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Pro Natura, the European leader in the distribution of organic fruit and vegetables has recently acquired the company Bioprim located in Perpignan.

A major player in the organic fruit and vegetable market, Bioprim, created in 1985, carries out deliveries to its European clients from Perpignan, where it boasts a state-of-the-art logistics hub. Taking full advantage of its excellent geographical location at a crossroads between the French and Spanish agricultural regions, Bioprim has set up and organised its own fruit and vegetable supply chains.

With this acquisition, Pro Natura is strengthening its position as the European leader in the organic fruit and vegetable sector, by expanding its product range and its customer portfolio.

Following the incorporation of Bioprim into the group on May 23 2007, Pro Natura (which has 192 staff at its various marketing and production sites in Provence, Brittany, Belgium, Morocco, Togo and in the Languedoc-Roussillon region) should achieve a total turnover of €80 millions euros in 2007.

Benefiting from its annual average growth rate of 20%, Pro Natura is continuing its "downstream deployment" strategy with the goal of achieving greater proximity to its clients and of widening its supply base in order to extend its product range and to reduce its exposure to climatic risks.

Clearly delighted with this new alliance, Pro Natura's founder and manager Henri de Pazzis explained that: "Pro Natura's ambitions have given me the means to promote the fundamental values which originally led me to set up this company in 1987, namely organic farming and the ecological and health related values which it involves".   

The Kokopelli Association has set itself the task of protecting biodiversity, producing and distributing seed derived from organic and biodynamic farming.  This objective is fully in keeping with the pioneering principles of organic farming and with our corporate values.

Consequently, we are keenly following the legal proceedings brought against it by the public authorities for "the sale of unregistered seed".

Initially discharged by the Court of Alès in March 2006, the association's president Dominique Guillet was subsequently sentenced by the Court of Appeal of Nîmes in a case brought by the public prosecutor's department, the GNIS (the National Interprofessional Association for Seed and Plants) and by the FNPSP (the National Seed Producers Federation).

Profoundly committed to the issue of biodiversity, which we see as a major challenge for the years to come, we are fully backing Kokopelli's president in this legal action.

With this in mind, we are proud to sign the "Manifesto for the Freedom of Vital Seeds", and offer our full support to Kokopelli's president Dominique Guillet and its vice president Pierre Rabhi. 

Henri de Pazzis, Chairman of Pro Natura

This month : Pro Natura and Bioprim…. united at last!: from May 23, these two companies are now one.
Delicious new varieties: Pro Natura is currently developing a range of delicious new products. 
Organic news: ever more organic consumers in Germany, organic kiwi fruit better for health, land area devoted to organic farming around the world…
Press roundup: initiatives to encourage organic farming in France and Spain, growth in organically farmed land area in Romania, packaging…

Elie Dunand, an agricultural engineer and expert in organic market gardening is currently helping us to develop a range of products featuring delicious new varieties.  After drawing up a list of products likely to interest our specialised store and market stallholder clients, we selected a number of producers widely recognised for their technical abilities and interested in this initiative.
Elie Dunand will be assisting them to put in place the necessary technical processes, to effectively control production costs and to draw up the planting and harvesting programmes. Among the 50 or so products that we have short listed, we have decided to introduce around a dozen this year:
- Madame Mouteau strawberries
- Batavia red Grenobloise lettuce
- Kestrel beetroot from Sakara
- Cabus Candisa cabbage from Sakara
- Delica F1 Voltz squash
- Uchiki Kuri Vitalis squash
- Nice-variety round courgette
- Nice-variety long courgette
- Koshigaya spring onion from Sakata
- Métilon (an exotic fruit belonging to the cucumber family)
- Ice Queen (batavia iceberg lettuce)
- Sugar baby dolina watermelon (pip-free)

For further information, please contact us.

Spain plans to invest €36 million by 2010 in order to expand organic farming. 
The plan initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture involves several administrative and professional bodies in the organic farming sector. 

It lays down three objectives: the expansion of organic production, a rise in domestic consumption (currently 70% of organic production is exported) thanks to information and marketing campaigns, and finally improvements in cooperation between the institutions and the management funds.
- Biofach newsletter – March 9, 2007.

The largest university in the Philippines, Benguet State University, is set to become a certification body for organic products.
The university is already involved in the agrobiology sector by offering training, developing processing technology and assisting in the expansion of the organic market.
- Biofach newsletter – March 9, 2007.

Link...
- University of Benguet State, Philippines

In Romania, the land area devoted to organic farming now accounts for almost 1% of the UAA, or a total of 160,000 ha in 2006.  This organically farmed land area has grown tenfold in just six years, and according to the president of the FNAE (National Federation of Ecological Agriculture) created in 2000, the surface area could reach 10 to 15% of the UAA within a decade or so.  The farms are small in size.
> Source : Biofil — March/April 2007 — p 21.

The demand for organic apple varieties which are resistant to rust and mildew has encouraged the retailer Waitrose and the company Fruition to introduce and test new varieties in the United Kingdom. 
More than 800 trees will be planted this spring on 22 farms supplying the group. 
Among the varieties tested, two are of particular interest: the French Juliet variety and the Belgian Zari variety. Waitrose has already been granted exclusivity for Zari.
> Freshinfo– April 6, 2006.

83% of the Fresh Info readers who took part in the online survey felt that the agricultural and food industry is not sufficiently committed to eliminating excess packaging. Several readers suggested that the good practices already used in several other countries should be adopted.  They mentioned Australia, where consumers go shopping with reusable bags, or Switzerland where most products are sold loose  (the high taxes levied on dustbin bags which can only be obtained from the town hall has encouraged distributors to offer products loose).  In South Africa, plastic bags are heavily taxed.  In Hong Kong, supermarkets offer a discount to customers who bring their own bags.

- Freshinfo – April 14, 2006.

A survey carried out in late 2006 in Germany has confirmed the continued rise in the number of organic consumers.  The percentage of German consumers who occasionally purchase organic products has risen from 88% in 2005 to 91% in 2006.
Of those questioned, 66% felt that it is perfectly normal that organic foods should be more expensive, compared to 10% who believed that the on-cost is not justified.
- Biofach newsletter – March 9, 2007.

A survey carried out by two researchers from Davies University in California has shown that organic kiwi fruit are better for health than kiwi fruit produced using conventional farming techniques. 
Organic kiwi fruit have a higher content of polyphenols, vitamin C. and minerals. 
The lack of pesticides in organic kiwi fruit encourages them to build up their defence mechanisms, resulting in a higher level of antioxidants.
- Medical News Today– March 29, 2007.

Transgenic Mon 863 corn which has been modified to produce an insecticide and which is authorised in Europe for animal and human consumption, may present serious risks to human health. A cross examination of Monsanto's data by the CRII-GEN (Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering) has shown that rats fed for 90 days with a diet comprising 33% Mon 863 corn developed significant anomalies in blood composition, suffering toxic effects in their liver and kidneys. 
The CRII-GEN has concluded that due to the risks, the marketing of MON 863 corn should be forbidden.  For its part, the European Commission has asked the EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) to examine the CRIIGEN's findings and to issue its opinion concerning the harmlessness or otherwise of MON 863 corn.
- Le Monde  -  March 13, 2007.
- European Food Safety Authority  -  March 26, 2007   

In 2006, the surface area of land farmed using organic methods stood at almost 31 million ha.

Oceania continues to boast the highest percentage of land area devoted to organic farming, thanks to Australia which alone has 11.8 million ha farmed organically. 

Australia is followed by Argentina (3.1 million ha) and China (2.3 million).  We should also point out the significant growth in the certified organically farmed surface area in the United States (+ 400,000 ha) in Italy (+ 110,000 ha) and in Poland (+85,000 ha).

In Europe, two thirds of the 6.5 million hectares farmed organically are located in six member states:

The global market for organic products was worth €25.5 billion in 2005, and is estimated at more than €30 billion for 2006.
- IFOAM News – February 14 2007. /Biofil no. 51 – March/April 2007 – p 5.