Abstract:

The aim of the study was to assess organic farming in the Visegrad Group countries after the accession of these countries to the European Union. Statistical materials published by FIBL and IFOAM and in the Eurostat database were used in the study. The subject of the analysis was the data on organic farming in the countries of the Visegrad Group. The basic time range of data covers the years 2004-2018.The article uses basic methods of statistical analysis of data, i.e. Pearson's correlation, trend lines and dynamics indicators. Analyses showed changes in both the area and the number of producers and processors of organic food in the countries of the Visegrad Group. However, these changes in individual countries of the Group were different. Despite a significant increase in the area of organic farming in Poland, the share of the area of these crops in relation to the total area of agricultural crops in the country is small. The country that develops very dynamically in this respect is the Czech Republic, where organic farming accounted for almost 15% of the arable land in 2018. A systematic decrease in the average area of organic farms is visible especially in the Czech Republic, but also in Slovakia. In the Czech Republic, the area of organic farms decreases annually by almost 14 ha. Poland is a country where the trend was different in this respect. In Poland, since 2014, a downward trend has been visible both in terms of crop area and the number of organic producers. On the other hand, organic food processing industry is developing, although for many years it was a bottleneck in the country's organic food distribution channel. In all countries of the Group, the first place takes the cultivation of organic cereals, followed by dry legumes and high-protein crops for the production of grain and oil seeds.