Information on data and terms of use

Database related issues

Please note that we are currently working on a good presentation of the detailed data sources and the specific remarks on the data.

• *: If numbers have an asterisk that means that there is a specific explanation for this number. In a separate document, we provide the relevant explanations. (Notes on data, currently updated).
• Data sources: Our document on data sources is currently updated.
• Data year: Not all countries provide regular data updates. Our document on the data year is currently updated.

General notes

• Countries: For countries and areas, FiBL uses, in most cases,  the names of countries and areas as provided by the United Nations Statistics Division. Where the designation "country" appears, it covers countries, areas or territories. (See http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49alpha.htm)
• Data sources: Data were gathered from organizations of the private sector, governments, and certification bodies. For detailed information on the data sources, please see detailed documents.
• Direct year-to-year comparison: A direct year-to-year comparison is not always possible, as the data sources may change or data access becomes better. Furthermore, for market and trade values fluctuating exchange rates must be born in mind.
• Completeness of data: For some countries either no current data were available, or the data provided may not be complete, and for some countries no data were available. It may, therefore, be assumed that the extent of organic agriculture is larger than documented on this website.
• Up-to-dateness of data: Please note that when using the data, when no new data were available, the data from the previous year were used. (See our document on the data year).
• Data revisions: Data revisions and corrections are carried out on a constant base, and our tables are updated accordingly.
• Negative values. In some cases, there may be negative values, whichi we  use to account for areas with double cropping as otherwise the overall total would be incorrect.
• Definitions can vary from country to country. (e.g., the indicator "animals [heads]" may refer to the animals slaughtered in a year or the number of places).
• Comparability of data: due to the reasons mentioned above, data are often not comparable, and this should be borne in mind when analysing the data.

Area data

• Organic areas: Data represent certified land/areas that are already fully converted as well as land under conversion, since many data sources do not separate or include the latter (for instance Australia, Austria, Germany, Switzerland), and since land under conversion is under organic management.
• Conversion status: Not for all countries information on the conversion status is available (e.g., Germany). Some countries only provide data on the fully converted land (e.g., United States). For some countries data are collated from several certifiers, some of which provided information on the conversion status, whereas others do not (e.g., Ethiopia). Therefore, neither at a country/regional level and crop level, the sum given for land under conversion and the fully converted land necessarily adds up to the total land under organic management. Hence, the indicator "Area" refers to the fully converted and in-conversion organic area.
• Share of total agricultural land: In some cases, the calculation of the shares of organically managed land, based on the Eurostat and FAOSTAT data, might differ from the organic shares obtained from ministries or local experts.

Crop data

• Comparison data with the overall total for the crop data  (from FAOSTAT) may use different nomenclatures/definitions and comparisons are not always possible.
• Furthermore, in some cases, the areas may refer to agroforestry areas, where the provided crop surfaces are the total surface of the agroforestry system, including shade trees and other crops. Such cases are difficult to compare with data on the effective crop area. This fact may also explain why sometimes the shares of certain organic crops of all crops in a country are particularly high.
• Classification challenges: Sometimes for crops/crop groups specified as "other", "no details", the allocation to a certain group by country or over the years may change, hence data are often not comparable.
• For permanent grassland/pasture and meadows and temporary grassland, the allocation to one of these groups may vary from year to year between within one country; hence a direct year-to-year comparison is often not possible.
• In some cases, there may be negative values, which we use to account for areas with double cropping as otherwise the overall total would be incorrect.
• The level of detail by crop/crop group provided by the countries may vary from year to year; again this makes a direct year-to-year comparison often impossible.

Production data (currently not displayed)

• "Production volume" refers in most cases to the production from the fully converted land; this has to be taken into account when comparing the organic area and production with the total area and production (shares for area might differ substantially for that of the production).
• "Production volume" may refer to the actual production volume or to the volume that was marketed; thus data are not always comparable. The indicators "Area [%]" and "Production [%]" show the comparison with a country's overall total for a crop.
• Comparison data with the overall total (from FAOSTAT) may use different nomenclatures/definitions and comparisons are not always possible.
• The total area/production in order to calculate the organic shares were taken from FAOSTAT (see http://faostat.fao.org/site/567/default.aspx#ancor).

Producer and other operators

• Producers: Some countries report the number of smallholders, and others only the number of companies, projects or grower groups, which may each comprise many producers.

Market data

• Fluctuating exchange rates: Growth rates for one country (e.g., UK) and the comparison with others may be distorted.
• Existing data are sometimes not complete, and the level of completeness varies from country to country or even within one country over the years, which may be due to different methodologies of data collection. Therefore a country-to-country comparison is not always possible; this applies particularly to production data, retail sales, exports, and imports.
• Special care should be taken when using retail sales data by commodity: for most countries, not all products are covered, and often the numbers also for the covered products are not complete. 
• Data classifications and aggregations can differ from country to country, making comparisons difficult.
• For countries that do not use the euro, values were converted to euros. Due to fluctuating exchange rates, data are therefore not comparable over the years for these countries.
• Please also note when using the data, when no new data were available, the data from the previous year were used. (See details in the separate file on data year).