25% target of organic land by 2030: Challenges and priorities for Central and Eastern Europe 15 December 2020

On 15 December 2020, IFOAM Organics Europe organised its Expert Group for Capacity Building in Central and Eastern Europe’s annual roundtable. It brought together 10 participants from 8 countries from the region.

Participants discussed their national challenges and priorities for achieving the Farm to Fork strategy’s target of 25% organic land by 2030, updated on the state of their organic market, and informed IFOAM Organics Europe on advocacy needs to develop organic further.

Some of the main hurdles in developing organic the group’s members highlighted are:

• A lack of consumers awareness on the benefits of organic;
• The subsidies-based system in many countries;
• Under-developed organic processing system; and
• The non-mandatory aspect of the 25% target, which does not pressure national governments to push for concrete actions.

The members highlighted that, in some countries, even though the share remains high in comparison to the EU average, the share of organic farmland tends to decrease. Such is the case in Estonia.

The second part of the roundtable provided a media workshop by Kristin Karlsson. The workshop gave the participants an opportunity to combine theory and practice on better comprehending media and approaching journalistic interviews.

The meeting’s report and minutes are available for IFOAM Organics Europe’s members and/or organisations from a Central and Eastern European country. Message [email protected] for these.