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Ligita Melece, Organic agriculture plays an important role in the sustainable and environment-friendly
agricultural production. The authors paper analyse the development and economic is-
Artrs Prauli, sues of organic farming in Latvia. The primary information on organic farming in Latvia
regarding the trends, the number of farms and land use, support payments as well as
Dina Popluga a short description of the structure of organic farming are provided. The influence of
Latvias accession to the European Union on the organic farming development is assessed.
Latvian State Institute The results of an analysis of the economic performance (net value added) of organic
of Agrarian Economics,
farms and a comparison with conventional farming are presented.
StruktoruStr.14, L
V-1039 Rga, Latvia
Keywords: organic farming, Latvia, support, farm economic performance
E-mail:ligita@lvaei.lv
issues (Offermann, Nieberg, 2000), comparison of organic average level, was defined. The methods of monographic and
and conventional farms economic performance is not only comparative ratio analysis, literature studies and inductive-
helpful in identifying the need for adaptations to existing deductive research were used.
policies or the introduction of new policy measures, us ma-
king policies more targeted and efficient, but it also supports RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
the monitoring and ex-post evaluation of policy impacts on
organic farming. Net value added (NVA) is one of the most Development of organic farming
essential performance ratios of farms, which characterizes The history of Latvias organic agriculture originated in 1990
the value of an enterprises output with the use of produc- when there were only three organic farmers in the country,
tion resources. NVA is formed by total output (i. e. crops but a rapid development of organic farming began after 2001
and crop production, livestock and livestock products, other when in the Law on Agriculture organic farming and state
output) and total subsidies (excluding on investment), from assign subsidies for this farming method were defined. After
which total specific costs and farming overheads, deprecia- Latvias accession to the EU in 2004, the number of organ-
tion and production taxes are subtracted. ic farms has increased more than four times. The number
The aim of the study was to estimate the development of farms dealing with biological agriculture continued to
and some economic issues of organic farming in Latvia. The grow in 2007, although the growth pace has diminished.
study includes the following tasks: 1)to estimate Latvias de- In 2007, as compared to the year before, the total number
velopment and structure of organic farming; 2)to estimate of organic farms did not increase significantly only by
support measures and subsidies for organic agriculture; and 0.4% (Fig.1).
3) to compare the economic performance of organic and At the end of 2007, in Latvia there were 4112 farms en-
conventional farming. gaged in organic farming; of them, 63 farms have started
organic production, 1215 farms have already entered the
transition period to organic production, and there were
METHODS AND CONDITIONS 2833 certified organic farms. The number of organic farms
and the area of certified agricultural land in 2007, as compa-
The principal materials used for the studies are as follows: red to 1998, grew 106 times, but the share of utilized agricul-
literature sources, research papers and reports of institu- tural area (UAA) under organic farming from 2000 through
tions, published and unpublished of the Central Statistical 2007 increased three times.
Bureau of Latvia (CSB) as well as the databases of Farm A huge increase of certified farms (2.8 times) was obser-
Accountancy Data Network (FADN), Rural Support Service ved through 2006 to 2007 (Fig.2).
(RSS) and Food and Veterinary Service (FVS). As one can see, the growth of the number of farms
To estimate the development issues, suitable qualitative that started the transition period was most intensive in
and quantitative research methods were used: analysis and 2004 after accession to the EU. The growth rates of organic
synthesis, logical and abstractive construction, data grou- area (fully converted area and area in conversion3) in some
ping and comparison, etc. countries are very high. The share of UAA in 2007 was 9.8%
To evaluate the farms economic performance, a compa- and ranked the third in Europe and the 23rd in the world
rative analysis of conventional and organic farms NVA and
production value added change trends was made, as well 3 In conversion means the transition from non-organic to organic
as the efficiency of activities in both types of farms grou- farming within a given period of time, during which the pro-
ped by the European Size Unit (ESU), compared with the visions concerning organic production have been applied.
3500 7
3000 6
2500 5
%
2000 4
1500 3 Fig. 1. Number of organic farms,
certified area under organic farming (ha)
1000 2
and share of certified area in UAA (%) in
500 1 Latvia, 19982007
0 0 Source: authors calculations based on data
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 of Ministry of Agriculture.
Organic farming in Latvia: development and economics 147
(Willer, Klicher, 2009). The popularity and rapid growth of methods, so conversion to organic farming is much easier
Latvias organic farming can be explained by the following for them and the producers can offer organic products at
reasons: comparably low prices.
1) support from the national government and the EU. One of the features of Latvias organic farming is multi-
This trend is similar to the all-European trend where a branch production, where farms produce mixed production
strong organic movement, a strong market and government and organic farms by the type of farming have not changed
support have a positive influence on the development of the much during the last few years (Fig.3).
organic sector (Lampkin etal., 1999; Willer etal., 2008); Organic farms mainly deal with crop cultivation (34%),
2) the conclusion of H. Willer (2005) who stressed that dairy farming (16%) and vegetable growing (15%) (Fig.4).
many farmers in Central and Eastern European countries, A relatively large number of farms specializes in beef
inter alia Latvia, are using far more extensive farming cattle breeding, vegetable and pig breeding, as well as
100 1.6
18.7
20 33.8 29.6
21.0 17.4 25.0
0
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Other
Bee keeping
Poultry farming
Pig breeding
Cattle breeding
Dairy farming
Orcharding
Vegetable growing
Crop cultivation
Ta b l e 1 . The dynamics of support from EU structural and state (national) subsidy funds (thous. LVL) for organic farming in Latvia, 20042007
2004 2005 2006 2007
Support from state subsidy funds: 175.5 243.0 213.7 198.3
production of organic farming products, first- stage processing, processing and
170.2 212.6 168.5 138.6
marketing
organic seed production 5.3 5.3 6.8 9.8
evaluation of plant sorts for organic farming 25.1 38.4 34.9
development vegetative reproductive material data base 15.0
Support from EU structural funds 3405.8 4160.1 6434.4 10062.9
Total received support 3756.8 4646.1 6861.8 10459.5
Source: data of the Rural Support Service.
Organic farming in Latvia: development and economics 149
Farms economic performance work is done by using the inner labour resources family
There are different approaches to comparative analysis. members of a farm owner rather than paid labour from
Some authors (Nieberg, Offermann, 2003; Offermann, 2004) outside. A similar situation was observed in other countries
suggest a comparison among farms before and after con- (Darnhofer etal., 2005). The labour intensity per ha UAA is
version, as well as with conventional farms. Others (Lee, highest in conversion farms (Fig.5), where labour contribu-
Fowler, 2002) divide a comparison into farm surveys, field tion exceed the average by 20 to 33%, and in 2006 to 2007 by
studies and case studies. Our estimation is based on data 4043% the labour use in organic farms where it was the lo-
concerning Latvias farms for 20032007, included in the west in Latvia (only 8095% of the total). This complies with
FADN selection, where all farms are divided into three the findings of other researchers (Niemeyer, Lombard, 2003)
groups: organic, conventional and in conversion. who defined an increased workload in conversion farms as
The are various criteria of assessing the economic per- an important problem for several countries. It shows that
formance of farms. Some researchers (Offermann, Nieberg, changes in agricultural production type are one of the
2000) suggest using profit as generally one of the most com- crucial moments in the development of all upcoming orga-
mon and accepted indicators for the success of an economic nic farms, which requires an increased labour contribution,
activity, expressing it in relation to UAA and family labour yield and intensification of the production process.
(family work unit). At the same time, important factors that When assessing the short-term economic performance
determine profitability (yield levels, price realized and sup- of organic farms, the minimum requirement would be that
port payments received) should also be evaluated. In some organic farming is economically viable, i. e. the monetary
studies (Hrabalov, Zander, 2006), the remuneration of return covers all expenses incurred, including consumption
family labour, equal to the sum of profit and expenses for by the farm household. In the long run, though, some agri-
wages per annual work units (AWU), was used. cultural economists (Nieberg, Offermann, 2003) believe that
A comparison of labour use (AWU per ha UAA) among relative profit ratios and the criteria of profit maximization
different types of farming (organic, conventional and in con- are becoming more important and need to be compared to
version) shows that in Latvias organic farms the contributi- the (hypothetical) performance under conventional mana-
on of total and unpaid labour was similar to the contribution gement.
in other types of farming. In conversion farms, the contribu- Several authors (Nakamoto, 1996; Hrabalov, Zander,
tion of unpaid (family) labour was by 7 to 18% larger than 2006) recommend using net value added, which shows
in total agriculture, and by 8 to 15% larger than in organic the newly created value in an enterprise, in evaluating the
farms. In the transition period, with aggregate labour con- efficiency of the production process in agriculture. NVA
tribution remaining almost unchanged, the largest part of per AWU can be regarded as a relevant and important
0.06
0.05
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.01
0.00
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Average 0.043 0.039 0.040 0.037 0.037
Fig. 5. Labour use (AWU per ha UAA) on Latvian farms, Organic 0.038 0.044 0.038 0.030 0.033
20032007 Conventional 0.042 0.042 0.040 0.038 0.037
Source: authors calculations based on data of the FADN. In conversion 0.053 0.048 0.040 0.042 0.048
150 LigitaMelece, ArtrsPrauli, DinaPopluga
indicator of farm income, particularly for family farms. NVA organic farming. It confirms the other findings (Nieberg,
usage in the economic analysis of farms is supported also Offermann, 2003) that, in addition to the wish to actively
by the FADN methodology4. However, NVA fails to show the contribute to the environmental goals, financial motives have
portion of the newly created value formed by national and become one of the most important aspects in the decision to
EU support of agriculture. Therefore, in this paper we usea convert, which is reflected by the rapid growth in the adoption
modified indicatorproduction NVA, which is equal to the of organic management practices following the introduction
difference between NVA and production subsidies received. of financial support for organic farming in most countries.
It shows NVA by a farm, if the farm is not supported by pro- Even though it cannot be concluded from the above that
duction subsidies. NVA proportion in Latvian farms total the profitability is the decisive factor in farmers choosing to
revenue, formed by total output and production subsidies, convert to organic farming, it is unambiguously clear that
was fluctuating (Fig.6). analysis of organic farms performance and profitability in
During the period under analysis it showed a tendency comparison with conventional farming is extremely impor-
to diminish in farms of all types. It can be especially clear- tant not only for academic purposes, but also for farmers.
ly seen in the example of organic farms and farms in con- It is argued (Hrabalov, Zander, 2006; Jnsk etal., 2004;
version: if in 2004 the NVA proportion was 46% and 49%, Jnsk, ivlov, 2007) that subsidies play an important role
respectively, in 2007 it was only 39% and 35%, respectively, in organic farms, despite the fact that in some cases they
although, in comparison with other types of agricultural do not compensate the high costs. The average proportion
production, organic farms showed the largest NVA per la- of subsidies in Latvias organic farming NVA is 80%. The
bour unit, and it was achieved thanks to a significant sup- production NVA of organic farms and those in conversion
port of production. was 1.5 to 2 times less than the average Latvian agriculture.
It is suggested (Darnhofer et al., 2005) to distinguish The tendencies of NVA and net income (Table3) are mostly
between committed organic (farm for the environment) similar in all types of farming.
and pragmatic organic farmers (who do it for money). NVA per ha UAA on organic farms was larger than in con-
At the same time, it was concluded that for many farmers ventional farms, except in 2006. A dissimilar tendency can be
the perceived economic viability may be a necessary con- seen in farms in conversion. In 2007, the production efficiency
dition for conversion, but not a sufficient one. In Poland, in the transition period from conventional to organic farming
the main motive for farmers to join the agri-environmen- comprised only 89% of the conventional farming level.
tal programme (inter alia organic farming), was its finan- Analogous changes affected also the net income per ha
cial benefits and improving the profitability of farms (Bro- UAA of farms in conversion as compared to conventional
dziska, 2008). A summary of the previous studies (Rigby, farms. In the literature (Niemeyer, Lombard, 2003), these dif-
Cceres, 2001) shows that the Canadian organic farmers had ferences in performance are explained by a lower financial
defined profitability as their primary reason for adopting output in the first years of conversion than before because of
4 European Commission. Community Committee for the Farm Ac- increasing fixed costs, costs of establishment of the organic
countancy Data Network (FADN): Definitions of Variables Used in system, costs of training and advice, or the lack of access
FADN Standard Results, RI/CC 882 Rev.8.1. Brussels, 2007. to premium prices. Meanwhile, in organic farming the net
7000
6000 Crops and crop production (per ha UAA) Livestock and livestock production (per LU)
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
-1000
Aver. Org. Conv. In conv. Aver. Org. Conv. In conv. Aver. Org. Conv. In conv. Aver. Org. Conv. In conv.
2004 2005 2006 2007
NVA (%) 46% 46% 36% 49% 37% 44% 29% 39% 44% 40% 32% 38% 43% 39% 33% 35%
Prod. subsidies 2272 2936 1910 2920 2392 4196 2181 3263 3498 5517 3236 3274 3536 5279 3317 2891
Prod. NVA 1505 927 1892 1317 1389 622 1505 943 1008 -261 1214 474 2056 1486 2173 909
Fig. 6. Net value added per AWU, its components and proportion in the total revenue of Latvian farms (LVL and %), 20042007
Source: authors calculations based, on FADN data.
Organic farming in Latvia: development and economics 151
income per ha UAA in 2005 exceeded the level of conven- The year 2007 was the first when livestock and lives-
tional farming. A greatly similar situation is observed in Eu- tock production output in organic farms was larger than
rope: the profits of organic farms on average are similar to in conventional farms. In the latter, output and expen-
those of comparable conventional farms, nearly all observa- ses remained on the level of 2006, while in organic farms
tions being in the range of 20% of the profits of respective the growth reached 86% and 63%, respectively, causing
conventional reference groups (Nieberg, Offermann, 2003), gross margin growth by 70%. The main reason for such
and often the profits of organic farms are higher than those leap was a much faster boost of organic farming produc-
of conventional farms (Offermann, Nieberg, 2000). tion, especially the increase of pig farming production
Gross margin is the value of crops and crop production (6 times), eggs (3 times), milk (by 83%) and beef pro-
or livestock and livestock production output less the cost duction (by 65%). The tendency was a similar in organic
of variable inputs required to produce that output. Com- crop farming production: the output growth by 86% and
pared to Latvias conventional farming, the gross margin of increase of expenses by 91% allowed raising gross mar-
organic crop farming and livestock farming products was gin by 80% in 2007 (the growth in conventional farms
lower (Fig.7). was 58%).
Ta b l e 3 . NVA and net income (LVL per ha UAA) on Latvian farms, 20042007
Average Organic Conventional In conversion
NVA/UAA 149 170 159 202
2004
Net income/UAA 127 143 133 181
NVA/UAA 150 183 147 168
2005
Net income/UAA 156 169 127 158
NVA/UAA 168 159 170 159
2006
Net income/UAA 147 164 144 181
NVA/UAA 206 225 204 181
2007
Net income/UAA 171 194 167 190
Source: authors calculations based on FADN data.
250
200
150
100
50
-50
In conversion
In conversion
In conversion
In conversion
In conversion
Conventional
Conventional
Conventional
Conventional
Conventional
Average
Average
Average
Average
Average
Organic
Organic
Organic
Organic
Organic
Fig. 7. Gross margin of crop and livestock products (LVL) on Latvian farms, 20032007
Source: authors calculations based on FADN data.
152 LigitaMelece, ArtrsPrauli, DinaPopluga