Statistics reveal a decline in organic land area in the UK has slowed significantly in comparison to drop-offs seen in the last four years. That’s the key fact to be found in the latest Organic Statistics released by Defra and it has been welcomed by leading control body, Organic Farmers & Growers (OF&G).

While the sector has still seen an overall reduction in total organic land and in-conversion land, the fall for fully-certified organic hectarage in the UK was only 3.9 per cent, a huge reduction compared with 7.38 per cent and 7.26 for the two preceding years.

The headline figures in the report may appear more concerning for the pipeline of in-conversion land, which was down 24 per cent for the UK as a whole (comparing with 12.71 and 24.54 per cent for the two years prior) but there are a number of factors that provide an explanation for this and which temper any potential alarm for the sector.

The latest numbers are compiled based on a snapshot taken from the data supplied by organic control bodies at the very end of 2013 and are the most up-to-date aggregation of such information that is currently available.

OF&G has called in the past for a move to more timely reporting, while acknowledging the obstacles that exist to achieving this.

Steven Jacobs, OF&G research and development officer, said: “These are the latest figures available for the sector as a whole in the UK and, despite the headline numbers being negatives, we can see the positives in them. As the economy is re-awakening and the organic market along with it, stemming the loss of producers is crucial and we’d hope to see that turn around in the next couple of years. In the meantime, it does play into the hands of those who remained steadfast with organics and who will see demand increase for their produce.

Looking more deeply at the detailed numbers, they contain decreases in production which are to be expected in line with the reduced hectarage, though organic poultry has seen a 1.2 per cent increase and, with eggs and poultry as a keen indicator of shopper preferences, this could be a precursor to improvements in demand in other sectors.

The full report is available to download for free at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/317366/organics-statsnotice-05jun14.pdf