CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING THE DEVELOPMENT OF ORGANIC AGRICULTURE IN THE WORLD, THE EU-27 AND ROMANIA.

The paper aimed to analyze the development of organic agriculture in the world, the EU and Romania, based on the statistical data for the period 2006-2010 and the index, share and comparison methods. Organic agriculture covers 34.04 Million ha at world level, of which 26.99 % in Europe and 32.08 % in Oceania. The largest areas in organic agriculture are in Australia, Argentina, the USA, Brazil, Spain, China and Italy. At world level, there are 1.6 million organic producers, over 63 % operating in Africa and Asia, especially in India, Uganda and Mexico. In 2010, organic food sales accounted for Euro 44.5 Billions of which 50 % in Europe. In the same year, the organic agriculture area increased by 20 % in the EU-27 and reached 9.01 million ha and continues to grow, representing 5.10 % of agricultural land. The larges areas in organic agriculture are in Spain, Italy, Germany and France. In the EU-27 there are 219,290 organic producers of which 40 % in Italy, Spain, Germany and Austria. In 2010, Romania's area in organic agriculture was 300,205 ha, 2 times higher than in 2006. A number of 10,253 organic operators were registered in 2010, representing 4.67 %, of the EU number. The main organic products are cereals, vegetables, wine, honey, dairy products, representing a chance for Romania's export on the EU market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]