Public Consultation on the Draft National Organic Strategy up to 2030

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is inviting written submissions from all interested stakeholders on the Draft National Organic Strategy up to 2030.

The current National Organic Strategy was developed in 2019 and runs to 2025. This consultation is the beginning of the development of a new strategy that will drive the development of the organic sector in line with the ambitions of Food Vision 2030.

The EU Farm to Fork Strategy is at the heart of the European Green Deal and aims to make food systems fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly with growing the production and consumption of organic food clearly highlighted.

Organic production is an overall system of farm management and food production that combines best environmental practices and a high level of biodiversity as outlined in the EU Organic Action Plan

There are now approximately 200,000 hectares under organic production in Ireland, which represents 4% of the utilisable agricultural area. The target set out in the Programme for Government is to achieve 7.5% of the total land area farmed organically by 2027 while the Climate Action plan target is to achieve 10% organic land area by 2030.

The National Organic Strategy 2025 to 2030 will outline the roadmap to secure a resilient Organic Food and Drink sector to supply growing domestic and export market demand.

It is intended to present the strategy to Minister Hackett in the first quarter of 2024.

In 2022, Minister of State Pippa Hackett re-established the Organic Strategy forum chaired by Padraig Brennan. The forum has brought together all relevant stakeholders in the Organic sector to drive the development of the sector and tackle barriers to its future growth. The Forum comprises representatives from relevant State Agencies, farm bodies, organic food processors and organic certification bodies.

Bord Bia is currently undertaking consumer research to understand the main drivers and barriers influencing purchase decisions among Irish consumers. A total of 2,500 Irish shoppers have participated in this research. The outputs from this research will inform the key messaging and positioning of Irish organic food as part of a national campaign from Autumn 2023 to grow the awareness and understanding of Irish organic food, drink and horticulture among Irish consumers.

Another significant development has been the introduction of the Growing Organics monitor farm programme.. Organic demonstration farms have been selected throughout the country to illustrate best practice and monitor key financial and environmental metrics. The farm demonstrations will involve four regional farm walks per annum between May and November. The walks will be spread across the main farming enterprises of beef, dairy, sheep, tillage and will be geographically dispersed based on participating farms.

The results of the Programme will be made available to all farmers and researchers to significantly improve the data available on all aspects of organic farming.

Organic Farming Scheme payment rates were reviewed in 2023 which resulted in an average increase of 54% in payments for livestock farmers.

Rates

All organic farmers and growers who are certified organic can avail of the new Participation Payment under the Organic Farming Scheme. This is an annual payment of €2,000 in Year 1 of the contract and €1,400 thereafter to organic licence holders to cover organic certification, administration and training costs.

With many of the actions under the 2019 to 2025 strategy now achieved, the Organic Forum has been tasked with the development of a new Organic Strategy. This will be closely aligned with Food Vision 2030 and the EU Farm to Fork strategy.

The aim of the strategy is to further increase participation in organic farming, promote organic consumption and capitalise on the significant increase in farmer numbers recorded in 2022.

Interested stakeholders may make submissions on any area but the three Axes of the EU Organic action plan are of particular relevance.

• Axis 1: Stimulate demand and ensure consumer trust.
• Axis 2: Stimulate conversion and reinforce the entire value chain.
• Axis 3: Organics leading by example: improve the contribution of organic farming to environmental sustainability.

Review of Organic Food Sector and Strategy for its development 2019 to 2025

Food Vision 2030

• Food Vision 2030 – A World Leader in Sustainable Food Systems

Stakeholders are invited to provide written submissions by email

Written submissions should be sent by email to organicstrategy@agriculture.gov.ie

or by post to

The deadline for receipt of submissions is 18 August 2023.

All submissions, including the name of the person or organisation making the submission, will be published on the Department’s website, however, if you wish to make a submission but not be identified publicly this can be accommodated provided it is clearly indicated when the submission is made. When making a submission please indicate if you agree, or not, to your name being published on the Department’s website. Should you wish to later withdraw this given consent then please email us at organicstrategy@agriculture.gov.ie

All submissions and comments submitted to the Department for this purpose are subject to release under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2014 and the European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations 2007- 2014. Submissions are also subject to Data Protection legislation. Personal, confidential or commercially sensitive information should not be included in your submission and it will be presumed that all information contained in your submission is releasable under the Freedom of Information Act 2014.

If any data is provided it will be processed in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR EU 2016/679), the Data Protection Acts 1988-2018, the Freedom of Information Act 2014 and the DPER Consultation Principles and Guidance. Any additional personal data received as part of your submission will not be processed, shared, or retained and will be destroyed upon receipt. Publication to the Department’s website of personal data associated with submissions will only take place where permission is received to do this.

Further information on Data Protection can be found on our website.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy and employs appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your information from unauthorised access. The Department will not process your personal data for any purpose other than that for which they were collected. Personal data may be exchanged with other Government Departments, local authorities, agencies under the aegis of the Department, or other public bodies, in certain circumstances where this is provided for by law.

The Department will only retain your personal data for as long as it is necessary for the purposes for which they were collected and subsequently processed. When the business need to retain this information has expired, it will be examined with a view to destroying the personal data as soon as possible, and in line with Department policy.