Across the globe, a total of 43.1 million hectares of agricultural land were organic at the end of 2013, with the global market for organic products reaching US$72 billion. This is the result of the latest edition of "The World of Organic Agriculture", which was presented by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) and the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) at the BIOFACH trade fair last week. Compared to the previous year, organic farmland increased by almost 6 million hectares and 170 countries reported organic farming activities. “We are very pleased to see the recent excellent growth worldwide”, said Markus Arbenz, executive director of IFOAM International. “The positive environmental, social and economic impacts of the sector in the global South and North confirm the sector’s importance as a lighthouse.” The regions with the largest areas of organic agricultural land are Oceania (17.3 million hectares or 40% of total organic area) and Europe (11.5 million hectares, 27% of total). In Latin America, 6.6 million hectares of farmland are organic. Australia is the country with the largest organic agricultural area (17.2 million hectares, with 97% of that area used for grazing), followed by Argentina (3.2 million hectares) and the United States (2.2 million hectares). Two million organic producers were reported in 2013. The countries with the highest number of organic producers were India with 650,000 farmers, Uganda (189,610) and Mexico (169,703). The global market for organic products is booming: Market research company Organic Monitor estimates the global market in 2013 to have reached $72 billion (around 55 billion euros). The United States is the leading market with 24.3 billion euros, followed by Germany (€7.6 billion) and France (€4.4 billion). Official market data was published for the first time for China which has become the fourth biggest organic market worldwide. (ab)