GROWING UNDER THE COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY - THE INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF ORGANIC FARMING IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES FROM 2004-2013

The EU accession process has triggered the development of organic food and farming in countries accessing the EU. EU organic farming legislation needed to be transposed in these countries, and with that the regulations on organic farming support. Yet, such support has to find its way from the state to the single farmer, and farmers need markets and customers to sell their produce. Institutions need to be put in place that can act as channels for flows of knowledge and resources. The goal of this paper is to analyse the mid- to long-term impacts of the EU accession as external trigger for organic farming development. We will focus on the institutional development in selected countries that accessed the EU in 2004: Czech Republic, Hungary and Estonia, comparing the situation in these countries at the time of their accession with the current situation (2013).