22% OF ORGANIC VINEYARDS WORLDWIDE ARE IN ITALY, WHICH BOASTS 72.300 HECTARES CULTIVATED BY 10.000 COMPANIES AND 1.300 WINERIES. AIAB STATED, "PESTICIDES ARE USELES, ORGANIC FARMING YIELDS THE SAME AS TRADITIONAL"

22% of the world’s organic vineyards are located in Italy, which boasts 72.300 hectares cultivated by 10.000 companies and 1.300 wineries, says AIAB (Italian Association for Organic Agriculture, www.aiab.it) on the basis of the FIRAB (Italian Foundation for Research in Organic and Biodynamic Agriculture, www.firab.it) estimates, emphasizing that “pesticides are useless because organic vine cultivation yields the same as traditional: 111 quintals per hectare”.

Northern Italy has the most traditional wine producing companies while organic wine producing companies are mostly in southern Italy and the Islands, accounting for 55% of Italian production. This is truly a remarkable increase for Italy, AIAB notes, as in the past eight years organic cultivation of grapes increased 97%, corresponding to the overall global growth trend.
Over the past 10 years organic vines have increased 249% in Europe alone, which holds 83% of global organic vine cultivation. These facts are quite impressive when you think about how they reflect on the market. Wine is the most exported food product in the world: 1.1 billion euros in the US of which 56 million euros is organic. In Italy, AIAB concluded, in retail alone, it grew 14% in 2014 for a value of 2.9 million euros.