The regional economic effects of organic farming and its promotion

The main purpose of the project is to find out the current regional economic effects of organic farming both in all Finnish regions and in Finland as a whole, and to compare them with the effects of conventional farming. Secondly, the purpose is to find out how it would affect the economy and the employment, if a) the share of organic farming rose to 20 percent in all regions by 2020; b) the share of organic farming changed according to farmers’ estimations; c) more businesses producing organic products were establish in Finnish regions. The data includes different statistics about organic farming and further production and results of two survey questionnaires. In order to depict the regional economic effects, the project utilizes a RegFinDyn model which has a balanced view on changes in production as well as other changes happening in the regional economy, such as relative price changes when moving from conventional farming into organic.



The findings of the project will be disseminated in workshops and seminars, and a final report will also be published. Other purposes include, for example, increase in the awareness of the position and meaning of organic production both at the regional and national levels, and the possibilities of organic food in public institutional kitchens.