Overview of World Production and Marketing of Organic Wild Products

In order to support the 1 st IFOAM International Conference on Organic Wild Production the International Trade Centre (ITC: www.intracen.org) has commissioned and financed a survey on global organic wild collection, which was carried out by Organic Services and Helberg Consult.

Besides providing basic data on global wild collection activities, the survey explains the terminology used for wild production and compares different organic standards for wild collection (private and legal standards).

The findings of this research work underline the economic importance of organic wild collection as a source of ingredients for the organic industry complementary to organic farming. Nearly one thousand certified organic wild projects (972) have been identified in 64 countries worldwide. Thereof, the majority of countries (80 %) are less developed or emerging countries which shows the socio-economic importance of organic wild collection for countries with little income alternatives. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people (including collectors, local agents, employees in processing plants etc.) are involved in organic wild collection. The collectors belong, in most cases, to the most vulnerable social groups.

About 376 different organic wild products have been reported. Most of them are plant products. Only in some cases wild products are from hunting (game), fishing (sustainable fisheries) or from wild bees. For organic wild products, a collection area of 60,996,932 ha has been registered for organic certification. As reported by organic certification bodies a total of 201,759 tons of organic wild products have been collected in this area. However, the total collection area is estimated to be between 76,246,164 ha and 101,661,000 ha because not all existing organic wild projects could be identified.

The top ten countries with regard to the registered wild collection area are Romania, Kenya, Zambia, Finland, Azerbaijan, China, South-Africa, Russia, Namibia and Bolivia. But not in all of the mentioned countries significant commercial activities are taking place. Kenya is an example of a country with a large registered wild collection area but without relevant collection activities. On the contrary Bolivia, Romania or China are countries showing significant commercial activities. China’s certified organic wild product quantity reaches a share of 67 % of the total organic wild production quantity in 2005 with bamboo shoots as the leading species. All in all the organic share of wild products is in most of the cases below 1 % (with Brazil nuts as an exemption).

The global value of organic wild products has been calculated on the basis of indicative F.O.B. prices and is estimated to be between EUR 630 to 830 million in 2005. In this context it is important to know that not all certified organic wild products can be sold to organic markets. From the certified quantity of 70,000 tons of wild bamboo shoots only a minor part of about 10,00 tons is estimated to be sold to organic markets. The major market segment for organic wild products is the organic food market in Europe and in the United States. But other market segments like food supplements, natural personal care and natural remedies show also an increasing demand for organic ingredients. As a consequence, organic wild products benefit increasingly from this overall market development.

The study was undertaken on behalf of the International Trade Centre UNCTAD/WTO (ITC) and was funded under the Project INT/W8/01A “Export Development of Organic Products, Bio-diverse and other Environmentally friendly Products”.