In most western countries the demand for organic food is rising (Kearney, 2010). This trend seems to be driven by consumers’ beliefs on health, animal welfare, environmental impact and their surroundings. In west European countries the percentage of the organic agricultural land is higher than in Balkan countries (See Figure 1; Willer & Lernoud, 2017). But still, west European countries have a higher market growth than production growth, therefore their production cannot meet their demand (Willer & Lernoud, 2017). Retail percentages also differ, indicating that consumers’ from Balkan countries seem to be less interested in organic food. This could be related to several differences, such as: perception of animal health and welfare, average income, culture and, national laws and standards for organic animal production systems. These differences are interesting to for instance understand where further development is needed to meet the demand of organic food.
The European Union is at the top of the world’s animal welfare standards (European Court of Auditors, 2018). The EU made a legislation for general animal welfare according to the following 3 objectives: “Establish a sustainable management system for agriculture; Aim at producing products of high quality; and Aim at producing a wide variety of foods and other agricultural products that respond to consumers’ demand for goods produced by the use of processes that do not harm the environment, human health, plant health or animal health and welfare” (Jurn Sanders, 2013).
Additionally, the EU stated a legislation for organic farming following these four principles: “ The appropriate design and management of biological processes based on ecological systems using natural resources; The restriction of the use of external inputs; The strict limitation of the use of chemically synthesized inputs to exceptional cases; The adaptation, where necessary, of the rules of organic production taking account of sanitary status, regional differences in climate and local conditions, stages of development and specific husbandry practices.” (Jurn Sanders, 2013)
Furthermore, the EU provided more specific principles for farming, processing of organic food and feed. This includes husbandry conditions, breeding strategies, feeding rules, disease prevention and veterinary treatments (Jurn, Sanders, 2013).
All these objectives and principles are achieved by mandatory controls and rules on labelling and trade (Jurn Sanders, 2013). These control systems are important to make sure that animal welfare legislation is followed properly. The consistency of official inspections have shown to be accurate (European Court of Auditors, 2018).
The European legislation is not very detailed, which creates different interpretations in the EU member states, causing differences in animal welfare (Jurn Sanders, 2013). Besides this legislation of the EU, every country can therefore add their own national legislation and the official companies who check the farms can also add rules which need to be met to be approved (“Verordening » Skal.nl,” n.d.). This makes it very complex to make a clear distinction between west European countries and Balkan countries. This is also confusing for citizens in the member states and makes them question the trustworthiness of organic farms and organic products.
Since the amount and accessibility of information on animal welfare increased, consumers gained more concern about animal welfare (BROOM, n.d.). The concern varies in different societal groups, with division by age, gender, education and familiarity with farming (Clark, et al., 2016). Organic farming in the EU mostly increased, because of the increasing consumer demand for organic food, which started later in Balkan countries(Jurn Sanders, 2013).
Social-demographical characteristics influence consumer’s attitudes and concern for farm animal welfare (Clark, et al., 2016). For example, concern for welfare decreases with age and increases with feminine gender. More interestingly, people living in a rural areas tend to have less concern about farm animal welfare, because they approve of current welfare conditions. The percentage of people living in rural areas in Balkan countries is higher than in west European countries, indicating that less people in Balkan countries care about farm animal welfare (Eurostat, 2018). Additionally, people living in rural areas, on average have a lower education, which is also related to less concern about farm animal welfare.
Furthermore, per capita income is lower in Balkan countries than in west European countries (“European countries by GDP per capita 2018 - StatisticsTimes.com,” n.d.). Organic products are mostly more expensive than non-organic products, which makes them possibly too expensive for citizens from Balkan countries. Figure 2 clearly shows the lower per capita sales in Balkan countries, comparing to west European countries.
To protect the consumers the EU created an EU organic logo, which ensures that organic food is produced following the official legislation (See Figure 3). Most consumers know the concept of organic farming, but they don’t recognize or trust the EU organic logo yet.
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Besides the EU organic label, there are a lot of other organic or animal welfare related labels, which creates confusion and distrust for certain labels (Janssen & Hamm, 2012). Which labels consumers do trust, is mostly not related to objective knowledge. This indicates that the labelling scheme of animal welfare can be different than the consumers anticipate, making it hard for consumers to follow up on their beliefs for animal welfare.
Subsidies determine the growth and maintenance of organic farming. In Poland for example, organic production depends more strongly on additional payments from the agricultural policy, than in some west European countries (European Union, 2018). In the whole of Europe the economic slowdown also slows down the increase in organic agriculture, which is a bigger burden in the less wealthy Balkan countries (Schaer et al., 2013). This is such a burden because, these financial resources are needed to retrieve more costumers which can buy organic products and it is also needed for developmental issues such as; subsidies, education, upscaling and informing consumers.
The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development determined an amount which they contributed from 2014 until 2020 for organic farming, which is based on the size of organic farming area in 2014 (Meredith & Willer, 2016). However, the amount of support each member state contributes for organic farming is not related to their total organic farming area and there is also no clear pattern between the different Member States (See Figure 4).
Furthermore, there is a difference between Member States in how they determine the budget distribution. Governmental support from Member States is needed in the form of education, marketing support, maintenance and conversion support. Not all Member States have accurate, elaborated strategies to allocate the contributions in the right way.
The percentage of the organic agricultural land is higher in West European countries than in Balkan countries and their organic food sales per capita are also higher.
First of all, this difference may be influenced by the European legislation for organic farm animals, which it is not detailed enough. Therefore every country interprets the rules differently, which makes it complex and unclear what the specific rules in each country are. When citizens of a country don’t know the legislation and rules, they tend to distrust animal welfare in organic farms.
Secondly, the consumer demand in Balkan countries might be lower, because of the higher percentage of people living in rural areas and with a lower educational level, which makes them less concerned about animal welfare. furthermore, per capita income is on average lower in Balkan countries, which can make organic products too expensive for these citizens.
Thirdly, there are a lot of different animal welfare related labels on products, which creates confusion and distrust for certain labels. Even if consumers would like to buy organic products or products from high animal welfare systems, it is hard to chose the one that is in line with their beliefs.
Lastly, the growth of organic agricultural land in Balkan countries is lower, which may be due the global economic slowdown and an uneven distribution of the contribution from their governments.
This shows from different sides that there is a difference in organic farming between West European countries and Balkan countries. The difference being that the West European countries are more developed in organic farming and consumer concern, while the Balkan countries still have a long way to go.
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