The National Organics Strategy 2024-2030 is Ireland’s roadmap for growth within the Organic food and farming sector. This strategy highlights the importance of investment into the Organics sector to develop a sustainable food system that benefits farmers, food producers, local communities, consumers, and the natural environment.
The strategy has six key priorities with the overall aim of growing the wholesale output value of the sector to €750m by 2030. The six key priorities (KPs) at the centre of the strategy are:
1. Supporting Organic Farming Participation
2. Coordinating the Value Chain
3. Growing the Domestic Market
4. Driving Export Growth
5. Expanding Public Procurement
6. Boosting Skills and Support
The primary ambition of the strategy is to increase the area of organic production to 10% or approximately 450,000 hectares by 2030. Furthermore, these priorities aim to grow the wholesale output value for the organic sector to €750 million by 2030. This would represent a fourfold increase on 2022 levels.
Projections for growth within the organics sector in Ireland is highlighted in the strategy, broken down by category, based on the following assumptions:
• Ambition to have 10% of land area farmed organically by 2030 is achieved
• 8,500 farms in the OFS by 2030
• 45% of new entrants to OFS are cattle farms
• A similar proportion consist of sheep farms
• Leakage levels of 10% for cattle and less than 50% for lamb by 2028
• Stock numbers on new entrant farms are marginally lower than 2020–2022 entrants
• Average wholesale prices remain 30% ahead of 2021 levels by 2030.
Strategic and sustainable development of the market for Irish Organics, nationally and abroad, is key to achieving these projections and ambitions. The national Organic Farming Scheme remains a key enabler to support producers transitioning to Organic practices. More information on the Organic Farming Scheme can be found on the CAP Network Ireland website at Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) – CAP Network Ireland.
As part of CAP Network Ireland’s Innovation Hub, we are carrying out an Organics Pilot to collect and transfer relevant information and innovations to promote the Organic sector in Ireland. This targeted and strategic knowledge transfer aims to support the ambitions and strategic priorities under the National Organics Strategy.
If you would like to find out more about the Organics Pilot and the Innovation Hub, more information can be found on the CAP Network Ireland website here: Organics Pilot – CAP Network Ireland.