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Project Organics Brasil mapped the Brazilian organic production areas in order to provide the foreign market with an official number regarding certified and traceable farming and harvesting areas, according to international requirements.

In 2007, the project started mapping with the support of international accreditation organizations with offices in Brazil, like IBD, Ecocert, IMO, BCS, OIA, and Control Union. A data gathering criterion was adopted by the certification organizations (IMO, IBD, Ecocert, and BCS) that agreed to participate in the mapping, as follows:

• A single data gathering parameter was established by all certification organizations participating in the mapping. According to a common agreement, there is separation among certified projects for the international market; products in conversion (with six months to one year time to get international certification); and harvesting and processed products for acceptance in the international market as organics;
• This study includes only projects in which natural and semi-processed products come from internationally certified farming/harvesting areas. Processed products were not included.

Results show that there are 932,120 hectars of internationally certified and accredited areas for organic products and 6,182,180 hectars for harvested products.

Source: IMO, IBD, Ecocert, and BCS certifying organizations.

The areas considered for harvesting are conventionally designated as 500,000 hectar areas, producing up to 5,000 tons of exportable products.

           Ming Liu, Organics Brasil’s Project Manager analyses these figures with the certifying organizations, as follows: 

1- The northern, middle-western regions have the larger certified projects, and the main products are: grains, regional fruits, seeds, and nuts, besides internationally renowned products like: açaí, heart-of-palm, and nuts. Despite its extensive certified area, it is conditioned to product seasonality. There is no risk of environmental and social degradation in the production areas. Their traceability guarantees that the area will not become a monoculture or that harvesting will go uncontrolled. This is necessary for foreign market product evaluation and credibility purposes.

2- Projects including high value added processed products are not considered in this study. Mapping of industrialized products is limited to information about the companies. Thus, the study shows a very low concentration of certified areas in the southern and southeastern regions, where there is a high concentration of semi-industrialized or fully industrialized products.

3- The most significant harvesting areas are the middle-western and northern regions, where there is a high concentration of products known worldwide as products of Brazilian origin, of high added value. These products are: seed oils from the Amazon, used in the food and cosmetics industries; nuts, used in the cookie and energy bars industries; juice fruits, in natura and other applications; and new products under study for application in the natural products market.

4- The data included in this study is supplied by the participating certifying organizations, in compliance with domestic certification processes, but with features accepted only in external markets, and not necessarily in the Brazilian market.

5- In this study, only internationally certified projects were considered. By and large, all internationally certified projects are also certified for the domestic market. However, the reverse is not always the case, because some foreign market requirements may be quite different from Brazilian requirements. Likewise, this doesn’t mean that the internationally certified production areas mapped in this study are necessarily for export.

6- The domestic market figures are still limited by MAPA  (Ministry of Agriculture, Farming, and Supply) criteria, which may be very different from international accreditation and regulation criteria.

 PROJECT ORGANCIS BRASIL – www.organicsbrasil.org

Source: Ming Liu –Organics Brasil Project Manger - Phone: +55 (41) 3271-9110       

 Vera Moreira/ Organics Brasil Press Media Relations

Phone:  + 55 (11) 3253-0586 

vera@veramoreira.com.br