The “BioRegio Bavaria 2020” program launched in 2012 by Agriculture Minister Helmut Brunner (CSU) bore its first fruits after just two years. In the first quarter of 2015 alone, the number of agricultural businesses that work according to organic standards rose by almost ten percent to 7,350. In total, these companies in Bavaria manage an area of 28,000 hectares according to ecological principles. This further strengthens Bavaria's leading position in the organic farming sector within Germany.
Financial support program for organic conversion
As part of the funding program, among other things, the annual premium per hectare of cultivated area was increased from the previous 200 to the future 273 euros. In addition, existing bureaucratic hurdles should be reduced. On the one hand, this is intended to create a financial incentive for farmers to convert their businesses from conventional production to organic, and on the other hand, it is intended to simplify the transition by reducing bureaucracy.
Over 600 new organic farms in the first quarter of 2015
In the entire year of 2014, only 100 farmers switched to organic; in the first quarter of 2015, 600 new organic farms were added. One explanation for this could be the fact that switching from conventional to organic farming is not possible overnight. The organic standards, for example, stipulate that a harvest may only be sold as organic if at least two years have passed since the last conventional cultivation of the corresponding area; fruit farmers must wait a period of three years. Animals must also be kept in a species-appropriate manner, which requires modifications on many farms.
More than a third of all organic farms in Germany are in Bavaria
The “BioRegio Bavaria 2020” program was launched in 2013, so that the organic boom in the Free State is now starting somewhat late, mainly for the reasons described. Agriculture Minister Brunner refers to statistics according to which over a third of all organic farms are located in Bavaria and over half of the organic milk produced nationwide comes from the Free State. Bavaria wants to double agricultural production on an ecological basis by 2020.
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