A new national action plan is reinvigorating the Dutch organic industry. With the bold objective of growing organic agriculture from the current 5% of cultivated farmland to 15% by 2030, the plan – backed with €80 million of government funding – is now driving growth across the whole sector.

That’s the assessment of the prominent European organic commentator Michaël Wilde. He says: “The really important thing is that we don’t have to defend organic anymore, the government knows that it delivers on a range of key agricultural sustainability goals”.

Wilde was in London last week as international guest speaker at the Soil Association Trade Conference, where he discussed the impact of the action plan and also highlighted the importance of retailer support for organic and the growing role of organic cities and regions. 

But Wilde began his talk with a reminder of the four core values of organic – Health, Ecology, Fairness and Care. He said: “It’s crucially important that whenever we talk about organic, and to whoever we are talking to about organic, that we remember all these principles. We are in a huge food and agricultural transition, and we need to have a vision for how we achieve that, a point on the horizon. Just saying that we need to use less chemical pesticides and we need to get rid of artificial fertiliser – that’s not going to be enough to move us forward. We also need to ask, what is the vision, what is the mission?. It is to have a food and agricultural system based on care – taking care of the soil, taking care of our planet. Not thinking about tomorrow or the day after, but thinking 20 or 30 years ahead.

“Just saying that we need to use less chemical pesticides and we need to get rid of artificial fertiliser – that’s not going enough to move us forward. We also need to ask, what is the vision, what the mission?”

“Health means far more than just personal health, it means the health of the planet and all of the ecosystems that sustain us. We need to be farming in harmony with nature, so ecology is important. But we also need to consider fairness, so farmers get a good price and are properly supported.”

Wilde said that it was the EU’s Farm to Fork strategy, with its 25%-organic-by-2030 target for farmland, that had been the motor for change in the Netherlands. “It’s the reason why we have an action plan, it’s the reason why supermarkets are moving forward, it’s the reason why large companies are saying that 20 to 25% of the food we serve to our employees must in future be organic”. 

The Dutch government initially said there would be no additional funding attached to its organic action plan. Industry and organic advocacy groups said they wouldn’t support the plan unless there was new money behind it. Since then two tranches of €16 million and a further €50 million have been committed. 

The new organic action plan explicitly acknowledges that organic leads to healthier soil, cleaner water, lower emissions (“emissions are a huge issue in the country”), more biodiversity and better animal welfare (see graphic, courtesy Ministry of Agriculture, Nature, Food Quality of the Netherlands).  

“What’s so important about this is that we don’t have to defend organic in the Netherlands anymore. This is the Dutch government saying that organic is part of the solution for these five really important aspects of the sustainable agriculture transition. This makes it much easier for us to move forward together with companies, NGOs and municipalities. We can now say to them, you all have these major challenges you want to tackle. Don’t choose organic because the Dutch Government wants you to use organic – choose organic because it enables you to fix the challenges you have.”

“What’s so important about this is that we don’t have to defend organic in the Netherlands anymore. This is The Dutch government saying that organic is part of the solution”

Wilde also highlighted the importance of of working creatively with the retail sector. Supermarkets account for 75% of organic sales in Holland, so proactively encouraging them to develop organic strategies has been an important objective for organic advocacy groups. The biggest single operator, Albert Heijn (1100 stores) is responsible for 50% of all organic sales. Its organic strategy includes a goal of organic representing 10% of all fruit and vegetable sales by 2026, and it offers a 10% discount on organic for its premium card users. It is also experimenting with ‘replacement strategies’, where entire conventional product categories are replaced by organic equivalents. For example, it now offers only organic wholegrain pasta (for its own label lines). Jumbo (725 stores) has also set a target  for organic fruit and veg (10% by 2027) and is committed to expanding its organic offer and visibility. Plus (610 stores) is also “going big” on replacement, with ‘only organic’ strategies operating for own-label milk, yoghurt, potatoes, carrots and onions. Lidl (440 stores), meanwhile, has pledged to double its organic fruit and veg turnover. 

Wilde added: “There is some balancing for us, because we want to support our own independent specialist retailers, whilst helping the supermarkets to become more supportive of organic.” 

Wilde also touched on the developing concept of organic regions and cities, which he said had the potential to be “really, really big”. Much of the inspiration for these was was being drawn from successful initiatives in Germany. 

An organic region or city is a defined geographical area where local governments, public institutions, organic farmers and growers, consumer groups, local education and health authorities and companies take concrete steps to purchase locally produced organic products. Goals and advantages of these initiatives include positioning organic farming as part of the solution for climate warming, soil depletion, biodiversity loss, water pollution and other impacts; reducing food miles; socioeconomic benefits (connecting urban and rural communities); and strengthening connections between and users and farmers and growers. 

Michaël Wilde is the founder of The Organic Embassy. Previously he was director at Bionext and sustainability communications Manager at Eosta 

Further reporting on the 2024 Soil Association Trade Association will follow