Tina Casmose goes organic

Tina Casmose has been working with organic textiles for many years but with the growing public interest in organic textiles she now sees the opportunity to go fully organic. Her collection is now 75 percent organic but next year she expect it to be a 100 percent organic collection. Read more  August 2008

Every summer the The Roskilde Festival attracts 80.000 young people from all over Europe. Photo: Roskilde Festival

Roskilde Festival receives green award
The biggest music festival in Northern Europe - Roskilde Festival - will in a few weeks receive the Green World Award for many years work to make Roskilde Festival an environmentally friendly event.

Among other initiatives the Roskilde Festival has used organic cotton to produce the official festival T-shirt and  organic food and recycling is promoted. Read more

New World record in organic sales

Irma has 73 supermarkets in the eastern part of Denmark many of them in the Copenhagen area. Irma is the Danish supermarket chain with the highest relative organic sales in Denmark. Almost 20 percent of the turnover refers to organic products. The average for all retail shops is between 5 and 6 percent. Irma is owned by the COOP. October 2007

See figures showing the size of Danish organic agriculture. Read introduction to the Danish organic market October 2007

Impressions from Biofach

Read report from this years Biofach and see the pictures 21. February 2007

Minister for food opens the
Danish stand on Biofach
Never before has so many Danes been on the organic fair Biofach in Nürnberg. More Danish companies had a stand at the fair and many new companies visited Biofach. On the top of this, The National Organic Association, arranged that many organic interested people were brought by bus to Biofach for free to make more people get a feeling about the organic market in the World.

The Danish stand was opened by the Danish minister for food Hans Chr. Schmidt. The minister was at Biofach for the first time and was obviously surprised of the size and the amounts of products in the organic sector. See other pictures from Biofach 2007.  18. February 2007

The Danish organic companies participating are: Agrova Food (vegetables), Arla Foods (dairy products), Aurion (dry goods), Berrifine (processed fruit and berries), CB Powerfoods (dry goods), Crisby Food International (dry goods), Farre (meat products), Friland (meat products), Hanegal (meat products), Coesam Scandinavia (dry goods), Naturmælk (dairy products), Økoladen (chocolate), Organic Denmark (organization), Skee Is (ice-cream), Sunprojuice (processed fruit and berries), Thise Mejeri (dairy products), Urtekram (dry goods and cosmetics), Vision Food (fast-food), Woodshade Organics (chocolate).

See pictures from former organic Biofach fair in year 2000 and 2001  9. February 2007

Denmark withdraws Biofach application
For a period the Danish organic association Økologisk Landsforening has been working on making Denmark "Country of the year" at Biofach 2008. But just before this years organic fair in Nürnberg the organization announced that the application has been withdrawn. The reason is simple: The sales on organic food in Denmark grows so fast, that there are hardly products to export. Especially in the meat sector there is a lack of raw materials and the companies use more effort in getting meat than they do in selling it.

The goal for the organic sector in Denmark is now to increase the organic production hoping that it in a few years will be possible to promote for export again. 7. February 2007

Governmental support to organic export
The Danish Ministry for Food has decided to support the organic farmers association Økologisk Landsforening and a number of Danish organic food companies with 4,4 million kroner (600.000 Euro) in their work to increase the export of organic food and agricultural products.

A result of this support will be a large exposure of Danish organic food at the Biofach fair in Nürnberg in February 2007 and 2008. Around 20 organic food companies are expected to participate on a common stand at the coming Biofach. 7. December 2006

Organic people from the whole World goes to Odense
The Organic Congress in Odense next month seems to become the biggest organic event in Denmark since the IFOAM Scientific conference ten years ago. Already more than 700 hundred organic researchers and others have registered, and the registration office now expects close to 1200 participants to the conference.

Although northern Europeans will be in majority, the conference has attracted people from all over the World. More than 45 countries already are represented at the list of participants. No less than 16 EU research projects will be presented at the conference. Connected to the conference there will be an organic exhibition open to the public. 18. April 2006

Nitrite is still unpopular at the Danish organic market
The Danish organic sector is unsatisfied after the EU decision last week to allow the use of nitrite in organic meat products. Only Belgium agreed with Denmark to forbid the use of nitrite in organic meat.

Many Danish consumers are negative to nitrite (E250) in food because of its carcinogenic effect. The Danish government has intensively tried to prevent that nitrite was allowed - but without success. All Danish organic meat companies produce sausages without the use of nitrite. But the Danish companies fear a future with more imported meat products with the more attractive red colour that nitrite can offer. 31. march 2006

30,2 percent organic sales in supermarket chain
The Copenhagen based supermarket chain Irma claims to have set a new World Record in organic sales. Last week Irma held an organic campaign to increase the organic sales from an already high level. Before the campaign Irma had the goal to increase its sales from 13,5 to 20 percent organic sales, but the chain was actually able to reach 30,2 organic share of total sales in the 70 shops. The best selling Irma shop sold 40,6 percent organic products in that week. Several organic companies introduced new organic products for the campaign, among them the meat company Friland, who introduced a series of high quality packed meat from young cattle.

Irma is part of the Scandinavian COOP cooperation. In general the organic share of Danish food sales is about 3,5 percent. 23. march 2006

Organic congress in Odense
Every second year the Danish organic organizations arrange an organic congress in Denmark. Next time is in the end of May and will take place in Odense.

The organizers invites scientists and others to present papers and participate in the event. The deadline for papers is February 15th 2006. In connection to the congress an organic exhibition will take place. Last organic congress in the year of 2002 had 630 participants and 55 exhibiters.

Read more about the conference 18. January 2006

New leader of IFOAM
The international organic association IFOAM has announced the appointment of the 36 year old Angela B. Caudle to be new Executive Director of the world organization. She will be the first female leader of the IFOAM. Already in September organic people from all over the world will be able to congratulate her at the general assembly and 15th international conference in Australia. See the calendar for further details and links. 24. august 2005

Organic dairy company expects 50 percent growth
The second largest producer of Danish organic milk - Thise Dairy - expects to invest 50 million kroner (aprox. 6,7 mill. euros) in the next two years. Thise has had great success introducing low fat milk and milk from jersey cows especially in the supermarket chain Irma in the Copenhagen area (Irma is part of COOP). Lately Thise has introduced its milk in several other supermarkets with success. Thise has a strong brand on the Danish market with a reputation of extra high quality fresh milk. Whereas other dairies compete on low price, Thise has been able to convince many consumers that their milk is worth a higher price. From October 1st more farmers will start delivering milk to Thise with the result of a 50 percent increase in production for the next year. Most of the new farmers are leaving the much bigger dairy company Arla Foods to join Thise instead.

Until now Thise has had the goal to export about 25 percent of the production, but the success on the Danish market has made it difficult to keep this share. At present Thise exports only about 10 percent, but sales manager Mogens Poulsen from Thise says the dairy still has the intention of reaching the former goal in the future. 18. august 2005

Jackson has earned his fortune through international currency investments and through his Gaia companies used the money to support and invest in organic companies and other environmental activities. According to himself he lost at least 10 million US$ in these activities and a few years ago he announced to leave investing in organic industry. Anyhow he also announced to keep Urtekram until it was economically ready for sale. In this process he fired the founder and general manager of the company, Lisbeth Damsgaard, with whom he still fights in court about the control of the company. It seems to be an interesting development in this process that Jackson now has bought one of Urtekram's most important competitors. 10. august 2005

Continued decrease in organic milk production
The Danish Dairy Board announces that the Danish production of organic milk in 2005 has decreased by 2 percent compared with last year. The yearly production is now 390.000 kg. But the fall is smaller than last year, having a decrease of 9 percent. Anyhow Denmark is still the largest producer of organic milk in Europe, but now only slightly larger than number two - Germany - having a yearly production of 370.000 kg. Taking notice that the population of Germany is 16 times larger, Denmark is still far the leading producer per capita.

For further information see data on organic milk producers and delivery and organic dairy production given by Danish Dairy Board. 10. august 2005