Ecovalia promoting organics for a quarter of a century

Ecovalia is celebrating 25 years of history.

This is a pioneering company in regulating organic production and is also the main benchmark in organic certification for agriculture and livestock in Spain, which gives it a leading position in Europe.

Ecovalia has 15,500 member farmers and more than 1 million ha under certified organic cultivation. President Alvaro Barrera said as part of its 2030 project, Ecovalia has two key goals it aims to achieve in the next 14 years.

“Firstly, for the consumption of organic products to reach a share of 20% in the Spanish market. And secondly, for the area dedicated to organics to reach 30% of the useful agricultural area in Spain.” This will undoubtedly be a tremendous challenge because currently only 6.9% of the crops in Spain are devoted to organic production.

Barrera also said Spain still has a task pending to get organic consumption levels to match those of other European countries.

 “Although the Spanish are leaders in organic production, our compatriots practically don’t consume it. Currently, the domestic market does not even consume 1% of the average organics consumed in other EU countries. But our goal is precisely to reverse this situation,” he said.

Part of the strategy to encourage consumption is geared towards promoting the creation of new industries in the organics sector such as organics markets and other platforms that can connect small producers to the distribution networks.