ‘regular buyers’, a rather small and committed group that has been buying organic products for decades. Although small, this group grew during the COVID-19 pandemic and is responsible for almost half of the EU’s organic sales. Its constituents tend to buy from organic speciality shops or farmers’ markets and price is not an important factor for them in making a purchasing decision.
- The second group is much larger and represents a different demographic group. They are dual-income households without children, older consumers (aged 50-75) and newcomers. They buy organic products for various reasons, including healthy lifestyle, food safety issues, animal welfare, sustainability, quality, perceived taste and innovative packaging. This group of light shoppers buys organic products in both supermarkets and speciality shops. This is the group that shifted consumption patterns the most in 2022, buying less organic food than in the previous year. However, due to its size and diversity, it is this group that the organic industry should focus on to generate future growth.
The growing demand for organic products has led to an increase in organic production. Organic farmland in the EU has more than doubled in the last decade. The largest areas are found in Spain, France, Italy and Germany and together account for more than half of the EU’s organic area. The latest estimates show that in 2022, 13.5 million hectares or 33 million acres were under organic agricultural management in the EU.
Here is the list of analysts who co-authored the report, which you can find at this link: EU Consumers save on food and buy less organic in 2022_Berlin_European Union_E42023-0005:
– Ornella Bettini FAS Rome for Italy
– Sophie Bolla USEU/FAS Brussels on EU policy and Belgium and Luxembourg
– Mila Boshnakova FAS Sofia for Bulgaria
– Monica Dobrescu FAS Bucharest for Romania
– Dimosthenis Faniadis FAS/Rome for Greece
– Anna Galica FAS Warsaw for Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania
– Golya Gellert FAS Budapest for Hungary
– Martina Hlavackova FAS Prague for Czech Republic and Slovakia
– Laurent Journo FAS Paris for France
– Steve Knight FAS London for Ireland
– Roswitha Krautgartner FAS Vienna for Austria and Slovenia
– Arantxa Medina FAS Madrid for Spain and Portugal
– Andreja Misir FAS Zagreb for Croatia
– Marcel Pinckaers FAS The Hague covers the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Finland
– Leif Rehder FAS Coordinator of the Berlin report, lead author and in Germany
The editorial staff of M.A.C.
