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1.1.4 General Trends

Two major influences can be detected on the number of growers and the area devoted to organic production under certified production during the 1990s. Changes to the financial structure of BIOGRO in 1994, with a raising of the inspection fee, caused a number of growers to leave the certification system and become uncertified suppliers or move to the Demeter or the new Northland label. Over the same period, the move towards organic exporting began to emerge which increased the number of growers, the land area devoted to certain types of organic production, and concentrated the industry into certain provinces.

Number of BIOGRO Certified Organic Growers/Licensees

Table 1.1 shows that the total number of BIOGRO certified organic licensees increased steadily until 1992 and then fluctuated between 1992 and 1995 before beginning to increase again.

Table 1.1: Number of BIOGRO Licensees

Hidden within these totals is an interesting transition between 1992 and 1994. Examination of the BIOGRO licensees lists over these years shows that of the 232 licensees listed in 1992, 90 exited from BIOGRO certification by 1994. Over the same time period a significant number of new growers entered certification. A marked majority of these growers were producing vegetables for WFF, kiwifruit for the NZKMB, or honey. Consequently, the total number of licensees did not change dramatically, but the types of growers, the area of land in particular production systems, and the regional distribution of growers all changed significantly. These changes will be discussed below.

Land Area in BIOGRO Certified Organic Production

Aggregate totals for the land area in certified organic production give no clear trends. It is generally recognised that grower responses to information requests about land area are inconsistent, with many growers confusing the need to provide the specific area of their certified crops with their total farm area.

Table 1.2: Hectares of BIOGRO Certified Organic Production

These totals are also disproportionately influenced by the amount of permanent pasture being recorded. One of the major growth areas in organic production - kiwifruit - has had a significant increase in terms of orchard numbers, but only registers a slight impact on the total land area of organic production in New Zealand due to the small size of kiwifruit orchards. Some land area data can, however, be usefully examined in the context of specific production types and this will be detailed below.

Regional Distribution of BIOGRO Growers/Licensees

The period between 1992 and 1994 was disproportionably influenced by the changing financial structure of BIOGRO. However, by taking 1994 and 1997 as indicator years, the regional long term distribution of organic production can also be seen to be changing. In 1994, there were several provinces with a large concentration of organic growers, but generally organic production was spread throughout the country. By 1997 concentration into certain provinces was starting to take place.

Table 1.3: Changes in BIOGRO Certified Grower Numbers 1994-1997

This Table demonstrates the influence of two things. First, the emergence of a rival local certification system for organic produce in Northland that had a strong impact on grower numbers in BIOGRO certification in both Northland and Auckland. Second, and more importantly, the impact of exporting on key provinces. Every province which showed strong growth between 1994 and 1997 was situated close to either a WFF processing plant (Christchurch, Gisborne, Fielding) or was strongly involved with the kiwifruit industry (Bay of Plenty).

In effect, the distribution of BIOGRO certified growers is starting to concentrate into a small range of provinces. These are the same provinces where export development has taken place. At the same time, grower numbers in most other provinces remained fairly stable, the exceptions were Northland and Auckland in which a number of growers either moved out of organic production, or moved towards alternative certification labels or uncertified production.

Changes in Production Type

At the same time that the regional distribution of growers has been changing, the way in which production is taking place is also changing. Two broad styles of organic production take place, with broadacre production relying on rotations of pasture and crops to maintain soil fertility while more intensive methods like market gardening and orcharding use composting systems and operate on a much smaller scale. Consequently, Table 1.4 is useful for seeing changes in broadacre production but is not sufficiently detailed to reveal subtle changes in the area of intensive organic production.

Table 1.4: Changes in BIOGRO Certified Production Types

What can be clearly seen in this Table is that broadacre production has experienced a significant move away from maintaining permanent pasture and towards mixed crop production. This move would most likely be a response to the opportunities in broadacre vegetable production being developed by the WFF export programme. The intensive production categories are too small to show any significant changes.

The total area of organic production registered under BIOGRO is nearly 9,000 hectares. The area certified organic, under the alternative Demeter label is estimated at 2,500 hectares. This gives a total New Zealand area under certification of 11,500 hectares. Forty-six growers were certified under the Demeter label in 1997.

Contact for Enquiries

Kay Brown
Sector Performance Policy
MAF Policy
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
PO Box 2526
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND

Phone: +64 4 894 0695
Fax: +64 4 4 894 0746
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