CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING THE DEVELOPMENT OF ORGANIC AGRICULTURE IN THE WORLD, THE EU-27 AND ROMANIA

The paper aimed to analyze the development of organic agriculture in the world, the EU and Romania, based on the statistical data for the period 2006-2010 and the index, share and comparison methods. Organic agriculture covers 34.04 Million ha at world level, of which 26.99 % in Europe and 32.08 % in Oceania. The largest areas in organic agriculture are in Australia, Argentina, the USA, Brazil, Spain, China and Italy. At world level, there are 1.6 million organic producers, over 63 % operating in Africa and Asia, especially in India, Uganda and Mexico. In 2010, organic food sales accounted for Euro 44.5 Billions of which 50 % in Europe. In the same year, the organic agriculture area increased by 20 % in the EU-27 and reached 9.01 million ha and continues to grow, representing 5.10 % of agricultural land. The larges areas in organic agriculture are in Spain, Italy, Germany and France. In the EU-27 there are 219,290 organic producers of which 40 % in Italy, Spain, Germany and Austria. In 2010, Romania’s area in organic agriculture was 300,205 ha, 2 times higher than in 2006. A number of 10,253 organic operators were registered in 2010, representing 4.67 %, of the EU number. The main organic products are cereals, vegetables, wine, honey, dairy products, representing a chance for Romania’s export on the EU market

CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING THE E.U. ROLE IN THE WORLD GRAPE PRODUCTION

The paper aimed to analyze the EU-27 position in the world grape production based on the data collected from FAO Stat data base for the period 2000-2008, using the index and share methods. The EU-27 is the most important vine cultivator and grape producer in the world. With its 3.5 million ha planted with vine, it accounts for 90.21 % of Europe’s area of vineyards and 48.14 % of the world vine area. In 2008, the EU-27 produced 25.1 million tones grapes placing it on the top position and contributing by 41.56 % to the world production. The top European countries: Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Romania achieved 21.8 million tones grapes, representing 86.98 % of the EU-27 and 32.96 % of the world grape production. Italy, Spain and France are among the top 10 grape producers in the world. As a conclusion, even thou the EU-27 planted area decreased by 8.24 % and its grape production declined by 16.16 %, the EU-27 continues to remain the main grape producer in the world

CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING WORLD WINE MARKET

In 2010, world wine production accounted for 26,384 Million liters, wine export for 10,436 Million liters and import for 9,865 Million liters. Even thou, wine production registered a slight decline, export and import have been intensively developed. Wine consumption increased by 5.45 %, accounting for 23,200 Million liters, meaning 3.47 liters/capita in average at world level. Wine export/import ratio has slightly declined from 111.35 % in 2000 to 105.78 %, but it is still an over unitary ratio showing a highly efficient wine trade. As a conclusion, wine will continue to be an attractive drink and food product of high efficiency in international production and trade