Organic businesses have reached a record quota of 2,980 and are looking towards 3,000.
While on the decline on a national level, in Tuscany organic businesses have added 2,223 new companies in the last 10 years (+277%), and 125 during 2007 alone.
Regional Agricultural Superintendent Susanna Cenni highlighted the facts at a convention dedicated to the opportunities for organic businesses in the area of the Rural Development Programme', which took place today in Siena.
The province of Siena dedicates the most agricultural space to organic practices (28,089 hectares, equal to 28% of the regional total), followed by Siena, Pisa and Arezzo.
The superintendent illustrated opportunities the programme makes available to organic firms.
The measure that directly impacts the organic sector is the one relative to subsidies for agro-environmental projects', which provides for sustaining agricultural production systems that have low environmental impact.
They have to do with the introduction and maintenance of organic businesses and are valued differently from cultivation subsidies (from a minimum of 125 euros per hectare for cultivated fodder to 600 euros for olive groves, 720 for vineyards and 840 for farmland).
Superintendent Cenni explained that the area had received the highest awards among all of the regions, even though they had to keep in mind the new method of calculating imposed by the European Commission that lowered imports for all member states.
Organic businesses will have the opportunity to use many of the new PSR measures, including modernizing farm equipment (where organic businesses have priority) or the participation in quality food systems.
Cenni also underscored the region and PSR are following the same path in an effort to sustain the sector which is considered an outpost of their agricultural policies: the policies for the defence against genetic pollution and against OGM, the rule that favours the introduction of organic foods in public canteens, as well as the realization of the regional network of direct distribution.
Within the year Tuscany will have 13 new farmers' markets and 14 shops managed primarily by organic producers.
