{"id":43759,"date":"2021-01-25T11:00:38","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T09:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bioecoactual.com\/?p=43759"},"modified":"2025-04-09T15:15:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T13:15:13","slug":"organic-trade-north-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bioecoactual.com\/en\/2021\/01\/25\/organic-trade-north-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Organic Trade in and with North Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa still plays a small, but growing role in the global organic market<\/strong>. North Africa is the most developed region in Africa and it is dynamic. Markus Arbenz highlights the key aspects of the situation in the region.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Organic<\/h2>\n

Organic Trade in North Africa: regional overview<\/h2>\n

North Africa is comprising the countries and territories of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, West Sahara and Mauretania. Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco are all strong in organic agriculture and trade. Libya and West Sahara have no organic agriculture and Mauretania has entered into the statistics only in 2020. Algeria is developing, however still has very small production and trade.<\/p>\n

The region has a Mediterranean to arid climate. The north coast is characterized by mild, wet winters and warm dry summers, providing special opportunities to produce organically for the local and international markets. Popular products include early potato or medical and aromatic plants (MAP) from Egypt, olive oil for blends from Tunisia, citrus fruits or argon oil from Morocco or dates from all North African countries.<\/p>\n

North Africa is not a uniform region<\/strong> with common institutions and intense internal trade relationship. There is also little exchange with Sub Saharan Africa. North Africa orients itself to the Mediterranean area and is for example integrated in MOAN, the Mediterranean Organic Agriculture Network or in IFOAM AgriBioMediterraneo. Recently, e.g. with Morocco hosting the 2021 AfrONet Africa Organic Conference and bidding for the Organic World Conference 2024 on behalf of Africa, there are arising efforts to collaborate with the rest of Africa.<\/p>\n

North Africa organic developments may serve as spearheading examples for the rest of Africa<\/strong>. North African countries were the first to regulate the sector and to establish own guarantee systems. Tunisia is the only African organic system that is recognized as being equivalent by the EU and Switzerland. Tunisia also takes a leading role particularly for the francophone world in organic supporting policies and in sector governance. Morocco has established a strong, government legitimized organic umbrella organization (FIMABIO) and Egypt has through SEKEM inspired the whole world with an international flagship for social entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n

North Africa organic production and marketing<\/h3>\n

In North Africa, 8.800 producers offer a wide range of products for the food, textile and body care products markets<\/strong>. One can identify various strategies of operators:<\/p>\n