"The State of Sustainable Markets: Statistics and Emerging Trends 2015" is a new global data report on fast-growing voluntary sustainability standards. It outlines the share of bananas, cocoa, coffee, cotton, forestry, palm oil, soybeans, cane sugar and tea in 14 major standards. .
The report is based on a partnership between the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), the International Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD) and the International Trade Centre (ITC), and is supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).
Certain commodities are seeing a widespread shift towards being produced in more sustainable ways. Palm oil that is certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, for example, has seen the greatest jump with certified area expanding almost 30 times between 2008-2014. Certified forest area expanded globally by 41% between 2008 and 2014. Since 2008, all standards included in this report have experienced growth in Voluntary Sustainability Standards-compliant areas. The year 2008 is the first year for which data on all the Voluntary Sustainability Standards (with the exception of GLOBALG.A.P.) covered in this report were compiled by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), see more in the link section below.
Sustainability standards are seeing their production areas grow as farmers subscribe to their requirements; Rainforest Alliance, a sustainability labelling initiative, has seen their certified area grow nine-fold in only four years.
Other findings also show that India has the highest number of organic producers and also ranked high for sustainable tea growing area. The United States topped the list of countries with the largest market for organic food.
The report includes a wide range of data for independent analysis and offers a snapshot of voluntary sustainability standards and their growing influence over markets. By researching, recording and measuring this growth, the impact of sustainable production is becoming clear and creating opportunities for SMEs to increase their production and access new markets that are demanding more evidence of this sustainable production.
Further information
Contact
- Julia Lernoud, FiBL Switzerland
- Helga Willer, FiBL Switzerland
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